Hell to Eternity

This isn’t the famous, fictional “From Here to Eternity,” it’s the fascinating, real-life story of WW II Marine Guy Gabaldon. A Mexican-American kid living on the streets of East Los Angeles, Gabaldon was taken in by a Japanese-American family who helped turn his life around. As World War II exploded, the nation turned on its residents of Japanese descent, forcibly relocating 120,000 of them, including Gabaldon’s parents, to internment camps. Enlisting in the Marines, Gabaldon took part in one of the epic battles of the war: the invasion of Saipan. In the midst of this killing field, Gabaldon found a surprising way to save lives. Operating alone and behind enemy lines, he used his limited knowledge of Japanese to talk 1,500 of the enemy into peacefully surrendering, earning him the nickname “The Pied Piper of Saipan.” He was only 18 years old.