Michael 'Doc' McCoy
author, screenwriter, longtime radio personality
Through My Mother's Eyes
(2008, new edition 2015)
Jean-Marie Faggiano was just a little girl living with her family in the Philippines when Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the beginning of WWII, the Imperial Japanese Army began its occupation of the Philippines. Non-national civilians, mostly American and British businessmen and their families, were forced into internment camps. Jean-Marie and her family, along with over 3,600 other civilians, were forced to surrender to the Imperial Japanese Army and live as civilian prisoners of war at the Santo Tomas Internment Camp in Manila from January 1942 until February 1945.
Through My Mother's Eyes is the true story of a young girl and her family, held captive against their wishes and thrown into a world where starvation, sickness, torture, and death were commonplace. The story begins almost twenty years after the camp's liberation, with Jean-Marie revealing to her two eldest sons, for the first time, what happened to her and her family during the thirty-seven months they were held as prisoners. Michael, her eldest son, now tells that story to you.
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No one, much less a child of six, should have to suffer the inhumanity and deprivation that Jean-Marie Heskett bore at Imperial Japan’s Santa Tomas Internment Camp in Manila through most of World War II. That she survived was her first great triumph. Her second was to avoid becoming hateful, thanks largely to her mother and the few silver linings of imprisonment – a major one was her unlikely friendship with a young Japanese soldier. “Through My Mother’s Eyes” is the insightful and deeply moving book she has created with her son, Michael McCoy. It’s a rich and enriching read.
Chris Smith, Columnist
The Press Democrat
Santa Rosa, CA
Praise & Reviews
In his book “Through My Mother’s Eyes,” Michael McCoy captured every detail of Jean-Marie Heskett’s memories as a prisoner of war in the Santo Tomas Internment Camp in the Philippines during the Second World War. The author described the events so well that I seem to travel back in time. The war was right in front of me. To Michael and Jean-Marie, your book is outstanding. This will be a good movie or theatrical play. If you’re a lover of history, and stories of tragedies and triumphs, this is a must-read book. I highly recommend it. Buy your copy now!
Dr. Gino C. Matibag
Makati City, Philippines
Author, JAPAN Lights and Shadows
Through My Mother’s Eyes is Jean-Marie’s vivid story of courage and cruelty, fear and faith, and love and loss as told to her oldest son, Michael McCoy. This memoir is both educational and emotional as feelings bleed from the pages and the gaps are filled in a history lesson of the struggles of Americans abroad during WWII. The resilience of Jean-Marie and her family will inspire the reader. And though this is a story based on war, genuine humanity shines through from both sides as people do what’s necessary to survive, both physically and emotionally.
Kate Greenwood
TCM Reviews
McCall, Idaho
About Michael McCoy
Michael lives in Santa Rosa, California, in the heart of Sonoma County's Wine Country.