Channel 4 - Hell in the Pacific (2001) Part 2 Purgatory

If all war is hell, it remains the case that for sheer hatred and intense savagery, the Pacific theater of operations during World War II developed into one of the deeper rings of agony. That intensity is explored and explained in Hell in the Pacific. Two years in the making, Hell in the Pacific is a four-part film, spanning 13 countries and following literally in the footsteps of the soldiers of 60 years ago. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941 propelled the United States into World War II and marked the beginning of the war in the Pacific. This series breaks down the traditional view of this conflict as a war between merciless Japanese and heroic Allies. This critically acclaimed series documents the true story of perhaps the most bitter battle arena of the Second World War. For countless Americans, British, Australians and New Zealanders, as well as the people of the Asia-Pacific region, the war meant ferocious fighting, and for many, appalling conditions in Japanese captivity. Atrocities were committed on both sides in a war without mercy. Rare and extraordinary archive film, and powerful and poignant eyewitness accounts bring to life a brutal conflict in a places that looked like paradise but turned out to be hell.

Part 2 Purgatory

“Purgatory” looks at the extraordinary fate of Australian nurses evacuated from Singapore and America's retaliation at Midway. After Pearl Harbor was attacked, Japanese forces swept across the Pacific. Thousands of Americans and Filipinos died on the Bataan Death March and prisoners were forced to labour. This episode covers the plight of those who fell into Japanse hands during WWII. Over 100,000 prisoners of war endured appalling conditions in camps whilst nurses were raped and murdered.

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