A Book That Defies the Passage of Time (Women's National Book Association Newsletter)

My note for member news in The Bookwoman, the most recent issue of the Women's National Book Association newsletter:

Captured:  The Forgotten Men of Guam
By Roger Mansell
Naval Institute Press, November 2012

A book is a kind of space capsule arrowing through time. It is a complex thought that may travel from hand to hand, place to place, and speak to its readers, whomever and wherever they may be, long into the future. My dad, Roger Mansell, passed away in late 2010, but it felt like he was saying hello when, last fall, I received my copy of his book, Captured: The Forgotten Men of Guam.


He had been working on his book for over a decade, delving into the archives and interviewing survivors of some of the most horrific suffering imaginable during World War II. An Army veteran, though not of that war, my dad had dedicated his retirement years to maintaining a massive website of data on the Allied POWs of the Japanese in WWII. This data base and his diligent emails helped several families locate the remains of loved ones and connect ex-POWs with fellow survivors. 

When he saw the end of his battle with cancer approaching, my dad asked me to take his manuscript to the post office, to ship it to Linda Goetz Holmes, the first Pacific War historian appointed to advise the government Interagency Working Group declassifying documents on World War II crimes.  As a writer myself with several books published, I had imagined that I would be the one to shepherd his book to publication. But Ms. Holmes, the author of  Unjust Enrichment: American POWs Under the Rising Sun, among other works about the POWs, turned out to be the perfect person for the job, and bless her heart that she took it on. 

Oftentimes, we writers and readers can get caught up in the short-term focus on what’s new; what’s for sale by the cash register in the airport; who won this prize or made the most sales— and it’s all so much smoke and ultimately forgettable sparkle. What a profound thing it is to be able to pick up a book and hear the voice of a person, whether my dad or one of the POWs—anyone for that matter—who is no longer living. A book, after all, and whether in paper or digital format, is a wondrous little package, a vessel for stories; and stories, including such painful ones as my dad’s book recounts, allow us to explore what it means to be human.  

— C.M. Mayo

For more about Roger Mansell’s life, work, and book, Captured: The Forgotten Men of Guam, visit www.rogermansell.com

Captured: The Forgotten Men of Guam by Roger Mansell (my dad)

Just before he passed away in 2010, my dad, Roger Mansell, left the advanced draft of his book, Captured: The Forgotten Men of Guam, to be edited by his colleague, Linda Goetz Holmes, the author of Guests of the Emperor: The Secret History of Japan's Mukden POW Camp, among other titles. I am thrilled and delighted to say that Captured has been published this month by Naval Institute Press.

Full Description:

Prior to the outbreak of the Pacific War, Guam was a paradise for U.S. military and civilian employees stationed on the island. Shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, however, the Japanese invaded the tiny island, captured the Americans, and shipped them to Japan. Drawing on interviews with survivors, diaries, and archival records, Roger Mansell documents the mostly unknown story of these American POWs. The men endured horrific hardships, many of which are chronicled in this book for the first time. Also included are moving stories of their liberation, transportation home, and the aftermath of their ordeal.

“In the days of shock and horror that followed Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, another monumental event, occurring almost simultaneously, was largely overlooked: Japan's bloody seizure of the strategically critical island of Guam. For the American troops, civilians and native people captured in the invasion, so began an epic ordeal. The Americans were shipped off to be slaves for the Japanese, while the natives remained behind to endure four years of brutalities under their captors. Roger Mansell, the pre-eminent historian of Pacific POWs, devoted the last years of his life to unearthing and telling this forgotten story, and after his death, the work was completed by his colleague, the esteemed POW author Linda Goetz Holmes. Chronicling a lost chapter of World War II, Captured promises to be an authoritative, fastidiously researched and compelling read.”

—Laura Hillenbrand, author of Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption and Seabiscuit: An American Legend

“Roger Mansell worked tirelessly to research and document the stories of American POWs in the Pacific during World War II. His efforts give us a better understanding of the great service and sacrifice of these heroes. The stories he tells are a tribute to the warriors who defend us.”

—Oliver North

“Roger Mansell’s Captured is a beautifully written, richly researched account of the fall of Guam and a searing reminder of the horrific ordeal suffered by American prisoners of war at the hands of the Japanese.”

—John A. Glusman, author of Conduct Under Fire: Four American Doctors and their Fight for Life as Prisoners of the Japanese, 1941-1945

>>UPDATE: Read Kinue Tokudame's review at US-Japan Dialogue on POWs

>Read more about the book and my dad's research legacy at www.rogermansell.com
>Pick up your copy of Captured: The Forgotten Men on Guam from Naval Institute Press and/or amazon.com