Description

DEATH BECOMES THE GHOST
The Glory (part 1)
For three months into the Pacific War, the American Asiatic Fleet fought with Allied Navies to hold the Japanese expansion to the South.  In the climactic Battle of The Java Sea, the Allies  ( Dutch, British, Australian and American) sacrificed their remaining battle fleets in desperation. HMAS Perth and USS Houston survived this battle only to be lost in a suicidal attack on a fresh Japanese Fleet in Sunda Strait two days later. It was a glorious but horrific death for two great ships and the end of the US Asiatic Fleet.
THE SHAME (part 2) of DEATH BECOMES THE GHOST (included on same tape with part 1. Total Running time is 110 minutes.
The carnage of battle ended and the carnage of inhuman slavery and deprivation began for those who were  fortunate enough to survive and become guests of the Japanese Army. In one of the most shameful episodes of the World War, the survivors of the Houston, the Perth and other Allied commands that fell into the hands of the Japanese, became slave labor. The deprivation, beatings, murder, disease and exhaustive slavery took 22,000 American lives.   It is a SHAMEFUL episode that must be told.

The few who survived the ferocious Battle of Sunda Strait are captured. Volume II follows the hellish existence of these sailors and others who joined them (the 131st Field Artillery, Texas National Guard, “The Lost Battalion” for instance).  The volume ends with the repatriation of the survivors and their return home to a victorious nation, their part in the victory having been long forgotten as the war continued nearly four years after their own ship was lost.

Made by the same company that produced The Battle of the Java Sea.

2 DVD set.