U.S. Marine George Burlage was part of the largest surrender in American history at Bataan and Corregidor in the spring of 1942, where the Japanese captured more than 85,000 troops. More than forty percent would not survive World War II. His prisoner-of-war ordeal began at Cabanatuan near Manila, where the death rate in the early months of World War II was fifty men a day. Sensing that Cabanatuan was a death trap, he managed to get transferred to the isolated island of Palawan to help build an airfield for his captors. Malaria and other tropical diseases caused him to be sent to Manila for treatment in 1943 (a year later, 139 of his fellow POWs were massacred on Palawan). After another year of building airfields, Burlage survived a 38-day voyage in the hull of a Japanese hell ship and ended the war as a miner for Mitsubishi in northern Japan. By sheer luck, strength, and a bit of sabotage, he survived and was freed in September 1945 after the Japanese surrendered. He had endured starvation and torture and lost half of his prewar weight, but no one had killed him. After the war Burlage became a journalist and wrote about …

Interview with Colonel John E. Olson, a Army WWII veteran and POW from Leavenworth, Kansas. Olson discusses his family background, commissioning in the Army from West Point, assignment to the Philippines in 1939 as an infantry officer, the start of the war, withdrawal to Bataan and the ensuing battle and surrender, the Bataan Death March, internment at Cabanatuan, transfer to Osaka, experiences there in internment at a factory labor camp, liberation, organizing the evacuation of POWs, returning to the US, and his postwar career.

Interview with Raymond F. "Hap" Halloran, businessman and U.S. Army Air Force WWII Veteran (878th Bomb Squadron, 499th Bomb Group, 73rd Bomb Wing, 20th Air Force) concerning his experiences as a prisoner-of-war of the Japanese during World War II.

Interview with Albert E. Kennedy, a United States Navy veteran from East Prairie, Missouri, regarding his experiences and memories as a prisoner-of-war of the Japanese after surviving the wreck of the USS Houston during World War II.

Interview with Jess Stanbrough, a Texas National Guard WWII veteran from Wichita Falls, Texas, who served and was captured with the 2nd Battalion, 131st Field Artillery (the "Lost Battalion.") Stanbrough discusses his time in the Guard before the war, deployment to the Pacific, the fall of Java and being captured, experiences in internment at Tanjong Priok and Bicycle Camp in Batavia, operating a clandestine radio, transfer to Japan, being an iron smelter at Kamaishi, Honshu, American air and naval bombardment, and liberation.