Emperor Hirohito announces Japan's surrender to the Allies in a recorded radio address across the Empire on August 15, 1945, marking the end of the Pacific War. Crucially, this news has not reached the Japanese at the "Blood Island" prisoner-of-war camp, where commandant Colonel Yamamitsu, has told senior allied officer Colonel Lambert, he will order the massacre of the entire camp, including a nearby camp for women and children, if Japan surrenders. The news of the end of the war is known to Colonel Lambert, and former rubber planter Piet van Elst (or 'Dutch') from their secret radio receiver.
Colonel Lambert does not inform most of the other prisoners, but decides they must prevent the Japanese from learning the truth. He arranges to sabotage the Japanese radio and sends Dr. Robert Keiller to try to reach a Malay village, where partisans will be able to get a message to the Allies. These activities lead to savage reprisals by the Japanese, with threats of worse to come. Lambert is the commanding officer, so he is expected to give orders. However the other prisoners do not know of Yamamitsu's threat, or that the war is over.
#ww2 #ww2movies
