New essay, "My Friend Louis 'Lou' Curtis (1919-2010)," written by Mr. Don Versaw posted. 

Mr. Curtis, who recently passed away, was Don's friend since 1940 and his fellow POW.

Please go to Don's essay on his friend.
 

3/9/10

New essay, "Our Director, Mr. Clay Perkins, helped to expose lies in the Atomic bomb book," posted.

The publisher of The Last Train from Hiroshima, which producer James Cameron was planning to base his movie on, has stopped printing copies of this book as a result of the efforts made by our director, Mr. Clay Perkins, and others.

Please go to  Perkins and the Last Train from Hiroshima

2/8/10

A Japanese scholar's paper on the POW history

"The Treatment of Prisoners of War by the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy Focusing on the Pacific War," written by Dr. Kyoichi Tachikawa is now available online at:

http://www.nids.go.jp/english/dissemination/kiyo/pdf/2008/bulletin_e2008_5.pdf
 

Dr. Tachikawa is a Senior Research Fellow, Military History Department, National Institute for Defense Studies (NIDS), the main policy research arm of the Ministry of Defense of Japan.

The original Japanese version was published in Boueikenkyusho Kiyo [NIDS Security Studies] Volume 10 Number 1 (September, 2007)

The English translation was published in the NIDS Security Reports No. 9 (December, 2008)

2/1/10

Resolution by Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) on the POW issue posted

Please go to "Support Former POW Slave Labor Claims Against Japanese Firms."  
 

1/22/10

Anthony goes to Washington DC

Anthony Zendejas, who has been studying the history of POWs of the Japanese and making many presentations, won 1st place for Washington State Veterans of Foreign Wars Voice of Democracy Audio/Essay contest and will compete for the national title in Washington DC.

Please go to "Anthony goes to Washington DC."

 with VFW National Commander in Chief, Thomas J. Tradewell Sr.
 

12/19/09

"Hellships: Trying to Reconnect Memories" posted.

Author John Glusman is interested in speaking with any Japanese survivors of the Oryoku Maru, Enoura Maru, and Brazil Maru, as well as the Arisan Maru.

12/7/09

Remembering another December 7

This is not only the anniversary day of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, but also that of the attack on the Philippines. Past National Commander of ADBC Mr. Edward Jackfert's memory on that day was featured in this December 7 article.

Ms. Jackie Hallerberg tries to remember another December 7 when her father, Mr. Walter Huss, became a POW in Mukden in 1944.  He was one of the only two survivors when his B-29, Humpin Honey, was rammed down while on a bombing mission over Mukden.  He was captured by the Japanese and was sentenced to four months in solitary confinement. He was liberated by the Soviet Army at the end of the war.

Video clip: Mr. Huss reads his mother’s letter   
Video clip: Jackie’s poem for her father
 

POW museum

On December 7, AP reported as follows:

WELLSBURG, W.Va. (AP) - The Brooke County Public Library is planning a $5 million expansion of its Wellsburg branch to create a museum focusing on Americans who were prisoners of war in the Philippines during World War II.

The 10,100-square-foot addition will house the library's collection of more than 100,000 documents and artifacts about POWs who were imprisoned by the Japanese military.

The collection started when Wellsburg native and former POW Ed Jackfert donated artifacts to the library.

County library director Mary Kay Wallace says construction is expected to cost about $2.5 million. The library is hoping to secure another $2.5 million as an endowment for the facility.

Mary Kay’s husband, George Wallace, the editor of The Quan, a quarterly publication of the Descendants Group of the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor, was quoted in a local newspaper as saying “With a circulation of about 6,400 and subscribers across America and in the Philippines and Japan, The Quan could be a valuable tool in securing financial support.”
 

Japanese officer's memoir

"The Battle for Bataan: A Japanese Officer's Memoir" written by Mr. Toshimi Kumai and translated by Ms. Yuka Ibuki is now available online.

Mr. Toshimi (92) joined the Bataan Warfare as a gun force platoon leader on March 5, 1942.  He said, "I feel very grateful for the interest to my personal memoir by those who fought the same war in the USAFFE."

Yuka is the Tokyo representative of US-Japan Dialogue on POWs and has done much volunteer work to promote understanding and dialogue on the POW issue.

Please go to "The Battle for Bataan: A Japanese Officer's Memoir"
 

11/26/09

“US-Japan Dialogue on POWs” enters into its 6th year!

please read the greetings from the Executive Director

Database for POWs

A new database for some 700,000 Soviet prisoners of war held by Germany during WWII is now available online. Will there be a similar database for American POWs of the Japanese available on line?  Please read  POW database

11/11/09

Dr. Lester Tenney's speech, "Who Is A Veteran? How Can You Tell One?" posted.

