Twelve hours after Pearl Harbor, Clark Field in the Philippines was attacked by Japanese aircraft. Among the survivors was Private Victor L. Mapes, who spent the next three years fleeing from and then being imprisoned by the Japanese military machine. When the tide of battle in the Pacific turned against the Japanese, Mapes experienced more harrowing conditions than before. After his unmarked prison ship was torpedoed by an American submarine, the wounded author struggled in the water against the elements and the enemy, as the Japanese tried to kill the escaping POWs.

Mapes' memoir chronicles a gruelling three-year ordeal that was punctuated by strange and often amusing encounters with fellow Americans, Japanese, Filipinos, and the fierce Moros of Mindanao Island. The memoir includes photographs and maps, as well as a bibliography and index.