Japanese, World War II 

An amazing, action-packed true story of survival as a prisoner of the Japanese during World War IIThe oldest child of poor Irish immigrants, Andy Coogan was born on April Fool's Day, 1917. His amazing recollections of life in Glasgow's slums during the 1920s and 30s are told with humor and candor. They form the backdrop to a gripping war story that begins with jungle fighting against Japanese invaders in Malaya in 1942 and ends with the dropping of the atom bomb just 20 miles from Andy's POW camp. As a young man, Andy was tipped for Olympic glory before war service interrupted his promising running career. He was later captured during the fall of Singapore in Britain's greatest-ever military defeat, marking the start of a three-and-a-half-year nightmare of starvation, torture, and disease as a prisoner of war. Andy was imprisoned in notorious Changi prison before being transported to Taiwan, where he worked as a slave in a copper mine and was twice ordered to dig his own grave. Later taken to Japan, where he nearly died, Andy's athleticism and spirit allowed him to survive an ordeal that killed so many. From his poverty-stricken boyhood in Glasgow's Gorbals slums to the atomic wasteland of Nagasaki, Andy's life story is vividly recounted in this epic tale that will shock, enthrall, and inspire. - from Amzon