tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90262567122397832812024-03-17T17:06:52.537-04:00American POWs of JapanAmerican POWs of Japan is a research project of Asia Policy Point, a Washington, DC-based nonprofit that studies the US policy relationship with Japan and Northeast Asia. The project aims to educate Americans on the history of the POW experience both during and after World War II and its effect on the U.S.-Japan Alliance.Asia Policy Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784292872823996552noreply@blogger.comBlogger387125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9026256712239783281.post-57777482115213196192024-03-17T17:06:00.001-04:002024-03-17T17:06:05.083-04:00POW Group Testifies to Congress<p align="center" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 14pt;">STATEMENT FOR THE RECORD</span></b><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span></b></p><p align="center" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 13pt;">to the</span></b></p><p align="center" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 13pt;">Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee and House Veterans' Affairs Committee</span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></b></p><p align="center" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 13pt;">Joint Hearing</span></b></p><p align="center" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></b></p><p align="center" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 13pt;">To Receive Legislative Presentations of Veterans Service Organizations</span></b></p><p align="center" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></b></p><p align="center" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 13pt;">By</span></b></p><p align="center" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 13pt;">Jan Thompson</span></b></p><p align="center" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 13pt;">President</span></b></p><p align="center" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 13pt;">American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Memorial Society</span></b></p><p align="center" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></b></p><p align="center" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 13pt;">13 March 2024</span></b></p><p align="center" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></b></p><p align="center" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><i><span lang="EN" style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 13pt;">AMERICAN DEFENDERS OF THE PACIFIC</span></i></b></p><p align="center" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><i><span lang="EN" style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 13pt;">TIME FOR A CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL</span></i></b></p><p align="center" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><i><span lang="EN" style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 13pt;">&</span></i></b></p><p align="center" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><i><span lang="EN" style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 13pt;">MEMORIALS IN JAPAN</span></i></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"> </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"> </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">Chairmen Tester and Bost, Ranking Members Moran and Takano, and Members of the Senate </span><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt;">and House Veterans Affairs Committees, thank you for allowing us to describe how Congress </span><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt;">can meet the concerns of veterans of World War II in the Pacific.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"> </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">The American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor (ADBC) was founded in January 1946 at the Fort Devens, Massachusetts hospital by former POWs of Imperial Japan. The ADBC represented the men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces in the Pacific who participated in the early resistance to, and defensive battles against, the armed forces of Imperial Japan from December 8, 1941 to June 9, 1942. Nearly all the survivors endured four years of merciless imprisonment by Imperial Japan throughout the Empire.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"> </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">Our Memorial Society now represents their families and descendants, as well as scholars, researchers, and archivists. Our goal is to preserve the history of the American POW experience in the Pacific and to teach future generations of the POWs’ sacrifice, courage, determination, and faith—the essence of the American spirit.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"> </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">Background</span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"> </span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">The common perception of an American POW of Imperial Japan is as a casualty of the infamous Bataan Death March 82 years ago next month. The fall of the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines and the start of the March, April 9, 1942, is National Former POW Recognition Day and is recognized with a Presidential Proclamation.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"> </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">In fact, Americans—Marines, sailors, and merchant marines in China and Japan—became POWs of Imperial Japan starting with the first day of the War on December 8, 1941. Over the following months, Americans unprepared for war in outposts throughout the Pacific were surrendered <i>en masse</i> often after furious, unaided battles—Wake Island, Guam, Java, Sunda Strait, Luzon, Corregidor, Mindanao, Kiska, Attu—against the invading Japanese.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"> </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">As POWs, the Americans were subject to torture, abuse, starvation, and neglect. Significantly, they were used as slave laborers for Japan’s military and private industry. The men toiled on the Thai-Burma Death Railway; built airfields with their bare hands—such as at what is now the Antonio Bautista Air Base on Palawan, Philippines; died constructing military projects such as the Soto Dam in Nagasaki Prefecture; and slaved in Japanese corporate mines, mills, and factories. For example, Nippon Steel, which is now attempting to purchase U.S. Steel, used more than 6,000 American and Allied POWs as forced labor with ten percent dying in the process.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"> </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">I testify today to encourage a greater effort to remember and to advocate for these American men and women who gave their all under desperate conditions and who demonstrated determination and resourcefulness against a ruthless enemy. And all this against the backdrop of a long-decided U.S. and British policy to prioritize the war in Europe. The result was that thousands of these soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen became POWs of Japan and suffered some of the War’s worst consequences. One-third did not return home.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"> </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><b><span lang="EN" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">Our asks</span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">To ensure that the sacrifices and unique history of our fighting men and women in the Pacific during 1941 and 1942 are not forgotten I ask Congress to:</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"> </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">1. Award the Congressional Gold Medal collectively to the American defenders of Bataan and Corregidor, as defined in U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich’s and Representative</span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"> <b>Teresa Leger Fernandez’s forthcoming bill</b>. This group represents every U.S. state, territory, tribe, and military service. It is the most diverse World War II Congressional Gold Medal cohort.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"> </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">2. Call on Nippon Steel and other Japanese companies to acknowledge their history of using American and Allied POWs as slave laborers </span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">and to establish an educational foundation to support research and learning about the POW experience in Imperial Japan. Respect for the sacrifices of American veterans should be fundamental to Nippon Steel’s acquisition of a U.S. company. It is the only way that trust can be established.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">3.</span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"> <b>Ask the Government of Japan, to create two central <u>government-funded</u> memorials in Japan, as none exist, to the Allied POWs of WWII. </b>One would be in Tokyo and the other at the Port of Moji on Kyushu, Japan where most of the “hellships”<span style="color: #333333;">–floating dungeons where POWs were denied air, space, light, sanitation, water, and food–first </span>arrived in Japan to unload their sick and dying human cargo. Currently, the only monuments at Moji are to Japanese war horses, Japanese soldiers, and bananas.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"> </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">4. Instruct the U.S. Department of State to prepare a report for Congress on the history and funding of the 2010-2023 “Japan/POW Friendship Program.”</span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"> The report should include (i) how other Allied POW reconciliation programs initiated by the Government of Japan in 1995 compare both in funding and programming with the one for the Americans; (ii) how the U.S. program compares with its “kakehashi” people exchange programs in the United States funded by the Government of Japan starting in 2015; and (iii) a breakdown of the budgets of these various exchange programs and the types and ages of participants.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"> </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">5.</span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"> <b>Ask the Government of Japan to reestablish and institutionalize the “Japan/POW Friendship Program.” </b>Inaugurated in 2010 as a reconciliation visit to Japan for former U.S. POWs and family members, it was modeled after ones initiated in 1995 for British, Dutch, and Australian POWs. Japan ended the visitation program for Americans in 2023. Instead of stopping reconciliation efforts, Japan should transform the American POW program into a permanent educational, remembrance, and exchange initiative that encompasses history, justice, and democratic resilience.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"> </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">6. Ask the Government of Japan to publish in Japanese, English and other Allied languages on the website of the Foreign Ministry of Japan the 2009 Cabinet Decision </span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">making a formal apology to all the prisoners of war of Japan and the text of Ambassador Ichiro Fujisaki’s May 30, 2009 speech to the final convention of the ADBC offering an apology to the POWs.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"> </span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">7.</span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"> <b>Ask the Government of Japan to honor its 2015 written promise to include the “full history” of Japan’s UNESCO World Industrial Heritage properties of the <i>Meiji Industrial Revolution: Iron and Steel, Shipbuilding and Coal Mining</i></b>. Despite the government’s written commitments to UNESCO, the history of POW slave labor at many of the Heritage sites is not included at those locations or at the Tokyo Information Center. Two of these locations are owned by Nippon Steel.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"> </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">High price of freedom</span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">By June 1942, most of the estimated 27,000 Americans ultimately held as military POWs of </span><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Imperial Japan </span>had been surrendered<span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt;">. By the War’s end, roughly 12,000 Americans POWs had died in Japan’s squalid POW camps, in the fetid holds of “hellships,” or in slave labor camps owned by Japanese companies. </span><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt;">This was a death rate of 40 percent. </span><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt;">In contrast, 1.5 percent of Americans in Nazi POW camps died putting the mortality rate for POWs of Japan as 20 times greater.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">Eighty-three years after the start of the War in the Pacific, it is time to recognize the Americans who fought the impossible and endured the unimaginable in the war against tyranny and fascism in Asia. The American men and women in the early months of the war in the Pacific fought with limited and outdated weapons and no hope of reinforcement or resupply.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"> </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">C<span style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">urrent and future generations can be inspired by their “victory from within.” </span>As President Franklin D. Roosevelt said in August 1943, when the outcome of WWII was still uncertain, “<span style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #111111;">The story of the fighting on Bataan and Corregidor—and, indeed, everywhere in the Philippines–will be remembered so long as men continue to respect bravery, and devotion, and determination.”</span><span style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"></span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"> </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">In return for their sacrifices and service, they ask that their government keep its moral obligation </span><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt;">to them. They do not want their history ignored or exploited. What they want most is to have </span><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt;">their government </span><span style="font-family: times new roman, serif;">stand<span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt;">by them to ensure that they will be remembered, that our Japanese allies respect them, and that their American history is preserved accurately.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"> </span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">Ms. Jan Thompson</span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif";">President,</span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"> </span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif";">American Defenders of Bataan & Corregidor Memorial Society</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif";">Daughter of PhM2c Robert E. Thompson USN, USS <i>Canopus</i> (AS-9)</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif";">Survivor of the hellships <i>Oryoku Maru</i>, <i>Enoura Maru</i>, and the <i>Brazil Maru</i></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif";">Survivor of the POW Camps Bilibid (Philippines), Fukuoka 3B (Japan), & Mukden (China)</span></p><p align="center" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif";"> </span></i></b></p><p align="center" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif";">See previous testimony to the Veterans’ Affairs Committees for a fuller background</span></i></b></p><p align="center" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "New serif";">on the history and efforts of the ADBC-MS.</span></i></b></p><p align="center" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.adbcmemorialsociety.org/&source=gmail&ust=1710778034530000&usg=AOvVaw3UfzeFgE1LDDmnHs1RugJn" href="https://www.adbcmemorialsociety.org/" rel="nofollow" style="color: blue;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "New serif";">https://www.<wbr></wbr>adbcmemorialsociety.org/</span></a></span></p>Asia Policy Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784292872823996552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9026256712239783281.post-67202785477721770422024-02-01T15:34:00.002-05:002024-02-01T15:34:47.660-05:00Nippon Steel's Legacy of POW Slave Labor<p><b style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>‘Zero ethics’? Japan-US war wounds reopen over POW abuse as Nippon Steel buys American rival</i></span></b></p><div><div><i>Relatives say they are disappointed the US government failed to pressure Tokyo to face up to the historic abuses of prisoners by the Japanese firms during WWII<br />Americans would be shocked if they knew of the ‘inhumane’ treatment suffered by US prisoners at Japanese companies supporting the war effort, the relatives add</i><br /><br /></div><div><b><a href="https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3248512/sale-us-steel-japanese-rival-sparks-outrage-over-lack-apology-pow-abuse-ethical-value-zero" target="_blank">Julian Ryall, <i>South China Morning Post</i>, 1/16/24</a></b></div><div><br />Relatives of American prisoners who were used as slave labourers during World War II have expressed anger at the purchase of US Steel by Nippon Steel Corp, claiming the Japanese company has made no effort to atone for or even admit the brutal treatment that was meted out to POWs.<br /><br />They are also disappointed at the US government’s failure to pressure Japan to face up to the historic abuses of tens of thousands of POWs at the hands of companies that are today among the wealthiest in the world.<div><br />Workers at US Steel, union members and American consumers would be outraged if they knew what the forerunner of Nippon Steel had put captured servicemen through, they add.<br /><br />The agreement for Nippon Steel to acquire the 122-year-old US firm for US$14.9 billion was announced in December, immediately triggering opposition from the United Steelworkers union and members of Congress.<br /><br />Those complaints, however, were focused narrowly on concern over the “dire implications for the industrial base of the United States”, according to a letter signed by three Republican senators addressed to Janet Yellen, US Treasury secretary and chair of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2024, subject to regulatory approvals.<br /><br />Relatives of men who endured years of abuse and appalling conditions as they laboured in mines, shipyards and other industrial plants that supported Japan’s war effort say they are still waiting for a meaningful apology from industrial giants like Nippon Steel, which merged with Sumitomo Metal Industries in 2012 to form one of the largest steel conglomerates in the world.<br /><br />Historians estimate that Nippon Steel and its ancillary companies used at least 4,000 American and Allied POWs at its industrial sites.<br /><br />Nippon Steel is also embroiled in a bitter legal fight in South Korea, where courts have repeatedly ruled that it must pay compensation to the descendants of former forced labourers.<br /><br />“I am disappointed to learn of Nippon Steel’s attempted acquisition of US Steel and I remain irate that Nippon Steel still has not apologised for or even acknowledged the use of POW labourers during World War II,” said Patrick Regan, 51, from Bolingbrook in Illinois.<br /><br />“A company that cannot at least admit past misdeeds cannot be believed or trusted to do the right thing going forward,” said Regan, whose grandfather, US Army Air Corp Technical Sergeant Donald C Regan, was captured during the fall of Bataan in the Philippines in April 1942. “Its monetary value may be immense, but its ethical value is zero.”<br /><br />Regan was held in the Philippines for 18 months after his surrender and “exploited as a slave labourer by Nippon Steel” at the <a href="http://www.mansell.com/pow_resources/camplists/osaka/hirohata/hirohata-main.htm " target="_blank">12-B Osaka camp</a>, also known as Hirohata, for the last two years of the war, his grandson told This Week in Asia.<br /><br />“He suffered from malaria, optic atrophy, severe malnutrition and other ailments during his time as a POW … As a labourer at Nippon Steel, his fingers were crushed while moving a heavy piece of equipment,” he said.<br /><br />“The physical scars from that injury were still visible when I saw them as a young boy, and the emotional scars of his treatment as a POW remained until his death in 1984.”<br /><br />Patrick Regan travelled to Japan with his father in 2023, visiting the site of his grandfather’s POW camp and the steel mill where he was put to work.<br /><br />“The camp is now a quiet suburban neighbourhood,” he said. “There’s no mention of the POW camp that once stood there. The security gate outside the Nippon Steel complex … makes no hint of that history.”<br /><br />Teresa Goodell, 64, from Beaverton in Oregon, echoes that anger over the mistreatment of her father, Commander Zemo C Tarnowski, in Japanese captivity and forced to labour as a stevedore at docks in Japan.<br /><br />“The cruelty he suffered while imprisoned morphed into suffering for his family, despite his good intentions to the contrary,” she said. “This is what trauma does; it lives on.”<br /><br />Expressing her “strong opposition to the US Steel purchase”, Goodell added that “Americans who were directly and indirectly harmed by Japanese cruelty deserve a greatly overdue formal apology from Nippon Steel prior to approval of the acquisition”..<br /><br /><div>Jan Thompson, president of the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Memorial Society, said: “I am shocked this is happening. US Steel symbolised America’s strength during World War II … The unions at US Steel also symbolise America’s ideals – fair wages, fair treatment and looking out for the welfare of workers.<div><br />“However, the POWs who were slave labourers for Nippon Steel or Sumitomo … were inhumanely treated as slave labourers and if they did not slave, they were not fed,” she said. “Work conditions were unsafe and beatings happened every day.”<br /><br />Thompson’s father, Robert E Thompson, was a US Navy medic who spent three years in a prison hospital in Manila after the fall of the Philippines before being placed on a “hell ship” to Japan. After a journey during which both “hell ships” he was put on were sunk, his third transport finally arrived at the Japanese port of Moji. Only around 600 individuals from the 1,619 men who had left Manilla survived.<br /><br /><div>After his repatriation, Thompson would never allow any Japanese product into the family’s home.<br /><br />“I do not think ordinary Americans know anything about the history of our POWs in Japan,” Jan Thompson said. “If they did know, I believe there would be blowback. I believe our veterans’ organisations would be outraged. I wonder why our government would allow this to happen.”<br /><br />Mindy Kotler, director of Washington-based Asia Policy Point and a historian of Imperial Japan’s Allied prisoners of war, said no Japanese steel company had acknowledged POW slave labour or offered an apology.<br /><br />“Many ordinary Americans do not even know that Japan was an enemy in World War II,” Kotler said. “And there is some surprise the Japanese companies have never done what German companies have, which is to apologise, pay compensation and teach the history of slave labour.”<br /><br />In 1999, European steel giants Thyssen AG and Krupp agreed to a merger, subject to a condition requiring the creation of a foundation to make “humanitarian payments” to former forced labourers and other victims of the Nazi regime.<br /><br />While ThyssenKrupp has contributed generously to the foundation, Tokyo has resisted efforts to encourage Japanese companies to take a similar path and insists that all claims were settled under the terms of the San Francisco Peace Treaty.<br /><br />Kotler also noted that Tokyo’s position was contrary to that of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who in September began advocating “human dignity” as a key principle alongside the “rule of law” in Japanese foreign policy.</div><div><br />“Here is an opportunity for Nippon Steel to do the right thing, to live up to its current corporate principles and Japan’s new efforts to ask its companies to engage in responsible business conduct by respecting human rights,” Kotler said.<br /><br />“Maybe the company will finally acknowledge its use of American and Allied POW slave labour.”<br /><br />----<br /><i>Julian Ryall never expected to still be in Japan 24 years after he first arrived, but he quickly realised its advantages over his native London. He lives in Yokohama with his wife and children and writes for publications around the world.<br />Japan</i></div></div></div></div></div></div>Asia Policy Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784292872823996552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9026256712239783281.post-42417705517331574262024-01-14T16:24:00.000-05:002024-01-14T16:24:52.180-05:00January 9, 1945 and The Smothers' Brothers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk__ijuKuDi9PulOamchD5vhJ6dSDvJ2YfwdlE6-yg4q3T-tgSe3BMn1TVMLg47ZP4QDKVkuTxGpYJQUbN_FAXE70Inc1jfTq8a6WsohO7KOq5CiArzLBOzQniZ9cbQcFWZghcUX8ulpl4K_DKHZ5OpPkgt4gpCpQ9TCRlNZF97Tr6gFu9yB_EmhKjNA-D/s391/Thomas%20Smothers%20USMC.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="391" data-original-width="250" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk__ijuKuDi9PulOamchD5vhJ6dSDvJ2YfwdlE6-yg4q3T-tgSe3BMn1TVMLg47ZP4QDKVkuTxGpYJQUbN_FAXE70Inc1jfTq8a6WsohO7KOq5CiArzLBOzQniZ9cbQcFWZghcUX8ulpl4K_DKHZ5OpPkgt4gpCpQ9TCRlNZF97Tr6gFu9yB_EmhKjNA-D/s320/Thomas%20Smothers%20USMC.jpeg" width="205" /></a></div>Pacific War historians usually remember January 9th, for General Douglas MacArthur's 1945 return to the main island of the Philippines, Luzon. In October 1944, the liberation of the Japanese-occupied archipelago had begun with the Battle of Leyte. On January 9th, the campaign moved to Luzon's Lingayen Gulf with 60,000 American troops landing to cheering Filipinos.<div><br />The last time MacArthur walked on Luzon was January 10, 1942. It was his one and only visit to the front on the Bataan Peninsula from his command center on the island of Corregidor. It is possible that this one day was chosen as the Bataan battlefield would have been relatively safe. Just days before, Japan's experienced 14th Army 48th Division (15,000 men) on Bataan had been transferred to the Dutch East Indies and replaced with the untrained reservists of the IJA's 65th Brigade (6,600 men).<br /><br /><b>Task Force 38</b><br />As MacArthur planned his return, Adm William Halsey's Third Fleet was tasked with disrupting Japanese shipping in the South China Sea, especially the Empire's resupply of the Philippines. Led by Vice Admiral John S McCain (yes, the grandfather of Senator McCain) Task Force 38 attacked Japanese shipping and air fields throughout the region. Historians call the Task Force's January 1945 operations a "rampage" toward Formosa, Luzon, and Indochina. By the time the Task Force exited the shipping lanes of the South China Sea, over 300,000 tons of enemy shipping and dozens of Japanese warships had been sunk. With follow-up air strikes against Japanese harbors and airfields in Formosa and the Ryukyu Islands, the success of the sweep was unprecedented.<br /><br />This "carrier rampage" had dire consequences for the American POWs. It was on January 9th, that the Enoura Maru, a hell ship carrying 1,070 POWs from the Philippines, was bombed by planes off the USS Hornet (CV-12). The ship carrying mainly the last officers held in the Philippines was docked in Takao Harbor, Formosa and moored next to a tanker. One-third of the POWs onboard were killed or wounded. The survivors were put aboard the Brazil Maru on January 14 and transported north to the port of Moji, Japan. Only 600 or so survived the 16-day trip. <a href="http://www.powtaiwan.org/archives_detail.php?THE-STORY-OF-THE-BOMBING-OF-THE-ENOURA-MARU-17">MORE ON THE ENOURA MARU</a><br /><br /><b>Major Thomas Smothers</b><br />One of those survivors in Moji, Japan was Major Thomas Smothers, the father of the Smothers brothers. Major Smothers was CO of the 3rd Battalion of the 45th Infantry Regiment, Philippine Scouts. Major Smothers survived the Battle of Bataan and the Bataan Death March. It is possible he was among a number of 45th Inf. officers to have made the journey to the POW death <a href="http://www.mansell.com/lindavdahl/omuta17/odonnell_cabanatuan.html">Camp O'Donnell</a> by truck. He then endured harsh captivity for nearly three years in <a href="http://www.mansell.com/pow_resources/camplists/philippines/Cabanatuan/schwarz_jack_l_affidavit.html">Cabanatuan</a>, a POW camp in the Philippines. <br /><br />On 13 December 1944, he was among 1621 prisoners, the majority officers, who were marched from Bilibid Prison to Pier 7, Manila. At dusk, they were herded aboard the <a href="http://www.oryokumaruonline.org/index2.html"><i>Oryoku Maru</i></a>, divided into three groups, and forced down into three dark holds. What followed was probably <a href="http://www.mansell.com/pow_resources/camplists/philippines/Cabanatuan/schwarz_jack_l_affidavit.html">the most infamous of the Hell Ship voyages</a>. American bombers off the USS <i>Hornet</i> and USS <i>Cabot</i> sank the <i>Oryoku Maru</i> barely out of Manila near Subic Bay. Nearly 200 POWs died. The survivors were kept for five tortuous days on an abandoned tennis court, exposed to the tropical sun with little water, food or medical care .<br /><br />On December 27, the men were packed aboard two freighters, the <i>Enoura Maru</i> and <i>Brazil Maru</i> to Formosa. The ship's holds were not cleaned of its previous cargo, horses and other livestock. Men picked through the animal waste looking for oats to eat. Although they arrived in Takao, Formosa on New Year's Day, they were not allowed to disembark, On January 9, planes from the USS <i>Hornet</i> again bombed the hellships. The <i>Enoura Maru</i> with Major Smothers aboard took direct hits. Days passed before the Japanese remove the dead or help the wounded. Four hundred or so were buried in shallow graves near the harbor's shore.<br /><br />Badly wounded and suffering from the cold, starvation, and lack of medical care, Major Smothers was eventually taken to a Fukuoka #22 POW Camp administered by Sumitomo Mining to provide slave labor for one of its coal mines (the company is now part of Nippon Steel). At the Sumitomo camp medical care was poor or nonexistent during the historically cold winter of 1944/5.<br /><br />On April 25, 1945, he was transported by stretcher from <a href="http://www.mansell.com/pow_resources/camplists/fukuoka/fuk-22-honami/fuku_22_honami_main.htm">Fukuoka #22</a> to the Fukuoka City docks (Moji) for transport to Fusan, Korea [today's Busan, South Korea], and then on to Mukden, China. Some speculate that the Japanese were consolidating the American officers at Mukden to use as hostages. Smothers perished that night on the dock.<br /><br />According to an oral history by British Lt. Geoffrey Pharoah Adams (<a href="https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80005870">available online through the Imperial War Museum</a>. See Reel #11 with the key part of the story beginning at about 10 min 40 sec.), on April 25, 1945, he and a group of POWs were put aboard a ferry, but taken off around midnight after an air raid alarm. Adams and some 15 other comparatively healthy officers were tasked with taking off the ferry the American stretcher cases. Adams and his friend, British Lt. John Vincent Bowen, took an American Major (Smothers) off the ship. They and two of their friends from <a href="http://www.mansell.com/pow_resources/camplists/fukuoka/Fuku_17/fukuoka17.htm">Fukuoka Camp #17</a> (Mitsui's Omuta coal mine), Americans Lt. Charles P. Christie, and 2nd Lt John Allen, who were also stretcher bearers, decided to stick together. "We carried the man off who was a Major, so emaciated and thin." Since they were the last off the ship the other prisoners were out of sight.<br /><br />Those carrying the stretcher cases were told to lay down on the concrete beside the walls of a warehouse. It was very cold. The Major on the stretcher had a blanket over him. Because he said he felt so cold, the four men (Adams, Bowen, Christie, and Allen) laid down all around him, one on either side, one on the top, one across the bottom. "During the course of the night he died." "He just expired from hypothermia, from despair...I don't know, but he died anyway."<br /><br />The next morning there was a bit of a row, because the man had died and upset the roll call figures. "We were ordered to take the dead man with us." "The Japan Japanese had handed us over to the new Japanese and we had to have the right count aboard the ferry. So we carried the poor Major back on board with us." The ship set sail. "Some of these people who had been sunk and who had had these terrible trials were hysterical." (<a href="https://clemson.world/archive/the-long-walk/">Col. Ben Skardon</a>, Clemson University alumnus and professor, corroborated this detail about the men being hysterical). After the ferry arrived at Pusan, Korea, "We got off the ship. We still had to take our stretcher with the Major off." Shortly, after roll call, they were told to leave him on the dock. Smothers had been assigned the Mukden POW Camp number of 2006 and appeared on the Mukden death roster with that number. There is no record indicating that his body ever left Fusan, Korea.