The Japanese use captured American soldiers as forced labor in coal mines. Pete and Clay are chosen to be shipped to Japan. They are taken aboard a freighter and locked below deck with 1,800 other men. They have no food, water, or toilets, and the air is barely breathable. Men die packed together so tightly they have no room to fall.

Prisoners on Pete’s ship are periodically allowed above deck for some fresh air. Pete and Clay are on the deck when the first American torpedo hits the old freighter. The Japanese don’t mark their troop carriers, so American submarines regularly torpedo Japanese ships carrying American prisoners. As the ship begins to sink, Pete and Clay jump overboard. They find a life raft and paddle away while the ship sinks. They are eventually rescued by a Filipino fisherman and his sons.

The Filipinos feed and hide them, provide them with fresh clothes and finally put them ashore at Luzon. Pete and Clay find their way to the Resistance encampment in the mountains. Along the way, they encounter some injured Japanese soldiers and kill them without hesitation or remorse. Pete and Clay are welcomed at the American encampment. They are fed, doctored, and given clean clothes, but Pete continues to have flashbacks to the prison camp.