In World War II, the outcome of the battle of Guadalcanal will strongly influence the Japanese's advance into the Pacific. Based on James Jones' novel, this is the story of Charlie Company's landing and battle experience there in 1942. The story concentrates on how the battle affects, and is effected by, Commanding officer Lt. Col. Gordon Tall, Captain James Staros, Sgt. Edward Welsh, and two privates, Witt and Bell. Charlie Company is attacking a...

In a Japanese prison camp on Java in 1942, two British officers, John Lawrence and Jack Celliers, encounter camp commander Yonoi and his sergeant Hara. Things had been going pretty well, until charismatic, rebellious Celliers arrived. Yonoi is a devotee of the samurai ideal; neither he nor Hara can understand the stoic way in which the British prisoners accept their situation of defeat. Lawrence speaks Japanese, and ceaselessly tries to mediate between...