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Joe Young was born in Cottage Grove, Oregon on November 3, 1906. He attended grade school and high school there and worked in logging camps before joining the U.S. Navy in 1926. He was married in Astoria, Oregon in June 1932.

Young served on many types of ships and stations in the Navy, and in 1938 became a Chief Petty Officer and was transferred to the Naval Station in Guam, and assumed the duties of Communication Chief at the Naval Radio Station there. His family was evacuated back to the United States in June 1941.

In December 1941, Young was taken prisoner by the Japanese. As Prisoner of War no. 183, he was shipped to Zentsuji prisoner of war camp, Shikoku, in January 1942. He was transferred to Osaka on June 8, 1942 to do stevedoring work, and on September 2, 1942 was again transferred, this time to Kawasaki Camp, Branch no. 1, Tokyo area. Here he and other prisoners were hired out to Japanese firms, among them Suzuki Company, until their release in August 1945.

At the time of his capture, Young had a small notebook with him, and started a diary to record his experiences. He managed to acquire more small notebooks and kept them throughout the war. In a letter, he recalled how he was able to keep the diaries: "The story of how the diaries were preserved could make up a book but I really had no set method. Each situation had to be dealt with as it came up. During the early part of the war I kept them tied around my waist under a sheet. As they became more numerous I made a double bottom in an old canvas bag I carried my clothes in and when inspected [I] would open the bag, take it by the bottom and shake everything out on the ground. They would look in the bag but never picked it up for a close inspection. In camps there was always some secret place that the guards weren't smart enough to find. One time when I was caught unexpectedly in a hurry up move I just tied them in a bundle and carried them in my hand. They searched my bag and searched me but never did see the bundle of books."

The diaries commence with a detailed description of the Japanese invasion of Guam and subsequent events recalled retrospectively to April 18, 1942. Thereafter they are a daily account of prison life intended as a "letter" to Young's wife, Irene. The diary entries are both factual and contemplative, a remarkable example of how to make much of little.