**Valor is the magnificent story of a genuine American hero who
survived the fall of the Philippines and brutal captivity under the
Japanese, from New York Times bestselling author Dan Hampton.
**
Lieutenant William Frederick "Bill" Harris was 25 years old when
captured by Japanese forces during the Battle of Corregidor in May 1942.
This son of a decorated Marine general escaped from hell on earth by
swimming eight hours through a shark-infested bay; but his harrowing
ordeal had just begun.
Shipwrecked on the southern coast of the Philippines, he was sheltered
by a Filipino aristocrat, engaged in guerilla fighting, and eventually
set off through hostile waters to China. After 29 days of misadventures
and violent storms, Harris and his crew limped into a friendly fishing
village in the southern Philippines. Evading and fighting for months, he
embarked on another agonizing voyage to Australia, but was betrayed by
treacherous islanders and handed over to the Japanese. Held for two
years in the notorious Ofuna prisoner-of-war camp outside Yokohama,
Harris was continuously starved, tortured, and beaten, but he never
surrendered. Teaching himself Japanese, he eavesdropped on the guards
and created secret codes to communicate with fellow prisoners. After
liberation on August 30, 1945, Bill represented American Marine POWs
during the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay before joining his father and
flying to a home he had not seen in four years.
Valor is a riveting new look at the Pacific War. Through military
documents, personal photos, and an unpublished memoir provided by his
daughter, Harris' experiences are dramatically revealed through his own
words in the expert hands of bestselling author and retired fighter
pilot Dan Hampton. This is the stunning and captivating true story of an
American hero.
