A Bright and Blinding Sun

Joe Johnson, Jr., ran away from home at age 12, hopping a freight train at the height of the Great Depression. In 1941, at age 14, he somehow talked his way into the U.S. Navy, and was sent to the Philippines. In Manila, he fell in love with a young prostitute. In yet another of Joe's impulsive and daring decisions, he rescued her from her crime bosses, convincing a convent to take her in. Just weeks later, the Japanese invaded, capturing the Americans stationed on the islands, and launching Joe on a four-year odyssey that almost none of his fellow prisoners would survive. The story of Joe's prison-camp nightmare, and his ultimate liberation and reunion with his love--and the mother of his son--is a World War II story for the ages.