|
Carlos
A Tale of Survival
J.L. Kunkle
Secure Transaction
or call toll free 1(800)247-6553
Price: $21.95
Paperback | 336 pages
ISBN: 978-0-9796822-1-6 |
Summary
Carlos’ story is that of one man’s journey through the years of the twentieth century; arguably the most tumultuous times in world history. This book follows him through the lean times of the Great Depression, to enlistment in the National Guard towards the end of the 30’s, and then mobilization and deployment to the Philippines immediately prior to WWII. Shortly after he arrives in the Philippines and eight hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese Navy attacks Manila and Clark Field, and for the next four months, the Philippine and U. S. Armies fight to hold the Bataan peninsula until reinforcements arrive. Unlike a Hollywood movie, the cavalry doesn’t come to save the day, and approx. 70,000 men are surrendered to the Japanese on the 9th of April 1942. What follows is the notorious Bataan Death March where thousands died over a span of about fifteen days, then torturous work details and months of starvation in camps across the Philippines. He is eventually transported to mainland Japan via hellship, and spends the remainder of the war a slave in the freezing environment of northwest Japan, worked like a pack-mule, loading coal. In 1945 after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the emperor surrendered unconditionally and Carlos was liberated and returned to society. There he quickly learned that the war had not only changed the society he left behind in 1941, but the three years and ten months that he spent a prisoner of the Japanese military had also changed him in ways that he and those around him were only beginning to see.
About the Author
J. L. Kunkle was born in 1964 and he lives in Murrieta, California with his wife of 25 years, Torrie K. He has one son, Joshua, and one daughter, Tandy. A graphic designer as well as a writer and blogger, he was a U. S. Marine during the Reagan administration.
|
