Introduction

My grandfather spent several years in a Japanese prisoner of war camp after he was captured in the Philippines in world War II.  The manuscript that follows was written by my grandfather after he returned from the Japanese prisoner of war camp, well after the end of World War II. He intended to give the account to a ghost writer, but, for some reason, never followed through.  I understand that he did submit the manuscript to a publisher, but it was rejected.

I have included the raw text of the journal.  My temptation was to severely edit the material, as it is not very well written.  However, I decided to allow my grandfather to tell us his story in his own words.

I have taken the liberty of correcting spelling and making minor grammatical changes where appropriate.  The addition of a word or phase is denoted by square brackets.

Note: "The Hard Way Home" is Copyright © 1999-2001 Jeanette Hoeffer, All Rights Reserved Reprinted with permission. Pamela Walton (my aunt) has created a wonderful site, and has posted the original for The Hard Way Back on her site. Frank Hoeffer is my grandfather and her father.