Urgent! Help bring a POW to Washington

Lester Tenney

Dear friends,

We are appealing to you and your network to assist Lester Tenney, 94, to travel to Washington this week. 

He was invited just last Monday night to attend Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s speech to a joint meeting of Congress and the Japanese Embassy dinner for Mr. Abe. This all takes place on April 29th (Hirohito’s birthday).

Unfortunately, the Japanese Embassy “cannot” find the funds cover his trip to Washington. He lives in San Diego and always travels with his wife. He is partly blind and deaf. It will cost at least $6,000 for last minute air and hotel reservations and related expenses for this elderly couple to travel and stay in DC.

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Dr. Tenney is a survivor of the Battle of Bataan, the Bataan Death March, a Hellship to Japan, and a Mitsui coal mine. He was tortured, sliced by a samurai sword, and had nearly every bone in his body broken. He also successfully negotiated with the Japanese government in 2008 to persuade them to offer the POWs of Japan an apology and to establish a reconciliation program for former POWs to visit Japan. He is a warrior, a hero, a teacher, and a peacemaker. Dr. Tenney is also the author of two books: “My Hitch in Hell” and “The Courage to Remember: PTSD - From Trauma to Triumph”.

You can find more about Dr. Tenney on this blog

Donations are tax-deductible if made to Asia Policy Point or to the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Memorial Society. Any funds raised in excess of the travel funds will go to the ADBC Museum and Library in Wellsburg, West Virginia.

Thank you!