The Butchers, The Baker ― The World War II Memoir of a United States Army Air Corps Soldier Captured by the Japanese in the Philippines

Twelve hours after Pearl Harbor, Clark Field in the Philippines was attacked by Japanese aircraft. Among the survivors was Private Victor L. Mapes, who spent the next three years fleeing from and then being imprisoned by the Japanese military machine. When the tide of battle in the Pacific turned against the Japanese, Mapes experienced more harrowing conditions than before. After his unmarked prison ship was torpedoed by an American submarine, the wounded author struggled in the water against the elements and the enemy, as the Japanese tried to kill the escaping POWs. Mapes' memoir chronicles a gruelling three-year ordeal that was punctuated by strange and often amusing encounters with fellow Americans, Japanese, Filipinos, and the fierce Moros of Mindanao Island. The memoir includes photographs and maps, as well as a bibliography and index.

The late Victor L. Mapes enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1939 and served until his retirement in 1959. He lived in Florida. Scott A. Mills joined the Navy and served in World War II; he then worked for the U.S. Army's intelligence office and NASA before retiring. He divides his time between Silver Spring, Maryland and Belfast, Maine.