Bataan survivor : a POW's account of Japanese captivity in World War II
David L. Hardee (Author), Frank A. Blazich (Editor)
Drafted in 1945 following the author's liberation from a Japanese prisoner of war camp, this personal memoir of Colonel David L. Hardee was forgotten for over seventy years. A career infantry officer, Hardee fought during the Battle of Bataan as executive officer of the Provisional Air Corps Regiment. Captured in April 1942 after the American surrender on Bataan, Hardee survived the Bataan Death March and proceeded to endure a series of squalid prison camps. A debilitating hernia left Hardee too ill to travel to Japan in 1944, making him one of the few lieutenant colonels to remain in the Philippines and subsequently survive the war. Unlike memoirs written after decades of fading memories and contemporary influences, this unique prisoner of war memoir is a primary account written almost immediately after liberation from internment. This once-forgotten journal has been carefully edited, illustrated, and annotated to reveal the depth of Hardee's experience as a soldier, prisoner, and liberated survivor of the Pacific War. -- Inside jacket flap
Biography
xxiv, 290 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm.
9780826220820, 0826220827
927402217
Section I. Fighting on Bataan. The war is on ; The billion dollar Christmas tree ; Many pilots and no airplanes ; The last days in Bataan ; The Death March
Section II. Death's prison camps. Camp O'Donnell ; Cabanatuan ; More prison life at Cabanatuan ; En route to Dapecol
Section III. Survival on Mindanao. Life at Dapecol ; A hernia saved my life ; More life at Dapecol ; Final days at Dapecol ; A hellship trip to Bilibid
Section IV. Liberation and return ; Manila and Bilibid ; Life at Bilibid ; Final days of imprisonment ; Liberation ; Homeward bound
Appendix. Military decorations and medal citations