<br /><br />USS <i>Hornet</i> (CV-12) was awarded a Presidential Unit Citation for the its operations: January 3 – January 22, 1945 — Philippines, Formosa, China Sea, Ryukyu<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>###</b></div><br />You can read more about the Task Force 38 campaign in the new (February 28, 2023) book, <a href="https://amzn.to/48mHKYC">South China Sea 1945: Task Force 38's bold carrier rampage in Formosa, Luzon, and Indochina (Air Campaign, 36)</a> by Mark Lardas (Author), Irene Cano Rodríguez 96 pages. <br /><br />See <a href="https://afatherswarstorynevertold.wordpress.com/tag/formosa/">HERE </a>for an interesting diary account of the USS <i>Hornet</i> during January 1945. An official Navy history is <a href="https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/BBBO/BBBO-23.html">HERE</a>.</div>Asia Policy Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784292872823996552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9026256712239783281.post-82868675226434901402023-12-24T23:04:00.000-05:002023-12-24T23:04:09.503-05:00Who Bombed Pearl Harbor<div><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0PSoQsp3Dj5wfPEAG2dJlJ-SBGKz0AILRIYucVHLzg6VP2Di_I2KVrnyc5UiKQPYHT2uvD7glY_sCbJiiX_SVAXKVJlCvU22cwjR0qApaUR0tixERdKEXYQkGVrRHL_1yv-SEsYkojX7RySqx-hRH8AYm4AzZdXnRt9BJg5cjHrm7_AbMm7xxXFB6NsLA/s1200/pearl%20h.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1200" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0PSoQsp3Dj5wfPEAG2dJlJ-SBGKz0AILRIYucVHLzg6VP2Di_I2KVrnyc5UiKQPYHT2uvD7glY_sCbJiiX_SVAXKVJlCvU22cwjR0qApaUR0tixERdKEXYQkGVrRHL_1yv-SEsYkojX7RySqx-hRH8AYm4AzZdXnRt9BJg5cjHrm7_AbMm7xxXFB6NsLA/s320/pearl%20h.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>O</span></b>n December 8, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave his famous <a href="https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2001/winter/crafting-day-of-infamy-speech.html">"day in infamy" speech</a> describing Imperial Japan's "dastardly attack" on Pearl Harbor and condemning Tokyo's "surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area." <br /><br />Immediately following the speech, the U.S. Senate declared war on Japan. A state of war with Germany was declared December 11, hours after Germany had declared war on the United States.<br /><br />There was no official, national remembrance of the tragedy at Pearl Harbor until 1994. The 103rd Congress passed a joint resolution in 1994 designating December 7, 1993, as "National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day." President Bill Clinton signed it into law (<a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/103rd-congress/house-joint-resolution/131/actions">Public Law 103-308</a>) on August 23rd. The law states: December 7 of each year is designated as "National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day" and the President is authorized and requested— (1) to issue annually a proclamation calling on the people of the United States to observe the day with appropriate ceremonies and activities; and (2) to urge all Federal agencies, and interested organizations, groups, and individuals, to fly the flag of the United States at halfstaff" each December 7 in honor of the individuals who died as a result of their service at Pearl Harbor.<br /><br />Historians will wonder why the law identifies the nonexistent Japanese "Air Force" as the aggressor and is not specific about the number of casualties at Pearl Harbor. At the time, Japan did not have an independent Air Force. It was the <i>Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service</i> that attacked Hawaii. In addition, unlike in President Roosevelt's speech, there is no mention of Japan's other lightning strikes throughout the Pacific on December 7th. These attacks famously destroyed the American Asiatic Fleet and the Army's Far East Air Force while cutting off U.S. outposts in the Pacific from the mainland and resuplly.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>The Proclamations</b><br />The <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-1994-12-01/html/94-29743.htm">first proclamation was issued by President Clinton on November 29, 1994</a>, 53 years after the Pearl Harbor attack. His 1994 proclamation, as all that followed, did little to enlighten Americans about the day's history. Notably, it began the "tradition" of not identifying who "attacked" U.S. Forces in Hawaii that day. All that we learn is that the attack "involved America in a worldwide battle against the forces of fascism and oppression."<br /><br />In an examination of the 30 Pearl Harbor Presidential proclamations made since 1994, 11 have no mention of Japan. In other words, the "enemy" who attacked the American territory is not identified. It could have been any of the Axis powers. Thailand had a modern, able air force, albeit no aircraft carriers.<br /><br />President George W. Bush (43) recognized Japan in only two of his eight Pearl Harbor Day commemorative statements. His administration had a close relationship with Japan and notably squashed a joint congressional resolution remembering the 60th anniversary of the end of WWII and the defeat of Japan. President Biden, who lost his uncle and a cousin to the Japanese, has mentioned Japan in only one of his three statements. Here is the link to <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2023/12/06/a-proclamation-on-national-pearl-harbor-remembrance-day-2023/">this year's Proclamation</a>. (I have a memo outlining all 30 statements. If interested, <a href="mailto:mkotler@jiaponline.org">email me</a>.)<br /><br />California <a href="https://www.gov.ca.gov/2023/12/07/governor-newsom-proclaims-pearl-harbor-remembrance-day-2023/">Governor Gavin Newson's 2023 Pearl Harbor Day proclamation</a> clearly mentions Japan. His grandfather, Arthur Menzies, was a soldier on Corregidor with the 60th Coast Artillery Regiment (AntiAircraft) K Battery and endured a hellship and nearly four years in Japanese POW Camps. He was not on the Bataan Death March as some reports say. Sadly, while experiencing a flashback in 1973, he threatened to kill Newsom's mother and her twin sister. When he realized that they were not Japanese prison guards, he turned the gun on himself. <br /><br /><b>Missing</b><br />I have not found any member of congress, even members of the Veterans Affairs Committees in the House and Senate who have publicly remembered Pearl Harbor Day. If you find one, please tell me.<br /><br />Also missing in the proclamations is mention of all the other attacks Japan made that day throughout the Pacific, especially against the American territories of Wake Island, Guam, Midway, and Howland Island. I leave to my loyal readers to figure out how many other Americans died that day in battle (tell me if you run the numbers). President Roosevelt, in contrast, was quite clear in his speech to Congress that December 7th was a day of multiple Japanese attacks in the Asia-Pacific (territories in continental Asia were bombed as well as islands in the Pacific).<br /><br />To be sure, Pearl Harbor saw the greatest number of casualties and <a href="https://www.cmohs.org/recipients/lists/pearl-harbor-day-recipients">Medal of Honor (MoH) </a>honorees among the American territories in the Pacific attacked that day. For their actions during the attack on Pearl Harbor, 15 sailors in the U.S. Navy (from seven ships and one Naval Air Station) and 1 Marine were awarded Medals of Honor. The 16 recipients held a wide range of ranks, from seaman to rear admiral. Eleven (69%) received their awards posthumously. <br /><br />The first Marine to receive the Medal of Honor during World War II was killed on Midway, December 7, 1941. <a href="https://www.pacificwarmuseum.org/about/news/the-pacific-medals-of-honor-the-other-battle-of-midway-first-lieutenant-george-h-cannon-u-s-marine-corps">First Lieutenant George H. Cannon</a>, USMC, from Michigan, remained at his post until all of his wounded men were evacuated, though severely wounded himself. His selfless action and concern for his men was an inspiration.<br /><br />When war began, the American Embassy rushed to burn documents before the Kempeitai arrested and interned them. Niles W. Bond was a consular officer in Yokohama, Japan from 1940-1942 and was there during the attack on Pearl Harbor. <a href="https://adst.org/2013/11/a-day-that-will-live-in-infamy/">His accounts of the time make interesting reading</a>.</div>Asia Policy Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784292872823996552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9026256712239783281.post-59103783497801058392023-12-19T17:24:00.000-05:002023-12-19T17:24:50.279-05:00December 14, 1944, Palawan Massacre<span style="font-family: georgia;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi59oLW0L1PxQ346XsGJJo7Arly3L_4l87CuH4JswxOS3kJAu5TFQi97GtRC43P90eUFgxaHf_EAi02X_lrLvi__ulrB-pEO2v73HSBQBUKny047jT404GomCqVHbhwW9hhKKrFLez7_HZpTBb4CdqgX82xIEYLNravSloYq7Dd-COnRyRfSlI3CI6FyMdg/s900/1589357873Palawan-Massacre-Victims-Monument-in-Plaza-Cuartel-600x900.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi59oLW0L1PxQ346XsGJJo7Arly3L_4l87CuH4JswxOS3kJAu5TFQi97GtRC43P90eUFgxaHf_EAi02X_lrLvi__ulrB-pEO2v73HSBQBUKny047jT404GomCqVHbhwW9hhKKrFLez7_HZpTBb4CdqgX82xIEYLNravSloYq7Dd-COnRyRfSlI3CI6FyMdg/s320/1589357873Palawan-Massacre-Victims-Monument-in-Plaza-Cuartel-600x900.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times; text-align: start;"><a href="https://www.uswarmemorials.org/html/monument_details.php?SiteID=1423&MemID=1876" target="_blank">Plaza Cuartel Park <br />main square next to <br />the Palawan Survivors <br />Memorial (POW Camp 10A).<br />Palawan</a></span></td></tr></tbody></table><b><span style="font-size: medium;">I</span></b>t was not rain that dampened their skin. It was airplane fuel. Buckets of it were tossed on the 150 emaciated POWs hunched down in narrow air raid trenches. The Japanese guards quickly followed with torches to light the men on fire.<br /><br />The trench with the officers was the first to be set ablaze. The POWs in two other trenches tried to escape. But if grenades did not stop them, then the machine guns that had been positioned outside did. Wounded survivors were tortured by having their fingers and toes set afire. Their begging to be shot provoked more laughter from their tormentors.<br /><br />If a man somehow made it past all the attacks, he was hunted down and killed. Of the 30-some who tried to escape the conflagration, <a href="https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/survival-resistance-and-escape-palawan">only 11 actually were able to swim across the bay to be rescued by Filipino guerillas</a>.<br /><br />Such was the December 14th afternoon at Puerto Princesa, on the Philippine island of Palawan facing the South China Sea. The POWs had been there since August 1942. They were Marines, soldiers, tankers, and airmen captured months before when Bataan and Corregidor fell.<br /><br />With only hand tools and one wheelbarrow they cleared the jungle and broke up the coral to build an airfield for the Imperial Japanese Army. Today, the airstrip they constructed rests below the Antonio Bautista Air Base, an important anchor of the U.S.-Philippines alliance and focal point for joint maneuvers with Japan.<br /><br />It may be by coincidence that the Japanese selected December 14th to murder the POWs. And maybe not. For on <a href="https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/december-14">December 14, 1799, George Washington died</a> at his Mt. Vernon home after five decades of service to his country.<br /> <br />To learn more about the <a href="https://www.historynet.com/american-prisoners-of-war-massacre-at-palawan/">Palawan Massacr</a>e read <i><a href="https://amzn.to/4an445E">Last Man Out</a> </i>or <a href="https://amzn.to/3GGxT3w"><i>As Good as Dead</i></a>.<br /><br />Most important, please leave a tribute or a flower at the Find A Grave site for the Palawan Massacre. Most of the men are buried in a mass grave at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in Missouri. <a href="https://www.findagrave.com/virtual-cemetery/1304391" target="_blank">Click here for the virtual memorial</a>.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Never Forget</i></span></span><br />Asia Policy Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784292872823996552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9026256712239783281.post-69545235417341320342023-09-10T17:19:00.000-04:002023-09-10T17:19:05.214-04:00EVENTS OF INTEREST TO THE POW/MIA COMMUNITY<div class="separator"><div style="background-color: white; clear: right; color: #222222; float: right; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><div><br /></div><div><img alt="POW-MIA_flag.jpg" class="CToWUd" data-bit="iit" data-image-whitelisted="" height="191" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0?ui=2&ik=65e44ae9ab&attid=0.1&permmsgid=msg-a:r-6073077532849930392&th=18a7a7eb96f2f8be&view=fimg&fur=ip&sz=s0-l75-ft&attbid=ANGjdJ_YCMzfP1Zb4Hr6x23ceOXa2ClOMBniMu9E4gavKvKfUKz9joT4oJiUTZFPhv0qYlkRm5AqWIJ85Cu3bsBdDgKNUdhCoIfT1vHfUW7bfBM7uXDO21-Z1dSmYoE&disp=emb&realattid=ii_lmb507q50" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="320" /><b style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;"><span style="color: red;"><span class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></b></div></div><div style="background-color: white; clear: right; color: #222222; float: right; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><b style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><u>3</u></span></span></b></div></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;"><span style="color: red;"><span><u><span class="gmail_default">Do </span>not forget National POW/MIA</u></span></span></b><b style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;"><span style="color: red;"><span><u> Recognition Day Friday, September 15, 202</u></span></span></b></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: red; font-family: times new roman, serif; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: red; font-family: times new roman, serif; font-size: medium;"><b>Annually, the Secretary of Defense holds a ceremony at the Pentagon remembering POW/MIAs. Rarely do members of Congress attend (they are all invited and they all have a POW/MIA flag planted at their office doors on the Hill.). Thus, ask your congressperson and senators to join the Friday ceremony at </b></span><span style="color: red; font-family: times new roman, serif; font-size: medium;"><b>10:00am on the River Terrace Parade Field at The Pentagon.<span class="gmail_default"> The ceremony will be broadcast live on the <a href="https://www.defense.gov/News/Live-events/" target="_blank">Defense Department website</a>.</span></b></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: red; font-family: times new roman, serif; font-size: medium;"><b><span class="gmail_default"><br /></span></b></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT6QqxxVDIl-rcLFBg_M4GvEjrDvX9Gg9Xiyu-ITYXl5D9K2mQ0D4bVfu8Kya17qYWjWWGsy3Am5iKHD6Z22sZ43B25z3-UmnHSb9xko6c3l_TKVh6-kYlRjtbO6eexTopW--UVLGCGhb1GADgEqKfljagP87SyZu2a3lQU_KBg0YnZOM5f5gATTo5sVVJ/s7560/POWMIA%20Day%20poster%202023.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="7560" data-original-width="5040" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT6QqxxVDIl-rcLFBg_M4GvEjrDvX9Gg9Xiyu-ITYXl5D9K2mQ0D4bVfu8Kya17qYWjWWGsy3Am5iKHD6Z22sZ43B25z3-UmnHSb9xko6c3l_TKVh6-kYlRjtbO6eexTopW--UVLGCGhb1GADgEqKfljagP87SyZu2a3lQU_KBg0YnZOM5f5gATTo5sVVJ/w133-h200/POWMIA%20Day%20poster%202023.jpeg" width="133" /></a></div><span style="color: red; font-family: times new roman, serif; font-size: medium;"><b><span class="gmail_default"><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: red; font-family: times new roman, serif; font-size: medium;"><b><span class="gmail_default"><br /></span></b></span></div>The <a href="https://www.defense.gov/Spotlights/National-Pow-Mia-Recognition-Day/" target="_blank">Defense Department POW/MIA Recognition Day Website</a> highlights recovery stories and you can download from the site the annual Recognition Day Poster poster.</span></b></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: red; font-family: times new roman, serif; font-size: medium;"><b><span class="gmail_default"><br /></span></b></span></div>For past POW/MIA Posters and to order free copies of this year's poster <a href="https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaFamWebPosters" target="_blank">see here on the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) website</a>. The DPAA also has <a href="https://www.dpaa.mil/Portals/85/Documents/POW-MIA%20Recognition%20Day/2023%20POWMIA%20Day%20Toolkit.pdf?ver=sV_zuIAWMMShpKtDCfk15Q%3d%3d" target="_blank">National POW/MIA Recognition Day 9-page Tool Kit</a> to help you conduct a meaningful memorial ceremony for POW/MIAs.<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: red; font-family: times new roman, serif; font-size: medium;"><b><br /><span class="gmail_default"><br /></span></b></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: red; font-family: times new roman, serif; font-size: medium;"><b><span class="gmail_default"><br /></span></b></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: red; font-family: times new roman, serif; font-size: medium;"><b><span class="gmail_default"><u>EVENTS OF INTEREST</u></span></b></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><div><p style="background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><br /></p><p style="background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span face="arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;"><b><span style="color: #242424;">><a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1898-us-imperial-visions-and-revisions-symposium-tickets-676842493117?aff=oddtdtcreator" target="_blank">1898: U.S. IMPERIAL VISIONS AND REVISIONS SYMPOSIUM</a>. 9/8-9</span></b><span style="color: #242424;">. </span><span style="color: black;">Join the National Portrait Gallery on September 8 and 9 for the 2023 Edgar P. Richardson Symposium, organized around the landmark exhibition <i>1898: U.S. Imperial Visions and Revisions</i>, the Smithsonian's first major exhibition on U.S. imperialism and the pivotal conflicts of 1898. The symposium will convene over 40 scholars and artists from Cuba, Guam, Hawai‘i, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States for two days of panels, roundtables and gallery talks, and a keynote address by 2022 Pulitzer Prize Winner Ada Ferrer. The keynote address will take place Friday, September 8 at 5pm, and will be followed by an audience Q&A and public reception.</span><span style="color: #6f7287;"> The Museum's <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoiUVJmnCbmBt5lUJvJdT6syGdthFbbN8" target="_blank">Portal Website</a> will soon post the conference.</span></span></p></div><span face="arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span face="arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;"><b><span class="gmail_default">></span><a href="https://navymemorial.swoogo.com/sitrep-0923" target="_blank">MASTER CHIEF PETTY OFFICER OF THE NAVY, JAMES M. HONEA</a>. 9/12</b>, 1:00pm (EDT), ONLINE. Sponsor: US Navy Memorial. Speaker: James M. Honea, Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy.<span class="gmail_default"> </span><span style="color: black;"><span class="gmail_default">Discusses the Navy's recent Three </span>Calls to Actio<span class="gmail_default">n:</span> <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">1) Warfighting Competency, 2) Professional and Personal Development, and 3) Quality of Life.<span class="gmail_default"> </span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span face="arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;"><b><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">></span><a href="https://loudouncountypubliclibrary.evanced.info/signup/EventDetails?EventId=103316&backTo=Calendar&startDate=2023/09/01" target="_blank">THE USS <i>HOUSTON</i>: A SURVIVAL STORY. 9/14</a></b>, 7:00-8:00pm (EDT), IN PERSON ONLY. Sponsor: Loudoun County Public Library. Speaker: John K. Schwarz, Executive Director<span class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">, </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span face="arial, sans-serif"> <span class="gmail_default">USS <i>Houston</i> </span></span>(CA-30) Survivors’ Association and Next<span class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;"> </span>Generations®.</span><span face="arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span face="arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;"> <br /><b><i><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">></span><a href="https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_uXdGOjN3SqCYPRy5LV-qGw" target="_blank">ROAD TO SURRENDER </a></i><a href="https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_uXdGOjN3SqCYPRy5LV-qGw" target="_blank">WITH EVAN THOMAS</a><i>. 9/14</i></b>, Noon (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: Alexander Hamilton Society. Speaker: author Evan Thomas, writer, correspondent, and editor for 33 years at <i>Time</i> and <i>Newsweek</i>. <br /><b><a href="https://amzn.to/44Noktb" target="_blank">PURCHASE BOOK</a></b> <br /> <br /><b><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">></span><a href="https://www.wwiimemorialfriends.org/monthly-conference-series " target="_blank">VIRTUAL CONFERENCE ON WORLD WAR II</a>. 9/16,</b>10:00am-1:00pm (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: Friends of the National World War II Memorial. Speakers: “<i><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://amzn.to/3sNayd7&source=gmail&ust=1694463758904000&usg=AOvVaw37AOTproLXUHPyg2FouU3u" href="https://amzn.to/3sNayd7" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">The Partnership: George Marshall, Henry Stimson, and the Extraordinary Collaboration That Won World War II</a><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">"</span><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;"></span></i>with author Edward Aldrich; “A Woman's View of the Pacific Ocean Theater” with Lorissa Rinehart who writes about women, art, war, and their points of intersection and is author of <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://amzn.to/3RvOZbl&source=gmail&ust=1694463758904000&usg=AOvVaw3mRJ5tXZO8Fh8r6uQr9yy6" href="https://amzn.to/3RvOZbl" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">First to the Front: The Untold Story of Dickey Chapelle, Trailblazing Female War Correspondent</a>; and “The Merchant Marine in WWII” with Dave Yoho served in World War II in the Merchant Marine and later built a highly successful career as an entrepreneur and business leader. Moderator: best-selling author and Friends’ Resident Historian Alex Kershaw.<span class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;"> </span></span><span face="arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;"><br /><br /><b><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">></span><a href="https://www.pacificwarmuseum.org/event/2023-admiral-nimitz-symposium" target="_blank">OCCUPATION: THE LEGACY OF THE ASIATIC PACIFIC WAR</a>. 9/16</b>, 9:00am-5:00pm (CDT), In person and online. Sponsor: <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.pacificwarmuseum.org/about/admiral-nimitz-foundation&source=gmail&ust=1694463758904000&usg=AOvVaw0m9hJurgJ2z5xkJd55K5fm" href="https://www.pacificwarmuseum.org/about/admiral-nimitz-foundation" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">The Admiral Nimitz Foundation</a>. Speakers: Richard B. Frank, internationally recognized leading authority on the Asia-Pacific War; Dr. Xiaobing Li, professor of the Department of History and Geography and the Don Betz Endowed Chair in International Studies at the University of Central Oklahoma (UCO); Ricardo Trota Jose, professor of history at the University of the Philippines, Diliman; Mindy L. Kotler is founder and director of Asia Policy Point. Special guest, Marie Vallejo, author of Dauntless, a book about the First and Second Filipino Regiments. <br /><br /><b><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">>. </span><a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/war-crimes-from-wwii-until-today-tickets-636013321967" target="_blank">WAR CRIMES - FROM WWII UNTIL TODAY: 6TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON WWII IN THE PHILIPPINES</a>. 9/23</b>, 10:00am-4:00pm (PDT), In person, Facebook Live. Sponsor: <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.bataanlegacy.org/&source=gmail&ust=1694463758904000&usg=AOvVaw2kBtonhGiGl7y3P9TJPIk6" href="http://www.bataanlegacy.org/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Bataan Legacy Historical Societ</a>y in partnership with the University of San Francisco's Philippine Studies Program, Memorare Manila 1945 and USF Kasamahan. Speakers: James Zarsadiaz, Director, Philippine Studies Program, University of San Francisco; Prof. Mark Hull, Professor of War Crimes, U.S. Army Command & General Staff College, Ft. Leavenworth; Philippine Consul General in San Francisco Neil F. Ferrer; Father Paul Fitzgerald, S.J., President, University of San Francisco; Benjamin Hall, Fox News State Department Correspondent, Eyewitness to War Crimes Today (Via Zoom); Jose Custodio, Fellow, Consortium of Indo Pacific Researchers; Christopher Capozzola, Professor of History, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Richard Frank, Pacific War historian, author, <i><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://amzn.to/3DZY4Rr&source=gmail&ust=1694463758904000&usg=AOvVaw271wis2IxvSw6WjIcRYj7u" href="https://amzn.to/3DZY4Rr" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Tower of Skulls</a></i>; Marie Vallejo, author of Dauntless, a book about the First and Second Filipino Regiments; Kate LaFerriere, daughter of Frank Innis, former civilian POW in Los Banos; Cynthia Bonta, survivor of the Los Baños massacre, mother of California Attorney General Rob Bonta; and Richard Foye, author of <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://amzn.to/44h40QK&source=gmail&ust=1694463758904000&usg=AOvVaw11M0XuLWkDCyEmE2L-kbZM" href="https://amzn.to/44h40QK" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Foye And The Filipinos Bailout, Escape, And Rescue Of A Navy Fighter Pilot In World War Two Luzon</a>, is the son of Ensign William Foye, an F6F Hellcat Pilot and a member of the Air Group Twenty assigned to the USS <i>Enterprise</i> (CV6). <br /><br /><b><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">></span><a href="https://careercatalyst.asu.edu/programs/WWII-air-war-pacific-theater/" target="_blank">WWII: AIR WAR, THE PACIFIC THEATER: ONLINE CONTINUING EDUCATION COURSE. September 4–November 6</a></b>, ONLINE. Sponsor: National WWII Museum and Arizona State University. Speaker: John Curatola, PhD, Military Historian at the Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War and Democracy. <br /><br /></span><span id="m_-3440782013193637481m_-5743807036025768924m_1928672446132200969m_7399415947482926191m_6894168614945983658m_-8429553442034601008gmail-docs-internal-guid-3838bd7b-7fff-3440-8735-d9c82bd51983"><span face="arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="gmail_default">></span><a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/exhibit-opening-the-price-of-unpreparedness-tickets-698608766627" target="_blank">EXHIBIT OPENING: THE PRICE OF UNPREPAREDNESS: POWS IN THE PHILIPPINES DURING WORLD WAR II</a>. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">9/30, 10:00-11:30am (EDT), IN PERSON ONLY*. Sponsor: MacArthur Memorial. Speakers: Dr. Frank Blazich, Jr., Curator of Modern Military History at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History and author of </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://amzn.to/3ZcdQ5r&source=gmail&ust=1694463758904000&usg=AOvVaw3l7xD2CD0KinYiawm6_KHR" href="https://amzn.to/3ZcdQ5r" style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Bataan Survivor: A POW’s Account of Japanese Captivity in World War II</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">; Mary McKay Maynard, she and her family spent two years hiding from occupying Japanese forces in the jungles of Mindanao before being rescued by the USS Narwhal as chronicled in </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://amzn.to/44MkxN5&source=gmail&ust=1694463758904000&usg=AOvVaw20mZbNLFo2xh12TswidYJl" href="https://amzn.to/44MkxN5" style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">My Faraway Home: An American Family’s WWII Tale of Adventure and Survival</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">; and </span></span><span face="arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">MacArthur Memorial Archivist James Zobel</span><span face="arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: #fff7fa; color: #4b4d63; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> *</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline;">For the virtual option </span><span style="background-color: #f8f7fa; color: #39364f; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline;">Email</span><span style="background-color: #f8f7fa; color: #39364f; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><a href="mailto:macarthureducation@norfolk.gov" style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: #f8f7fa; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">macarthureducation@norfolk.gov</span></a><span style="background-color: #f8f7fa; color: #39364f; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><wbr></wbr> and ask to be added to the post-event email list. This list will be used to send a one-time email with a link to the digital exhibit guide and a recording of the exhibit opening event.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span face="Roboto, sans-serif" style="color: #39364f;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></span><b style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">></span><a href="https://www.press.org/newsroom/va-secretary-denis-mcdonough-address-headliners-luncheon-nov-6" target="_blank">VETERANS AFFAIRS SECRETARY DENIS MCDONOUGH</a>. 11/6,</b><span face="arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;"> 12:30-2:00pm (EDT), IN PERSON (LUNCH AND FEE) AND ON C-SPAN. Sponsor: National Press Club. Speaker: Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough delivers an update on the state of America's veterans and their families, and on the implementation of the PACT Act.</span><br /></p></div>Asia Policy Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784292872823996552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9026256712239783281.post-6620486048420979242023-08-19T10:52:00.000-04:002023-08-19T10:52:46.688-04:00August 15th and Beyond<p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">On August 15, 78 years ago, Japan's </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/ahf/key-documents/jewel-voice-broadcast/&source=gmail&ust=1692377824025000&usg=AOvVaw2dhXXVUi6mks3MJ8FJ1c_Y" href="https://ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/ahf/key-documents/jewel-voice-broadcast/" style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Emperor <span class="gmail_default"></span>Hirohito broadcast to his subjects</a><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> "that our empire accepts the provisions of their [the Allies] Joint Declaration [of the Powers, </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/ahf/key-documents/potsdam-declaration/&source=gmail&ust=1692377824025000&usg=AOvVaw2jhZd8DDKSCSJiQWEYk97v" href="https://ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/ahf/key-documents/potsdam-declaration/" style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Potsdam Declaration</a><span class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">]</span></b><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><b>." </b>The fighting was to stop. Whether</span><span class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> </span><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">he believed this was</span><span class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> </span><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">a surrender or not, is still subject to debate. </span><span class="gmail_default" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span></span>What the Japanese people heard that day was a recording of his statement made the night before. The Emperor's voice maintained its divine distance from his subjects a</span><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">s he explained "the war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan’s advantage, while the general trends of the world have all turned against her interest."</span><span class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> </span><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">He concluded by asking the nation "to pave the way for a grand peace for all the generations to come by enduring the unendurable and suffering what is insufferable."</span></span></p><div style="background-color: white;"><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Memories have faded and most Americans are surprised to learn that Japan was an enemy during WWII. One result of this fugue is that governments East and West find little opposition to their rewriting of WWII history and its aftermath. Generally, this has not been for the better and always for personal political gain. Worse, Washington counts many of these countries as allies and remains silent.</div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These revisionist histories have undermined the<span class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;"> </span>values that have shaped the postwar "liberal democratic order." Authoritarian regimes now erode individual freedoms, human rights, and humanitarian cooperation. Glorifying strongmen, dismissing war atrocities, identifying perpetrators now as victims, and co-opting the victor's history as one's own is upending the legacy and lessons of WWII.