Stranded in the Philippines is based on the memoirs of Professor Henry Roy Bell and his wife Edna. After graduation from Emporia College in Kansas, they had gone to the Philippines in 1921 to teach at Silliman, a missionary school founded by Presbyterians in 1901. The Bell family was stranded in the Philippines after the attack on Pearl Harbor. This is their story from then until they were evacuated by a submarine on February 6, 1944. When the Japanese occupied their island of Negros, Prof. Bell first took his family into the hills to avoid Japanese soldiers on the coast. But in time, some of Bell’s recent students climbed to the Bell family’s retreat and persuaded Bell to support them in their harassment of Japanese soldiers—but only in food. Yet in time, the young men acquired enough arms on their own to clash with the nearby enemy garrison. They inflicted heavy losses and fatally wounded the garrison commander. By steps, he became fully involved with the resistance. He became a major in the island-wide guerrilla force which he helped organize an intelligence network for MacArthur’s headquarters. Despite the organizing success, the Bell’s were facing certain capture. With the help from the now well-organized guerrilla forces, the family crossed the island for evacuation by the huge cargo submarine Narwhal when it delivered arms and ammunition for the guerrillas the night of the rendezvous.

Following My Thumb follows the wandering, rambling, bumbling travels of Gabriel Morris from 1990-2000. In the summer of 1990, at the age of 18, he sets off to Europe with his over-sized backpack, thumb guiding the way. He hitchhikes the entire length of Great Britain, sleeps in barns, on bridges and beaches and under benches, explores the Greek Isles, sneaks into a Parisian movie theater, spends a night at the center of the Place de la Concorde roundabout, and more. In Part 2 of the book, he spends the bulk of the mid-1990s as a wandering traveler back home in the United States, searching for something elusive: a place to call home, a community, love, adventure, meaning, purpose. He both finds and loses all to varying degrees as he attends tribal Rainbow Gatherings in the woods, falls in and out of love on the road, lives on farms and communes, and spends several months in an idyllic valley, far from civilization in the Hawaiian rainforest. The book culminates with his amazing and thought-provoking travels in the mystical land of India. ,

The American and Filipino guerrillas that fought against the Japanese occupation of the Philippines were key in providing direction to resistance efforts and in the eventual liberation of the islands. The guerrillas escaped the aggressive counter-guerrilla efforts of the Imperial Japanese Army. The Japanese failure to deal with isolated soldiers and civilians provided the time they needed to organize into guerrilla groups and prepare for American forces liberation of the Philippines. This analysis of American and Filipino insurgents covers the effectiveness of Japanese counter guerrilla efforts, the intelligence structure created by General Douglas MacArthur’s staff to support the guerrillas, the guerrilla’s contributions to the liberation of the Philippines, and it examines how Americans would form guerrilla groups and fight as insurgents behind enemy lines if circumstances warranted. Additionally, it provides general insight as to how resistance movements form.

Over the course of World War II, guerrillas from across the Philippines opposed Imperial Japan’s occupation of the archipelago. Although the guerrillas never possessed the combat strength to overcome the Japanese occupation on their own, they disrupted operations, kept the spirit of resistance alive, provided important intelligence to the Allies, and assumed frontline duties fighting the Japanese. By examining the organization, motivations, capabilities, and operations of the guerrillas, James Villanueva argues that the guerrillas were effective because Japanese punitive measures, along with a strong sense of obligation and loyalty to the United States, pushed most of the population to support the guerrillas. Unlike their predecessors opposing the Americans in 1899, the guerrillas during World War II benefited from the leadership of US and Filipino military personnel and received significant aid and direction from General Douglas MacArthur’s Southwest Pacific Area (SWPA) Headquarters, conducting one of the most effective and sophisticated resistance campaigns in World War II. Awaiting MacArthur’s Return is the first comprehensive comparative analysis of the major World War II guerrilla groups across the Philippine Archipelago, providing a fuller picture of the nature of the war in the Southwest Pacific and revealing the extent to which the guerrilla movement affected operations for both Allied and Imperial Japanese forces. Analyzing the organizational effectiveness of the guerrillas resisting the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, this book alternates narrative chapters with thematic chapters examining the guerrillas’ organization, logistics, administration, intelligence-gathering, and the support they received from Allied forces and provided the Allies in turn. Villanueva offers the most in-depth analysis of the guerrillas’ military organization and effectiveness in the context of existing theories of insurgency and counterinsurgency while using an extensive body of memoirs, archival guerrilla and US Army and Navy records, and translations of Japanese documents and interviews with Japanese officers.

From the author of Taking Mr. Exxon and The Death of an Heir comes the untold story of four luxury airliners trapped in the Pacific Ocean on and after the Day of Infamy. In the first week of December 1941, four Pan American Airways System (Pan Am) flying clippers—the largest and most lavish transpacific airliners in the world—took off from the North American West Coast, loaded with wealthy and affluent passengers on their way to exotic destinations. On December 7, 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service executed a surprise coordinated attack against the US naval base at Pearl Harbor. Within hours, Midway Atoll, Wake Island, Guam, and Manila—all of which were refueling stops for these Pan Am flying clippers—were targeted and bombed by the same Japanese forces that had devastated Pearl Harbor. Stranded within the vast boundaries of the Pacific Ocean, these civilian airlines were unexpectedly at risk of being captured or shot down by Japanese military. The assault on Pearl Harbor removed any possibility for US military assistance, and the attack of the refueling stations made it impossible for these airlines to refuel their depleting gas tanks. Alone and unreachable, Pan Am crews and their frightened passengers were left with no choice but to make their own way across the volatile Pacific Ocean, where neither land, air, nor sea could promise safety, and do their best to survive—if they could.

"Absolutely riveting. A stay-up-all night read about two very different women who discover just how strong they can be—and just how much they'll dare—during the brutal Japanese occupation of the Philippines in World War II. This story of endurance and sisterhood will have you turning pages late into the night." —Lauren Willig, New York Times bestselling author If you loved Beantown Girls by Jane Healey and Hazel Gaynor’s When We Were Young & Brave, then you won’t want to miss critically acclaimed author Elise Hooper’s powerful new novel of the Angels of Bataan, nurses held as prisoners during the occupation of the Philippines in World War II. Their survival would depend on sisterhood and service. Inspired by the extraordinary true stories of World War II’s American Army nurses famously known as the Angels of Bataan and the unsung contributions of Filipinas of the resistance, this novel transports us to a remarkable era of hope, bravery, perseverance, and ultimately—victory. The Philippines, 1941: Tess Abbott, an American Army nurse, has fled the hardships of the Great Depression at home for the glamour and adventure of Manila, one of the most desirable postings in the world. But everything changes when the Japanese Imperial Army invades with lightning speed and devastating results. Tess and her band of nurses serve on the front lines until they are captured as prisoners of war and held behind the high stone walls of Manila’s Santo Tomas Internment Camp. When the Japanese occupation of her beloved homeland commences, Flor Dalisay, a Filipina university student, will be drawn into the underground network of resistance, discovering within herself reserves of courage, resilience, and leadership she never knew she possessed. As the war continues, Tess and Flor face danger, deprivation, and terror, leading them into a web of danger as they unexpectedly work together to save lives and win their freedom.