Publisher's Synopsis
"This is the remarkable story of my father, Herbert Henry Miller, who was drafted into the army in August 1942". So begins this book about an ordinary man thrust into extraordinary circumstances during World War II. The writer is Herbert Miller's son, Robert, who was amazed to discover his father's Red Cross war diary at the back of a drawer in the weeks following his 1994 death. The diary had been created by the YMCA and distributed through the Red Cross to all American POWs as they were entering prisoner of war camps. Many soldiers, understandably, threw them away. But Herbert Miller chose to keep his. In this well-researched book, Robert Miller sheds light on issues that remain at the forefront of our public discourse today: the torture and treatment of POWS and the high psychological cost to individual soldiers of going to war.