Meet Bruce Henderson
talking a lot about their wartime
experiences, and doing so could be quite
emotional for them. But to a person, they
wanted their stories chronicled and not lost
in history.
Q: As a best-selling and international
best-selling author, what advice would
give to other nonfiction writers waiting
to achieve that dream of writing the bestselling book?
Q: What inspired you to write Rescue at Los
Baños?
BH: Many people are familiar with the
brutal treatment of U.S. military POWs in
the Pacific during WWII by the Japanese,
thanks in large measure to the bestselling
book and film, Unbroken. We hear less
about the plight of American civilians who
happened to be living and working in the
Philippines when war broke out. Within
weeks of their surprise attack on Pearl
Harbor, the Japanese invaded the
Philippines, and rounded up these innocents
-- men, women and children -- and placed
them in internment camps for the duration of
the war. I wanted to tell this story because I
thought it deserved to be told at last.
Q: Inside of this spectacular nonfiction
story of the historical events that
occurred during WWII of the Japanese
War Camp where many were starved,
beaten, and killed, you have captured the
personal interviews, memoirs,
and correspondence. What was it like
going through each one of these and
intertwining them into your book?
BH: I felt honored to be interviewing these
members in good standing of the Greatest
Generation, nearly all of them in their 90s.
Many of them had gone through life without
BH: Keep writing and keep dreaming. With
a great story, a measure of talent developed
through experience and exercise, and a ton
of persistence and hard work, it can happen.
That was my own path to success, and it's
the advice I've given many writing students
over the years at USC School of Journalism
and Stanford University.
Q: What is like being an award winning
journalist? Where are some places where
you have published your work?
BH: I suggest you check out my website
(BruceHendersonBooks.com) re my other
published books. As for winning awards and
having previous bestsellers, that's all great.
Everyone likes kudos and success. But I am
much more keenly interested in what I am
working on today. In other words: What's
next? Any writer who rests on his or her
laurels for more than a nanosecond won't
last long in this profession.
Q: For those young journalists out there
what advice would you give them?
BH: See response to the above question.
Q: What inspires you to write books such
as the Rescue at Los Baños, Hero Found:
The Greatest POW Escape of the Vietnam
War?