<span class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;"> </span><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;"></span>A new "glorious history" is being promulgated in Poland, Hungary, China, Japan and other places. Unashamedly, the Polish government claims that Poles were uninvolved with the persecution of Jews and a Japanese diplomat praises the "Bushido Spirit" of the famed Japanese American 442nd Regimental Combat Team to their sons.</div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default"><b>Thus, it is welcome that this fall there are a number of seminars and conferences examining the immediate postwar period<span style="font-family: times new roman, serif;">. </span></b></div><div class="gmail_default"><br /></div>In Japan, the revisionist, denialist history has become normalized by two decades of conservative nationalist governments. Western Alliance Managers consequently do not recognize that nationalist populism has consumed the body politic and they have concluded incorrectly that Japan is "stable" and "unscathed from the populist wave" around the world. Little attention is given to how Japan's official war apology has been diminished, voting districts are unconstitutional, or to Japan's well-funded history disinformation campaign.<span class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;"> </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="color: #222222;">Prime Minister Kishida's </span></span><i style="color: #222222;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://japan.kantei.go.jp/101_kishida/statement/202308/15shikiji.html&source=gmail&ust=1692377824025000&usg=AOvVaw15f6BFuOPiO9Zcw7p_DGzY" href="https://japan.kantei.go.jp/101_kishida/statement/202308/15shikiji.html" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: arial;">address at the Seventy-Eighth National Memorial Ceremony for the War</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial;">Dead</span></a></i><span style="font-family: arial;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"> </span><span style="color: #222222;"><span class="gmail_default"></span></span><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="color: #222222;">yesterday repeated his predecessor Abe's 2015 statement that makes no mention of apology or remorse to Japan's victims. He, like Abe and Suga before him, promises only: "We will not forget, even for a moment, that the peace and prosperity that Japan enjoys today was built atop the precious lives and the history of suffering of the war dead."</span><span class="gmail_default" style="color: #222222;"> </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/101_kishida/actions/202308/15tuitoshiki.html&source=gmail&ust=1692377824025000&usg=AOvVaw2553XxWMx7vMkuEKAe1MJe" href="https://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/101_kishida/actions/202308/15tuitoshiki.html" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Ceremony photos and documents</a><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="color: #222222;">. </span><i style="color: #222222;"><b><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://japantoday.com/category/politics/kishida-marks-78th-anniversary-of-world-war-ii%2527s-end-without-mentioning-japan%2527s-wartime-aggression&source=gmail&ust=1692377824025000&usg=AOvVaw3Fq7jIPZR4gS5de-Kw3Xew" href="https://japantoday.com/category/politics/kishida-marks-78th-anniversary-of-world-war-ii%27s-end-without-mentioning-japan%27s-wartime-aggression" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Kishida marks 78th anniversary of World War II end without mentioning Japan's wartime aggression</a></b></i><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="color: #222222;">, Associated Press, Aug. 15, 2023</span><span class="gmail_default" style="color: #222222;">.</span></span><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><div class="gmail_default">As a new book by a Brookings scholar supports this celebratory view of contemporary Japan, The author sees the Japanese government as having reinvented itself to encourage more political engagement with the world and a greater military presence in the region. This is a new self-confidence that will award Tokyo with credibility and global leadership. To be sure, I have not read the book (then again neither have the folks who recommend it on the dust jacket). I have, however, heard this argument repeatedly over the decades that Japan has changed and it is in our image. Someone once observed that Western efforts to "fix" Japan always result in the tutor being broken-hearted.<br />See: <b><i><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://amzn.to/44a2tMe&source=gmail&ust=1692377824025000&usg=AOvVaw3iT-6EKj4hkDtU4LQNfl-i" href="https://amzn.to/44a2tMe" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Japan’s Quiet Leadership Reshaping the Indo-Pacific</a></i> </b>by Mireya Solis, (release August 24, 2023).<br /></div><div class="gmail_default"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default">Or watch the book talk: <b><i><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.brookings.edu/events/japans-quiet-leadership-reshaping-the-indo-pacific/&source=gmail&ust=1692377824025000&usg=AOvVaw1FMQaQclS9HrofidIGU_Qz" href="https://www.brookings.edu/events/japans-quiet-leadership-reshaping-the-indo-pacific/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Japan's Quiet Leadership: Reshaping the Pacific</a></i></b>, Wednesday, September 6, 89:30-10:30am EDT, Washington, DC, Hybrid. Sponsor: Brookings Institution. Speakers: Mireya Solís, Director - Center for East Asia Policy Studies, Senior Fellow - Foreign Policy, Center for East Asia Policy Studies, Philip Knight Chair in Japan Studies; Kurt W. Tong, Managing Partner - The Asia Group (grandson of Philippine internee Rev Walter Curtis Tong); Yuichi Hosoya, Director of Research, API & Professor, Keio University; Demetri Sevastopulo, U.S.-China Correspondent, <i>Financial Times</i>.</div><br /><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times new roman, serif;"></span>But not everyone forgets:<span style="font-family: times new roman, serif;"> </span><b><i><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20230811/p2a/00m/0na/006000c&source=gmail&ust=1692377824025000&usg=AOvVaw2k6OQuboIZivkY6TO0sM_p" href="https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20230811/p2a/00m/0na/006000c" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Memorial service for POWs in Yokohama passed down to next generation</a></i></b>, August 12, 2023, <i>Mainichi Shimbun</i></div><div><div class="gmail_default"><i><b><u><br /></u></b></i></div><div class="gmail_default"><i><b><u>Here are a number of talks and conferences this fall that examine Japan's Pacific War and its aftermath. I hope you can attend in person or virtually. </u></b></i><br /></div><div class="gmail_default"><b><br /></b></div><div class="gmail_default"><b><u><span style="font-size: medium;">A. Friday September 8</span></u></b></div><div class="gmail_default">MJHA Distinguished Annual Lecture</div><div class="gmail_default"><b><i>Tessa Morris-Suzuki on Writing War: History in Occupied Japan and its Echoes for Today</i></b><br /><br /><b>Hosted by <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://mjha.org/&source=gmail&ust=1692377824025000&usg=AOvVaw0Uoq51aq2L0y-cEYZyRiPf" href="https://mjha.org/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">The Modern Japan History Association</a></b></div><div class="gmail_default">Speaker: Tessa Morris-Suzuki, Professor Emerita of Japanese History, Australian National University <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://researchprofiles.anu.edu.au/en/persons/tessa-morris-suzuki&source=gmail&ust=1692377824025000&usg=AOvVaw3xxXeE7HBkjBhmuOwxcJ7-" href="https://researchprofiles.anu.edu.au/en/persons/tessa-morris-suzuki" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">https://researchprofiles.anu.<wbr></wbr>edu.au/en/persons/tessa-<wbr></wbr>morris-suzuki</a> . <br /><br /><b>Date/time and registration information:</b></div><div class="gmail_default">Online, free.<br />Saturday, September 9, 2023 | 9:00-10:30 AM Australian Eastern Standard Time<br />Friday, September 8, 2023 | 7:00-8:30 PM (EST)<br /><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://mjha.org/Distinguished-Annual-Lecture&source=gmail&ust=1692377824025000&usg=AOvVaw2ocLzNztlSe26mViMpPD1u" href="https://mjha.org/Distinguished-Annual-Lecture" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">https://mjha.org/<wbr></wbr>Distinguished-Annual-Lecture</a> <br /><br /><i>As the world edges into a new Cold War, rising political tensions in East Asia are reflected in growing conflict over memories of history, and particularly of the history of the Asia-Pacific War. Increasing nationalism in all the countries of the region finds expression in rewritings of that history. In Japan, a central feature of recent waves of historical revisionism has been a focus on the shaping of historiography in the post war occupation period. The period from August 1945 to May 1952 was the era when historians first struggled to give meaning to the disastrous events of the war which had ravaged East Asia during the previous decade or more. The diverse ways in which they did this has had an enduring effect on the way in which the war is remembered to the present day. In the context of contemporary controversies over history, it is important to return to that occupation era and to reassess the possibilities and limitations of the way in which the history of the war was written by those who had just experienced it in their own lives.</i></div><div class="gmail_default"><br /></div><b><span style="font-size: medium;">B. Saturday September 16</span></b><br />Annual Symposium<br /><i><b>Occupation: The Legacy of the Asiatic Pacific War</b> </i><br /><br /><b>Hosted by <span class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;"></span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.pacificwarmuseum.org/about/admiral-nimitz-foundation&source=gmail&ust=1692377824025000&usg=AOvVaw2Z8YW1n1nNywcO0CgHoGC9" href="https://www.pacificwarmuseum.org/about/admiral-nimitz-foundation" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">The Admiral Nimitz Foundation</a>. <br />Speakers:</b> Richard B. Frank, internationally recognized leading authority on the Asia-Pacific War; Dr. Xiaobing Li, professor of the Department of History and Geography and the Don Betz Endowed Chair in International Studies at the University of Central Oklahoma (UCO); Ricardo Trota Jose, professor of history at the University of the Philippines, Diliman; Mindy L. Kotler is founder and director of Asia Policy Point.<span class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;"> </span>Special guest, Marie Vallejo, author of <i>Dauntless</i>, a book about the First and Second Filipino Regiments.</div><b><div><b><br /></b></div>Date/time and registration information:</b><br />In person and online. Fee.<br /></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Saturday, September 16, 2023, 9:00am-5:00pm (CDT)<br /><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.pacificwarmuseum.org/event/2023-admiral-nimitz-symposium&source=gmail&ust=1692377824025000&usg=AOvVaw1JB3A0TptsrkXnZjZYzPGh" href="https://www.pacificwarmuseum.org/event/2023-admiral-nimitz-symposium" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">https://www.pacificwarmuseum.<wbr></wbr>org/event/2023-admiral-nimitz-<wbr></wbr>symposium</a></div><div><div><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><i>The Admiral Nimitz Foundation is excited to welcome you back to this year’s Annual Symposium. The focus this year will be on Japan's occupation of Asia. Titled, “Occupation: The Legacy of the Asiatic Pacific War,” the symposium will explore the nuanced ramifications of the Japanese occupation.</i></span></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></div></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><div><div><b><span style="font-size: medium;">C. Saturday September 23</span></b></div>6th Annual Conference on WWII in the Philippines<div><b><i>War Crimes - From WWII Until Today</i></b><br /><br /><b>Hosted by<span class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">:</span></b> <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.bataanlegacy.org/&source=gmail&ust=1692377824025000&usg=AOvVaw1WWVRLGRQ3uXmHX4RCgk9j" href="http://www.bataanlegacy.org/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><b>Bataan Legacy Historical Society</b></a> in partnership with the University of San Francisco's Philippine Studies Program, Memorare Manila 1945 and USF Kasamahan<br /><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times new roman, serif;"></span><b>Speakers: </b>James Zarsadiaz, Director, Philippine Studies Program, University of San Francisco; Prof. Mark Hull, Professor of War Crimes, U.S. Army Command & General Staff College, Ft. Leavenworth; Philippine Consul General in San Francisco Neil F. Ferrer; Father Paul Fitzgerald, S.J., President, University of San Francisco; Benjamin Hall, Fox News State Department Correspondent, Eyewitness to War Crimes Today (Via Zoom); Jose Custodio, Fellow, Consortium of Indo Pacific Researchers; Christopher Capozzola, Professor of History, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Richard Frank, Pacific War historian, author, <i><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://amzn.to/3DZY4Rr&source=gmail&ust=1692377824025000&usg=AOvVaw3qfnuwBs_VorkAVo8fFCzq" href="https://amzn.to/3DZY4Rr" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Tower of Skulls</a></i>; Marie Vallejo, author of <i>Dauntless</i>, a book about the First and Second Filipino Regiments; Kate LaFerriere, daughter of Frank Innis, former civilian POW in Los Banos; Cynthia Bonta, survivor of the Los Baños massacre, mother of California Attorney General Rob Bonta; and Richard Foye, author of <i><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://amzn.to/44h40QK&source=gmail&ust=1692377824026000&usg=AOvVaw19Ozealc6BN7IkNs6Dlprx" href="https://amzn.to/44h40QK" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Foye And The Filipinos Bailout, Escape, And Rescue Of A Navy Fighter Pilot In World War Two Luzon</a></i>, is the son of Ensign William Foye, an F6F Hellcat Pilot and a member of the Air Group Twenty assigned to the USS <i>Enterprise</i> (CV6).</div><div class="gmail_default"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default"><b>Date/time and registration information:</b></div>In person, <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.facebook.com/BataanLegacy/&source=gmail&ust=1692377824026000&usg=AOvVaw1kBmrCxEM3laHUbRApS6e9" href="https://www.facebook.com/BataanLegacy/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Facebook Live</a>, <span class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times new roman, serif;"></span>Taped,<span style="font-family: times new roman, serif;"> </span></span>fee<br />Saturday, September 23, 2023 | 10:00am - 4:00pm <span class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">(</span>PDT<span class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">)</span></div><div><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.eventbrite.com/e/war-crimes-from-wwii-until-today-tickets-636013321967&source=gmail&ust=1692377824026000&usg=AOvVaw3EikoYKX2Y5XqtpoHX06kY" href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/war-crimes-from-wwii-until-today-tickets-636013321967" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">https://www.eventbrite.com/e/<wbr></wbr>war-crimes-from-wwii-until-<wbr></wbr>today-tickets-636013321967</a><br /></span><br /><i>The conference aims to present the war crimes the invading Japanese perpetrated upon soldiers and civilians in the Philippines. A compelling discussion on war crimes in the Philippines and its effects on subsequent generations as well as similarities in today's world.<br /></i></div><div><br /></div><div><div class="gmail_default"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">D. Thursday December 7 to Saturday December 9</span></b><br />16th International Conference on World War II<br /><b><i>Finding Hope In A World Destroyed: WWII Liberations & Legacies</i></b></div><div class="gmail_default"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default"><span face="arial, sans-serif"><b><span style="text-align: justify;">Hosted by <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nationalww2museum.org/&source=gmail&ust=1692377824026000&usg=AOvVaw03hSO6pnjGG8kiwriTd7fQ" href="https://www.nationalww2museum.org/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">National WWII Museum, </a></span><span style="text-align: justify;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nationalww2museum.org/&source=gmail&ust=1692377824026000&usg=AOvVaw03hSO6pnjGG8kiwriTd7fQ" href="https://www.nationalww2museum.org/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">New Orleans</a>.</span></b><br /></span></div></div></div><div class="gmail_default"><span face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="text-align: justify;"><b>Speakers:</b> [there are no affiliations listed on the website and your editor simply did not have the energy to track everyone down]: </span>Jason Dawsey ; Francine Hirsch ; Robert Hutchinson ; Günter Bischof ; John Curatola, Military Historian at the Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War and Democracy; Rana Mitter, University of Oxford; Yuma Totani, University of Hawaii; Yoshikuni Igarashi, Vanderbilt University; William Hitchcock ;Blanche Wiesen Cook ;Jeremi Suri ;Lizabeth Cohen ; Krewasky Salter, Pritzker Military Museum & Library; Marcus Cox : Kara Dixon Vuic ; David Davis ;Jeremy Black ; Robert Citino, National WWII Museum; Richard B. Frank, Pacific War historian, author, <i><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://amzn.to/3DZY4Rr&source=gmail&ust=1692377824026000&usg=AOvVaw3oKq8SSNnSiWU9A1hEA1lB" href="https://amzn.to/3DZY4Rr" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Tower of Skulls</a></i>; Craig Symonds, Distinguished Visiting Ernest J. King Professor of Maritime History for the academic years 2017–2020 at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island; Trent Hone, a Vice President with ICF and an award-winning naval historian, author of <i><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://amzn.to/3OzWXwV&source=gmail&ust=1692377824026000&usg=AOvVaw2IhGNVO_REMNy5nxR_KyPN" href="https://amzn.to/3OzWXwV" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Learning War: The Evolution of Fighting Doctrine in the U.S. Navy, 1898–1945</a></i>; Allan R. Millett ;Keith Lowe ;Ronald Spector, professor emeritus, George Washington University; John McManus : Conrad Crane ; Steph Hinnershitz ; Catherine Musemeche ;Dave Gutierrez ; Jim McNaughton ; Gordon H. “Nick” Mueller, PhD, ;William Hitchcock ;Jeremi Suri ;Major General Peter Gravett ;Cameron McCoy ;Robert Edsel ;Alexandra Richie ;Wendy Lower ; Paul Hilliard ; Kirk Saduski ;Donald L. Miller ; John Orloff</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></div><b><u>Panel of particular interest (December 7):</u></b><br /><b><i>Aftermath in Asia</i></b><br />Chair: John Curatola, Military Historian at the Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War and Democracy<br />“The War That Never Really Ended: WWII’s Long Legacy”: Rana Mitter, University of Oxford<br />“Justice in Asia and the Pacific Region, 1945-1952: Allied War Crimes Prosecutions”: Yuma Totani, University of Hawaii<br />“Japan’s Decade After Defeat: Occupation and Democratization”: Yoshikuni Igarashi, Vanderbilt University</div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><div class="gmail_default"><div class="gmail_default"><b>Date/time and registration information:</b></div>In person only in New Orleans, LA, fee<br /><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nationalww2museum.org/programs/16th-international-conference-world-war-ii&source=gmail&ust=1692377824026000&usg=AOvVaw06mQTtRjWy4RIOHOgLD76U" href="https://www.nationalww2museum.org/programs/16th-international-conference-world-war-ii" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">https://www.nationalww2museum.<wbr></wbr>org/programs/16th-<wbr></wbr>international-conference-<wbr></wbr>world-war-ii</a><br /></div><div class="gmail_default"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default"><i>The International Conference on World War II is the premier adult educational event bringing together the best and brightest scholars, authors, historians, and witnesses to history from around the globe to discuss key battles, personalities, strategies, issues, and controversies of the war that changed the world. The agenda, speakers, and times are not yet set.</i></div></div></div>Asia Policy Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784292872823996552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9026256712239783281.post-64007063173580569452023-04-15T18:45:00.001-04:002023-04-20T16:10:35.513-04:0012th AMERICAN POW DELEGATION TO JAPAN<p style="text-align: center;"><b>2023 POW FRIENDSHIP VISITATION PROGRAM</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>PARTICIPANT/POW CONCISE PROFILES </b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>FEBRUARY 11 TO 16, 2023</b></p><p>This past February, the Japanese government again invited children of POWs of Japan to the country to work on reconciliation and their parent's ordeal with Imperial Japan's armed forces. This was the first trip that included a daughter of a female Army officer, a nurse on Corregidor. It is also the first trip that highlighted a POW camp where POW slave labor was for a company, Ube Industries, owned by the current Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi. His great grandfather founded the conglomerate.</p>They met with the U.S. Ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel. They also visited with Ambassador Ichiro Fujisaki, president of the America-Japan Society, who helped initiate the program in 2009 while he was ambassador to the United States. Sadly, he was unwilling to host a program for his visitors with his members or at the Nakasone Peace Institute where he is president.<p>This may also be the last trip the Japanese feel necessary to host. Its multi-million dollar <i>kakehashi</i> program to bring Americans to Japan is focused on Japanese-Americans, high school students, and cultivating the next generation of American Japan experts. As American policymakers are now reluctant to mention that Japan was an enemy or an unrepentant perpetrator of war atrocities, it seems likely that this reconciliation program will disappear. </p><p>The following children visited Japan. For fuller biographies of their POW parent, see this <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1K496wWCWsbZa-jGBD6-IxvXc_u4u0jGeN9HJz5FxeTg/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">LINK</a>.</p><p><b>Ms. Margaret A. GARCIA , 72, lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico</b>. She is the daughter of <b>CPL Evangelisto “Evans” R. Garcia</b> (June 19, 1913 – January 29, 2011), a corporal in New Mexico’s 200th Coast Artillery. They were the first to fire on the invading Japanese on December 8, 1941. He fought in the Bataan Peninsula and endured the Bataan Death March. He was sent to Japan in 1943 to be a slave laborer in Mitsui’s Omuta coal mine outside Nagasaki. Today, the mine is a UNESCO World Industrial Heritage site.</p><p><b>Ms. Sandra Harding, 70, of Santa Fe, New Mexico,</b> is the daughter of two U.S. Army officers who were prisoners of war of Japan surrendered in the Philippines: <b>Lt. Earlyn Black Harding</b> (September 8, 1918 – August 16, 2007) and <b>Lt. Col. Harry J. Harding </b>(March 22, 1919 – October 30, 1987). Lt. Black was an Army Nurse on Corregidor who was interned at Santo Tomas in Manila. Lt. Col. Harding was with the 63rd Infantry Regiment (Philippine Army) on Panay. He was sent to Japan and imprisoned in Kobe House POW Camp, Zentsuji, and Rokuroshi. Ms. Harding was an elementary school art teacher for the Santa Fe Public Schools and recently retired as a freelance graphic artist.</p><p><b>Mr. Thomas J. Hoskins, Jr., 75, lives in San Antonio, Texas</b>. He is the son of <b>Staff Sergeant Thomas J. Hoskins</b> (April 6, 1918 – April 18, 1995) who was a member of the U.S. Army Signal Corps. His father operated one of the two working radar units in the Philippines when Japan attacked on December 8, 1941. As a POW, his father was forced to build an airfield on Palawan Island in the Philippines. He was taken to Japan to be a slave laborer in various Kawasaki area POW camps near Tokyo. After the war, his father continued to serve in the military until his retirement in 1959 as a Master Sergeant in the U.S. Air Force.</p><p><b>Ms. Linda McDavitt, 76, lives in Austin, Texas</b> where she is President/CEO of the Genevieve and Ward Orsinger Foundation and Sail Training Commander of the Austin Yacht Club. She is the daughter of <b>Capt. Jerome A. McDavitt </b>(February 10, 1912-May 3, 1982) the 24th Field Artillery Regiment (Philippine Scouts). Surrendered on Corregidor, he was sent to Japan in 1944 where he was the POW commanding officer at the Hiroshima #6B - Omine POW camp that provided slave labor for a coal mine owned by Ube Industries. He was one of 89 Texas Aggies (graduates of Texas A&M) involved in the defense of Bataan and Corregidor.</p><p><b>Ms. Lorna Nielsen Murray, 64, lives in South Jordan, Utah.</b> She is the daughter of <b>PFC Eugene P. Nielsen</b>, (January 23, 1916 - February 3, 2011) a member of the 59th Coast Artillery who fought on Corregidor. Nielsen was one of only 11 survivors of the 1944 Palawan Massacre of 139 American POWs. They were on Palawan Island in the Philippines to build an airfield for the Imperial Japanese Army. Today, this airfield is the foundation for the island’s Antonio Bautista Air Base. On November 22, 2023, Vice President Kamala Harris laid flowers at the memorial to the victims of this Japanese war crime. Ms. Murray is also a cousin to Lt. Col. Chase J. Nielsen, one of the famed “Tokyo Doolittle Raiders” and one of the eight who were captured by Japan. He was one of the four POWs who survived.</p><p><b>Dr. Gail Yoella Small, 68, lives in Reno, Nevada</b> and is the daughter of <b>Major George Small</b> (February 28, 1908 – December 15, 2007) who was with the Chemical Warfare Service, 7th Chemical Company, Aviation, at Clark Field in the Philippines. After the Far East Air Force in early December 1941 was destroyed, he was assigned as an officer with the 31st Infantry Division, Company F of the 2nd Battalion that fought on Bataan. He survived the Bataan Death March, Camp O’Donnell, and the Cabanatuan POW Camp in the Philippines. In Japan, he was imprisoned at Osaka POW Camp 2-D UMEDA, Zentsuji, and Rokuroshi. </p><p><b>Ms. Karen Brady Smith, 73, lives in Kent, Washington</b>. She is the daughter of <b>Major Jack E. Brady</b> (February 26, 1921 – August 11, 2008) who was a member of the 228th Army Signal Company in the Philippines. He survived the Bataan Death March, Camp O’Donnell, and Cabanatuan POW Camp. He was on one of the first hellships, Tottori Maru, to Japan, enduring a 38-day journey via Formosa, Mako, and Korea to Japan. He was held at the Omori POW Camp in Tokyo, used as stevedore for Nippon Express and worked at an iron smelter in Iwate at Sendai #10-B for Tokyo Shibaura Denki K.K. (<i>Tohoku Denki Seitetsu Kabushiki Kaisha</i>)<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span></p>Asia Policy Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784292872823996552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9026256712239783281.post-2216910575689929912023-04-09T23:24:00.001-04:002023-04-09T23:24:00.165-04:00Convening on the history of the POWs of Japan<h2 style="text-align: center;">13TH ANNUAL AMERICAN DEFENDERS OF BATAAN AND<br />CORREGIDOR MEMORIAL SOCIETY CONVENTION</h2><span id="docs-internal-guid-7c401e1b-7fff-ce67-74d1-247b0aa90bcc"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">May 4-6, 2023</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sheraton Albuquerque Uptown</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2600 Louisiana BLVD NE</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Albuquerque, NM</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAN7p6gaEGQqoUzRTGfxZug3RtSC8Bwk4sTx66KkIJctrJwWtOTYOREW1gA66u4EbgtENjbi2559Z_SUeLMUtKrDAHfCKhGnKn50Ur5fVXTqkMS_f3XhsbSIVDgie41kQRtFQ50MIvjhzr-LzHukaZJNLZo5EbTkWe7Vp4pCQxcEUktmbrCJuJQnQLdg/s1046/old-town-colors-albuquerque.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1046" data-original-width="700" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAN7p6gaEGQqoUzRTGfxZug3RtSC8Bwk4sTx66KkIJctrJwWtOTYOREW1gA66u4EbgtENjbi2559Z_SUeLMUtKrDAHfCKhGnKn50Ur5fVXTqkMS_f3XhsbSIVDgie41kQRtFQ50MIvjhzr-LzHukaZJNLZo5EbTkWe7Vp4pCQxcEUktmbrCJuJQnQLdg/w134-h200/old-town-colors-albuquerque.jpg" width="134" /></a></div>Special hotel rate available by April 6, 2023</span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Call 24 hrs. a day at 1800-325-3535 and ask for the American Defenders of Bataan & Corregidor Memorial Society (ADBC-MS) Rate or </span><a href="https://www.marriott.com/event-reservations/reservation-link.mi?id=1674950699065&key=GRP&app=resvlink" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">LINK</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (suggest you call to see if you can retain the conference rate after the deadline)</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Find registration form </span><a href="https://adbcmemorialsociety.org/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">HERE</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You can email in a pdf of the registration form and call in your registration fee by emailing Ms. Judy Pruitt, </span><a href="mailto:pruittja13@aol.com" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">pruittja13@aol.com</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><br /><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thursday, May 4, 2023</span></p><ul style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2023 POW/Japanese Friendship Trip to Japan</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> discussed by the seven “children” of eight POWs.</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">John Duresky</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> talks about the book: </span><a href="https://amzn.to/3nLAeEi" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Relentless Hope: A True Story of War and Survival </span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">by David L Britt, with John Duresky and Vickie Graham (ISBN 978-1-09838-539-2, august 31, 2021). The story of US Army 1st Lt. Chester K Britt who served at Ft Wint in Subic Bay and then in the Battle of Bataan. He was from La Crosse, Wisconsin.</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">William Dalness and Josh Kefauver</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> discuss their relatives in “Two Wars Two Generations.” Harold Elmore "Swede" Dalness, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">31st Inf (PA) who fought in the Battle of Corregidor</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> as an officer with the Provisional Battalion of the 4th Marines and was a POW of Imperial Japan and his namesake, Harold Edward Dalnes, a sailor aboard the USS </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Cyclops</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> that disappeared in the Caribbean Sea during WW I.</span></p></li></ul><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Friday, May 5, 2023</span></p><ul style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Chris Schurtz</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, Grandson of Major Paul W. Schurtz (515th Coast Artillery, died aboard the </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Oryoku Maru)</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> discusses memorials across New Mexico remembering the Battle of Bataan and the Bataan Death March.</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Paul Ruiz</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> tells the stories from his father MSGT Joe Ruiz (U.S. Army Philippine Scout, POW, Guerrilla Fighter) about the war in the Philippines.</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gregory Kupsky</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, Ph.D., Senior Historian on the WWII Team in the Indo-Pacific Directorate at Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency gives an update on the disinterments of Unknowns from Manila American Cemetery and the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #4d5156; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> National Memorial </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #5f6368; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Cemetery</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #4d5156; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> of the Pacific </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(Punchbowl, Hawaii)</span></p></li></ul><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Saturday, May 6, 2023</span></p><ul style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thomas H. Begay</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, U.S. Marine, Navajo Code Talker at Iwo Jima talks about The Navajo Code Talkers: Their Code Was Never Broken Presenter: </span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Next Generation</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Grandchildren of Bataan and Corregidor Veterans</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Panel led by the grandchildren of Agapita Silva (200th Coast Artillery)</span></p></li></ul><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Banquet-Speaker: author Steve Moore</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> discusses his book </span><a href="https://amzn.to/3Mq4rDj" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As Good As Dead: The Daring Escape of American POWs From a Japanese Death Camp</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> about the Palawan Massacre.