My Father's Captivity

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My Father's Captivity is the story of how a young man endured 39 months as a World War II prisoner of the Japanese, and what he learned that can help any captive overcome any kind of captivity. Scheduled for publication in 2008, the book's 338 pages include 126 photographs and the text of nearly 60 original documents. The book represents the culmination of 28 years of research and writing. Categories: Al Young, Book, My Father's Captivity
Product No.: 0.09.0050.010

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Chapter	1	Living Water
Chapter	2	A Dream Come True	[May 14, 1939 - July 18, 1939]
Chapter	3	All the Trimmings	[July 19, 1939 - Dec 31, 1939]
Chapter	4	Please Don’t Tale My Sunshine Away	[Jan 1, 1940 - Dec 31, 1940]
Chapter	5	A Bamboo Bulwark	[Jan 1, 1941 - Dec 7, 1941]
Chapter	6	Two Wing Tips and a Tail	[Dec 8, 1941 - Dec 12, 1941]
Chapter	7	Caught in the Cross Hairs	[Dec 13, 1941 - Dec 31, 1941]
Chapter	8	Abandoned	[Jan 1, 1942 - May 9, 1942]
Chapter	9	Hope for the Best	[May 10, 1942 - Oct 6, 1942]
Chapter	10	The Tallon’s Grasp	[Oct 7, 1942 - Nov 11, 1942]
Chapter	11	Walls Inside and Out	[Nov 12, 1942 - Dec 31, 1942]
Chapter	12	Just a Number	[Jan 1, 1943 - Dec 31, 1943]
Chapter	13	The Strength to Endure	[Jan 1, 1944 - Oct 31, 1944]
Chapter	14	Message of Hope	[Nov 1, 1944 - Dec 31, 1944]
Chapter	15	Chariots of Fire	[Jan 1, 1945 - Jul 26, 1945]
Chapter	16	Wind in the Rigging	[Jul 27, 1945 - Aug 30, 1945]

Epilogue



Notes
Photo Credits
Bibliography and Methodology
Acknowledgments

My Father’s Captivity, by Al Young, is the intensely personal narrative of the near-death experiences of a young man who enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps in May 1939. Two days after enlisting on a whim, he said goodbye to his parents at a railway platform in Oklahoma City. He was stationed at Clark Field, Philippine Islands, and flew B10 bombers there as a gunner and bombardier.

By 1941, he was an experienced bombardier and navigator flying B18s. Yet after the Japanese attack on December 8, 1941, all that was left of his ship were its wing tips and tail. His crew was assigned another ship. Two days later as they were prepaing for a morning mission, the intelligence officer for the 19th Bombardment Group bumped Alfred from the flight and Alfred watched from the ground as his crew disappeared into the clouds. He never saw them again.

From the evacuation of Clark to the loneliness of surrender on a jungle trail on Mindanao, and from Bilibid Prison to the hold of a Hellship bound for Moji and Osaka, Alfred survived strafings, bombings, bayonets, disease, and allied torpedoes. He endured more than three years of slave labor, starvation, beatings, disease, and brutality. Near war’s end he watched his friends perish in the bombing holocaust that devastated Yokohama, Kawasaki, and Tokyo, placing his life in jeopardy from the rage and caprice of his captors.

While engulfed in hopelessness, Alfred found the treasure of all the ages, a treasure so dear that he has said repeatedly he would willingly--even knowingly--endure it all again just to have that treasure. My Father’s Captivity is not just a story of survival, nor is it merely a cataloging of cruelties; instead, it is the story of finding that treasure.

Biographies & People

Browse lists of prisoners and military units. This section is being created. Very little information is presented at this time, but as transcription progresses much more will be made available.

Photos

Browse a small selection of photographs of men associated with Kawasaki Camp No. 2B.

Documents