"The story of each POW is unique, every last one of them a man
trapped in the valley of the shadow of death, struggling to stay
alive and to stay human. Tens of thousands did not make it. Terence
Kirk did, and his book brings that terrible time alive."
"Gavan Daws, author of Prisoners of the Japanese: POWs of World War
II in the Pacific
"World War II has provided some of the most fascinating tales of
survival and heroism in history. Few stories match that of Terence
Kirk's The Secret Camera. Kirk endured hunger, biting cold,
loneliness, separation from family, and despair with an unfailing
courage that inspires anyone who reads his noble account."
"John Wukovits, author of Pacific Alamo: The Battle for Wake Island
On the day the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, the 203 Marines
stationed in North China were in the peak of physical condition.
They were young, brave men who were willing to die to defend their
country. But on that day, they were forced to surrender to the
Japanese and spent the rest of the war-all 1,355 days-as POWs. A
Marine was 17.5 times more likely to die in a Japanese prison camp
than in battle.
The Secret Camera is the true story of how one North China Marine
struggled for survival. From his capture on Pearl Harbor Day
through the bombing of Nagasaki, Corporal Terence S. Kirk spent
years as slave labor for the Japanese war machine. Watching himself
and his fellow Marines wither from strapping young men to mere
skeletons, ravaged by starvation, abuse, and disease, he decided to
make a difference: to record the atrocities they all endured. With
the help of a Japanese interpreter and several other brave Marines,
Kirk managed to build a pinhole camera fromscraps of cardboard,
take a handful of photos, and then hide them away until the end of
the war. These rare images are among the few photos ever taken
inside a Japanese POW camp. A record of courage, faith, and
ingenuity, his is a story of heroism, unimaginable adversity, and
the will to survive.
His photos sat unpublished for nearly four decades, ignored by a
U.S. government that seemed indifferent to the atrocities the
images documented. But Kirk would not let them languish, and this
book is his legacy.
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