A Bright and Blinding Sun: A World War II Story of Survival, Love, and Redemption

The incredible WWII saga of Joe Johnson Jr. (1926–2017), who left home at age 12, enlisted in the U.S. Army at 14, and survived three years in Japanese POW camps, is recounted in this rousing account from bestseller Brotherton (Blaze of Light). Stationed in Manila, Joe fell in love with a teenage prostitute named Perpetua, who soon became pregnant. Shortly after he snuck her out of the brothel and paid for her room and board at a local convent, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and invaded the Philippines. Joe witnessed the deaths of most of his unit during the battles of Bataan and Corregidor before being captured. He endured constant starvation, regular beatings, and multiple nights in an eiso, a wooden cage the size of a small coffin, before being sent with more than 1,600 other POWs on a ship to Japan. By the time they arrived six weeks later, only 450 prisoners were still alive. Suffering severe malnutrition and a grisly leg injury, Joe was held at the Fukuoka POW camp until Japan’s surrender in August 1945 and briefly reunited with Perpetua, who had become a nurse, while recuperating in the Philippines. Full of near-death escapes and unlikely twists of fate, this will appeal to fans of Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken. (May)