As children growing up in adjoining towns in the Western Australian hills above Perth, Jacky Bellamy is Charlie Parkin's sworn enemy. Their main rivalry is over the attentions of the beautiful, enigmatic Stella Cerini. Life throws them together at apple core fights, social events and a cricket match where Don Bradman appears. Their dislike for each other grows. World War 2 arrives and both find themselves in the same unit. As Prisoners of War in Java they face adversity and privation. They are being transported on the ill fated Tomahoko Maru when it is torpedoed by an American submarine and the prisoners spend many hours in the water. Most of the shipwrecked POWs do not survive. Charlie and Jacky are rescued by a Japanese whaler and are taken to Nagasaki in Japan where they are put to work in the steels mills working under diabolical conditions. On 9th August 1945 they are amongst 24 Australian POWs e in Nagasaki when the Atomic Bomb is dropped, annihilating much of the city and hastening the end of the war. Over their horrendous ordeal they find a mateship arises - they have more in common than divides them. Under times of real adversity it is only friendship which gets you through. The Apple Core Wars is a story about friendship, sacrifice and survival.