Dr. Hubbard presents a story of imprisonment under the Japanese that no one would soon forget. While it contains all of the ingredients of a first rate war memoir, this is no mere tale. The author waited some 40 years to tell his story and has taken the benefit of that time and his extensive education (he holds a PhD in history from Vanderbilt) to analyze and evaluate his thoughts and responses to torture and deprivation. A fine historian, he is able to look past the animosity that anyone would feel toward former torturers and give a detailed and exciting account of a man facing the extremes of human brutality. It is this perspective that sets this book apart from so many other books by former POW's. In a day when "Saving Private Ryan" has introduced a new generation to the realities of the second World War in Europe, this book would well serve to introduce any interested reader to the conditions present in the war in the Pacific. A very readable and engrossing book for any age of teen to adult. My highest recommendation.