Beginning December 8, 1941, this is the story of a young Iowa Marine at the U.S. Navy Yard barracks at Cavite. It continues through the fighting on Corregidor; his capture by the Japanese Imperial Army in May 1942; his entry into the Palawan prison camp in the Philippines on August 12, 1942; the vile conditions that he and his comrades endured there; and the terrible day when, in danger of the camp being over run by the advancing American forces, the Japanese guards massacred 139 American POWs. The guards then burned the camp, hoping that fire and the nature of the jungle would hide the crime. This is also the story of men who survived. Men who dug into refuse pits, hid in coral caves, slogged through swamp and jungle, and braved the sea. It also contains an account of the war crimes trials of the Japanese guards, follow-ups on the various people and places in the text, and a roster of the names and hometowns of the victims of the Palawan massacre.