Sunday, June 10, 2007
The great escape: New book retells Provo resident's flight to freedom across China during World War II

CODY CLARK -

Even the most casual student of U.S. history knows that Dec. 7, 1941 -- called "a date that will live in infamy" by then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt -- is the day that the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.

Provo resident William Taylor, 90, remembers Dec. 7 for a different reason. That same morning, Taylor, at the time a civilian contractor working for the Navy, was on tiny Wake Island in the Pacific Ocean when a nearly identical aerial ambush crippled the U.S. fighter squadron there. Within days, the Japanese overwhelmed the Americans on Wake and Taylor became a prisoner of war.

Now, more than 60 years later, a new book from local publisher Silverleaf Press, "Rescued by Mao," records Taylor's firsthand account of his lengthy imprisonment and hugely improbable escape across China.

With many World War II veterans dying each year, Silverleaf editor Sheri Nielson said that there's a renewed interest in personal accounts of the conflict. "Bill's book is a true story and it goes into detail about his amazing escape," Nielson said.

"Rescued by Mao" recounts how Taylor broke free of his captors by leaping out of a moving prisoner train and how he eventually found freedom by crossing China with the aid of Chinese Marxists -- including Mao Zedong himself.

The book has been heartily endorsed by the likes of presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, and Taylor, despite his age, has already made a handful of promotional appearances at book signings.

A native of Ogden and resident of Provo for more than two decades, Taylor said that his reasons for telling the story are personal. "It's really a family book," he said. "I want my kids to know what happened to their grandfather, or great-grandfather."

Gregory J.W. Urwin, a professor of military history at Temple University and Wake Island expert who read an early copy of "Rescued by Mao," said that the book is also valuable simply because it gives a vivid, insider's view of life in the Japanese prisoner camps. The account is especially poignant because Taylor should never have ended up where he did.

Urwin said that the Navy now maintains a combat-trained Construction Battalion (also known, because of the initials C.B., as the Seabees). Prior to the United States's entry in World War II, however, most of the Navy's construction needs were handled by civilians like Taylor.

Roughly two-thirds of the men stationed on Wake when the Japanese attacked, Urwin said, were non-military construction workers building a naval air base.

Not only that, but the regular military didn't exactly have first-rate weaponry. "Nobody expected the Marines to do anything there," Taylor said. "The rifles they had, they were used in the first World War."

Even less, it could be argued, was expected of the civilians -- but Taylor and the rest didn't hesitate to do their best. Robert A. Bonadio, a retired Marine colonel and longtime acquaintance of Taylor's, said, "I just love these guys, and there's not too many of them left. These guys held out on Wake Island for 16 days."

An incredible journey

Because of its geographic remoteness, Wake Island was incredibly difficult to resupply. For the same reason that the United States had only posted a relatively small force there, the Japanese occupiers eventually shipped out most of their prisoners.

"You can't grow food on Wake and it doesn't have any sources of fresh water," Urwin said.

Being sent off the island to Japanese prison camps in China was a key stroke of good fortune for Taylor -- when American forces moved in to recapture Wake in 1943, approximately 98 civilians were among the prisoners gunned down by the Japanese to preserve their limited rations.

By that time, Taylor had been a prisoner for nearly two years and his ordeal would continue for many more months. One thing at a premium was personal space. "We had bunks about 25 inches wide and six feet long," Taylor said. "That was our home for three-and-a-half years."

Urwin said that Taylor's escape is remarkable for a number of reasons. For one thing, it would have been very difficult for an escaping American to avoid detection and recapture simply because of his telltale features and skin color. And necessities of survival as simple as taking a drink were fraught with danger -- because of the Chinese practice of crop fertilization using human waste, many sources of fresh water could cause crippling bacterial infections.

To say nothing of, as Urwin put it, "Just having the stamina, the energy to go through the exertions of escaping, having to run, literally, for hours."

Taylor, a lifelong member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint, gives full credit to divine intervention, which you might expect. "Jesus Christ is a friend of mine," Taylor said.

He also, however, gives credit to the Chinese Marxists who found him and helped him cross the country. Not only that, but the guerrillas eventually introduced Taylor to their commander, no less a figure than the founder of the People's Republic of China.

Taylor said that he's American through and through. As he put it, "I'm not a Communist, that's for sure."

And yet, he has a friendly esteem for one of Communism's greatest icons. Taylor and a young-looking Chairman Mao are pictured together on the cover of "Rescued by Mao," and Taylor said he still owns two hand-woven rugs that were a gift from the Chinese leader-in-waiting.

As he writes in the book, Taylor "took an immediate liking to the courageous man who had fought for what he thought was right -- not only for himself but for his people."

Bonadio said that, after returning to the United States, Taylor provided important intel about Japanese prisons and also "told all about the plans of this young Chinese general."

Taylor has returned to China a number of times since being imprisoned there and said that he has a great love for the Chinese people. Perhaps more than anything, however, his experiences made him realize just how much he values living in America.

"The idea behind this whole thing," he said, "is to let people know that this country is great. When you've gone through an experience like this one, you find out how great it is, and then you want to tell other people about it."

Cody Clark can be reached at 344-2542 or cclark@heraldextra.com.

Rescued by Mao: World War II, Wake Island, and My Remarkable Escape to Freedom Across Mainland China

What: Provo resident William Taylor, a builder working for the Navy on Wake Island at the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, became a prisoner of war after the subsequent Japanese takeover of Wake. After more than three years of imprisonment, he improbably escaped across mainland China with the aid of Communist guerillas.

Author: William Taylor

Publisher: Silverleaf Press (Salt Lake City)

Length: 303 pages

Excerpt: "As I looked southwest, toward the airport, I noticed a number of bombers flying low over Peacock Point. I thought, 'Boy, Uncle Sam sure got here quickly.' They were very low, about 1,500 feet above ground level. ... Then I saw the bombs dropping from the aircraft and exploding on the runway where we had eight of our precious 12 F4F Grumman Wildcat fighters exposed."
This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page C1.

Ellie