Please go to Veterans Day speech.
 

10/12/09

Visit with Congressman Mike Honda

On October 8, Executive Director of the US-Japan Dialogue on POWs, Kinue Tokudome, visited Congressman Mike Honda (D-CA) in Washington DC. Congressman Honda has been a longtime supporter of the POW issue.

He expressed his support again for full justice for American POWs of the Japanese.

More about Congressman Honda's support

10/1/09

Report on the ADBC Museum, "Museum Plans Move Forward," posted.
 

9/1/09

Book co-written by a POW father and his son

Interview article with Mr. James Murphy and Mr. Kenneth Murphy,
co-authors of  “…when men must die live,” was posted.

Please go to "…when men must die live"


 

8/21/09

Article on Aso Mining

English translation of “Aso Mining’s Indelible Past: Verifying Japan’s Use of Allied POWs Through Historical Records” written by Mr. Fukubayashi Toru, Co-Founder of POW Research Network Japan, and translated by Mr. William Underwood was posted at Japan Focus.

http://www.japanfocus.org/-Fukubayashi-Toru/3204
                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                          Mr. Fukubayashi

8/9/09

Next US Ambassador to Japan said he would work on the POW issue

Answering the questions for the record submitted by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, Mr. John Roos, the next US Ambassador to Japan, expressed his commitment to work on the POW issue.

Please read Sen. Kerry's questions and Mr. Roos' answers.
 

8/7/09

Chinese edition of Dr. Tenney's POW memoir

My Hitch in Hell, written by Dr. Lester Tenney, the last Commander of American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor, has been translated into Chinese and published by the World Knowledge Press, a well-known publisher in China.

In the preface for the Chinese edition, Dr. Tenney wrote as follows:

Our legal fight has never been about money. It has been about honor, dignity and responsibility. We former POWs, like the great country of Japan, want our honor and dignity restored. But we also want those who violated our rights as human beings, to accept their responsibility…

What is right is always right, no matter how many say otherwise; and what is wrong is always wrong no matter what argument is used to justify it. That sums up the position we former POWs of the Japanese have taken in regards to the issue of responsibility for a wrong committed.

6/27/09

US House welcomes Japanese Ambassador's formal apology to POWs

In the opening statement for the hearing, “Japan’s Changing Role,” held on June 25, Chairman Eni Faleomavaega of the House Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific and the Global Environment, described the recent apology to POWs by Ambassador Ichiro Fujisaki as “a welcome development.”

Webcast of the hearing (Chairman’s remarks on the apology: from 8:00 to 8:50)

6/25/09

Japanese newspaper on Ambassador's apology and the POW invitation program

On June 22, the Mainichi Shimbun, Japan's 3rd largest newspaper, published an article quoting the statement by Ambassador Ichiro Fujisaki during the ADBC convention in San Antonio.

"Today, I would like to convey to you the position of the government of Japan on this issue," Fujisaki began. "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.

"As for the Peace Program (to invite former prisoners of war to Japan), as such Dr. (Lester) Tenney referred, I have told him that I cannot make a definite statement at this junction if we can expand this program. However, I can convey to you that (the) relevant bureau in the government of Japan is working seriously and sincerely on this matter.                                                                    (photo courtesy: Mainichi Shimbun)

6/19/09

Ex-POW demands Aso apology

Former Australian POW Joseph Coombs (88), who was forced to work in a coal mine owned by the family of Prime Minister Taro Aso, visited Japan. He was accompanied by his two sons and James McAnulty, son of former British POW Jim McAnulty who was also made to work in the Aso coal mine. They sought an apology from Prime Minister Aso, but their request for a meeting with him was declined.

The visit was widely reported by both the Japanese media and the Western media. Here are some of their reports:

Straits Times (AP), Ex-POW demands Aso apology
ABC (Australia), Japan PM won't apologise to Australian POW
Telegraph, Japan's PM snubs son of British POW
Channel News Asia, Former prisoner of war seeks apology from Japanese PM
Japan Times, Pair seek POW apology from Aso

6/15/09

A new book on the Bataan Death March

From the official website of Tears of the Darkness
http://www.tearsinthedarkness.com/

Here, from Michael Norman and Elizabeth M. Norman, is the story of the worst defeat in American military history, the four-month fight for the tiny peninsula of Bataan in the Philippine Islands – the first major land battle for America in World War II. On April 9, 1942, more than 76,000 men under American command surrendered to their Japanese captors, who set them walking sixty-six miles to prison camp, a notorious walk that came to be known as "The Bataan Death March."

