As the world welcomes a new year, a season symbolic of hope, renewal, and resolve, author and historian Dr. Janis Pardue Hill invites readers to rediscover faith and endurance through one man's extraordinary true story of survival. Her great book, “Telling His Story: POW #1000 – The Bataan Death March and Japanese POW Camps,” highlights the extraordinary bravery of her father, J.C. Pardue, who survived one of the darkest periods of World War II thanks to his firm belief and strong spirit.
“The Japanese captain said: 'You will all die here.'”
With these chilling words, J.C. Pardue's ordeal began. Captured after the fall of Bataan, he endured the infamous Bataan Death March a brutal, days-long forced march where thousands of American and Filipino soldiers perished. Those who survived faced the horrors of Japanese POW camps, starvation, disease, and slave labor in Japan.
Through the pain and loss, one constant remained, his faith. Central to the memoir is the story of his “Miracle Bible” a sacred symbol of hope that miraculously survived bombing, confiscation, and imprisonment, always finding its way back to him. It became more than a relic of war; it was a vessel of renewal and a testament to divine preservation.
Janis' work transcends the pages of military history, it is a reflection on spiritual endurance and moral resilience. As readers step into a new year, Telling His Story: POW #1000 offers a powerful reminder that renewal does not emerge from comfort, but from faith tested by fire.
“His Bible survived when nothing else did,” Janis writes. “That was his miracle and his message, that hope and faith endure even in the ruins.”
Each chapter of the book honors the human spirit's ability to rebuild and renew, making it a deeply moving read for those seeking perspective, gratitude, and inspiration in the year ahead.
Alongside the memoir, Janis provides an Educational Guide designed for classrooms, book clubs, and discussion groups. The guide encourages students and readers to explore critical themes such as courage, forgiveness, moral choice, and the sustaining power of faith. By integrating firsthand historical accounts with reflective questions, it helps new generations understand both the human cost of war and the transformative strength of belief.
Telling His Story: POW #1000 serves as a timeless reminder that faith may guide us toward light even in the darkest valley during a time when human resilience is still being tested by global uncertainty. Through the words and testimony of a man who refused to give up his soul, readers are encouraged to think, renew, and believe once more this New Year.
“Telling His Story: POW #1000 – The Bataan Death March and Japanese POW Camps” By Dr. Janis Pardue Hill is now available on eBook and Paperback formats! Get your copy on www.amazon.com.
About the Author
Janis Pardue Hill, PhD, a retired university professor and lifelong educator, holds a BS in English education, an MA in literature, and a PhD in Curriculum Theory. She has taught in secondary and university classrooms, as a Program Coordinator in the Louisiana Department of Education, and as a Curriculum Coordinator in the Ouachita Parish School System.
Dr. Hill retired from Louisiana Tech University in 2010 to dedicate herself to family, with the publication of her father's notes and journals her top priority. She spent the last two years of her father's life talking with him and interviewing him about the plethora of journals and notes he had recorded after he returned from the war about his experiences on the Bataan Death March and in Japanese POW camps. That memoir, entitled Telling His Story: POW #1000 The Bataan Death March and Japanese POW Camps, was published on December 2, 2022; and since that time, Dr. Hill has spoken at numerous events, including the 2023 Louisiana Book Fair where the memoir was one of the featured books. Telling His Story: POW #1000 is currently in republication. BUG: The Story of a Special Bug and His Little Boy is her first children's book.
Dr. Hill and her husband, Charles A. Hill, Jr., have two children, Trey and Amy; three grandchildren, Jack Hill, Harper Bourgeois and Emma Bourgeois; and a son-in-law Bartley Bourgeois. Dr. Hill and her husband live in North Louisiana.
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