When Men Must Live

A compelling, true life saga of the experiences of James T. Murphy, who was taken captive by Japanese Imperial Forces on April 9, 1942 in the Philippine Islands, just four months after the outbreak of World War II.

Murphy survived the infamous Bataan Death March, and then—against all odds—endured more than three and a half years of brutality, starvation, illness, slave labor and inhumane treatment at the hands of a ruthless enemy before his dramatic liberation from captivity weeks after World War II ended in August 1945.

Along with more than ten thousand fellow Americans and some seventy thousand Filipinos who fought along side them, Murphy was forced to make the Bataan Death March under a blistering, tropical Philippine sun over a period of nearly two weeks with virtually no food or water, encountering countless acts of savagery and barbarism contrasted with heroic acts of selflessness and kindness along the way. Before that journey ended, thousands from within his ranks would be dead. And in his weakest moment, he would discover his greatest strength.

Murphy’s intimate, first-hand account of his experience, fluently narrated and artfully woven into the historical backdrop of a world at war, is a poignant tale that covers a broad range of man’s most universal themes and challenges—the struggle of good versus evil, of man’s inhumanity to man, of faith and fate, and of life and death—along with a few true-life miracles thrown in for good measure.

His story also offers a collection of down-to-earth life lessons—words of wisdom for discovering and following one's core values, brought to life from the perspective of one among thousands of men on the brink of disappearing from history without a trace—through certain extermination—under Japan’s “Kill All” policy, before the war in the Pacific ended abruptly with the deployment of the world’s first atomic bombs.

This is a story that transcends generations and gender. Follow Murphy’s remarkable journey, consider the tragedies and triumphs—and let them serve as both a caution to societies and an inspiration to individuals. Reawaken your faith in life, in humanity—from the vantage point of one man who defied U. S. Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson’s dark prediction of his fate in early 1942 when Stimson declared: “There are times when men must die.”