This documentary looks at the opening days of World War II in the Philippines, where American and Filipino soldiers, using World War I weapons and ammunition, held out in vicious fighting against the Japanese for 81 days. On April 8, 1942, report not focuses on the battle, but on the durability of the human spirit in the face of man's inhumanity to man; of the Bataan death march, Japanese prison camps and the hell ships that took some to Japan into slavery. Only 43% of the American POWs survived. Some of those survivors, meeting in reunion in the Philippines, told their stories on camera and voice over photos, film and sketches of those days of starvation, sickness, death, and incredible brutality.
—NBC