As Good as Dead: The Daring Escape of American POWs From a Japanese Death Camp

Written by Stephen L. Moore

Narrated by Tim Campbell

In the tradition of Unbroken, a dramatic story of American POWs in the Pacific and their incredible escape from a Japanese labor camp. In late 1944, the Allies invaded the Japanese-held Philippines, and soon the end of the Pacific War was within reach. But for the last 150 American prisoners of war still held on the island of Palawan, there would be no salvation. As soldiers, sailors and Marines were herded into shallow air raid shelters, Japanese soldiers doused them with gasoline and set them on fire. By the next morning, only eleven men were left alive-but their desperate journey to freedom had just begun. As Good as Dead is one of the greatest escape stories of World War II. Endurance, determination, and courage in the face of death make this a gripping and inspiring saga of survival.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Nov 22, 2016
• ISBN: 9781501944604

Stephen L. Moore

Stephen L. Moore, a sixth-generation Texan, graduated from Stephen F. Austin State University. He is the author of multiple books on World War II and Texas history, including the critically acclaimed Eighteen Minutes: The Battle of San Jacinto and the Texas Independence Campaign; the four-volume Savage Frontier series on the early Texas Rangers and Texas Indian Wars; and Taming Texas, a biography of his great-great-great-grandfather William T. Sadler, who was one of the first Texas Ranger captains in the 1830s. Steve lives north of Dallas in Lantana, Texas, with his wife, Cindy, and their three children.

Reviews for As Good as Dead

[renzomalo · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Stephen L. Moore’s “As Good As Dead” is a stunningly frank depiction of eleven American POW’s survival and escape from the Palawan prison camp in the waning days of WWII’s Pacific campaign. Following the fall of Bataan and Corregidor in the early days of WWII, American POWs were famously marched along the Bataan peninsula to Camp O’Donnell, a distance of some sixty miles. From there, the Japanese command sent a detachment of prisoners to Palawan Island to build a landing strip, and it is here the body of the story takes place.
The American prisoners struggled as they endured a series of increasingly harsh base commanders and sadistic guards. They survived impossibly harsh working conditions and a grossly inadequate diet, which included “whistle-weed” soup and whatever scraps their Japanese guards would leave them. The story peaks in 1944 when it is clear Japan would lose the war and the order is given to exterminate the remaining prisoners by any means necessary including machine-gunning and burning alive in hand-dug air raid shelters after being doused with gasoline.
That anyone survived the Palawan Massacre is amazing. That these eleven survived the slaughter and then, with the help of Pilipino gruella fighters, eluded their Japanese hunters is the stuff of legend. Stephen L. Moore lays out the gruesome facts in splendid detail wrapped in an engaging narrative. A good read and an absolute must for any serious student of WWII. Three and a half stars for “As Good As Dead.”

[jimmoz-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a very compelling story of the survival of 11 POWs from a Japanese camp in the Philippines in December 1944. Other prisoners were executed as American forces neared the islands. The story begins with the invasion of the PI three years earlier.