A Bright and Blinding Sun
A World War II Story of Survival, Love, and Redemption
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
From a New York Times bestselling author comes the incredible true story of an underage soldier's first love and loss on the battlefields of Bataan and Corregidor—perfect for fans of The Boy Who Followed His Father into Auschwitz and Unbroken.
Joe Johnson Jr. ran away from home at the age of 12, hopping a freight train at the height of the Great Depression. He managed to talk his way into the U.S. Army two years later. Seeking freedom and adventure, he was sent to the Philippines.
Adrift in spirit, Joe visited a teenage prostitute, and they became unlikely, smitten allies. Yet when the Japanese attacked on December 8, 1941, their hopes of being together had to wait.
Joe and his fellow soldiers fought for four brutal months in Bataan and Corregidor, until they were forced to surrender. The boy endured years of horror as a prisoner of war, only dreaming about seeing again the girl he’d come to love.
This lyrically written and deeply encouraging saga will remind you that every life can be lifted, forgiveness is the patron of restoration, and redemption is available to all.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The incredible WWII saga of Joe Johnson Jr. (1926–2017), who left home at age 12, enlisted in the U.S. Army at 14, and survived three years in Japanese POW camps, is recounted in this rousing account from bestseller Brotherton (Blaze of Light). Stationed in Manila, Joe fell in love with a teenage prostitute named Perpetua, who soon became pregnant. Shortly after he snuck her out of the brothel and paid for her room and board at a local convent, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and invaded the Philippines. Joe witnessed the deaths of most of his unit during the battles of Bataan and Corregidor before being captured. He endured constant starvation, regular beatings, and multiple nights in an eiso, a wooden cage the size of a small coffin, before being sent with more than 1,600 other POWs on a ship to Japan. By the time they arrived six weeks later, only 450 prisoners were still alive. Suffering severe malnutrition and a grisly leg injury, Joe was held at the Fukuoka POW camp until Japan's surrender in August 1945 and briefly reunited with Perpetua, who had become a nurse, while recuperating in the Philippines. Full of near-death escapes and unlikely twists of fate, this will appeal to fans of Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken.
