There's a quiet battle brewing over a brutal episode of American military history that has attracted little attention during the last six decades.
American POW's enslaved in the Pacific in World War II now have new hope for justice.
News Specialist Jed Boal tells us their story.
The men who served in World War II and survived are now in their 70's and 80's.
Their war is now more than 50 years past.
But, several Utahns who nearly died in the Pacific have new strength for a battle that lingers.
Johnny Johnson and Harold Poole go way back...nearly six decades.
The Utahns went off to the war in the Pacific in October 1940, and survived one of the most gruesome episodes in American military history.
"It's impossible to explain to someone who wasn't there."
They were stationed in Manila with the U.S. Army Air Corps, when the Japanese hit Pearl Harbor.
A day later, bombers hammered their air field.
Harold Poole/WWII Veteran: "We had a lot of fires burning, some of our planes were on fire and ammunition was going off."
Poole jumped into a fox hole, grabbed a 30-caliber machine gun, and shot down one of those bombers.
For that he earned a silver star for heroism.
Harold Poole: "It all happened so quick, you don't have time to worry about anything. You just do what you have to do."
They held out four months with little food and ammo.
The U.S. command ordered them to surrender on Christmas Eve, on a penisula called Bataan.
The Japanese forced them to march more than 65 miles to trains that took them to prison camps and slave labor.
It became known as the Bataan Death March.
Harold Poole: "A lot of them would faint or fall out. Japanese guards would come along with a rifle or bayonnet on it, and poke 'em a little bit. If they didn't get up and go, just push it through."
Hundreds of Americans died on the march.
Johnny Johnson: "If a person thought they weren't going to make it, they didn't."
They marched a week--no food, no water. Then,
they were packed into box cars, sent to prison camps, then slave labor camps at Japanese companies.
Both of the men say it's a wonder anyone survived. They say that they made it through simply because of their positive attitudes. Harold Poole found a Bible when he was a prisoner of war camp, and says it was truly a Godsend.
Harold Poole: "I thought, 'Well, this is the answer to my prayers. There are a lot of scriptures that give you encouragement and help."
Late last year, another answer to their prayers--the possibility to taste justice 58 years later.
With hundreds of other survivors, they sued the Japanese companies that brutalized them and forced them to work.
"All these things have been hidden in the closet so long, nobody realized it."
Last summer, a Califonia court allowed the case to go forward.
They're suing Japanese companies, not the Japanese people.
Harold Poole: "I would like to see justice served. Second, I want to get this out in the open. I want people to know about it."
For 20 months, Poole worked at hard labor -- slave labor -- at a steel mill in Osaka.
He isn't looking for money now -- the lawsuit is about justice, but he says, it's also about setting the record straight.
Harold Poole: "Let more people know about it. Let it be more a part of our history. So that it isn't something that is put on the back shelf and forgotten about."
Two other Utahns, Gene Jacobson and Grant McDonald, are also part of the lawsuit. No specific amount of money is mentioned.
Their attorney says it could go to trial next fall.