</span>Asia Policy Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784292872823996552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9026256712239783281.post-74418515222810562322023-04-09T09:58:00.011-04:002023-04-09T17:20:01.137-04:00National Former POW Recognition Day<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW1HzRALbWMbO0FxpFWAJLHkc49Xf0n3DyI4vhr1qOiHe6gohVBKcjUMrSpPuVWxT5NL0_Del8PcBXzfOEEuhlU4j_TyCE_Xg-TSLRMg9FcKqFZHLg9AYUN8UsPdGk9ZuTXnEkQ-LRE0G2v3TZvDuigWtypw74syG4xFwXT7bZACiEcuWlPeBcqLW4zA/s382/General-Edward-King.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="382" data-original-width="300" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW1HzRALbWMbO0FxpFWAJLHkc49Xf0n3DyI4vhr1qOiHe6gohVBKcjUMrSpPuVWxT5NL0_Del8PcBXzfOEEuhlU4j_TyCE_Xg-TSLRMg9FcKqFZHLg9AYUN8UsPdGk9ZuTXnEkQ-LRE0G2v3TZvDuigWtypw74syG4xFwXT7bZACiEcuWlPeBcqLW4zA/w251-h320/General-Edward-King.jpg" width="251" /></a></div>This Easter Sunday, April 9th, is the 81st anniversary of the fall of the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines and the beginning of the infamous Bataan Death March. Less than half of the men on Bataan would survive WWII, the majority dying as POWs of Imperial Japan. President Joe Biden's cousin, John Robinette, a tanker from Ohio, was on the Bataan Death March and died as a POW of Japan in the Philippines.<br /><br />The man most associated with this history is Georgian, Major General Edward Postell King, USA (July 4, 1884 – August 31, 1958). He is today's Department of Veterans Affairs' "<a href="https://news.va.gov/118077/veteranoftheday-army-edward-p-king/" target="_blank">Veteran of the Day.</a>" A version of the biography below is reprinted on the VA's website.<div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6848145/edward-postell-king" target="_blank">Post a remembrance to his Find A Grave site</a>.<br /><br />In the early morning hours of April 9, 1942, General King surrendered, in violation of direct orders, his command on the Bataan Peninsula to the invading Imperial Japanese forces. His was a rational, moral decision. Not doing so, he had concluded, would have led to the pointless slaughter of his sick, starved and exhausted soldiers, dozens of female military nurses, as well as the civilian population under his control. <br /><br />A decorated artilleryman, King made the moral choice to risk his career and reputation by refusing to sacrifice his men for no military gain. His men had fought for 93 days under siege conditions with antiquated weapons, dwindling resources, and no hope of rescue. The approximately 78,000 troops (66,000 Filipinos and 12,000 Americans) under his command were the largest contingent of U.S. soldiers ever to surrender to the enemy. King emphasized to his men that he "surrendered them," they did not surrender.<br /><br />The General pleaded with the Japanese that those under his command would be treated in accord with the 1929 Geneva Conventions. He got no promise or assurance. Nor did he get a surrender agreement or document. Instead, the Japanese considered his surrender, and any others, individual ones. <br /><br />The Japanese soldiers, understanding their commanders’ intentions, proceeded to loot their captives of any belongings, kill those they found with anything Japanese, and pull gold teeth out of the soldiers’ mouths. The surrendered were then forced on the infamous Bataan Death March up the Peninsula in the tropical heat to a make-shift POW camp 100 miles north. Food and water was withheld, stragglers shot, random soldiers beheaded or bayoneted, the sick left to die on the road, and the less nimble run over by tanks to be forever embedded in Bataan’s East Road.<br /><br />For the next three and a half years, General King and the men and women of Bataan were POWs. General King endured abuse, starvation and forced labor as a POW in the Philippines, Formosa and Manchuria. His men were sent across the Japanese empire in hellships for slave labor. The military nurses were put in squalid civilian internment camps in the Philippines. By war’s end in August 1945, more than half of the men he surrendered on Bataan had perished in captivity.<br /><br />A native of Georgia, King received a law degree from the University of Georgia. He began his military career in 1905 as a second lieutenant in the Georgia National Guard. During WWI, he earned a Distinguished Service Medal as a Chief Assistant to the Chief of Artillery. Recognized as a leader, after WWI he attended and taught at both the Army and Navy War Colleges. He was sent to the Philippines in 1940 where he became General Douglas MacArthur’s second ranking ground general in the United States Army Forces in the Far East. <br /><br />King assumed command of the American-Filipino forces on Bataan on March 21, 1942, shortly after General MacArthur was evacuated from the Philippines to Australia. He oversaw a tenacious and courageous final defense of the Peninsula. Although he expected to be court-martialed after the war, he was not. Neither was he invited to be on the deck of the USS Missouri for Japan’s formal surrender or promoted.<br /><br />He received the Army Distinguished Service Medal with oak leaf cluster; World War I Victory Medal; American Defense Service Medal with "Foreign Service" clasp; Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with three service star; World War II Victory Medal; and the Philippine Defense Medal with service star. <br /><br />General King never received any decoration or recognition for his good judgment or gallantry on Bataan. His troops, however, widely admired and revered him. He passed away peacefully at his home in Brunswick, Georgia on August 31, 1958.<br /><br />✮And for you military history buffs, April 9th is also the anniversary of Robert E. Lee's 1865 surrender to General Grant at Appomattox.</div>Asia Policy Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784292872823996552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9026256712239783281.post-4029880519726892272023-04-08T17:02:00.066-04:002023-04-12T13:24:22.298-04:00Is Congress listening?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAl-dhNyX0aRYmF3O-5bFtXEoCNwwJC4PrzELokW34WgaJQ6ofXfZU6R-GFKIBKW8CMD4rcEBDkYRCGYerEm9iOg2wQ6zESSANUCRzdmaacT_6DT4Pewbf2Dxe6jvje6KpT7yBH96jcmirxAd8AQt6X0ebmdPOzKpayq328p0kzfQ27AwrlBb-DGXUiw/s200/ADBC-MS%20logo%20revised%202.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="187" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAl-dhNyX0aRYmF3O-5bFtXEoCNwwJC4PrzELokW34WgaJQ6ofXfZU6R-GFKIBKW8CMD4rcEBDkYRCGYerEm9iOg2wQ6zESSANUCRzdmaacT_6DT4Pewbf2Dxe6jvje6KpT7yBH96jcmirxAd8AQt6X0ebmdPOzKpayq328p0kzfQ27AwrlBb-DGXUiw/s1600/ADBC-MS%20logo%20revised%202.jpg" width="187" /></a></div>On March 8, 2023, the Veterans Affairs Committees of the House and Senate held their annual joint hearing for <a href="https://veterans.house.gov/calendar/eventsingle.aspx?EventID=6115" target="_blank">To Receive Legislative Presentations of Veterans Service Organizations</a>. Last year, Ms. Jan Thompson, president of the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Memorial Society, testified in person. This year, as in all past years she submitted a STATEMENT FOR THE RECORD (see below).<br /><br />Unlike all previous years, both the House and Senate Committees refused to post that the ADBC-MS was to give testimony for the record and, most important, refused to post the text of the testimony. Inexplicably, the rules changed, although no one could give your editor a coherent reason why. Sheepishly, staff told us that the testimony would appear in the Committee print--a printed record of the hearing. If true, this will happen months from the hearing date.<br /><br />Interestingly, the House Veterans Affairs Committee did list on its <a href="https://docs.house.gov/Committee/Calendar/ByEvent.aspx?EventID=115370">Committee Repository website for the hearing</a>, another organization's Statement for the Record: <i>Laura Lehigh as Independent Citizen Advocate for DIC Surviving Spouses Rank-Based Dependency and Indemnity Recipients Group</i>.<div><br /></div><div><b><span style="color: red;">UPDATE (4/12/2023)</span></b> - The Clerk of the House Veterans Affairs Committee admitted that it was an oversight not to post the ADBC-MS testimony on the hearing website repository page. It appear the House committee did not change its posting policy. The clerk for the <a href="https://www.veterans.senate.gov/" target="_blank">Senate Veterans Affairs Committee</a> apparently neglected to share the testimony with his counterpart at the House committee. You can find the testimony <a href="https://docs.house.gov/meetings/VR/VR00/20230308/115370/HHRG-118-VR00-20230308-SD003.pdf" target="_blank">HERE</a>. <br /><div><br /></div><div>Why the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee would block our testimony in this passive aggressive manner we do know. Soon after the hearing, the Committee staff took another unusual position, that of objecting to and blocking a proposed gold medal bill for the men and women who fought in the early defensive battles of WWII in the Pacific. They were vague as to why other than they had problems with the "findings" or statements of fact and noted that they cannot block a bill. But the reality is that their objections did stop the bill from being introduced. The "findings" were written by a committee of world class, American historians of the Pacific War.</div><div><br /></div><div>I guess the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee got tired of the ADBC-MS asking for the same things every year. Or maybe they did not again want to hear that there are veterans they were leaving behind and forgetting. Or maybe it is too unbelievable that Japan was once our enemy and considered more brutal than the Nazis. Or maybe Japan's history disinformation campaigns, which are now being directed at POWs, are successful.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>AMERICAN DEFENDERS OF THE PACIFIC</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>THE YEAR FOR A CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL</b></div><br />Chairmen Tester and Bost, Ranking Members Moran and Takano, and Members of the Senate and House Veterans Affairs Committees, thank you for allowing us to describe how Congress can meet the concerns of veterans of World War II in the Pacific. <br /><br />The American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor (ADBC) was founded in January 1946 at the Fort Devens, Massachusetts hospital by former POWs of Imperial Japan. The ADBC represented the men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces in the Pacific who participated in the early resistance to, and defensive battles against, the armed forces of Imperial Japan from December 8, 1941, to June 9, 1942. Nearly all the survivors endured nearly four years of merciless imprisonment by Imperial Japan. <br /><br />Our subsequent Memorial Society now represents their families and descendants, as well as scholars, researchers, and archivists. Our goal is to preserve the history of the American POW experience in the Pacific and to teach future generations of the POWs’ sacrifice, courage, determination, and faith—the essence of the American spirit.<br /><br /><b>Background<br /></b>Eighty-one years ago today marks the fall of the Dutch East Indies (today’s Indonesia) to Japan and the capture on Java of a West Texas National Guard Battalion as well as two American aviators and one sailor too seriously wounded to be moved. Barely a week before, the heavy cruiser USS Houston (CA-30) went down in the Battle of Sunda Strait marking the decimation of the United States Asiatic Fleet that had commanded the United States Navy and Marines in the region since 1902. American forces on Wake Island and Guam had surrendered in December 1941.<br /><br />In April, after 99 days of constant warfare and no hope of resupply, the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines was surrendered and the infamous Bataan Death March began. Less than one month later, on May 6th, the Fortress Island of Corregidor and its associated commands defending Manila were surrendered. The rest of American and Filipino units throughout the Philippines were surrendered on June 9th. And on June 7th, Japan invaded Alaska’s Kiska and Attu islands in the Aleutians, imprisoning 42 Native Americans, 8 Navy weathermen, one female school teacher, and killing three men.<br /><br />I testify today to encourage your efforts to remember these American men and women who gave their all under desperate conditions to demonstrate determination and resourcefulness against a ruthless enemy and a long-decided U.S. and British policy of prioritizing the war in Europe. The result was that most of these soldiers became POWs of Japan who suffered some of the War’s worst consequences. One-third did not return home. <br /><br />For all, the homefront was their third battle--after surviving warfare in the Pacific and enduring atrocities as a POW. Forced to sign gag orders about the horrors they witnessed and unable to explain the after-effects of torture, abuse, starvation, and trauma, the POWs of Japan first focused, as do today’s veterans, on obtaining healthcare, disability benefits, survivor benefits, caregiver support, mental health access, and education. <br /><br />The fourth and final battle for the American POWs of Japan is for them not to be forgotten: both by their country and the Japanese. Current and future generations can be inspired by their “victory from within.” As President Franklin D. Roosevelt said in August 1943, when the outcome of WWII was still uncertain, “The story of the fighting on Bataan and Corregidor—and, indeed, everywhere in the Philippines–will be remembered so long as men continue to respect bravery, and devotion, and determination.”<br /><br /><b>Our asks</b><br />To ensure that the sacrifices and unique history of our fighting men and women in the Pacific during 1941 and 1942 are not forgotten I ask Congress to:<br /><br /><b>1.</b> Award, collectively to the American defenders of Bataan and Corregidor, as defined in U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich’s and Representative Teresa Leger Fernandez’s forthcoming Congressional Gold Medal bill. This group represents every U.S. state, territory, tribe, and military service. It is the most diverse World War II Congressional Gold Medal cohort.<br /><b><br />2</b>. Ask the Government of Japan, to create a central government-funded memorial in Japan, as none exist, for the Allied POWs of WWII at the Port of Moji on Kyushu, Japan where most of the “hellships”–floating dungeons where POWs were denied air, space, light, sanitation, and food–first arrived in Japan to unload their sick and dying human cargo. This memorial should be selected from a world competition. Currently, the only monuments at Moji are to Japanese war horses, Japanese soldiers, and bananas.<br /><br /><b>3.</b> Instruct the U.S. Department of State to prepare a report for Congress on the history and funding of the “Japan/POW Friendship Program.” This visitation program began in 2010. The report should include (i) how other Allied POW reconciliation programs initiated by the Government of Japan in 1995 compare both in funding and programming and (ii) how the U.S. program compares with other “Kakehashi” people exchange programs in the United States funded by the Government of Japan starting in 2015.<br /><br /><b>4</b>. Ask the Government of Japan to continue and institutionalize the “Japan/POW Friendship Program” established in 2010. Initially established as a reconciliation visit to Japan for former POWs modeled after ones established in 1995 for British, Dutch, and Australian POWs, the program has included widows and the elderly children of POWs. The program needs to transform into a permanent educational, remembrance, and exchange initiative encompassing history, justice, and democracy. It needs to be permanent, not merely a yearly, diplomatic “deliverable” subject to Japan’s budget whims.<br /><br />Thus far, there have been 12 trips, one each in the fall of 2010 through 2019. In 2015, there were two trips. In 2016, 2018, and 2019, due to the advanced age of surviving POWs, only widows and children participated in the program. No trips were held in 2020, 2021, or 2022. A four-day trip for 7 children of POWs was held in February this year. In all, 46 former POWs, all in their late 80s or 90s, as well as nine widows and 25 children in their 60s and 70s have made the trip to Japan. A number of the caregiver companions were wives, children, and grandchildren. <br /><br /><b>5</b>. Ask the Government of Japan to publish in Japanese, English and other languages on the website of the Foreign Ministry of Japan the 2009 Cabinet Decision offering a formal apology to all the prisoners of war of Japan and the text of Ambassador Ichiro Fujisaki’s May 30, 2009 speech to the convention of the ADBC offering an apology to the POWs:<br /><br />I would like to convey to you the position of the government of Japan on this issue. As former Prime Ministers of Japan have repeatedly stated, the Japanese people should bear in mind that we must look into the past and to learn from the lessons of history. We extend a heartfelt apology for our country having caused tremendous damage and suffering to many people, including prisoners of wars, those who have undergone tragic experiences in the Bataan Peninsula, Corregidor Island, in the Philippines, and other places.<br /><br /><b>6</b>. Ask the Government of Japan to honor its 2015 written promise to include the “full history” of Japan’s UNESCO World Industrial Heritage properties of the Meiji Industrial Revolution: Iron and Steel, Shipbuilding and Coal Mining. The history of POW slave labor at many of the Heritage sites is not included at those locations or at the Tokyo Information Center.<br /><br /><b>7.</b> Amend title 36, United States Code to include National Former POW Recognition Day among the days the POW/MIA flag is required to be displayed. This is April 9th, which is the anniversary of the Bataan Death March. The President is already required to issue a proclamation for this remembrance day. <br /><b><br />High price of freedom</b><br />By June 1942, most of the estimated 27,000 Americans ultimately held as military POWs of Imperial Japan had been surrendered–they did not surrender. By the War’s end, roughly one-third or more than 12,000 Americans had died in squalid POW camps, in the fetid holds of “hellships,” or in slave labor camps owned by Japanese companies. Almost one-third (or 4,000) died from friendly fire in unmarked hellships sunk by American planes and submarines.<br /><br />Surviving as a POW of Japan and returning home was the beginning of new battles: finding acceptance in society and living with serious mental and physical ailments. In the first six years after the war, deaths of American POWs of Japan were more than twice those of the comparably aged white male population. These deaths were disproportionately due to tuberculosis, suicides, accidents, and cirrhosis. In contrast, 1.5 percent of Americans in Nazi POW camps died (the mortality rate for POWs of Japan was 20 times greater). In the first six years after liberation, the mortality rate of those who survived the Japanese POW camps was three times the rate of the Nazi POW camp survivors.<br /><br />Eighty-two years after the start of the War in the Pacific, it is time to recognize the Americans who fought the impossible and endured the unimaginable in the war against tyranny in the Asia. The American men and women in the early months of the war in the Pacific fought with limited and outdated weapons and no hope of reinforcement or resupply. <br /><br />In return for their sacrifices and service, they ask that their government keep its moral obligation to them. They do not want their history ignored or exploited. What they want most is to have their government stand by them to ensure they will be remembered, that our allies respect them, and that their American history is preserved accurately for future generations.<br /><br />Ms. Jan Thompson<br />President, American Defenders of Bataan & Corregidor Memorial Society<br />Daughter of PhM2c Robert E. Thompson USN, USS Canopus (AS-9)<br />Survivor of the hellships Oryoku Maru, Enoura Maru, and the Brazil Maru<br />Survivor of the POW Camps Bilibid (Philippines), Fukuoka 3B (Japan), & Mukden (China)<br /><a href="https://www.adbcmemorialsociety.org/">https://www.adbcmemorialsociety.org/</a><br /></div></div>Asia Policy Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784292872823996552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9026256712239783281.post-39385004602829669792023-04-07T14:49:00.002-04:002023-04-07T14:49:24.342-04:00A Proclamation on National Former Prisoner Of War Recognition Day, 2023 <p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFg_3-7SYQAoQ82Cd7nlNm6ZteXXDpMm7U0NPfNPSXFskYPYERyNKTuARe-_DGghXoS6FnvfWYlBu8kIEz4W-WLh_9W27rIK3jssM_YUIgTnuHl07MDO4MWtwnyjrXlHT8hqf6TZIrI5M1ZrXPI2C3-jmhgwI6p6qU_J3M76c5cqs5NUpsHp2Ngg1f1Q/s600/pow%20mia%20flag.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFg_3-7SYQAoQ82Cd7nlNm6ZteXXDpMm7U0NPfNPSXFskYPYERyNKTuARe-_DGghXoS6FnvfWYlBu8kIEz4W-WLh_9W27rIK3jssM_YUIgTnuHl07MDO4MWtwnyjrXlHT8hqf6TZIrI5M1ZrXPI2C3-jmhgwI6p6qU_J3M76c5cqs5NUpsHp2Ngg1f1Q/w200-h200/pow%20mia%20flag.png" width="200" /></a></b></div><b><br />THE WHITE HOUSE</b><p></p><p><b>PRESIDENTIAL ACTIONS</b></p><p> On National Former Prisoner of War Recognition Day, we honor the more than half a million service members who sacrificed their freedom as prisoners of war in order to defend freedom for their fellow Americans. These brave patriots remind us of the grave costs of war and the sacrifice we ask of those who fight for us. We owe them and their families, caregivers, and survivors a debt of gratitude we can never fully repay.</p><p> This year, we mark the 50th anniversary of Operation Homecoming, the repatriation of nearly 600 Americans held captive during the Vietnam War, as well as the 70th anniversary of Operations Big Switch and Little Switch, which brought home more than 3,700 American prisoners of the Korean War. These heroes — and other prisoners of war from every conflict throughout our history — stand among the bravest of our Nation, serving honorably under intolerable circumstances. Their unwavering courage helped defend an idea unlike any other in human history: the idea of the United States of America.</p><p> Our Nation has many obligations, but our one truly sacred obligation is to equip those we send into harm’s way and to care for them and their families when they return home. To every prisoner of war now safely reunited with their loved ones: We will never fail to honor your sacrifice. To every family still awaiting answers about a hero who went missing in action: We will never stop working to bring them home. And to every service member defending our Nation and our values around the world today: We will never forget what you give to this country each day.</p><p> May God bless our former prisoners of war and their families, caregivers, and survivors, and may God protect our troops.</p><p> NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim April 9, 2023, as National Former Prisoner of War Recognition Day. I call upon Americans to observe this day by honoring the service and sacrifice of all former prisoners of war as our Nation expresses its eternal gratitude for their sacrifice. I also call upon Federal, State, and local government officials and organizations to observe this day with appropriate ceremonies and activities.</p><p> IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this</p><p>seventh day of April, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-seventh.</p><p><b> JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.</b></p>Asia Policy Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784292872823996552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9026256712239783281.post-14527299506575321412023-04-07T14:43:00.001-04:002023-04-07T14:43:25.825-04:00A Gold Medal For All Needed<p><b><i>Descendants of WWII POWs call into question congressional bill that only honors defenders of Bataan and Corregidor</i></b></p>By ROSE L. THAYER<br /><i>STARS AND STRIPES</i>, November 8, 2022<br /><br />Descendants of some U.S. troops taken prisoner in the Philippines during World War II have called into question an ongoing effort to award those veterans with Congressional Gold Medals, saying the latest version honors only those who fought in Bataan and Corregidor and excludes other areas of the Philippines and Pacific.<br /><br />Since 2009, the New Mexico congressional delegation has introduced bills to establish the medal to honor those captured at the Bataan peninsula and on Corregidor Island, two of the main defensive positions that the U.S. established after the Japanese invaded the Philippines within days of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. U.S. and Filipino troops on Bataan surrendered on April 9, 1942, after running out of food and ammunition. Corregidor held out for nearly a month before surrendering.<br /><br />The current version of the bill honors only those who served on Bataan and Corregidor.<br /><br />It does not mention the thousands of U.S. troops who were fighting in other parts of the Philippines until the top U.S. commander, Gen. Jonathan Wainwright, surrendered all American and Filipino forces in the Philippines when Corregidor fell. Some members of the 1,000-strong Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Memorial Society would like to see Americans who resisted Japan’s sweep through the Pacific but were captured at Wake Island, Guam, Java, the Aleutians and at sea honored, too.<br /><br />Some of them were imprisoned alongside defenders of Bataan and Corregidor when the Japanese consolidated many of their prisoners at camps in Japan and Manchuria as other areas once under their control fell to the advancing Americans and their allies.<br /><br />“It's very much a misreading of the history of the fall the Philippines. You cannot divorce Bataan and Corregidor from everything else that was going on,” said Mindy Kotler Smith, a member of the memorial society. Her husband’s great uncle Fletcher Wood served in the Philippines with the Army Corps of Engineers and died in Bilibid prison in Manila.<br /><br />Congress has commissioned gold medals as its “highest expression of national appreciation” since the American Revolution. Other groups to receive the medal for service during World War II include Merrill’s Marauders, a unit that served in the jungles of Burma, women who joined the workforce as a “Rosie the Riveter,” the merchant mariners of World War II and the Navajo Code Talkers.<br /><br />House and Senate rules state that legislation establishing such a medal must be co-sponsored by two-thirds of the chamber membership to advance to committees. If this doesn’t happen by the end of the year, the legislation must be resubmitted in the next session of Congress.<br /><br />The latest version of the Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Congressional Gold Medal Act was introduced by Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., in April 2021. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez, D-N.M., introduced the companion bill in the House a month later. Both have sat idle because they have bipartisan support but not enough co-sponsors.<br /><br />“Bataan veterans deserve the recognition of our nation’s highest and most distinguished honor for their perseverance and patriotism. We must never forget their undaunted heroism in the face of unthinkable conditions and horrific abuses,” Heinrich said in a statement.<br /><br />The Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Memorial Society was founded in 1946 by survivors of the Philippine campaign as they recovered in a Massachusetts hospital following their liberation from captivity at the end of the war, Smith said. As those men grew old and died, their descendants took over the organization, and now focus on education and preservation of this specific chapter of World War II history.<br /><br />They’ve watched over the years as lawmakers from New Mexico have introduced the different bills to honor their sacrifice and have offered their own guidance on how to better honor the estimated 27,000 American service members held prisoner by the Japanese during World War II. About 12,000 of them died in captivity, according to the memorial society.<br /><br />They included up to 700 Americans and several thousand Filipinos who died of beatings, beheadings, starvation and lack of water during a 5- to 10-day forced march from Bataan to prison camps that became known as the Bataan Death March. Thousands more perished in the camps.<br /><br />However, determining who should be honored by a congressional medal has proven a challenge.<br /><br />Among those who surrendered at Corregidor were 77 Army and Navy nurses, all of whom were liberated when the U.S. recaptured the Philippines late in the war. The memorial society fears the current bill would exclude them because the current wording refers to “troops.”<br /><br />The first legislation to award medals in honor of POWs in the Philippines dates to 2009, when Heinrich served in the House. He proposed the medal to be presented to defenders of Bataan, Corregidor and the main Philippine island of Luzon. It did not mention any specific units nor Americans taken prisoner in the central and southern Philippines.<br /><br />That same year, former Sen. Tom Udall, also a New Mexico Democrat, introduced the companion bill in the Senate, but with a more narrow focus. It only authorized medals for those who were taken prisoner at Bataan but not Corregidor or other locations overrun by the Japanese.<br /><br />Heinrich’s office did not respond to queries about whether he would consider changes to the legislation in the next congressional session.<br /><br />“It is our hope that they will amend and modify the bill so that we can support it,” said Jan Thompson, president of the memorial society whose father, Navy pharmacist’s mate Robert E. Thompson, surrendered on the island of Corregidor. “We’re not comfortable supporting it as it is, and we’d like to be able to support.”Asia Policy Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784292872823996552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9026256712239783281.post-77807086091846614002022-11-03T12:40:00.001-04:002022-11-03T12:40:50.105-04:00Correcting history in Congress<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDvvogxXrOaWBkhhwAMnqFjsuuiO_6bGXXkradcuwVnn2DElOwMnQdy3MYg4HdBENsk7FplLTkylCaRXsxxpNtt4nflvTxYKajwZ-xeIExO9OCZw0mPDKJXtPE2Jdxf0CPuzN65JGRDaJm3EOgJ0cWA5dr1WbC0E3tKWcXGfgVcp3qnpD5_-fQH-v9TA/s627/Omuta_17_2_Cut.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Omuta barracks" border="0" data-original-height="415" data-original-width="627" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDvvogxXrOaWBkhhwAMnqFjsuuiO_6bGXXkradcuwVnn2DElOwMnQdy3MYg4HdBENsk7FplLTkylCaRXsxxpNtt4nflvTxYKajwZ-xeIExO9OCZw0mPDKJXtPE2Jdxf0CPuzN65JGRDaJm3EOgJ0cWA5dr1WbC0E3tKWcXGfgVcp3qnpD5_-fQH-v9TA/w320-h212/Omuta_17_2_Cut.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br />Last year, your editor was searching <a href="https://www.congress.gov/">Congress.gov</a> for any legislation that mentioned the Bataan Death March. I found the following celebration of the life of Cpl Walter Gann from Mississippi. Although pleased that another POW received recognition, I was soon shocked at how poorly written the insertion was as well as how full of inaccuracies it was. No one also took the time to check the proper titles for his military awards. <br /><br /><div>As we are on mission to tell the incredible history of the American POWs of Japan, I contact the author, <a href="https://trentkelly.house.gov/" target="_blank">Congressman Trent Kelly's (R-MS) </a>office, and offered to correct it. I offer the two versions that now appear in the <i>Congressional Record</i> for you to better understand the importance of getting the history right. </div><div><br /></div><div>Mr. Gann survived being a POW, but suffered severe PTSD and health issues the rest of his life making permanent employment impossible. By the grace of God and a wonderful family he lived a full life dying in 1980 at 58.<h2 style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="background-color: transparent;"><br /></span></h2><h2 style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent;"><a href="https://www.congress.gov/congressional-record/volume-167/issue-67/extensions-of-remarks-section/article/E422-6" target="_blank"><span style="color: #674ea7;">RECOGNIZING THE LIFE OF WALTER GANN </span></a></span></h2><h2 style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #674ea7;">Congressional Record Vol. 167, No. 67</span></span></h2><div style="text-align: center;">(Extensions of Remarks - <b>April 19, 2021</b>)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">RECOGNIZING THE LIFE OF WALTER GANN</div></div><div style="text-align: center;"> ______ </div><div style="text-align: center;"> HON. TRENT KELLY
of mississippi </div><div style="text-align: center;"> in the house of representatives </div><div style="text-align: center;"> Monday, April 19, 2021 </div><div><br /></div><div> Mr. KELLY of Mississippi. Madam Speaker, I rise today to celebrate
the life and service of Corporal Walter Gann, an American hero and an
outstanding representation of the state of Mississippi.
