Surviving Bataan and Beyond: Colonel Irvin Alexander’s Odyssey as a Japanese Prisoner of War

Few American prisoners of war during World War II suffered more than the group that was captured on the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines. The men were forced to endure the infamous Death March, a series of overcrowded prison camps, and the ‘hell ships’ transporting them to Japan and Korea. Among them was Col. Irvin Alexander, who recounts his harrowing experience as a captive of the Japanese. As a midlevel commander, he knew the politics behind the surrender in April 1942, but he also suffered with the rest of the men through a horrific confinement. This is the story of one man’s struggle to survive a brutal, often unfathomable captivity.