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 managed a harrowing escape by swimming eight hours through a shark-infested bay, but his ordeal had just begun.
After being, shipwrecked on the southern coast of the Philippines, he was, sheltered by a Filipino aristocrat, engaged in guerilla fighting, and 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 set off on another agonizing voyage to Australia, but was betrayed by treacherous villagers and handed over to the Japanese. Held for two years in the notorious Ofuna prisoner-of-war camp outside Yokohama, Harris was repeatedly, starved, tortured, and beaten, but he never gave up. 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 home.
Valor is a riveting new look at the Pacific War. Through military documents, personal photos, and an unpublished memoir provided by the family, Harris' experiences are dramatically, revealed through his own words in the expert hands of bestselling author and retired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 true story of an American hero.