Walter Gann was born on January 31, 1922 to John and Mary Rogers
Gann. </div><div><br /></div><div>He spent the first eighteen years of his life in Calhoun City,
Mississippi. Only July 3, 1941 he joined the United States Army Air
Forces in Jackson, Mississippi and was soon deployed to the
Philippines. At eighteen years old Walter faced attack by the Japanese
Imperial Army. After several months of battle with minimal food,
supplies, and medical care, the American soldiers were forced to
surrender; the Bataan Death March began on April 9, 1942. Corporal
Gann, enduring shrapnel wounds and malnutrition, marched 65 miles in
the blistering heat. </div><div><br /></div><div> It is believed Corporal Gann arrived at Fukuoka POW Camp No. 1 on
Kyushu Island where he faced barbaric treatment from Japanese guards.
He was eventually transported to Japan; Gann and his fellow soldiers
stood shoulder to shoulder on the Japanese hell ship. Men died by the
dozens of suffocation, starvation, and dysentery. In Japan, Corporal
Gann was a POW for three and a half years. </div><div><br /></div><div> Corporal Gann was released upon American Victory and was immediately
treated in a Washington hospital before returning home. His family
rejoiced to see him alive and safe. He was called to testify in the war
crime trials following WWII but could not attend because he was
hospitalized. For the remainder of his life Corporal Gann bore the
weight of all he had witnessed. </div><div><br /></div><div> In 1949 Walter moved to Booneville, Mississippi and married Juanita
Goddard. Together they raised four children. In August of 1963 his wife
passed, and in November of that year his son was killed in a motorcycle
accident. In 1970 he moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee until his death on
October 14, 1980. He was laid to rest at Crossroads cemetery in
Jumpertown, Mississippi with his wife and son. </div><div><br /></div><div> In the course of his life Corporal Gann was awarded the Good Conduct
Medal, a Purple Heart, the WWII Victory Medal, an A.P. Theater Medal
with 1 Bronze Star, the American Defense Medal with 1 Bronze Star, and
the Philippine Liberation Medal with 1 Bronze Star. He also received a
letter from President Harry S. Truman thanking him for his service to
the United States. </div><div><br /></div><div> I am grateful for the service of Corporal Walter Gann and admire his
commitment to faith, family, and country.
<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: red; font-size: medium;">CORRECTED </span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 700;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.congress.gov/congressional-record/volume-167/issue-189/extensions-of-remarks-section/article/E1153-5" target="_blank"><span style="color: #674ea7; font-size: medium;">RECOGNIZING THE LIFE OF WALTER GANN </span></a></div></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #674ea7; font-size: medium;">Congressional Record Vol. 167, No. 189</span></div><div style="text-align: center;">(Extensions of Remarks - October 27, 2021)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">RECOGNIZING THE LIFE OF WALTER GANN</div></div><div style="text-align: center;"> ______ </div><div style="text-align: center;"> HON. TRENT KELLY
of mississippi </div><div style="text-align: center;"> in the house of representatives </div><div style="text-align: center;"> Wednesday, October 27, 2021 </div><div><br /></div><div> Mr. KELLY of Mississippi. Madam Speaker, I rise today to celebrate
the life and service of Corporal Walter Gann, an American hero from
Mississippi, who defended liberty against impossible odds in the
Pacific during World War II. </div><div><br /></div><div> Walter, born in Calhoun City on January 31, 1922, joined the U.S.
Army on July 3, 1941. By July 15, he was aboard the USS Coolidge
deployed to the Philippines as a member of the Army Signal Corps
assigned to 409th Signal Company (Aviation) at Nichols Field outside
Manila. The plan was to erect radar towers, but none of the equipment
needed arrived on the ship with them. </div><div><br /></div><div> Imperial Japan attacked the Philippines on December 8 and all the
critical airfields were destroyed by December 10. Walter's company and
the airmen were soon sent on combat
duty in the Bataan Peninsula. He was assigned to U.S. Army Forces Far
East (USAFFE) headquarters at Little Baguio near the tip of Bataan. </div><div><br /></div><div> The troops on Bataan, running out of ammunition, food, and medicine,
with no hope of resupply or reinforcement, were surrendered by their
commanding officers on April 9, 1942. Walter was among 86,000 American
and Filipino prisoners of war who were forced on what became known as
the infamous Bataan Death March, one of World War II's worst war
crimes. In the tropical sun, deprived of food, water, and mercy, the
men trekked 65 miles up Bataan to a train station. There they were
packed standing 100 to a boxcar for the next 24 miles. Men died where
they stood. Survivors marched another eight miles to their first POW
camp, O'Donnell. </div><div><br /></div><div> Walter, POW No. 203, was shipped to Japan in July 1943 packed in the
dark, fetid hold of the hell ship Clyde Maru with 500 other POWs. He
was sent to be a slave laborer at <a href="http://www.mansell.com/pow_resources/camplists/fukuoka/fuku_17/fukuoka17.htm" target="_blank"><span style="color: #674ea7;">Fukuoka No. 17 POW Camp</span></a> attached to
the Mitsui-owned Miike coal mine in southern Japan close to Nagasaki.
Starved, beaten, and denied medical care, he was forced to dig coal in
a primitive mine until the camp was liberated in September 1945. The
coal mine is now a UNESCO Industrial World Heritage site, albeit
without mention of the thousands of POWs held there or that the mine
had remained reliant on manual labor and not modem machinery. </div><div><br /></div><div>Although asked to testify in Japan at the war crime trials held from
1946 to 1948, Mr. Gann could not return because he remained too sick
from the various illnesses he suffered from during his three and one-
half years as a POW. For the remainder of his life, Walter bore the
weight of all the horror and inhumanity he had witnessed. When he was
able to work, Walter was a truck driver. </div><div><br /></div><div> In 1949, Walter moved to Booneville, Mississippi, and married Juanita
Goddard. Together they raised four children. In 1963, he lost both his
wife and his stepson. In his later years, he lived in Chattanooga,
Tennessee, until he passed away on October 14, 1980. </div><div><br /></div><div> During his lifetime, Walter was awarded the Good Conduct Medal, the
Purple Heart, the World War II Victory Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific
Campaign Medal with one bronze campaign star, the American Defense
Service Medal with one bronze campaign star, and the Philippine Defense
Medal. He also received a letter from President Harry S. Truman
thanking him for his service. Posthumously, he received the Bronze Star
Medal for meritorious achievement, the Prisoner of War Medal, and the
Presidential Unit Citation with two Bronze Oak Leaf Clusters. </div><div><br /></div><div>I am grateful for Corporal Walter Gann's commitment to faith, family,
and democracy. I am humbled by his sacrifices for our country.<br /></div>Asia Policy Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784292872823996552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9026256712239783281.post-4021057877655797082022-11-03T11:24:00.000-04:002022-11-03T11:24:36.151-04:00Left behind by Congress, again<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b></b></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSifuNJvX8hDFMfDDfHSGDo33KhSPHEfIMh4WqIZa9Fkfqj_ZoDTLnmL2vN11kEQTfKkFihMJwVtITiTl0oN9KaLjx65-KeAfhLiwrHM1KBPW1mmReGHEQ1C4X_fMuILE0B8hNd3eqtsdhnaOxEre-Ojuymde75B5hET6j1WdQFVOQO8m4BcHXelOgzQ/s504/flag%20raise-2-5x7-72dpi.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Hirohata POW Camp Sept 2, 1945" border="0" data-original-height="407" data-original-width="504" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSifuNJvX8hDFMfDDfHSGDo33KhSPHEfIMh4WqIZa9Fkfqj_ZoDTLnmL2vN11kEQTfKkFihMJwVtITiTl0oN9KaLjx65-KeAfhLiwrHM1KBPW1mmReGHEQ1C4X_fMuILE0B8hNd3eqtsdhnaOxEre-Ojuymde75B5hET6j1WdQFVOQO8m4BcHXelOgzQ/w320-h258/flag%20raise-2-5x7-72dpi.jpeg" width="320" /></a></b></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br />An effort to honor America’s POWs leaves far too many behind</b><br /><br /></span><p></p><span style="font-size: medium;">By Patrick Regan And Mindy Kotler Smith, Opinion Contributors</span><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/3646426-an-effort-to-honor-americas-pows-leaves-far-too-many-behind/" target="_blank">The Hill</a></i>, 9/16/22</span><br /><br />Today, on National POW/MIA Recognition Day, we pause to remember the suffering of all American prisoners of war.<br /><br />The <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/1079" target="_blank">Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Gold Medal Act (S. 1079)</a>, now pending in Congress, seeks to award Congressional Gold Medals to some of those POWs who fought the Japanese in the early months of World War II. Credit to Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) for championing the bill and working to honor these men and women whose stories and sacrifices must not be forgotten.<br /><br />But the act in its current form is insufficient.<br /><br />As written, it would honor only those who served on Bataan and Corregidor in the Philippines. It leaves out Americans who also tried with no hope of resupply and antiquated weapons to stave off Japan’s lightning advance through Southeast Asia from Aug. 8, 1941, to June 10, 1942 — in Midway, Wake Island, Guam, Java, all of the Philippine Islands, the Aleutians and at sea.<br /><br />These are the Americans who President Franklin D. Roosevelt said in August 1943, when the outcome of WWII was still uncertain, “will be remembered so long as men continue to respect bravery, devotion, and determination.” This still holds true.<br /><br />The Philippines is often central to the most-common stories of American POW suffering and survival, in part because that is where so many endured the infamous Bataan Death March. The Americans there held out for months in 1942 on the Bataan peninsula of Luzon and finally at the tiny fortress islands in Manila Bay, the best known being Corregidor, until they could no longer hold off the resupplied Japanese.<br /><br />But the stories of survival and subsequent Japanese brutality are no less remarkable in other parts of the Philippines or the Pacific theater.<br /><br />The few hundred Marines and Navy sailors left to defend Guam were overrun by the Japanese in a matter of days by Dec. 10, 1941. Guam was the first American territory to be occupied by the Japanese during the war. The battle’s survivors would endure nearly the entire war as prisoners of the enemy.<br /><br />At Wake Island, more than 400 Marines, 1,200 unarmed civilians and 45 Chamorro Pan Am airline employees heroically held off a Japanese armada for an unheard of nearly two weeks from Dec. 8-Dec 23, 1941. Marine Corps aviator <a href="https://mohmuseum.org/elrodmoh/" target="_blank">Maj. Henry T. Elrod</a> —aka Hammerin’ Hank — was the first U.S. pilot to sink a warship from a fighter plane. Elrod was killed on the last day of the battle and was the first aviator to receive the Medal of Honor in World War II.<br /><br />Hundreds of miles south of the Indonesian island Java, on March 1, 1942, the <a href="http://www.usshouston.org/images/edsall.pdf" target="_blank">USS <i>Edsall</i>’</a>s skipper, Lt. Joshua Nix of Memphis, Tenn., laid down smokescreens and followed a series of evasive maneuvers that so frustrated four Japanese warships that air support had to be called to sink her. It took two ferocious hours of combat to end the <i>Edsall</i>. A small number of the 187 men on board were rescued. Their beheaded bodies were discovered in a mass grave in Celebes after the war.<br /><br />Seventy-seven years ago this month, American rescue teams liberated American and Allied POWs scattered throughout Japan’s 775 POW camps across the Pacific. In Japan, one of those was <a href="http://www.mansell.com/pow_resources/camplists/osaka/hirohata/hirohata-main.htm" target="_blank">Hirohata Camp 12-B</a>, south of Osaka. Hirohata housed 300 Americans, one Australian and one Englishman. The men were survivors from Guam, Wake Island, all over the Philippines, USS <i>Yorktown</i> and USS <i>Penguin</i>.<br /><br />When word came to camp in late August that the war was over, Marine gunner Earl B. Ercanbrack gathered the Americans in the courtyard of the camp, where for the previous two years they had counted off in Japanese every morning before going off to backbreaking slave labor in a Nippon Steel mill and on its dock. The civilian overseers treated them as criminals and subjected them to ridicule and cruel, capricious punishments.<br /><br />According to what Ercanbrack later told his hometown newspaper, The Monitor in McAllen, Texas, he ordered the camp’s guards to remove the Japanese flag from the 75-foot pole in the courtyard. It was replaced by an American flag hastily sewn together using a white parachute, red curtain and two blue Japanese shirts.<br /><br />As the makeshift American flag rose over the camp, someone started singing “God Bless America.” Others joined in, until 300 American POWs — finally free — crescendoed in unison with the song’s final line: “God bless America, my home sweet home.”<br /><br />Think about those 300 men — tortured, starved and ordered to work as slave labor for years — proudly uniting to sing “God Bless America.” Now imagine awarding Congressional Gold Medals to only those in that 300 who had served in Bataan and Corregidor.<br /><br />It would be wise for Congress to follow the Hirohata prisoners’ example of unity and revise the bill to award a Congressional Gold Medal to all Americans who participated in those first desperate battles of WWII in the Pacific.<br /><br />Ercanbrack, who fought and was captured at Guam and organized the U.S. flag raising in the Hirohata camp, would not be eligible for the Gold Medal now under consideration. That’s just not good enough.<br /><br /><i>Patrick Regan and Mindy Kotler Smith are members of the American Defenders of Bataan and the Corregidor Memorial Society and are descendants of men who fought in The Philippines. Regan’s grandfather, U.S. Army Air Corps SSgt Donald Regan, survived the Bataan Death March and Nippon Steel’s Hirohata POW camp in Japan</i><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">.</span></i> </p>Asia Policy Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784292872823996552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9026256712239783281.post-65147402444040569982022-09-08T16:29:00.000-04:002022-09-08T16:29:44.729-04:00Upcoming events of interest to the POW community<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgylH0bV4qc0agVIYyygfEAzzV5NSEzD-mWIqh4h_UqFDpLu8QVh-LHZvoYvUdGYflECtd737XTBpBKzx3HRqWys99imFly0rSsKyahHiw52Q-0hkFK8KCmLxg9Onjx_2g56x4KSccK4Ju1-bNPuWWzbrVWUCHLY3YMcQnLNEqHWAadWe_Y4_kc4A9QQQ/s200/ADBC-MS%20logo%20revised%202.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="187" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgylH0bV4qc0agVIYyygfEAzzV5NSEzD-mWIqh4h_UqFDpLu8QVh-LHZvoYvUdGYflECtd737XTBpBKzx3HRqWys99imFly0rSsKyahHiw52Q-0hkFK8KCmLxg9Onjx_2g56x4KSccK4Ju1-bNPuWWzbrVWUCHLY3YMcQnLNEqHWAadWe_Y4_kc4A9QQQ/s1600/ADBC-MS%20logo%20revised%202.jpg" width="187" /></a></div><b><a href="https://www.brookings.edu/events/the-role-of-veterans-in-strengthening-our-democracy/" target="_blank">THE ROLE OF VETERANS IN STRENGTHENING OUR DEMOCRACY. 9/9</a></b>, 4:00-5:15pm (EDT), IN PERSON AND ONLINE. Sponsor: Brookings Institution. Speakers: Steve Abbot, Admiral (ret.) - United States Navy Former Deputy Homeland Security Advisor to the President; Thad W. Allen, Admiral (ret.) - United States Coast Guard Former Commandant of the Coast Guard; Ellen Gustafson, Co-Founder - We the Veterans Co-Director - Summit Institute Co-Founder - Military Family Building Coalition; Elaine Kamarck, Founding Director - Center for Effective Public Management Senior Fellow - Governance Studies; Craig R. McKinley, General (ret.) - United States Air Force Former Chief National Guard Bureau; MODERATOR: Michael E. O’Hanlon, Director of Research - Foreign Policy, Brookings. <br /><br /><b><a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/war-crimes-from-wwii-until-today-tickets-388790552007?aff=ebdssbdestsearch" target="_blank">WAR CRIMES - AN ANALYSIS OF CAUSES & METHODOLOGY FROM WWII IN THE PHILIPPINES TO TODAY. 9/15</a></b>, 5:30 -7:00pm (PDT), WEBINAR. Sponsor: Bataan Legacy Historical Society. Speakers: Cecilia Gaerlan, Founder & Executive Director of Bataan Legacy Historical Society; Mark Hull is a full professor at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, KS. <br /><br /><b><a href="https://vawarmemorial.org/events/online-the-american-pow-experience-and-the-mia-legacy/" target="_blank">THE AMERICAN POW EXPERIENCE AND THE MIA LEGACY. 9/16</a></b>, 2:30-3:30pm (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: Virginia War Memorial Assistant. Speaker: Virginia War Memorial Assistant Director of Education Crystal Coon. <br /><br /><b><a href="https://www.pacificwarmuseum.org/education/museum-programs/symposium " target="_blank">1942: THE PERILOUS YEAR. Explores how that year was truly the hinge point of all of WWII. 9/16-17</a></b>, IN PERSON OR VIRTUALLY. Sponsor: The Admiral Nimitz Foundation, National Museum of the Pacific War, Fredericksburg, Texas. Speakers: Richard B. Frank is an internationally recognized leading authority on the Asia-Pacific War, author of many books on the Pacific War, most recently Tower of Skulls (2020); Craig L. Symonds is a professor of history emeritus at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, where he taught for thirty years and served as History Department Chair; Jonathan Parshall is an independent WWII scholar. He is co-author of Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway, which is widely acclaimed as the definitive account of that crucial battle; John C. McManus is Curators’ Distinguished Professor of U.S. military history at the Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T); Katherine Sharp Landdeck is an associate professor of history at Texas Woman’s University, the home of the WASP archives. FEE.<br /><br /><b><a href="https://yale.zoom.us/webinar/register/2016606724879/WN_keMAlsIlTfW6gG5vQKjE8A " target="_blank">WORLDMAKING IN THE LONG GREAT WAR. 9/19</a></b>, 4:00-5:30pm (EDT), WEBINAR. Sponsor: Yale Alumni Academy. Speaker: author, Jonathan Wyrtzen, Associate Professor of Sociology and History , Yale University. <b>PURCHASE BOOK: </b><a href="https://amzn.to/3Kt0cn9">https://amzn.to/3Kt0cn9</a> <br /><br /><b><a href=" https://www.adbcmemorialsociety.org/" target="_blank">12TH ANNUAL AMERICAN DEFENDERS OF BATAAN AND CORREGIDOR MEMORIAL SOCIETY CONVENTION. 9/21-24</a></b>, IN PERSON. Location: DoubleTree by Hilton Seattle Airport, Washington. Speakers include: Author Jody Beck: Your Loving Son Ty: A World War II Story of Hope and Horror in the Pacific; Ralph Longway, Civilian Internee of Imperial Japan during WWII; Sandra Harding: A daughter's story of the personal journeys of an Army nurse and an Army Infantry Officer, their chance meeting on Corregidor and passage from paradise and freedom to internment by the Japanese; Mark Kelso: MIA Cold Case: the story of Lt. Hyman Victor Sherman; 2019 Japanese/American Friendship Visitation Program participants report.<br /><br /><div><b><a href="https://ayalafoundation org.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Jhw9tcjCRquzxu1tBmlaQw " target="_blank">*THE WAR AND TRANSFORMATION OF THE AMERICAN COMMUNITY IN THE PHILIPPINES. 9/24,</a></b> 9:00-11:00am (PHST) , 9:00-11:00pm (EDT). WEBINAR. Sponsor: Ayala Foundation, Inc. - Filipinas Heritage Library, and U.S. Embassy in the Philippines. Speaker: Joseph P. McCallus, Professor of English at Columbus State University, Columbus, GA, has conducted academic research in the Philippines since 1986. </div><b><br /><a href="https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/museums/nmusn/news-and-events/events/pdiscussion-20221019.html" target="_blank">FROM STEWARDS TO FLAG OFFICERS: FILIPINOS IN THE U.S. NAVY. 10/19</a></b><a href="https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/museums/nmusn/news-and-events/events/pdiscussion-20221019.html" target="_blank">,</a> Noon-1:30pm (EDT), IN PERSON ONLY. Sponsor: National Museum of the United States Navy and Bataan Legacy Historical Society. Speakers: Luisito Maligat, Management and Program Analyst, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE); Lorna Mae Devera, Customer Advocacy Manager, Leidos; Paula Hackbart, President, Filipino American Midshipman Club, U.S. Naval Academy; Moderator: Rear Admiral Samuel J. Cox, SES, USN (Retired), Director, Naval History and Heritage Command, Curator of the Navy, Washington, DC. <br />Asia Policy Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784292872823996552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9026256712239783281.post-48652367999681683992022-09-04T11:52:00.000-04:002022-09-04T11:52:25.215-04:00The true meaning of VJ Day<p><b><i><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV8r-MAAw2PpQ-UuGNupafwzHR1K5_wSd9XKa3PdZoW0WNwpvDZJtrVSE7_VXUEkMOBtmBjXogYC6hv1w6U20_Pj6PLncCj6sw9XfPlQ37e8cpimgeo7rc1-Qp3zQx2-zTefwpPIzCE7a1OGwXEs1LSGI-A60SsMeNKLl9XjWX1w_xl7K8A4QT6yrmFQ/s800/wainwright%20on%20missouri.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="561" data-original-width="800" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV8r-MAAw2PpQ-UuGNupafwzHR1K5_wSd9XKa3PdZoW0WNwpvDZJtrVSE7_VXUEkMOBtmBjXogYC6hv1w6U20_Pj6PLncCj6sw9XfPlQ37e8cpimgeo7rc1-Qp3zQx2-zTefwpPIzCE7a1OGwXEs1LSGI-A60SsMeNKLl9XjWX1w_xl7K8A4QT6yrmFQ/s320/wainwright%20on%20missouri.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Percival taking pen from MacArthur.<br />It appears that Wainwright is without his cane. <br />It must have been very difficult for him.</span></td></tr></tbody></table>The Bravery of Americaʼs World War II Pacific Heroes Must Not Be Forgotten The Bravery of America’s World War II Pacific Heroes Must Not Be Forgotten</i></b> </p><p><i><a href="https://nationalinterest.org/feature/bravery-america%E2%80%99s-world-war-ii-pacific-heroes-must-not-be-forgotten-204598" target="_blank">National Interest</a></i>, September 2, 2022 </p><p>by Mindy L. Kotler, Asia Policy Point</p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">A</span></b>s Congress returns to work next week, it has an opportunity to complete a vital but long-pending project: the awarding of the Congressional Gold Medal to all the American men and women engaged in the early defensive battles against Imperial Japan. For too long their sacrifice has been ignored or merely distilled to the horrific Bataan Death March. This is an enormous simplification that does a disservice to all who did the extraordinary with all the odds against them. </p><p>Seventy-seven years ago today, on September 2, 1945, when aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, Supreme Commander of Allied Forces Army General Douglas MacArthur signed the Instrument of Surrender, which accepted Imperial Japan’s defeat in World War II. With over 300 ships in the Bay and nearly 800 planes in the air, the Allies’ total might was on display. </p><p>Before signing, he called for British general Arthur E. Percival and American general Jonathan M. Wainwright to join him. The two had respectively presided over the historic surrenders by the Allies in Singapore and the Philippines in 1942. They stood behind him as he signed the document five times. MacArthur then waved to Wainwright to come forward and accept one of the pens. He handed a second pen to Percival. </p><p>Few now understand the importance of that dramatic gesture. Both Percival and Wainwright had commanded the desperate, early, but unsuccessful defensive battles in the Pacific. In 1942, Japan looked invincible as its troops swept through and occupied Southeast Asia. Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; Darwin, Australia; and even Ellwood, California, with impunity. </p><p>Percival and Wainwright suffered the humiliation of the greatest military defeats in their nation’s history followed by years as prisoners of war of the Japanese. Yet the men and women who fought under them had displayed uncommon heroism, resourcefulness, and tenacity. Whereas they did not nor could not then slow the Japanese advance, they were, as President Franklin D. Roosevelt told Wainwright on the morning of the fall of Corregidor, the “shining example of patriotic fortitude and self-sacrifice” that would be the “guarantee of victory.” </p><p>Wainwright, skeletal, white-haired, and leaning on a cane [apparently not during the ceremony], had been liberated, together with Percival, from a Japanese prison camp in Manchuria just days before the ceremony. On the deck of the Missouri, he stood as a visitant representing all the Americans who first engaged the enemy in the Pacific. These men and women acted with extraordinary valor in efforts to stop Japan’s advance with antiquated weapons, too few troops, and no prospect of resupply. </p><p>And it is these men and women who have earned a gold medal. We often forget that hours after the attacks on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Imperial Japanese forces launched coordinated attacks throughout Asia, striking military facilities from Thailand to the Commonwealth of the Philippines. Within days the British and American Pacific-based fleets and air forces were decimated. For the first six months of World War II after the U.S. entry into the war, the Japanese had full control over the air and sea in the Western Pacific. Our troops nevertheless resisted until they had exhausted their resources. </p><p>In the Philippines, on December 8, 1941, the “first to fire” at the Japanese invaders were the New Mexico National Guardsmen from the 200th and 515th Coast Artillery (AA) regiments— successors to the famed “Rough Riders” of the Spanish-American War. Assigned to defend Clark Field north of Manila, they found that none of their artillery was capable of reaching the high-flying Japanese planes. </p><p>Alongside them was the Provisional Tank Group. National Guardsmen from seven states who had arrived in the Philippines barely a week before the outbreak of war. On that first day, Pvt. Robert H. Brooks, an African American member of Harrodsburg, Kentucky’s Company D, 192nd Tank Battalion became the first member of the Armored Force to die in WWII. He was honored with having the parade field at Fort Knox named after him. At the same time, TSGT Temon “Bud” Bardowski of Maywood, Illinois’s Company B, 192nd Tank Battalion, is credited with bringing down the first enemy plane by a U.S. armored unit in World War II. </p><p>At Midway in the first days of the war, First Lieutenant George H. Cannon from Michigan received for “extraordinary courage and disregard of his own condition” the first Medal of Honor to a U.S. Marine in World War II. Although mortally wounded by enemy shellfire, he refused to be relieved until all his men were evacuated, and he had reorganized his command post. On Wake Island, 400 U.S. Marines, 1,200 unarmed civilian contractors, and forty-five Chamorro Pan American Airways employees fought off a Japanese armada for nearly two weeks. Marine Corps aviator Maj. Henry T. Elrod fought valiantly and was the first U.S. pilot to sink a warship from a fighter plane. The Georgian, who was killed on the last day of the battle, received a Medal of Honor for “conspicuous gallantry.” </p><p>Action at sea was equally valorous. The U.S. Asiatic Fleet was destroyed with the March 1, 1942, sinking of the heavy cruiser USS Houston (CA-30) in the Sunda Strait. The ship’s captain, Albert Harold Rooks from Washington State, who went down with his ship, received the Navy’s first Medal of Honor for “extraordinary heroism.” Most of the ship’s 300 survivors ended up as slave laborers on the Thai-Burma Death Railway. </p><p>Not far from the USS Houston, the Japanese sunk the destroyer USS Pope (DD-225). The ship’s wounded executive officer, Lt Richard Nott Antrim, kept his surviving crew together until rescue three days later by the Japanese. But it was for “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity” in a Japanese POW camp on Celebes one month later that the Indiana native received the Medal of Honor for saving a fellow POW from a savage beating by stepping forward and offering to take the rest of the punishment. </p><p>On the Philippine Islands, in contrast to other Allied encounters with