Private First Class Harry Jerele was among the thousands of U.S. and Filipino service members who were captured and interned in prisoner-of-war camps after the surrender.

Often overshadowed by the Battle of Midway, the hard-fought carrier naval battle in May 1942 in the waters of the Coral Sea north of Australia marked the end of the phase of Japanese triumphs in the Pacific War and proved to be of strategic significance.

As General Douglas MacArthur’s campaign on Luzon was underway, news of the Palawan massacre produced a call to action to save thousands of Allied POWs and civilian internees from a similar fate. With the extraordinary assistance of Filipino guerrillas, four daring raids were launched behind Japanese lines to liberate those camps.

After parachuting on Tagaytay Ridge, Manuel Pérez participated in the horrendous fighting with the Japanese in the Philippines' capital city of Manila, the scene of some of the bloodiest urban combat of the war.

Allied military planners faced a bitter truth as they planned for a possible invasion of Japan: there were no distinctions between soldiers and civilians.