World War II tale one of survival and hope

I am in contact with two former Sandpoint High School graduates, Class of 1956. All of us are former military personnel. 

The other two are Bernard Rash, Navy, and Laurie Kieski, retired Navy. Bernard lives in Hawaii. He married a woman from the Philippine Islands. He shared this story with me.

His wife, Wihelmina, and her family (father, mother, younger sister and baby brother) lived in Intramuros, Manila, before and during World War II. They were there during the Japanese takeover of Manila and were prisoners of the Japanese throughout the occupation and during the Allied liberation.

Her father was killed by the Japanese, and her baby brother was killed by shrapnel during the liberation as the Allies re-took the city. Her family, less her father, were held as prisoners in a church with women, children and elderly people. As the Allied troops fought to take the city, the Japanese had planned to kill the women and children, as they had all the men, who had already been murdered.

But this plan was foiled by the quick action of the Allied troops, who quickly retaken the city. Bernard went on to say that his wife and surviving family members lived in a refugee camp for many years following the war, as did many of the surviving women and children.

Could you, as a reader, imagine yourself in these circumstances? These are the horrors of war.