Japan at the time, U.S. Armed Forces under the command of the United States Army Forces Far East (USAFFE) fought a prolonged six-month resistance to invasion. The defense of the Philippines even included, on January 16, 1942, the last cavalry charge in American military history. Led by Lieutenant Edwin P. Ramsey, the action so surprised the Japanese that they broke and ran. After the fall of Bataan, Ramsey became a legendary guerilla leader in the Philippines. </p><p>Anticipating the fall of Corregidor and all the Philippines, Roosevelt took the day before the emperor’s birthday, April 28, 1942, to give a fireside talk, "On Sacrifice." He used the battles in the Pacific to inspire and energize the American people. He first recounted the exploits of the U.S. Navy’s chief medical officer at Surabaya, Java, Lt. Cmdr. Corydon McAlmont Wassell from Arkansas. Wassell had evacuated from Java eleven severely wounded sailors from the USS Houston and the USS Marblehead (CL-12) “almost like a Christ-like shepherd devoted to his flock” to Australia as the island fell to Japan. </p><p>The president ended his talk by recognizing Texan Lt. Hewett T. “Shorty” Wheless, a B-17D Flying Fortress pilot in the Philippines. On December 14, 1941, he maneuvered his severely damaged plane to not only deliver its payload on a Japanese convoy, but also to shoot down six Zero fighters and to land his aircraft riddled with 1,600 bullets on a blocked runway with no landing gear, two engines out, and nearly all his control cables gone. Roosevelt told the American public that this and other extraordinary tales of bravery should not be considered “exceptional.” Instead, he concluded that “they are typical examples of individual heroism and skill” that American had been demonstrating. </p><p>And maybe during this time the bravest of all was Alaska school teacher Etta Jones. She was sixty-two when the Japanese invaded the Aleutian island of Attu. On June 7, 1942, they captured her, her weatherman husband, Charles Foster Jones, and the entire population of forty-two Unangax̂ (Aleut). Charles was executed, after which she was forced to watch a Japanese officer behead his corpse. The Native Americans and she were taken to Japan as prisoners of war. </p><p>Most Americans, if they think of the early months of the war in the Pacific, highlight the Bataan Death March. This 100-mile, three-part trek north up the Bataan Peninsula west of Manila embodied all the disappointment, failure, and humiliation of the war. The forced march was marked by the Japanese capturers’ conscious cruelty in withholding food, water, and medicine; in looting and murder; and in inflicting capricious abuse and torture upon defenseless prisoners. Thousands died. </p><p>Forgotten are the four months of combat prowess, dedication, and pure heroism by the American and Filipino troops on Bataan. An estimated 12,000 American troops, 76,000 Filipino troops, and 20,000 Filipino civilians endured siege conditions marked by hunger, disease, and confusion with dwindling and antiquated war materiel. Their commanding general, Edward B. King understood his seriously degraded force could not continue and surrendered the peninsula on April 9, 1942. </p><p>As thousands escaped the peninsula or were in field hospitals, it is uncertain how many people were on the march that started that same day. Those who did not flee were rounded up at the tip of Bataan and other locations along the peninsula for a sixty-five-mile merciless march in the tropical sun northward to a train station at San Fernando. There they were packed standing into small unventilated boxcars for the twenty-four-mile journey to Capas. Many died standing. The survivors made a final six-mile march to Camp O’Donnell, a makeshift POW camp with only one source of water. Thousands more died there of disease, starvation, and lack of medical care. </p><p>Yet it took two more months for the Japanese to subdue all the Philippines. General Masaharu Homma did not accept General Wainwright’s May 6th surrender of Corregidor and the other fortress islands in Manila Bay. Instead, he kept the men and women there as hostages until he received assurance on June 9, 1942, that all the USAFFE troops throughout the Philippines had surrendered. General Guy Fort, commander of the Lanao Force of the 81st Philippine Division in Mindanao, was one of the last to surrender. His refusal to betray his troops who had become guerillas earned him the Mindanao Death March and eventually a firing squad. He is the only American-born general to have been executed by the enemy. </p><p>In January 1946, 200 former POWs of Japan recuperating in the Fort Devens hospital formed the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor. Notwithstanding their name, the organization was formed to memorialize the spirit of perseverance, faith, and optimism of </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i>...all American citizens - men and women who served at any time in the Armed Forces of the United States in the defense of the Philippine Islands between December 7, 1941 and May 10, 1942 inclusive and any man or woman who may have been attached to any unit of force of the Asiatic Fleet, Philippine Archipelago, Wake Island, Marianna Islands, Midway Island and Dutch East Indies. </i></p></blockquote><p>Wainwright died five years to the day after he represented on the Missouri all the ordinary men and women who found uncommon courage in extraordinary circumstances to fight the impossible and endure the unimaginable for freedom from tyranny and oppression. </p><p>Or as Roosevelt said in 1942 </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i>…“sacrifice” is not exactly the proper word with which to describe this program of self-denial. When, at the end of this great struggle we shall have saved our free way of life, we shall have made no sacrifice.” </i></p></blockquote><p>Today, it is easy to forget or diminish this “sacrifice.” However, while accepting Japan’s surrender on the deck of the Missouri, MacArthur did not. He understood that his victory rested on the Americans who persevered in the face of overwhelming adversity. </p><p>Now it is time for the U.S. Congress to go beyond MacArthur’s symbolism to recognize this critical contribution to winning the War by awarding this World War II group a Congressional Gold Medal.</p>Asia Policy Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784292872823996552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9026256712239783281.post-52159845552416615802022-04-10T16:14:00.000-04:002022-04-10T16:14:07.284-04:00White House Proclamation<div style="text-align: center;"><i>As every president starting with Ronald Reagan in 1988, President Biden recognized National Former POW Recognition Day. He is the first to mention the Bataan Death March, but like many previous presidents on events remembering Japanese atrocities, such as the bombing of Pearl Harbor, he neglected to mention who was the perpetrator of this war crime or who was the enemy. Where the Bataan Death March happened is also missing. </i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">A Proclamation on National Former Prisoner Of War Recognition Day, 2022</span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">APRIL 08, 2022</span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div> On April 9, 1942, tens of thousands of American and Filipino prisoners of war began what would become known to history as the Bataan Death March. Thousands died during the march, but the indomitable spirit of those prisoners was never broken. Eighty years later, our Nation continues to honor their courage and recognize the more than half a million service members who sacrificed their own freedom as prisoners of war to ensure that our Nation and the values of freedom and democracy always prevail. <br /><br /> Former prisoners of war stand among the bravest of our Nation. They fought valiantly and served with honor — and under often agonizing conditions as prisoners, they demonstrated incredible personal courage, love of country, and devotion to duty. Through their extraordinary sacrifices and selflessness, they helped ensure freedom for millions of people. They are heroes.<br /><br /> I join all Americans in expressing our deepest gratitude to every service member who has endured being a prisoner of war and to their families, caregivers, and survivors. Their service — knowing all the risk and danger it could bring — is a credit to their character and to our Nation. On this day and every day, we remember the hardships of captivity they survived in service to our Nation. We also remember all the brave women and men who died as prisoners in foreign lands during our Nation’s past wars, and we grieve with those at home who prayed for their loved ones’ return. Their faith, love of family, and devotion to our Nation inspire us all, and we will always remember their sacrifices.<br /><br /> Today, our brave men and women in uniform carry on the rich legacy of our former prisoners of war — unrelenting in battle, unwavering in loyalty, unmatched in decency, and prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of our Nation.<br /><br /> May God bless our former prisoners of war and their families, and may God protect our troops.<br /><br /> NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim April 9, 2022, as National Former Prisoner of War Recognition Day. I call upon Americans to observe this day by honoring the service and sacrifice of all former prisoners of war as our Nation expresses its eternal gratitude for their sacrifice. I also call upon Federal, State, and local government officials and organizations to observe this day with appropriate ceremonies and activities.<br /><br /> IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this eighth day of April, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-two, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-sixth.<br /><br /> JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.</div>Asia Policy Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784292872823996552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9026256712239783281.post-40151778628885715912022-04-10T16:04:00.001-04:002022-04-10T16:14:37.263-04:00Never Forget the Bataan Death March<p><b><i></i></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRLYVV02T_Nny6W7d0ogeCw9Z64Zr94sfZNXMVngvca01fTFlquJR44sPXNOvTs--G67hhaVA0wJcgkBHyY_DyUUu4ci2gHqy3CH-z5R2QwkIKO0CRonHgcax2129hqUiONfqZWWOkJOpt91TMJsJeDgOcuEskcsYRIWFPvGXi0gVsNEKzhOjqjG-VBQ/s1024/death%20march.webp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="627" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRLYVV02T_Nny6W7d0ogeCw9Z64Zr94sfZNXMVngvca01fTFlquJR44sPXNOvTs--G67hhaVA0wJcgkBHyY_DyUUu4ci2gHqy3CH-z5R2QwkIKO0CRonHgcax2129hqUiONfqZWWOkJOpt91TMJsJeDgOcuEskcsYRIWFPvGXi0gVsNEKzhOjqjG-VBQ/s320/death%20march.webp" width="196" /></a></i></b></div><b><i>Eighty Years Ago The horrors of today's war in Ukraine recall some of the atrocities committed by the Japanese empire during World War II.</i></b><p></p><p>by Mindy Kotler, proprietor the American POWs of Japan blog</p><p><a href="https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/eighty-years-ago-today-never-forget-bataan-death-march-201731" target="_blank">Published April 9, 2022 in the <i>National Interest</i></a></p><p>Pvt. Lester Tenney of Illinois’ 192nd Tank Battalion felt lucky. The Japanese officer’s sword missed his head and neck. Although he was left with a large gash on his shoulder, medics could quickly sew it up and he was soon back on the dusty road up the Bataan Peninsula. To fall behind or to falter guaranteed death. Like the civilians of Ukraine’s besieged cities, the surrendered soldiers and civilians on the Bataan Death March were defenseless and at the barbarous mercy of the invaders. It began eighty years ago today, on April 9, 1942.</p><p>The Bataan Death March is remembered as one of the greatest war crimes of World War II. The Japanese commanders involved were prosecuted for crimes against humanity or for violating the international laws of war and executed. So seminal in American history were these events that Bataan is part of the American lexicon as a metaphor for a tortuous undertaking. It is why National Former Prisoner of War (POW) Recognition Day is held every April 9th. </p><p>It is also one of the few Japanese war crimes for which the Japanese government has made a specific effort to atone. In 2009, the Japanese ambassador to the United States Ichiro Fujisaki, prompted by Tenney, traveled to the last convention of the American POWs of Japan and offered his country’s apology. The ambassador also arranged a visitation program to Japan for surviving POWs.</p><p>“We extend a heartfelt apology for our country having caused tremendous damage and suffering to many people, including prisoners of war, those who have undergone tragic experiences in the Bataan Peninsula, Corregidor Island, in the Philippines, and other places,” he told the men and their families.</p><p>This apology, which never appeared on the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs website, was repeated to four visiting delegations of American POWs by three Japanese Foreign Ministers. Japan’s current prime minister, Fumio Kishida, when serving as foreign minister, met with the 2013 POW group. Among them were two Bataan Death March survivors, including a Native American survivor, as well as two widows of Death March survivors. To his credit, he participated in the first principle of reconciliation, which is to hear their story.</p><p>The full story is that the Death March came after four months of combat starting when Japan attacked the Philippines within hours of bombing Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. A three-month siege of the Bataan Peninsula accompanied by a starvation diet, air and artillery bombardment, and disease had taken their toll. The Allies’ Europe-first policy combined with Japan’s control of the sea and air ensured that neither resupply nor reinforcement of the Philippines would come.</p><p>In the early morning hours of April 9, 1942, the newly appointed commanding general of Am-Fil forces on the Bataan Peninsula, Maj. Gen. Edward P. King Jr., realized that his troops faced slaughter if they continued to fight. He decided the rational course was to order the men and women under his command—against Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s orders—to surrender. Thus, 78,000 troops (66,000 Filipinos and 12,000 Americans) were taken captive by Imperial Japan. Among them there were dozens of European civilians—Czechs, Estonians, Latvians, Norwegians, Germans, Finns, Dutch, and British—who had volunteered to join the fight. In addition, there were at least 10,000 in two field hospitals in Bataan. It is the largest contingent of U.S. soldiers ever to surrender.</p><p>Focused on saving his exhausted and ailing troops, King could not imagine the horrors that surrender would hold. On the same day as the surrender, the Japanese put the survivors on what has become known as the Bataan Death March. It is estimated that perhaps 2,000 either swam the three shark-infested, mined miles to the fortress island of Corregidor (No one on Corregidor was on the Death March) or disappeared into the jungle. Those who made it to Corregidor became immediately members of the 4th Marines fighting shore defense. Corregidor and the associated three island fortresses surrendered on May 6th. </p><p>The Bataan Death March was a poorly commanded effort to move the surrendered troops and civilians on the peninsula to a POW camp one hundred miles north. The result was that the Japanese neglected the sick and killed the wounded; denied the POWs food, water, and medical care; and abused, robbed, and tortured them. Many men stamped into the road by tanks or shot trying to drink from a stream remain missing. </p><p>For most, the first leg of the Death March was sixty-five miles from the port of Mariveles at the southern tip of the Bataan Peninsula up the East Road to a train terminal at San Fernando. Others arrived at the East Road at the village of Pilar after a sixteen-mile trek from Bagac on the west side of Bataan. It took an average of five days in the tropical heat for the terrorized, sick, and starving men to reach the station. There they were stuffed standing one hundred at a time into small, unventilated boxcars for a twenty-four-mile ride north to the town of Capas. Many died in these rolling ovens.</p><p>The survivors were forced to walk another five miles to Camp O'Donnell, an unfinished Philippine Army training camp. With only two spigots of water and no sanitation, the camp was quickly compared with the Confederacy's Andersonville prison camp. Hundreds died of disease, starvation, dehydration, and despair. Most of the deaths from the Death March happened here or at its successor camp, Cabanatuan. </p><p>Survivors of the Bataan Death March endured three-and-a-half years of death camps, brutal labor, and unimaginable indignities and injury. Many were taken to Japan aboard hellships to be slave laborers for Japanese companies in Formosa, Japan, Manchuria, and Korea. Again they were denied food, medical care, clothes, and adequate housing. </p><p>Tenney ended up in Mitsui’s Omuta coal mine near Nagasaki. The working conditions were so severe that POWs traded their meager meals to have their arm or leg broken so that they would get a short reprieve from going back underground. Today, the mine is a UNESCO World Industrial Heritage site.</p><p>More than half the Americans taken prisoner on Bataan died before war’s end. This was greater than the overall death rate for American POWs of Japan, which was 40 percent. It was more deadly to be a POW than a combat Marine in the Pacific. By comparison, the death rate for Americans taken prisoner by the Nazis was less than two percent.</p><p>As horrifying as the Bataan Death March was, it was not an exception in Japan’s war. Other death marches were imposed upon American and Allied POWs throughout the Pacific.Torture and executions were commonplace. Death from overwork and malnutrition were the norm. Abuse was systematic.</p><p>How a country treats the defenseless and dependent is a measure of their citizens’ values. How the victims endure the neglect and damage inflicted upon them also reflects values. Like the men and women on Bataan, there is much to admire in the Ukrainians. They persist and endure.</p><p>As President Franklin D. Roosevelt said in August 1943, when the outcome of World War II was still uncertain, “The story of the fighting on Bataan and Corregidor—and, indeed, everywhere in the Philippines—will be remembered so long as men continue to respect bravery, and devotion, and determination.” This still holds true eighty years later.</p>Asia Policy Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784292872823996552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9026256712239783281.post-36720203075318049172022-04-10T15:13:00.000-04:002022-04-10T15:13:00.163-04:00That Famous Photo on Bataan - No Survivors<div class="field field-name-field-iptc-caption field-type-text-long field-label-inline clearfix">
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqRa8n9brrQoLBhaWVme4WLKB3OBM4DbJuMpkOzRXPsLpWWXcxjGjRkRklXA9WoYCC4d1GoviIkvN1fbb6vmJvhMrI4sKO-bOgJAPhqSMnsmQjEqOEKgSf09bmt2sC8nlxv891PVR2W-E/s1600/wwii1451.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1205" data-original-width="1600" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqRa8n9brrQoLBhaWVme4WLKB3OBM4DbJuMpkOzRXPsLpWWXcxjGjRkRklXA9WoYCC4d1GoviIkvN1fbb6vmJvhMrI4sKO-bOgJAPhqSMnsmQjEqOEKgSf09bmt2sC8nlxv891PVR2W-E/s320/wwii1451.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;">Captured Japanese Photo, </span><span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;">National Archives and Records <br /></span><span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;">Identifier: </span><span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;">NWDNS-127-N-114541</span></td></tr></tbody></table></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;"><div><b>Bataan Death March The First Day</b></div><div><b>April 9, 1942</b></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;">
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Private First Class Samuel Stenzler</b></i> (September 15, 1895-May 26, 1942)</div>
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Private First Class Frank Spear</b></i> </div><div style="text-align: center;">(April 15, 1919-July 9, 1945) </div>
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Captain James McDonald Gallagher </b></i></div><div style="text-align: center;">(October 18, 1915-April 9, 1942) </div>
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Their hands are bound because they were found to possess either Japanese money, personal photos of Japanese, or some other contraband. The figure to the extreme right is a Japanese soldier, who the three appear to be listening to. None of the three men would survive captivity.<br /><br />
<b><a href="https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/64125136/samuel-stenzler" target="_blank">Samuel Stenzler</a> </b>was born in Tluste, Poland (then part of Austria) to a Jewish family and immigrated to the United States as a child. He married and resided in San Antonio, Texas, applying for American citizenship in 1909. Stenzler registered for the draft in World War I and was<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> </span>a member of the American Expeditionary Force. He returned to civilian life following the war, but after the death of his wife, he rejoined the United States Army on February 27, 1940. He was assigned to Company C, 31st Infantry Regiment of the Philippine Division, the premier American fighting unit in the Philippines. The 31st Regiment fought in the Battles of Layac (January 6, 1942) and Abucay Hacienda (January 17-24, 1942). C Company renamed the Abucay battlefield "Dead Men's Hill" because of their losses and the high number of Japanese casualties. The 31st Infantry Regiment fought a delaying action through April 1942 but was short of food, ammunition, and reinforcements throughout the campaign; the unit never had more than 60% of its authorized strength available. Company C was surrendered on April 9, 1942 with the rest of the 31st Regiment. Stenzler, 46, died at Camp O'Donnell on May 26, 1942, probably because of disease and starvation. His remains were repatriated and reburied at Long Island National Cemetery on October 18, 1949.</div><div class="field-item even"><div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /></div>
<a href="https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56780440/frank-spear#add-to-vc" target="_blank"><b>Frank Spear </b></a>was born in Ledalis, Missouri. A Mormon, Spear enlisted on August 13, 1941 in Salt Lake City, Utah, and arrived in Manila aboard one of the last transports before the war began and was assigned to the Far East Air Force's 4th Chemical Company (Aviation). When the 31st Infantry was depleted in combat, Spear and the rest of 4th Chemical were assigned to the regiment because they had infantry training. Spears served with I Company after the Battle of Abucay Hacienda. After surviving Camp O'Donnell, Spear was sent on the hellship <i><a href="http://www.combinedfleet.com/koho_t.htm" target="_blank">Koho Maru </a></i>on September 20, 1943 to <a href="http://www.mansell.com/pow_resources/camplists/tokyo/niigata-5-b/niigata-5-b-main.htm" target="_blank">Tokyo POW Camp Niigata Camp 5-B</a>, arriving in Osaka, Japan on October 5. Camp Commandant Lt. Tetsutaro Kato personally executed Spear on July 9, 1945, after Spear became insane with hunger and had attempted to escape several times. Spear was bayoneted in front of the whole camp. Kato was sentenced to death for killing Spear by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, but his sentence was commuted to 20 years by General Douglas MacArthur. When control of Kato was returned to the Japanese government in 1950, he was released with time served in 1952. Kato wrote <a href="https://japanonfilm.wordpress.com/2021/03/19/i-want-to-be-a-shellfish-watashi-wa-kai-ni-naritai-1959/" target="_blank"><i>Watashi wa Kai ni Naritai </i>[I Want To Be A Shellfish]</a> a novel dramatizing his wartime experiences and incarceration, claiming he was ordered to kill Spear by his superiors. The novel was made into a successful television movie in 1959 by Tokyo Broadcasting Service, and remade for television in 2007 and into a theatrical film in 2008. Spear's insanity, brought on by years of malnutrition, confinement and torture, is not mentioned, nor is Spear mentioned by name. Spear is memorialized at the <a href="https://www.abmc.gov/cemeteries-memorials/pacific/manila-american-cemetery" target="_blank">Manila American Cemetery and Memorial</a>. <br />
