I Am Alive!: A United States Marine's Story of Survival in World War II Japanese POW Camp

by Charles R. Jackson, Bruce H. Norton

In the bleak and bitter cold of a copper mine in northern Japan, a Chief Petty Officer of the U.S. Navy was given an opportunity to write a prisoner-of-war card for his wife. He was allowed ten words—he used three: “I AM ALIVE!” This message, classic in its poignancy of suffering and despair captures only too well what it meant to be a prisoner of the Japanese Army.

Now, acclaimed military historian Major Bruce Norton USMC (Ret.) brings to light a long-forgotten memoir by a marine captured at Corregidor in the spring of 1942 and interned for three devastating years by the Japanese. With unflinching prose, the words of Marine Sergeant Major Charles Jackson describe the fierce yet impossible battle for Corregidor, the surrender of thousands of his comrades, the long forced marches, and the lethal reality of the P.O.W. camps. Joining some of the most important eyewitness accounts of war, I AM ALIVE! is a testament to the men who fought and died for their country. Jackson’s unembellished account of what his fellow soldiers endured in the face of inhumanity pays tribute to the men who served America during the war—and shows why we would ultimately prevail.


From the Paperback edition.

Genres: History, War

Audio Cassette

First published June 3, 2003

Reviews

[E. L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good book. Enjoyed reading it.

[Chuck · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somehow I feel unique that I was born before World War II. I have a few memories of the sacrifices of that time, you know, many streetcars, ice boxes, rations, focus, Helen Trent, the Lone Ranger, Our Gal Sunday and a country bound together like no one could comprehend in this day of instant news and interpretaion. The point, however, was that I remember for many years veterans of the war in the Pacific would come back and stoically resume their lives, their careers, their families, but one common denominator was that they would rarely talk about their experiences during the war. Therefore, one of my hungers has always been to hear those stories as they slowly leaked out over the years to have some degree of knowledge of what they had to deal with. This is such a book. It is the story of a number of individuals that this soldier encountered from his journey from Asia to the Phillipines, where he was captured by the Japanese and to his three years in Japan as a POW. He talks individually of drunken Marines, Priests, Phillipine Scouts, Japanese commanders all with reverence. One story, which is remarkable, is of Su Chou which was a Marine mascot, a dog, that survived Corregidor, it's capture, the exodus to the Japanese camps, on to Japan and to safety after the Japanese surrender to retire in San Diego. If you wonder why such a book only gets a three star rating, it is because so many veterans have trouble telling the story. It sounds unreal and and self promoting. That is for you to judge, but If you wish to brush up on sacrifice that is not well understood today and have it told to you by a marine born in 1898 and now long dead, read on.