My Time in Hell

Book excerpt: When Andrew Carson joined the United States Army in 1941, he was promised good food, travel, a supply of clothing, a place to sleep, and thirty dollars a month. Within seven weeks, Private Carson was shipped to the Philippines—with no boot camp, no training, not one minute of close order drill. Captured by the Japanese less than one year later, the young soldier endured the hardships of the Cabanatuan prison camps, nearly died from dysentery, and then was put aboard a Japanese hellship bound for Japan. There, he worked in the Fukuoa coal mines, a virtual slave laborer until Japan surrendered. This is the harrowing tale of one man’s survival, and how he came through the ordeal with dignity and respect for his fellow soldiers.