"Joe Johnson Jr. ran away from home at the age of 12, hopping a freight train at the height of the Great Depression. Two years later, he managed to talk his way into the U.S. Army. Seeking freedom and adventure, he was sent to the Philippines. After a misstep with a teenage prostitute, he vowed to right the wrongs he'd done and help the girl have a better life. Yet when the Japanese attacked on December 7, 1941, his hopes of being with the girl had to wait. Joe and his fellow soldiers fought for four brutal months in Bataan and Corregidor, until they were forced to surrender. Joe endured years of horror as a prisoner of war, only dreaming about seeing again the girl he'd come to love"--