Counting the Days - Craig B. Smith

Counting the Days is
the story of six prisoners of war imprisoned by both sides during the
conflict the Japanese called the "Pacific War." As in all wars, the
prisoners were civilians as well as military personnel. Two of the
prisoners were captured on the second day of the war and spent the
entire war in prison camps: Garth Dunn, a young Marine captured on Guam
who faced a death rate in a Japanese prison 10 times that in battle; and
Ensign Kazuo Sakamaki, who suffered the ignominy of being Japanese POW
number 1. Simon and Lydia Peters were European expatriates living in the
Philippines; the Japanese confiscated their house and belongings,
imprisoned them, and eventually released them to a harrowing jungle
existence caught between Philippine guerilla raids and Japanese
counterattacks. Mitsuye Takahashi was a U.S. citizen of Japanese descent
living in Malibu, California, who was imprisoned by the United States
for the duration of the war, disrupting her life and separating her from
all she owned. Masashi Itoh was a Japanese soldier who remained hidden
in the jungles of Guam, held captive by his own conscience and beliefs
until 1960, 15 years after the end of the war. This is the story of
their struggles to stay alive, the small daily triumphs that kept them
going-and for some, their almost miraculous survival.