PROVO, UTAH

Photo by Julie Dockstader Heaps

This set of scriptures traveled thousands of miles to prison camp in China to hands of William Taylor.

Photo by Julie Dockstader Heaps

William Taylor in front of Wake Island mural in Provo home.

Photo courtesy Taylor family

William Taylor met Mao Tse-tung, the leader of the communist people in China, in photo right.

One image haunted William "Bill" Taylor during his years as a prisoner of war during World War II. After the Japanese first bombed Wake Island on Dec. 8, 1941, the young civilian worker — who had just escaped the bombing and strafing — walked into the base mess hall. The tables were set for about 400 men, plates and bowls loaded with food still steaming hot. There was no one else in sight.

Years later, living on thin soup and rice and scrounging for whatever extra food he could find in a camp in Woosung, China, Bill Taylor dreamed about all that food. He talks about it to this day some 60 years after his miraculous escape from a prisoner-of-war train and his trek across China to freedom in the closing days of the war.

The slim 90-year-old with twinkling eyes and a full head of white, curly hair is quick to attribute his survival in desperate circumstances. "If it hadn't been for the gospel and my belief in Jesus Christ and my prayers that were answered, I'd be dead. There's no question about it. I had the Holy Ghost to be with me. I look back and I think, 'I didn't do that.' These were things that happened to me almost beyond my will. Amazing!"

The "things that happened" to Brother Taylor began long before Wake Island and have influenced his life long after. Since his days in a prison camp, he has served as a stake president and is now a worker in the Provo Utah Temple. Serving alongside him is his wife, Barbara Ann Taylor. They are members of the Pleasant View 5th Ward, Provo Utah Sharon East Stake. Their quiet home just north of the temple is often a gathering place for their 10 children, 30 grandchildren and 45 great-grandchildren.

But a younger Bill Taylor was less quick to attribute anything in his life to the Church. During the Depression, his father died, leaving the 14-year-old to be reared by an aunt and uncle in Ogden, Utah, who were not involved in the Church. The great-grandson of John Taylor and Orson Pratt, he knew little of the Church and upon receiving a Book of Mormon from a grandfather serving as a mission president placed it on a shelf to gather dust.

As a young man working in the California desert for the Metropolitan Water District, he was challenged by his brother, Richard, with whom he was living, to read and pray about the book. "I thought, 'I got ya,"' Brother Taylor recalled, thinking he'd read the book, pray, get no answer and then be left alone. It didn't work out that way.

Reading the book and then kneeling on a hot desert evening, he received an answer. The book was true. There was one seemingly overwhelming obstacle, however. He struggled with a Word of Wisdom problem. He knew living the gospel was "going to be a tough one, and it took some time."

That "time" was some two years and came to a head on the tarmac of the airport on Wake Island. As the war raged in Europe, Brother Taylor saw an ad for work with Morrison & Knudsen on Pacific Islands. He and his older brother, Jack, signed up and boarded a ship for Wake Island. It was there, on Dec. 8 (Dec. 7 Honolulu time) when they heard the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor. Around noon, Brother Taylor saw low-flying Japanese bombers approaching the airport.

The island held out for several days, but on Dec. 23, the American forces surrendered. Brother Taylor and the others were held on the airport tarmac within barbed wire while waiting for transport to a prison ship. One night while walking around carrying his cigarettes, he began praying. "I will make a promise that I'll never smoke again as long as I live. You get me out of this thing, I'll serve you the rest of my life, no questions asked."

He gave the cigarettes away, "and I've never smoked since then."

Many days later, after an arduous voyage in the hold of the Japanese liner Nitta Maru, he arrived in Woosung prison camp in China, an area occupied by the Japanese. Held in barracks "like sardines," he and his prison mates worked on prison details and lived on a teacup of rice daily for the next 3 1/2 years. His ration of cigarettes became like gold. "For 10 cigarettes, you could buy a cup of rice."

Then came the miracle. "I had a positive attitude. I had written my brother (Richard)" and requested a Book of Mormon, never dreaming he'd actually get one because of prison censorship. (Brother Jack also survived the war.)

In August 1943, he was called to the office of the Japanese censorship officer, named Morisako. Ironically, Brother Taylor had become friends with the officer and had refrained from mocking and making fun of the Japanese officers as other prisoners did. It paid off.

Walking into Morisako's office, he looked at the desk and saw a Triple Combination, with the much-desired Book of Mormon. Inside the cover was written: "To my brother William L. Taylor, Barracks 4, Section 6, Shanghai War Prisoners Camp, Shanghai, China. At your request, search the treasures of knowledge deeply and learn to love your fellow men and may God bless you. Richard J. Taylor." He had added, "Through the grace of the Japanese Government."

Morisako gave him the book. Recalling walking out of that office clutching those scriptures, Brother Taylor said: "This indicated to me, you live the law, (the Lord will) give you the reward."

Today, that book is a treasured family heirloom, along with two journals Brother Taylor made from Chinese paper and cardboard. But those journals don't begin until after May 12, 1945, the day the prisoner jumped from a POW train bound north. His journal relates: "The train at the time I jumped was traveling about 30 to 35 miles an hour. Upon landing on the uneven ground, I gave my ankle a sharp, painful twist."

But he was able to hide, and with the help of the Chinese people, including communist troops, over the next few months, Brother Taylor made his way to freedom. Two moments in China he will never forget — seeing the American flag for the first time in Yenan, China, in July 1945, and meeting Chairman Mao Tse-tung, the leader of the communist people in China.

During these last days in China, his thoughts began traveling west. In one entry of his journal, the escaped prisoner expressed his greatest desire. On May 17, 1945, he wrote: "I do so want to go home."

Today, Brother Taylor stays close to home, except for going to the temple and walking his black lab, Princess, in Provo Canyon near his home. He urges his family, especially grandchildren, to read his journals, because "when it comes to it, the last 45 years, all I've done is every single thing that the Lord wants, because I made a promise to Him."

A promise kept on both sides.

• Information for this article also came from "Rescued By Mao," by William Taylor, Silverleaf Press, 2007.

E-mail to: julied@desnews.com