"Tears In the Darkness" is history written as story, thousands of sources and hundreds of interviews carefully woven into a tight narrative that recreates those dramatic days and the men – Americans, Japanese and Filipinos – who lived them.

“Tears In The Darkness" has scores of characters, but Ben Steele, a Montana cowboy before the war and professor of art after, is the central figure in our book.

In addition to a strong central character, "Tears In The Darkness" is distinguished by its shifting point of view. A third of the book is told from the Japanese perspective, the stories of individual hohei, or foot soldiers in the Imperial Japanese Army. We were also able to obtain the private diary and letters of Masaharu Homma, the Japanese general who was held responsible for the death march and executed by American forces in 1946.

Michael and Elizabeth Norman

＊　New York Times article             Revisiting Wartime: 66 Miles of Cruelty

＊　Related pages on our website: http://www.us-japandialogueonpows.org/Steele.htm
                                                      http://www.us-japandialogueonpows.org/Norman.htm

Learning from a visiting former POW

Ms. Yuka Ibuki, Tokyo representative of US-Japan Dialogue on POWs,  translated letters from the people who met former POW Mr. Raymond Heimubuch when he recently visited the (successor) companies that had made him perform forced labor during the war.
Please go to Heimubuch (towards the end).

6/11/09

Committee on the POW issue created　

On May 20, Democratic Party of Japan created a new party subcommittee for Postwar Settlement Issues involving Allied POWs. More information on the POW subcommittee
 

6/9/09

New essay, "Revisit to Japan by former US POW, Mr. Raymond  C. Heimubuch,"
by Yukako Ibuki posted.
 

6/2/09

Japanese Ambassador came to the last ADBC Convention

On May 30, 2009, Japanese Ambassador to the US, Mr. Ichiro Fujisaki, gave his country’s first apology to former American POWs of the Japanese during the last convention of American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor held in San Antonio, TX.

Ambassador Fujisaki came to the convention after receiving an invitation from Dr. Lester Tenney, National Commander of ADBC, who survived the Bataan Death March and forced labor in Mitsui coalmine.

  Dr. Tenney and Amb. Fujisaki      Video clip of Ambassador Fujisaki's speech

5/26/09

Philippine Scouts Heritage Society Reunion

The 25th Annual Reunion of the Philippine Scouts Heritage Society took place in Long Beach, California on May 8 and May 9, 2009.  This 25th Anniversary gathering was hosted by the Living History Company of the Alexander Nininger Chapter of the Society. 
(more about the chapter)

YouTube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xMC0CmOyi0

Highlights included retired Major General Antonio Taguba's keynote speech at the closing dinner in which he spoke forcefully of the responsibilities and duties of U.S. soldiers in combat and in the handling of captives.  He also noted his investigation of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq. General Taguba's father walked the Bataan Death March as a POW of the Japanese.

                               
   PSHS president John Patterson with Gen. Taguba                 

The New Yorker article on General Taguba
 

Dr. Tenney's essay published in Congressional Record

"The end of the Long march" written by Dr. Lester Tenney, National Commander of American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor, was published in Congressional Record. It was posted by Congressman Brian Bilbray (R-CA) as the Congressman's Memorial Day message.

Please go to Congressional Record, May 21, 2009
 

4/20/09

Article on Aso Mining published

English translation of the article written by Mr. Yukihisa Fujita, member of the Japanese House of Councilors and the advisor to this website, "Aso Mining’s Indelible Past: Prime Minister Aso Should Seek Reconciliation With Former POWs," was published on  Japan Focus. 

The original article was published in Sekai, a Japanese monthly magazine, on April 8.

4/16/09

Please go to:  The Philippine Scouts Living History Company
 

    ---Sen. Orrin Hatch,
        who convened a hearing on the POW lawsuit.
 

Please go to Dr. Tenney's letter to President Obama
                                                                                                    (from website of the White House)

Former internees of Santo Tomas camp
 

                                             
                               with Sascha and Paula                                Mr. Walter Riley and his wife Margaret              
                          Sascha in PBS' "The War"                  He represents Civilian ex- POWs
                                                                                                         for the American Ex-Prisoners of War              

Please go to letter to Secretary of State                        (from the website of State Department)