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<b><a href="https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56767406/james-mcdonnell-gallagher" target="_blank">James M. Gallagher</a> </b>was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and graduated from Georgetown University in 1936. He attended Reserve Officers Training while in college. After college he joined the United States Army. When he arrived in the Philippines, he was assigned as a training officer to the 33rd Infantry Regiment of the 31st Infantry Division of the Philippine Army. Gallagher was killed the day this photo was taken or soon after. <a href="http://www.mansell.com/Resources/Letters_of_James_McDonald_Gallagher_KIA_on_Death_March.pdf" target="_blank">His family published a book of his letters home in memory of him</a>. Gallagher was also honored in the annual of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia. Gallagher was left off the official Prisoner of War rolls because he died on the Bataan Death March; his body was never recovered. He is also memorialized at <a href="https://www.abmc.gov/cemeteries-memorials/pacific/manila-american-cemetery" target="_blank">Manila American Cemetery and Memorial</a>. Gallagher was awarded the Silver Star, the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart. </div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9026256712239783281.post-60696872837524608962022-04-09T18:39:00.000-04:002022-04-09T18:39:24.535-04:00The Czechs on Bataan<p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8_N9vRfRtC-f8DO3P9fY8gG0eFwh8REBqUEBNBcfIJERA2QKcXz5swkHhwvOg0zsfXiClXn6iupTqWVazXKcK-U7ncmWmt0c7yWxB7KynzO6to2gpgO5ccG9RfydXgekp4a1DEB964p37cYGj9o3Lnk2vYM5hieygSI-ALjwQVJC-JC1NH0EQ2-5XTQ/s320/Czech%20Memorial.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="198" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8_N9vRfRtC-f8DO3P9fY8gG0eFwh8REBqUEBNBcfIJERA2QKcXz5swkHhwvOg0zsfXiClXn6iupTqWVazXKcK-U7ncmWmt0c7yWxB7KynzO6to2gpgO5ccG9RfydXgekp4a1DEB964p37cYGj9o3Lnk2vYM5hieygSI-ALjwQVJC-JC1NH0EQ2-5XTQ/s1600/Czech%20Memorial.jpeg" width="198" /></a></b></div><b>Czechoslovak courage: Volunteerism in World War II</b><p></p><p><i><a href="https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2022/04/09/2173302/czechoslovak-courage-volunteerism-world-war-ii" target="_blank">The Philippine Star </a></i></p><p>– Article submitted by the Embassy of the Czech Republic</p><p>April 9, 2022 </p><p>In line with the Day of the Valor or Araw ng Kagitingan celebrated today, programs to honor the heroic defense and valiant fight of the men and women of war are conducted. Aside from the Filipino and American soldiers, the Embassy of the Czech Republic also pays tribute to the Czechoslovak nationals who volunteered to defend the Philippines during the Second World War.</p><p>This story of the Czechoslovak defenders of Bataan is unique, though unknown. Since they were nationals of Czechoslovakia, which at that time was under Nazi protectorate, the Japanese forces had guaranteed their safety. Nonetheless, they still chose to offer their service and therefore, were considered as the only nationals to serve in the US Army Forces in the Far East (USAFFE) from countries occupied by the Nazi forces. In the words of Karel Aster, one of the Czech defenders of Bataan who passed in 2019, “Fighting for the Philippines at that time was like fighting for the liberty of Czechoslovakia.”</p><p>This period in the history of the Czech Republic and the Philippines leaves an indelible mark on Czech-Philippine relations. The courageous decision to fight for the liberty of a country that was not their own was captured not only in the shrine dedicated to them in Capas, Tarlac but also in the headstones and walls of the missing at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial.</p><p>With more than 16,000 graves of military dead and approximately 36,000 names on the Walls of the Missing, the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial is the largest of its kind. In the vastness of its lands, measuring 152 acres, lie the immense stories of the Second World War. These stories are the subject of an educational tour hosted by the erudite guide, Vicente Paolo Lim IV.</p><p>During the visit of the members of the Embassy of the Czech Republic led by Ambassador Jana Šedivá, Mr. Lim introduced that the stronghold in Bataan from Jan. 7, 1942 to April 9, 1942 delayed the Japanese forces from advancing in the Pacific, eventually leading to Allies’ victory in World War II.</p><p>He also shared the importance of the role played by the Czechoslovak volunteers during the war. For one, they were in charge of supply and logistics, and included in their responsibilities was to retrieve the rice-milling equipment in Abucay line, exposing them to 36-hour enemy fire. This rice-mill equipment was significant in increasing the ration of food for the US forces. Thus, Jan Bžoch, Pavel (Paul) Fuchs, Leo Hermann, Fred Lenk, Otto Hirsch and Arnošt Morávek earned the American Medal of Freedom – the highest civilian distinction of the US.</p><p>Among those who volunteered, two of the graves are found at the Manila American Cemetery: Leo Hermann and Pavel (Paul) Fuchs. Each of them carried unique experiences during the war. Based on archival records, Hermann died as a prisoner of war in the Japanese concentration camp, Fukuoka, on April 2, 1945. Meanwhile, Fuchs passed in Camp O’Donnell on May 25, 1942 due to dysentery. Aside from the Czechoslovaks who volunteered for the Allied forces during the war, another grave of an American soldier of Czech origin was visited. Charles Stejskal was assigned as an infantry replacement to M Company, 172nd Infantry 43rd Infantry Division who participated in the Lingayen Gulf invasion and other subsequent operations. He was killed on Jan. 24, 1945 near the town of Rosario in Northern Luzon.</p><p>The Czechoslovak volunteers experienced various horrors in the war – from encounters with artillery fire; the infamous death march; prisoner of war camps and the hell ships where lives were lost, and in all these stories the common theme of horror and desperation is evident.</p><p>Mr. Lim is the great-grandson of a Philippine war hero, Brigadier General Vicente Lim, who heroically laid down his life for his country. For him, the dedication to tell the stories of World War II is a personal mission in order to serve as a reminder of the havoc of wars.</p><p>Similar to the story of Czechoslovak volunteers, Brig. Gen. Lim dedicated his life to defend the Philippines from foreign powers. His tactical mind and strength in strategy helped in the stronghold of Bataan. It was also in Bataan that the Czechoslovak volunteers and Brig. Gen. Lim fought together; while the Czechoslovak volunteers were dismantling and retrieving the rice mill, Brig. Gen. Lim was with the 41st Infantry Division, commanding the frontline for defence. With Mr. Lim’s personal affiliation with the story of Bataan through his great-grandfather, it has become important for him to tell the story of the past so that people will learn from it and not commit the same errors.</p><p>The visit to the cemetery was also very personal for Ambassador Šedivá. With the ongoing war in Europe when Ukraine is facing an unprovoked invasion from Russia, it is timely to remember the history and lessons of previous World Wars.</p><p>“It is important that we recall the lessons of the past – that there are no victors in wars, and civilians, especially women and children, remain to be at risk the most. While the war seems far from our door, we will all be affected in one way or another, regardless of where we are,” remarked Ambassador Šedivá.</p><p>The Czech Republic, as one of the countries that have previously been occupied by foreign invaders, remains steadfast in its commitment to remember the past and to stand for those whose liberty is challenged. In celebration of the Day of the Valor or Araw ng Kagitingan, the Embassy of the Czech Republic recalls the past and remembers those who laid down their lives for freedom.</p><p>And, in the continuing fight and worsening situation in Ukraine, it encourages the public to continue to call on all parties of the conflict to fully respect international law, and to avoid repeating the horrors of the past. </p>Asia Policy Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784292872823996552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9026256712239783281.post-46103033554640721372022-04-06T23:35:00.016-04:002022-04-07T10:33:40.399-04:00Remembering the Bataan Death March<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK7tVUEzHOr33909Qf-UrbMpE4WWX9i_Z02wDMgmce3kdjYsFdxqBl2KQMOFCzTqAdvDQVbwjlTkH8mvTZ_YM_GU4jgOMAelzHa09yTY3kto0_6xh69Oua4Zw1ujHllaJA_-RFV0VKut3ZYS7U7mPRRb1Vt5y9jvmIOUmRw87E1McYDTv6ntcV6fal0g/s3000/Marchsketch%20%20BDM.jpeg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1834" data-original-width="3000" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK7tVUEzHOr33909Qf-UrbMpE4WWX9i_Z02wDMgmce3kdjYsFdxqBl2KQMOFCzTqAdvDQVbwjlTkH8mvTZ_YM_GU4jgOMAelzHa09yTY3kto0_6xh69Oua4Zw1ujHllaJA_-RFV0VKut3ZYS7U7mPRRb1Vt5y9jvmIOUmRw87E1McYDTv6ntcV6fal0g/w320-h195/Marchsketch%20%20BDM.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>Eighty years ago this week, the men and women on the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines were fighting against all odds.<p></p>Four months of combat starting when Japan attacked the Philippines within hours of bombing Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941 and three months of starvation diet, air and artillery bombardment, and disease had taken their toll. The U.S.-British Europe-first war policy combined with Japan's control of the sea and air was fundamental to the failure of supply and reinforcement.<br /><br />In the early morning hours of April 9th, the new (March 11) commanding general of Am-Fil forces on the Bataan Peninsula, Major General Edward P. King Jr., decided that his troops would face slaughter if they tried to continue to fight. Fully aware that the 9th was the anniversary of the South's 1865 surrender at Appomattox, he ordered the men and women under his command—against General Douglas MacArthur’s orders—to surrender. Thus, 78,000 troops (66,000 Filipinos and 12,000 Americans were taken captive by Imperial Japan. Possibly 10,000 were in two field hospitals at the time. This is the largest contingent of U.S. soldiers ever to surrender.<br /><br />Focused on saving his exhausted and ailing troops, General King could not imagine the horrors that surrender would hold. The same day as surrender, the Japanese put the survivors on what has become known as the Bataan Death March (BDM). It is estimated at maybe 2,000 either swam the three shark-infested, mined miles to the Fortress Island of Corregidor (NB: no one on Corregidor was on the BDM) or disappeared into the jungle. Those who made it to Corregidor became immediately members of the 4th Marines fighting shore defense. Corregidor was surrendered May 6th.<br /><br />During the infamous Bataan Death March the Japanese neglected the sick and killed the wounded; denied the POWs food, water, and medical care; and abused, robbed, and tortured them. These acts were both capricious and systematic. They became a constant for every POW of Imperial Japan. Thousands died. The first leg of the BDM March was 65 miles from the port of Mariveles at the southern tip of the Bataan Peninsula up the East Road to a train terminal at San Fernando. There the men were stuffed standing one hundred at a time into unventilated box cars for a 24 mile ride north to Capas. There the survivors--many died standing--were forced to walk another four miles to an unfinished Philippine Army training camp that was Japan's first POW camp on the Islands, Camp O'Donnell. With only two spigots for water, the camp was quickly compared with the Confederacy's Andersonville prison camp. Most of the deaths from the March happened here or at its successor camp Cabanatuan.<br /><br />Survivors of the March endured three and a half years of death camps, brutal labor, and unimaginable indignities and injury. Many were taken to Japan aboard hell ships to be slave laborers for Japanese companies. More than half the Americans taken prisoner on Bataan died before war’s end.<span class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span>The death rate for American POWs of Japan was 40%, whereas for those in Nazi <span class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;"></span>POW camps it was less than 2%.<br /><br /><div>Thus, April 9th, are the 80th anniversaries of the fall of the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines and the start of the Bataan Death March. The BDM is one the greatest war crimes of World War II. So seminal in American history were these events that Bataan is part of the American lexicon as a metaphor for a tortuous undertaking and is the origin for this week’s National Former POW Recognition Day.<br /><br /><img alt="🖋" aria-label="🖋" class="an1" data-emoji="🖋" loading="lazy" src="https://fonts.gstatic.com/s/e/notoemoji/14.0/1f58b/72.png" style="height: 1.2em; vertical-align: middle; width: 1.2em;" />If you want your congressperson or two senators to remember this eventful day, I urge you to contact them immediately and ask why they are going into recess on Thursday without offering any statements or attending any memorial events. A Tweet will not do.<span class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span>Here is American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Memorial Society Jan Thompson' s testimony last month to the House and Senate Veterans Committees., <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.veterans.senate.gov/services/files/592D704A-75C7-4392-BF1A-523B0ABB814B&source=gmail&ust=1649372439355000&usg=AOvVaw28-6vD_8bpdeRb49TxAfDv" href="https://www.veterans.senate.gov/services/files/592D704A-75C7-4392-BF1A-523B0ABB814B" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">https://www.veterans.senate.<wbr></wbr>gov/services/files/592D704A-<wbr></wbr>75C7-4392-BF1A-523B0ABB814B</a></div><div><br /></div><div><img alt="💮" aria-label="💮" class="an1" data-emoji="💮" loading="lazy" src="https://fonts.gstatic.com/s/e/notoemoji/14.0/1f4ae/72.png" style="height: 1.2em; vertical-align: middle; width: 1.2em;" />The Japanese have not forgotten. They arranged and have leaked the fact that the Speaker of the House of Representatives and a large delegation of members of congress will meet with the Japanese PM in Tokyo on April 9th.<br /><br />If you want to participate in a memorial event, <span class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;"></span>here is a list of what I could find. </div><div style="border-left: none; display: flex; font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; padding: 0px;"><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; width: 1595.56px;"><div id="m_-8884231474601500080gmail-:114" style="direction: ltr; font-size: 0.875rem; margin: 8px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><div id="m_-8884231474601500080gmail-:115" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 1.5; overflow: hidden;"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default"><div style="color: #26282a; font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;"><span id="m_-8884231474601500080gmail-docs-internal-guid-eb3658c4-7fff-f327-1ab4-7027b702b1db"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1. FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 11:00 am. World War II Memorial, Washington, DC.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hosted by The Philippine Embassy </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Annual ceremony at the National WWII Memorial by the Pacific Victory Arch at the Southern Fountain Coping by the engravings of the words “Bataan” and “Corregidor” </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nps.gov/wwii/index.htm&source=gmail&ust=1649372439355000&usg=AOvVaw0JtP1OgyiYNYRgV26Gonv-" href="https://www.nps.gov/wwii/index.htm" style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://www.nps.gov/wwii/<wbr></wbr>index.htm</span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.wwiimemorialfriends.org/&source=gmail&ust=1649372439355000&usg=AOvVaw2_0d2LMR4y0PJ_jGfWOtPw" href="https://www.wwiimemorialfriends.org/" style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://www.<wbr></wbr>wwiimemorialfriends.org/</span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Philippine Ambassador and Filipino military officials attend. Helping organize the event is Filipino Veterans Recognition and Education Project (</span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Ffilvetrep.org%252F%26data%3D04%257C01%257C%257Cd9147b4d12324231d1b408d9fd69a0a5%257Ce95f1b23abaf45ee821db7ab251ab3bf%257C0%257C0%257C637819453617509311%257CUnknown%257CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%253D%257C3000%26sdata%3DRJ60LcwA%252FSKPGMhFp2ghSl38RHR%252BMa7Rm%252B77vhnSi7k%253D%26reserved%3D0&source=gmail&ust=1649372439355000&usg=AOvVaw01N3On_7XqWhykIaXuzVWl" href="https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffilvetrep.org%2F&data=04%7C01%7C%7Cd9147b4d12324231d1b408d9fd69a0a5%7Ce95f1b23abaf45ee821db7ab251ab3bf%7C0%7C0%7C637819453617509311%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=RJ60LcwA%2FSKPGMhFp2ghSl38RHR%2BMa7Rm%2B77vhnSi7k%3D&reserved=0" style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">FilVetREP</span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">) that is headed by </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">General Tony Taguba,</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> who is best known for his investigation of the war crimes at Abu Ghraib prison. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On April 2nd</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://filvetrep.org/bataan-memorial-death-march-2022/&source=gmail&ust=1649372439355000&usg=AOvVaw2_G8OfOGVQsAt6Qzid8FMf" href="https://filvetrep.org/bataan-memorial-death-march-2022/" style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">FilVetsREPs hosted a memorial walk/run</span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> at </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Marina on Daingerfield Island in Alexandria, Virginia.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Contact: </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Filipino Veterans Recognition and Education Project</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">5002 Halley Farm Ct.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Alexandria, VA 22309</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="mailto:info@filvetrep.org" style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">info@filvetrep.org</span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2. SUNDAY, APRIL 10, 11:30 am, </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fuss-hornet.org%252Fcalendar%252Fbataan-death-march-80th-anniversary-event%26data%3D04%257C01%257C%257Cd9147b4d12324231d1b408d9fd69a0a5%257Ce95f1b23abaf45ee821db7ab251ab3bf%257C0%257C0%257C637819453617509311%257CUnknown%257CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%253D%257C3000%26sdata%3DBT2BhKPxZFhzoTBvr9kPV4VrxAsVORtFG%252BqYtujxdqY%253D%26reserved%3D0&source=gmail&ust=1649372439355000&usg=AOvVaw2PyYoIFttc9fsjd5Veh5DP" href="https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fuss-hornet.org%2Fcalendar%2Fbataan-death-march-80th-anniversary-event&data=04%7C01%7C%7Cd9147b4d12324231d1b408d9fd69a0a5%7Ce95f1b23abaf45ee821db7ab251ab3bf%7C0%7C0%7C637819453617509311%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=BT2BhKPxZFhzoTBvr9kPV4VrxAsVORtFG%2BqYtujxdqY%3D&reserved=0" style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">USS Hornet Sea, Air & Space Museum Alameda, CA</span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hosted by </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.bataanlegacy.org%252Findex.html%26data%3D04%257C01%257C%257Cd9147b4d12324231d1b408d9fd69a0a5%257Ce95f1b23abaf45ee821db7ab251ab3bf%257C0%257C0%257C637819453617509311%257CUnknown%257CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%253D%257C3000%26sdata%3D6HMf76bh2PSao47KeUMB%252FtDa08XbaymADCncpNcGoNs%253D%26reserved%3D0&source=gmail&ust=1649372439355000&usg=AOvVaw0-2_Dxq0-A0qmi5N7Yqfb8" href="https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bataanlegacy.org%2Findex.html&data=04%7C01%7C%7Cd9147b4d12324231d1b408d9fd69a0a5%7Ce95f1b23abaf45ee821db7ab251ab3bf%7C0%7C0%7C637819453617509311%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=6HMf76bh2PSao47KeUMB%2FtDa08XbaymADCncpNcGoNs%3D&reserved=0" style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bataan Legacy Historical Society,</span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> the </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.philippinescouts.org/&source=gmail&ust=1649372439355000&usg=AOvVaw1u-8B67f96eAbFxGJwcTjM" href="https://www.philippinescouts.org/" style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Philippine Scouts Heritage Society</span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and the </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.adbcmemorialsociety.org/&source=gmail&ust=1649372439355000&usg=AOvVaw1f7oWR2JK7sbGiHHGZLTNI" href="https://www.adbcmemorialsociety.org/" style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Memorial Society</span></a></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Remembrance and Reconciliation, Bataan Death March 80th and honoring those on the three ship hellship voyage to Japan from December 1944 to January 1945</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Planes from the USS </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hornet</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> bombed two of the ships, killing over 600 POWs. These men included </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Amb Walter Mondale's first cousin </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and the </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Smothers Brothers' father</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Of the 1,600 men who boarded the </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Oryoku Maru</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in Manila on December 13, 1944, less than 300 survived the war. The event is organized by the Filipino American organization, </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.bataanlegacy.org%252Findex.html%26data%3D04%257C01%257C%257Cd9147b4d12324231d1b408d9fd69a0a5%257Ce95f1b23abaf45ee821db7ab251ab3bf%257C0%257C0%257C637819453617509311%257CUnknown%257CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%253D%257C3000%26sdata%3D6HMf76bh2PSao47KeUMB%252FtDa08XbaymADCncpNcGoNs%253D%26reserved%3D0&source=gmail&ust=1649372439355000&usg=AOvVaw0-2_Dxq0-A0qmi5N7Yqfb8" href="https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bataanlegacy.org%2Findex.html&data=04%7C01%7C%7Cd9147b4d12324231d1b408d9fd69a0a5%7Ce95f1b23abaf45ee821db7ab251ab3bf%7C0%7C0%7C637819453617509311%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=6HMf76bh2PSao47KeUMB%2FtDa08XbaymADCncpNcGoNs%3D&reserved=0" style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bataan Legacy Historical Society.</span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Governor Gavin Newsom</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> has been invited. His maternal grandfather Arthur Menzies was with 60th Coast Artillery Regiment on Corregidor. He was a POW who was taken by hellship to Japan where he was a slave laborer for </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.mansell.com%252Fpow_resources%252Fcamplists%252Ffukuoka%252Ffuku_07_futase%252Ffuku_07_futase_main.html%26data%3D04%257C01%257C%257Cd9147b4d12324231d1b408d9fd69a0a5%257Ce95f1b23abaf45ee821db7ab251ab3bf%257C0%257C0%257C637819453617509311%257CUnknown%257CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%253D%257C3000%26sdata%3D4C96dtDS40JJsXDurr1Mt%252By4r5q7fJ10RvUzuxY7owM%253D%26reserved%3D0&source=gmail&ust=1649372439356000&usg=AOvVaw0V33Uktv2nLQr0cIRWGMlE" href="https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mansell.com%2Fpow_resources%2Fcamplists%2Ffukuoka%2Ffuku_07_futase%2Ffuku_07_futase_main.html&data=04%7C01%7C%7Cd9147b4d12324231d1b408d9fd69a0a5%7Ce95f1b23abaf45ee821db7ab251ab3bf%7C0%7C0%7C637819453617509311%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=4C96dtDS40JJsXDurr1Mt%2By4r5q7fJ10RvUzuxY7owM%3D&reserved=0" style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Nippon Steel mining coal</span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Menzies committed sucide in front of his twin daughters in 1973 when Newsom was 6. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Contact: Cecilia I. Gaerlan, Executive Director,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bataan Legacy History Society</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(510) 520-8540, </span><a href="mailto:cecilia@bataanlegacy.org" style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">cecilia@bataanlegacy.org</span></a><span style="color: #1a73e8; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.bataanlegacy.org/index.html&source=gmail&ust=1649372439356000&usg=AOvVaw3Q_I9PpqupX4HokqnLhKLQ" href="http://www.bataanlegacy.org/index.html" style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.bataanlegacy.org/<wbr></wbr>index.html</span></a><span style="color: #1a73e8; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: #fefefe; color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">3. SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 1:00pm Symbolic March, 2:00 pm Program, </span><span style="color: #050505; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dominican College,</span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: #fefefe; color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Orangeburg, NY</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hosted by the Philippine American Cultural Foundation</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: #fefefe; color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Remember Bataan</span><span style="background-color: #fefefe; color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span><span style="background-color: #fefefe; color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Symbolic March on Bataan Road at the site of the former Fort Shanks, followed by a formal program at </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.dc.edu/&source=gmail&ust=1649372439356000&usg=AOvVaw0cxsJoIG6CD-mYBlOxBPyr" href="https://www.dc.edu/" style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: #fefefe; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dominican College.</span></a><span style="background-color: #fefefe; color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><div dir="ltr">WATCH the Symposium via Live-Stream, starting at 4:00 pm EDT, <a href="https://dc-edu.zoom.us/j/91618445439?pwd=Wk1CT2ptcWM1WGtMUDJTd1lqZDlndz09" target="_blank">HERE</a>.</div><div dir="ltr">Program HERE.</div><div dir="ltr"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gathering for March at 12:30pm at Tappan Zee High School, Dutch Hill Rd., Orangeburg, NY,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Program at Dominican College, Hennessy Center, 495 Western Hwy S, Blauvelt, NY 10913</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Camp Shanks was built when the story of Bataan was still fresh in everyone’s memory. Two intersecting streets at the camp were named Bataan Road and Victory Road. This was to remind the troops departing for Europe that if they could emulate the courage, fortitude and spirit of men on Bataan and Corregidor victory would be achieved.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Contact: Jerome Kleiman, Executive Director</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rememberbataan.org/&source=gmail&ust=1649372439356000&usg=AOvVaw1QVh8kOhQT2Wpu0NKFTa-L" href="https://rememberbataan.org/" style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Philippine American Cultural Foundation</span></a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (845) 641-4217</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><a href="mailto:jeromekleiman@att.net" style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">jeromekleiman@att.net</span></a></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">4.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">MARCH 20th – 27th.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">White Sands, New Mexico</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hosted by the </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">White Sands Missile Range and the New Mexico National Guard</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Annual Memorial Death March organized since 1989</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The past two years has been held as a virtual only event.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The March has grown from 100 to almost 10,000 in the last in-person event.A number of Senators would join.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Contact: White Sands Missile Range Public Affairs Office </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">FMWR-Bataan P.O. Box 400</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">White Sands Missile Range, NM 88002</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://bataanmarch.com/&source=gmail&ust=1649372439356000&usg=AOvVaw2I-mbMIGTaRwXAgjWM_b0B" href="https://bataanmarch.com/" style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://bataanmarch.com/</span></a></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://usarmy.wsmr.atec.list.pao@mail.mil&source=gmail&ust=1649372439356000&usg=AOvVaw2nsmaW_MA1OmKduEc_UuU_" href="http://usarmy.wsmr.atec.list.pao@mail.mil/" style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">usarmy.wsmr.atec.list.pao@<wbr></wbr>mail.mil </span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">5. SATURDAY, APRIL 2, 2022, Noon</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (Closing Ceremony), Chesapeake, Virginia</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hosted by the VFW, SSG Jonathan Kilian Dozier Memorial Post 2894</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Annual Bataan Death March Memorial Walk held at the </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dismal Swamp Canal Trail,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1113 George Washington Hwy, Chesapeake, VA 23323</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The event consists of three different walks starting at 7:00 am of various distances as well as a memorial ceremony dedicated to the survivors and other veterans. The event is open to all.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://walkchesapeake.wixsite.com/chesapeakebataan&source=gmail&ust=1649372439356000&usg=AOvVaw3Okq0CCzOhmkNaO75kKPBJ" href="https://walkchesapeake.wixsite.com/chesapeakebataan" style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://walkchesapeake.<wbr></wbr>wixsite.com/chesapeakebataan</span></a></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Contact: </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">LTC Carl M. Dozier, AUS, Ret. Gold Star Father, </span><a href="mailto:bulldoziero5@gmail.com" style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">bulldoziero5@gmail.com</span></a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">VFW Post 2894 commander or </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jose Vazquez, (757) 362-4227, </span><a href="mailto:jose@latinopridestore.com" style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">jose@latinopridestore.com</span></a><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">or </span><a href="mailto:walk.chesapeake@gmail.com" style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">walk.chesapeake@gmail.com</span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">6.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 10:00 am, Wreath Laying Ceremony, </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Brainerd, Minnesota</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hosted by the Brainerd National Guard 1st Combined Arms Battalion, 194th Armor Regiment </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Annual ceremony at the Brainerd Training and Community Center (National Guard Armory), 1115 Wright St., Brainerd, MN 56401</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The ceremony be livestreamed on the following Facebook pages: </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.facebook.com/194thRegimentBataan&source=gmail&ust=1649372439356000&usg=AOvVaw3PiZ1bl8HJ5wIYi_yq0T4A" href="https://www.facebook.com/194thRegimentBataan" style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://www.facebook.com/<wbr></wbr>194thRegimentBataan</span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.facebook.com/194Armor/&source=gmail&ust=1649372439356000&usg=AOvVaw3KCAi4CptPg7-XeFfhDean" href="https://www.facebook.com/194Armor/" style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://www.facebook.com/<wbr></wbr>194Armor/</span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On September</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> 22nd</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> there is a Memorial Death March run.