Images-Video

"Back to a Coast Guard assault transport comes this Marine after two days and nights of Hell on the beach of Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands. His face is grimey with coral dust but the light of battle stays in his eyes." February 1944. NARA photo.

“Back to a Coast Guard assault transport comes this Marine after two days and nights of Hell on the beach of Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands. His face is grimey with coral dust but the light of battle stays in his eyes.” February 1944. NARA photo.

“A picture is worth a thousand words”, and so it is with this image of a combat soldier after days of fighting in the Marshall Islands. Combat is experiencing something that is like nothing else on this earth. We, civilians have no idea what kind of hell these men experience, and today we have women stepping up to soldier for our country. The eyes tell it all for a veteran as so do his. Some men still retain this look when they discuss their experiences as soldiers and prisoners of war during World War II.

Images from the war in the Pacific, especially of the prisoners of war, and the conditions they survived, are difficult to find, especially those that do not have copyright. We are grateful for the images that we have found on national archives, and for the individuals that are willing to share with us. The images in the gallery are divided by POW, camps and locations (battles, invasions and some historic).