In the bleak and bitter cold of a copper mine in northern Japan, U.S. Marine Sergeant Major Charles Jackson was allowed to send a postcard his wife. He was allowed ten words—he used three: “I AM ALIVE!” This message, classic in its poignancy of suffering and despair captures only too well what it meant to be a Japanese prisoner-of-war in World War II.

In this riveting book, acclaimed military historian Major Bruce H. Norton USMC (ret.) brings to life a long-forgotten memoir by a Marine captured at Corregidor in May 1942 and held in Japanese captivity for three devastating years. In unflinching prose, Sergeant Major Jackson described the fierce yet impossible battle for Corregidor, the surrender of thousands of his comrades, the long forced marches to prison camps, and the lethal reality of captivity. One of the most important eyewitness accounts of World War II, this book is a testament to the men who sacrificed for their country. Jackson’s unvarnished account of what his fellow soldiers endured in the face of enemy inhumanity pays tribute to the men who served America during the war—and why it ultimately prevailed.