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Contact: (651) 268-8113, </span><a href="mailto:194regiment@gmail.com" style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">194regiment@gmail.com</span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Event contacts: Capt Michael Popp, (651) 268-8681</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sgt First Class Jade Caponi, (651) 268-8123,</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://jade.a.caponi.mil@army.mil&source=gmail&ust=1649372439356000&usg=AOvVaw0aObjMurCriUOW2LVteU4S" href="http://jade.a.caponi.mil@army.mil/" style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">jade.a.caponi.mil@army.mil </span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Battalion Commander, Lt Col Jacob Hegestad </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">7. SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 10:00 am - 4:00 pm, Rededication of </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bataan Memorial Park, </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fort Bayard, New Mexico</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hosted by several community organizations</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Annual festival and commemoration.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> This year’s event will take place between 10:00 am and 4:00 pm. </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.grantcountycommunityfoundation.org/fiscal-sponsees-2-1&source=gmail&ust=1649372439356000&usg=AOvVaw0VAz8plZ3VQLe8Ii3zN4dK" href="https://www.grantcountycommunityfoundation.org/fiscal-sponsees-2-1" style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://www.<wbr></wbr>grantcountycommunityfoundation<wbr></wbr>.org/fiscal-sponsees-2-1</span></a></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.facebook.com/events/711559393170557/?active_tab%3Ddiscussion&source=gmail&ust=1649372439356000&usg=AOvVaw3RW-BbQmDE5HoeoAtX8Mr0" href="https://www.facebook.com/events/711559393170557/?active_tab=discussion" style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://www.facebook.com/<wbr></wbr>events/711559393170557/?<wbr></wbr>active_tab=discussion</span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Contact: Ms. Liz Lopez, (575) 574-2964, </span><a href="mailto:egarcia3264@gmail.com" style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">egarcia3264@gmail.com</span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">8. SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 6:00 am, Bataan Death March Commemoration</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Valdosta, Georgia</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hosted by </span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">First held in 2021. </span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The course is broken up into three legs, each 8.7 miles long, Marchers can cover one or two legs or complete the whole course</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Contact: Lt Rob Picciotti, </span><a href="mailto:lcsobdmt2022@gmail.com" style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">lcsobdmt2022@gmail.com</span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> with the subject line “BATAAN MARCH.” $20 fee.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">9. </span><span style="color: #050505; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">INDEFINITELY POSTPONED, </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bataan Memorial Park, Albuquerque, New Mexico</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Honoring New Mexico's 200th and 515th Coast Artillery men, defenders of Luzon, Bataan and Corregidor</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.krqe.com/interactives/map-new-mexico-veterans-monuments-and-memorials/&source=gmail&ust=1649372439356000&usg=AOvVaw3U78Eu8jMTZzvY5VnjEuvH" href="https://www.krqe.com/interactives/map-new-mexico-veterans-monuments-and-memorials/" style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://www.krqe.com/<wbr></wbr>interactives/map-new-mexico-<wbr></wbr>veterans-monuments-and-<wbr></wbr>memorials/</span></a><span style="color: #050505; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.cabq.gov/parksandrecreation/parks/prescription-trails/87106/bataan-park&source=gmail&ust=1649372439356000&usg=AOvVaw2gI324FJ0UPMb4Rt2UgFSS" href="https://www.cabq.gov/parksandrecreation/parks/prescription-trails/87106/bataan-park" style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://www.cabq.gov/<wbr></wbr>parksandrecreation/parks/<wbr></wbr>prescription-trails/87106/<wbr></wbr>bataan-park</span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.8; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Contact: (505) 226-4899, </span><a href="mailto:bataan.nm@gmail.com" style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">bataan.nm@gmail.com</span></a><span style="color: #3c4043; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">10. SATURDAY, MAY 7, 10:00am-Noon, Bataan & Corregidor Commemoration</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hosted by the ADBC Museum, Education & Research Center, Wellsburg, West Virginia</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Memorial service followed by lunch at the ADBC Museum, Education & Research Center,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Contact: Mr. James S. Brockman, Curator</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">945 Main Street, Wellsburg, WV 26070, (304) 737-7295, </span><a href="mailto:jim.brockman@wvlc.lib.wv.us" style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">jim.brockman@wvlc.lib.wv.us</span></a><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://adbcmuseum.com/&source=gmail&ust=1649372439356000&usg=AOvVaw3KydCUQieliDV8p6S1Yhoy" href="https://adbcmuseum.com/" style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://adbcmuseum.com/</span></a><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">11. SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2022. Maywood Bataan Day, Maywood, Illinois</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Maywood Bataan Day Organization</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Every Third Sunday in September. </span><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Begun in 1942, by the American Bataan Clan (ABC)m it is the oldest continual ceremony honoring the men of Company B, 192nd Tank Battalion who fought on Bataan. The town had the greatest number of soldiers from one town on the Bataan Death March. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of the featured speakers at the first rally was Illinois Governor Green (1941 – 1949), who remarked, “…the heroism of the men who defended Bataan and Corregidor and our other outposts will endure forever, giving new inspiration and new courage to free men everywhere”.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Contact: Col Richard A Mcmahon, Jr., President, </span><a href="mailto:ramcmahon1@aol.com" style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ramcmahon1@aol.com</span></a><span style="color: #050505; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://mbdo.org/&source=gmail&ust=1649372439356000&usg=AOvVaw1pQfOotjDEeswxNXjRTjNu" href="https://mbdo.org/" style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://mbdo.org/</span></a><span style="color: #050505; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p></span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Asia Policy Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784292872823996552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9026256712239783281.post-20573528835370698092022-03-26T13:54:00.000-04:002022-03-26T13:54:24.574-04:00Reminding Congress of its debt to the POWs of Japan<p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAJNKFNHDkIxBI3bZjXEkwjSecWQ970UhhrBrMNaew6EoClFgT5AiSE-0iZXiKIhwjM6pfWZdG1Lm1AV9PX9ehrkVeJvXzxxCUE579c1iJkAfgoCc1MEkxcXlUhsn4QJA8A9nRzxN4VcuwcuP8KOqR1_Ytwo8IwHcOGqK26l5I5lGOzWGBx97YkD1u7g/s3589/TAKANO%202.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3589" data-original-width="2832" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAJNKFNHDkIxBI3bZjXEkwjSecWQ970UhhrBrMNaew6EoClFgT5AiSE-0iZXiKIhwjM6pfWZdG1Lm1AV9PX9ehrkVeJvXzxxCUE579c1iJkAfgoCc1MEkxcXlUhsn4QJA8A9nRzxN4VcuwcuP8KOqR1_Ytwo8IwHcOGqK26l5I5lGOzWGBx97YkD1u7g/w158-h200/TAKANO%202.jpeg" width="158" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rep Mark Takano</td></tr></tbody></table>On March 8, 2022, the president of the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Memorial Society, Ms. Jan Thompson, testified <i>in person</i> to the <a href="https://veterans.house.gov/events/hearings/03/02/2022/joint-house-and-senate-vso-legislative-presentation" target="_blank">joint hearing of the Senate and House Veterans Affairs Committee</a> to learn the legislative concerns of the country's Veteran Service Organization (VSO).</p><p>For years, the ADBC was only allowed to submit testimony for the record. This year, for the 80th Anniversary of Bataan Death March and the fall of the Philippines to the invading Japanese Empire, Ms. Thompson was invited to give testimony in person to remind the Committee members of the important American history she protects and how the sacrifice of the American POWs in the Pacific continues to inspire.</p><p>After Ms. Thompson's testimony, House Veterans Affair Committee Chairman <a href="https://takano.house.gov/" target="_blank">Mark Takano (D-CA)</a> said: </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p><i>Thank you, Ms. Thompson, for your testimony. I will ask my staff to brief me on the status of the legislation that you have brought up. </i></p><p><i>Let me just say that I, too, believe this history is so important. The sacrifice of our World War II veterans in the Pacific and, specifically, those that served, those that endured the hellships and those that endured the Bataan Death March. We must remember their sacrifice. We must face up to history, no matter how terrible it is. We must encourage our ally Japan, to do that. We must live up to those ideals for ourselves, as well, to face our own history. So, thank you so much for your testimony and thank you so much for the work that you do. </i></p></blockquote><p><b>HERE IS WHAT PRESIDENT JAN THOMPSON SAID THAT ELICITED THAT RESPONSE:</b></p><p><i><b>HER FULL WRITTEN TESTIMONY CAN BE FOUND <a href="https://www.veterans.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/ADBC-MS%20testimony%2003.08.22.pdf" target="_blank">HERE</a></b>.</i></p><p><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Ms. Thompson. Chairmen Tester and Takano, Ranking Members Moran and Bost, and members of the Senate and House Veterans Affairs Committee, thank you for inviting me to speak about the American POWs of the Empire of Japan during World War II. We honor these American men and women as the heroes who deserve recognition by Congress and America, as a whole. They have largely been forgotten and we must remedy this. </p><p><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>I represent the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Memorial Society and I am the daughter of one of those POWs. The ADBC-MS Society represents the men and women who defended American territories and allies in the Pacific, such as Guam, Wake, Midway, Java, the Philippines, and the Marianas. </p><p><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Within the first six months of the war, by June 1942, the majority became prisoners of war. Our mission is to preserve the history of the American POW experience in the Pacific and to teach future generations of the POW's sacrifice, courage, determination, and faith, as this is the essence of the American Spirit. </p><p><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Like today's Ukrainians, the Americans in the Pacific were fighting a formidable invader. The Empire of Japan also had far superior equipment and armed forces. Although Guam fell within days of Pearl Harbor, the Marines and civilians on Wake Island held out for a legendary two weeks and the American and Filipino defenders in the Philippines repelled the Japanese Army for nearly 5 months. They fought with outdated weapons, lacking medicine, ammunition, and supplies. Help did not come from the United States. </p><p><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The men on the Bataan Peninsula were surrendered 80 years ago next month. Those surrendered on Bataan endured what is now known as the Bataan Death March and, as Senator Tester said in his opening remarks, this April 9th, marks the eightieth anniversary of the Bataan Death March. </p><p><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Less than one month later, on May 6th, the fortress island of Corregidor was surrendered and the rest of the American and Filipino units scattered throughout the 7,000 islands of the Philippines soon followed. </p><p><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Some of you know about the Bataan Death March, but few of you know about the beheadings of Wake Island Marines or the machine gunning of American sailors who survived the sinking of the USS Houston or the deadly imprisonment in Japan of the indigenous people of Attu from Alaska. </p><p><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>To survive the surrender was just one hurdle, because each day of the POW's captivity, three and a half years, was a constant struggle for survival. All the POWs, American and Allied, were starved, denied medical care, refused clothing, routinely beaten, and murdered. Some POWs became human experiments. Some aviators were executed, followed by a ritualistic eating of their livers. And others, without reason, such as on Wake and Palawan, were simply massacred. </p><p><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>As the war progressed, the majority of the POWs were shipped throughout the Empire on what were called "hellships" to be slave laborers for private Japanese companies. All of these hellships were unmarked. Many were sunk by American bombers or submarines. </p><p><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Thousands of American POWs died by friendly fire. For those who survived captivity, returning home presented another battle. Some POWs were forced to sign gag orders about the horrors they experienced. Many of them could not articulate what had happened to them or what they had witnessed and it took a very long time for the Veterans Administration to recognize they all had returned home with a disability. </p><p><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The sacrifice and resilience of the American POWs of Japan, especially in light of today's events, should not be forgotten. Their courage continues to inspire. </p><p><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>To this end, in this year of the eightieth anniversaries, I request that Congress immediately approve an accurate and inclusive Congressional Gold Medal for America's early defenders of the Pacific who fell to Japan. They are the most diverse World War II cohort to be considered for the Congressional Gold Medal. </p><p><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The U.S.-Japan alliance is very strong today and we ask Congress to encourage the Japanese in the following: to institutionalize the reconciliation program that was started in 2010 with the ADBC Memorial Society. The current POW Japan Friendship Program should be expanded. Japan's UNESCO industrial heritage sites need to acknowledge POW slave labor and a world-class memorial should be installed at the Port of Moji, where most POWs entered Japan on the hellships. </p><p><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The epic battles of Bataan and Corregidor were a symbol of hope and a beacon of our future success. They should not be forgotten. It is time to honor these men and women. </p>Asia Policy Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784292872823996552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9026256712239783281.post-75625746743787715482021-12-09T18:04:00.000-05:002021-12-09T18:04:25.878-05:00<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEibuVrHK6am1wnZVD6JGc6lwM86mEqbVo61f4bqKDGs19NXmcn_dJt3jlm08kpioeshzLPnVBBSutwbdla8EhPKRbntoeMYhjrYgr9f6rrY473OuQsfn7_tbC5jYi8BOQ-NHNpZMQR-HerHKVPCJKDdlsT5YseO8BF__kRbMTVV7eYNiacGsDa0lqcygQ=s2856" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2856" data-original-width="2244" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEibuVrHK6am1wnZVD6JGc6lwM86mEqbVo61f4bqKDGs19NXmcn_dJt3jlm08kpioeshzLPnVBBSutwbdla8EhPKRbntoeMYhjrYgr9f6rrY473OuQsfn7_tbC5jYi8BOQ-NHNpZMQR-HerHKVPCJKDdlsT5YseO8BF__kRbMTVV7eYNiacGsDa0lqcygQ=s320" width="251" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Brooks Field dedicated in 1942 to a heroic <br />African American tanker</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">IN RECOGNITION OF PRIVATE ROBERT H. BROOKS AND THE 80TH ANNIVERSARY OF
THE ATTACK ON PEARL HARBOR </div><div style="text-align: center;"> ______ </div><div style="text-align: center;"> <a href="https://guthrie.house.gov/" target="_blank">HON. BRETT GUTHRIE</a> </div><div style="text-align: center;"> of kentucky </div><div style="text-align: center;"> in the house of representatives </div><div style="text-align: center;"> Tuesday, December 7, 2021</div><div style="text-align: center;">[<a href="https://www.congress.gov/congressional-record/volume-167/extensions-of-remarks-section/page/E1323">Page </a><a href="https://www.congress.gov/congressional-record/volume-167/extensions-of-remarks-section/page/E1323">E1323</a>]</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div> Mr. GUTHRIE. Madam Speaker, today, on the 80th anniversary of the
attacks on U.S. naval forces at Pearl Harbor, we remember poignantly
the courage and sacrifice of America's Greatest Generation.
That legacy of service is rich in Kentucky's Second District,
exemplified by the seemingly insurmountable challenges faced by Company
D of the 192nd Tank Battalion, which included the Harrodsburg Tankers. </div><div><br /></div><div>On December 8th, across the international dateline and just hours
after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese bombers descended on Company
D and other U.S. forces who were stationed in the Philippines at Clark
Field. A young private and Kentuckian by the name of Robert H. Brooks
attempted to sprint to his station to fight back against Japanese
forces. Sadly, he lost his life during his heroic action. He was the
first casualty of the U.S. Armored Forces in World War II.
The fighting in the Philippines was relentless for the U.S. service
members and Company D. All of the remaining 66 Mercer County natives--
known today as the Harrodsburg Tankers--survived the initial conflict.
However, 29 soldiers were lost to the unimaginable conditions during
the three years they were held at prisoner-of-war camps. </div><div><br /></div><div> At Fort Knox there is a parade field named after Private Brooks,
called Brooks Field, and we will never forget him and those brave
soldiers. The bravery of Private Brooks, Company D, and its tankers
from Harrodsburg are an indelible reminder of the price of freedom for
all that we must never forget.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">❖</span></div><div><br /></div><div><b><span style="font-size: large;">👉</span>This is the text that was submitted to <a href="https://guthrie.house.gov/" target="_blank">Congressman Brett Guthrie's (R-KY)</a> office to use. It is interesting to see what history was cut out by the congressman.</b><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><i>Madam Speaker, I rise today to remember the life and sacrifice of Private Robert H. Brooks, an American hero from Kentucky, who gave his life defending liberty on December 7, 1941. He did not perish at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, but during a same-day attack by Imperial Japan on the American territory of the Philippines. Brooks, 26, was the first American tank battalion member to be killed in World War II and possibly the first African American.<br /><br />We cannot forget that on December 7, 1941, December 8th across the international dateline, Japan descended upon not only Pearl Harbor but also upon the Philippine Islands, Guam, Wake Island, Howland Island, Midway, Malaya, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. Whereas the attack on Pearl Harbor was to discourage U.S. action in Asia, the other strikes served as preludes to full-scale invasions and brutal military occupation. <br /><br />Pvt. Brooks was a member of the 192nd Tank Battalion, Company D, which originated as the 38th Divisional Tank Company of the Kentucky National Guard from Harrodsburg, Kentucky. The 192nd arrived in the Philippines in late November 1941 and was sent immediately to guard Clark Field at Fort Stotsenburg. Soon after Japan’s Pearl Harbor attack, waves of Japanese bombers appeared over the air fields in the Philippines.<br /><br />Brooks was killed running to his M3 Half-track hoping to man its .50 caliber machine gun. When the news of Pvt. Robert H. Brooks, the first battle casualty of the Armored Force, reached Fort Knox, the Commanding General, Jacob Devers, ordered that the main parade ground at the base from that day on be named after the young tanker. <br /><br />In inviting Brooks’ parents to the naming ceremony, it was discovered that they were Black tenant farmers from rural Kentucky. At the time, the Army’s Armored Force was segregated.<br /><br />When this was reported back to General Devers, he said, “It does not matter whether or not Robert was Black, what mattered was that he had given his life for his country.” At the dedication of Brooks Field on December 23, Major General Devers said “In death, there is no grade or rank. And in this greatest democracy the world has ever known, neither riches nor poverty, neither creed nor race, draws a line of demarcation in this hour of national crisis.”<br /><br />Pvt. Brooks was not alone in his determination and dedication to service. His Company D and 192nd Tank Battalion held out in the Battle of Bataan with dwindling supplies, rampant disease, and little rest until they were surrendered by their commanders on April 9, 1942. Rescue did not come nor was it planned. What followed was the infamous Bataan Death March, capricious abuse, starvation, hellships, and slave labor in Japan. By war’s end, barely half of the men and women surrendered on Bataan had survived. Only 37 or the 66 men from Harrodsburg returned home.<br /><br />So today, I ask you to remember the bravery of both Pvt. Brooks and General Devers who defied convention to do what was right to advance democracy and equality. I invite you to visit Brooks Field at Fort Knox in my district to pay your respects to them. And I ask you not to forget the brave men of the 192nd Tank Battalion who withstood fascism in battle and in captivity, half of whom did not return home.<br /></i><br /></div>Asia Policy Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784292872823996552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9026256712239783281.post-69619002916801753222021-12-09T14:26:00.004-05:002021-12-09T14:26:37.059-05:00<div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiK2XZGgTgk1RVRfhh44MpCniOdcQKn3cf2p7kiZoSxMZQPYGOCYMK9ZIzVyEz2W2bBOGSnNwTPeqP5qozJt_zLBWnV1iATZL5_9cpfFmTAwb8aJtQqEAmWjzY0zg-bWjs23iOHEI6yIVsPaQrhnC2rCIK-W73XnTfrK3OnIFW-RqSXejKgWOyJEdD9pg=s610" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="384" data-original-width="610" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiK2XZGgTgk1RVRfhh44MpCniOdcQKn3cf2p7kiZoSxMZQPYGOCYMK9ZIzVyEz2W2bBOGSnNwTPeqP5qozJt_zLBWnV1iATZL5_9cpfFmTAwb8aJtQqEAmWjzY0zg-bWjs23iOHEI6yIVsPaQrhnC2rCIK-W73XnTfrK3OnIFW-RqSXejKgWOyJEdD9pg=s320" width="320" /></a></div><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>From the Congressional Record [<a href="https://www.congress.gov/congressional-record/2021/12/7/senate-section/article/s8959-3" target="_blank">Page S8959</a>]</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>NATIONAL PEARL HARBOR REMEMBRANCE DAY AND </b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>HONORING THE TANKERS OF MAYWOOD, ILLINOIS</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://www.duckworth.senate.gov/" target="_blank">U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth</a></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>December 7, 2012</b></div><br /> Ms. DUCKWORTH. Mr. President, I rise today on Pearl Harbor Day to remind my colleagues that on December 7, 1941, Imperial Japan attacked not only Pearl Harbor but also the Philippine Islands, Guam, Wake Island, Howland Island, Midway, Malaya, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Bangkok.<br /><br /> In the Philippines that day, 89 men from Maywood, IL, who made up Company ``B'' of the 192nd Tank Battalion--federated National Guard units from Illinois, Wisconsin, Kentucky, and Ohio--defended Clark Field from invading Japanese forces. They had arrived in the Philippines less than 3 weeks earlier.<br /><br /> These Illinois tankers watched helplessly as Japan's modern planes flew beyond the reach of their guns and destroyed the airfield. They then fought valiantly on the Bataan Peninsula with antiquated weapons and dwindling supplies. Relief from the United States never came. Though they held out for months, the men, overcome with fatigue, starvation, and disease, were surrendered by their commanders on April 9, 1942.<br /><br /> What followed was the infamous Bataan Death March 100 miles up the peninsula to a makeshift prison camp. Thousands died. Maywood, a hamlet outside of Chicago, had the greatest number of men from any single American town on the Death March. They would not all make it home. Those who survived the initial march endured 3 and a half years of death camps, brutal forced labor, and unimaginable abuse. More than half the Americans taken prisoner on Bataan died before they could see the war's end. Of the 89 Maywood men of Company ``B'' who left the U.S. in 1941, only 43 returned home in 1945.<br /><br /> For 79 years, Maywood has celebrated and remembered its heroes of Bataan with an annual September Memorial. Like many important celebrations in COVID, this was the second year that the memorial had to be postponed. But we do not forget the men of Maywood. From the Bataan-Corregidor Memorial Bridge in Chicago to Maywood's Bataan Memorial Park, my home State of Illinois recalls daily their sacrifice for liberty.<br /><br /> As a retired member of the Illinois National Guard myself, today is a solemn day--a day that will forever live in infamy--when we are reminded of the sacrifices made and the brave lives lost in service to our Nation. I am proud to have served with my Illinois National Guard family and work to continue to bring respect, remembrance, and honor to such a strong legacy.<br /><br /> Therefore, I ask my fellow Senators to join me on this 80th anniversary of Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and to remember the other Americans who fought and died throughout the Pacific that day. Although the aim of the December 7 surprise attack on Hawaii's Pearl Harbor was to destroy the U.S. Pacific Fleet in its home port and to discourage U.S. action in Asia, the other strikes served as preludes to full-scale invasion and brutal military occupation.<br /><br /> I further ask my colleagues to join me in commending the hard work and dedication of Maywood Bataan Day Organization President Col. Richard A. McMahon, Jr., and his board of directors, as well as Ms. Jan Thompson, president of the Illinois-based American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Memorial Society, who are committed to honoring and preserving the history of the men and women of Bataan who gave so much in the fight against tyranny and fascism. They, too, are the part of the story of Pearl Harbor Day and in keeping the memory of the men of Maywood alive to this day.Asia Policy Pointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784292872823996552noreply@blogger.com0