U.S. Marine Corps veteran Col. Glenn Frazier lived throughalmost everything war can throw at a man – combat, captivity, rageand forgiveness.

The 85-year-old best-selling author was the guest speakerWednesday at Brookhaven Academy’s annual Veterans Day program.

He shared with students and fellow veterans the misery andtriumph that came with his World War II experience. He spoke aboutfighting the Japanese in the Philippines, surviving three years ofcaptivity after the brutal Bataan Death March and the joy ofsailing into San Francisco Bay as a free man at the war’sconclusion.

On a day set aside to remember courageous acts of sacrifice andheroism, Frazier challenged his mostly young audience to forgive.For him, forgiveness took decades to master.

“The hate I had for the Japanese helped me survive. When I gothome, everyone told me they didn’t blame me for hating them, but itturned against me,” Frazier told a packed gymnasium at BA.

Frazier’s hate for his captors began with captivity. He was oneof around 75,000 American and Filipino servicemen who, weakened bydisease and critically short of supplies, were forced to surrenderon the Bataan Peninsula in early 1942. The surrendering prisonersof war were forced to march more than 60 miles through the tropicalheat of the Philippines without rest or water, and thousands diedfrom exposure and murder at the hands of their captors.

“They treated us worse than animals,” Frazier recalled. “Theytold us they didn’t have to abide by (the Geneva Conventions), andthey treated us any way they wanted to treat us.”

Frazier and his fellow POWs used their hatred to fight back. Theprisoners formed sabotage groups and began hitting the Japanesebehind their backs, and under their noses. Frazier recalled that,when POWs were used as slaves to manufacture munitions for theJapanese military, the factory had a “good” pile and a “bad” pile.The prisoners began putting proper munitions in the “bad” pile andworking parts in the “bad” pile and switching the mark foreach.

“By the end of the month, we only had three good ones,” Fraziersaid. “We stole everything of value, and we tried everything in theworld to destroy everything.”

Frazier’s hate even saved his life. As detailed in hisbest-selling book, “Hell’s Guest,” Frazier told a Japanesecommander who was about to execute him that his spirit would comeback and haunt the commander’s body forever. He spent a week insolitary confinement, but he lived.

Once free and back home in Mobile, Ala., however, Frazier’shatred caused problems.

“I had nightmares for 30 years,” he said. “I had problems withmarriage. My wife bought a Toyota once, and when she drove it home,I said, ‘Where are you going to park it? You ain’t going to park ithere.'”

With the help of his pastor and more than two years of trying,Frazier said he abandoned his decades-old hate and his health andlife improved.

“The best lesson is forgiveness,” he said. “If anyone in thisroom, young or old, hates anybody, get rid of it.”

Veterans in the audience Wednesday appreciated Frazier’s speech.Bill Miller, a U.S. Air Force veteran who flew KC-135 tankers inVietnam, said Frazier’s story is one that students should hear.

“It teaches kids something,” he said. “When you sign up, yousign up to give your life for your country.”

Sgt. 1st Class Anthony Ankesheiln, who works in Brookhaven’sArmy Reserve Center, said the service of veterans like Fraziercould not be thanked enough.

“It was a great opportunity to meet a gentleman like that,” hesaid. “There’s not too many opportunities like that left. Wesometimes take for granted the freedoms we have.”