Disabled American Vets ask Speaker Boehner to respect our WWII vets

This week in Washington for American vets

The Week of March 10th features a number of programs and hearings of interest to the POW community. The first meeting discusses the successes and limitations of people-to-people exchanges in the reconciliation process. This is of particular interest to those who have or plan to participate in the POW/Japan Friendshp Program for American former POWs of Japan.

There are also three programs on the funding of veterans' programs and the forthcoming year's legislative agenda of veterans' organizations.

You can watch all these programs and hearings via the Internet.

Evaluating People-To-People Reconciliation Programs: Findings, Conclusions and Feedback. 3/11, 9:00 am-3:00pm. Sponsor: The Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. Speakers: Susan Allen, director of George Mason University's Center for Peacemaking Practice; Melissa Brown, director of the Office of Conflict Management and Mitigation in the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID); David Hunsicker, Asia and Middle East team leader in the Office of Conflict Management and Mitigation at USAID; Kelly Skeith, deputy director for performance evaluation at Social Impact; Mathias Kjaer, evaluation specialist at Social Impact; Liz McClintock, founder and managing partner at CMPartners; and Melanie Greenberg, president and CEO of the Alliance for Peacebuilding. The event will be webcast at
www.sfcg.org/events/cprf-march-2014

Veterans' disability, PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), and postwar adjustment: Are we doing what's best for vets? 3/13, 10:00am-Noon, Washington, DC. Sponsor: The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI) -Speakers: Daniel Gade, assistant professor at the U.S. Military Academy; Kyle Greenberg, research associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Richard McNally, director of clinical training at Harvard University, participate in a discussion on "Perverse Incentives and Their Effects"; David Eisler, master's candidate at Columbia University; Sally Satel, resident scholar at AEI; and Stephen Xenakis of MindCare Solutions, participate in a discussion on "Correcting a Flawed System".
The event will be streamed live at www.american.com/watch/aei-livestream

Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee and House Veterans' Affairs Committee - Hearing
3/12 - 10:00 am. Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee and House Veterans' Affairs Committee joint hearing on the legislative presentations of Paralyzed Vets of America, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, Gold Star Wives of America, the Wounded Warrior Project, the Fleet Reserve Association, the Air Force Sergeants Association, the Non Commissioned Officers Association, and the American Ex-Prisoners of War. This hearing will be live streamed.

House Veterans' Affairs Committee - Hearing
3/13 - 10:00 am. Full committee hearing on "U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Budget Request for FY2015." Witness(es) TBA

Marching orders

The Disabled American Veterans (DAV) at their annual National Convention assembled in
Orlando, Florida, August 10-13, 2013 passed Resolution 183 (text below). It provides a mandate to its leadership and members to assist the American POWs of Japan in their efforts for acknowledgement and remembrance. The DAV's mission is to ensure that all veterans can live their lives with respect and dignity.

Nearly all former POWs of Japan are DAV members. They suffered the highest suicide and PTSD rates of all WWII veterans. These former POWs also have the most enduring PTSD effects, which tend to reappear with intensity during the retirement years.

The DAV's new "marching orders" provide a powerful "battalion" to the campaign to ensure that POW experience in the Pacific is remembered. Japanese government and industry is asked to join together to establish a permanent fund for remembrance, research, documentation, exchange, and, most important, to educate the next generation on the lessons of war, peace, and reconciliation.

RESOLUTION 183

WHEREAS, on May 30, 2009, the Government of Japan through its Ambassador to the United States Ichiro Fujisaki offered an official apology to American POWs for their abuse, misuse, pain, and suffering caused by Imperial Japan; and

WHEREAS, in September 2010, the Government of Japan reinforced its apology by initiating a visitation program for former POWs to visit Japan, to return to the sites of their imprisonment, and to receive the apology directly from senior Japanese government officials; and

WHEREAS, the United States owes much to these soldiers, sailors, Marines, and air men, the majority of whom fought in the early heroic battles of World War II in the Philippines, on Wake Island, Guam, Java, and in the Sunda Strait; and

WHEREAS, the American POWs of Imperial Japan were forced into slave labor throughout the Japanese Empire in the most unjust, brutal, and inhumane conditions; NOW

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that DAV in National Convention assembled in Orlando, Florida, August 10-13, 2013, supports and commends the efforts of the American POWs of Japan to reclaim their dignity and attain full justice from the Government of Japan and those Japanese private companies that enslaved them; AND

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED DAV insists the Government of Japan provide and publicize an official transcript in English and Japanese of the Government’s 2009 apology to the American POWs; AND

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED DAV insists Congress and the Administration work with all parties involved to ensure the continuation of the POW visitation program to Japan, that it be expanded to include family members and descendants, and funds be provided for a dedicated program of research, documentation, exchange, and education; AND

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED DAV works with all parties involved in persuading the private Japanese companies that benefited from POW slave labor during WWII, especially those companies now doing business in the United States, to follow the Japanese government’s lead in acknowledging their use and abuse of American POW labor and join with the Japanese government to create a fund for remembrance, research, documentation, exchange, and education on the POW experience in the Pacific and its lessons for war and peace.