News:   News in 2004, 2005 and 2006    News in 2007

4/28/08

Information on the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Museum posted.

please go to POW Museum.


4/22/08

New POW story on Mr. Glenn D. Frazier posted.

please go to Frazier.


 


4/13/08

Bataan Memorial Death March, 2008

On March 30, more than 4,400 people participated in this event at White Sands, NM. They ran or walked 26.2 miles or 15.2 miles to honor those who fought in the defense of the Philippines during WWII.

Photos are available at: http://www.bataanmarch.com/2008%20Gallery.htm
Last year's video can be seen at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqRAp9m3R8U

 



Anthony Zendejas won the 2n place in the "
Voice of Democracy" essay contest.
Please go to:
My Role in Honoring America’s Veterans.



Japanese translation of
"The Bataan Death March and the 66-Year Struggle for Justice" posted.  Please go to the Japan Focus Bataan article in Japanese.
 


4/8/08

"The Bataan Death March and the 66-Year Struggle for Justice" was published at "Japan Focus," an online journal on Asia Pacific.

http://japanfocus.org/products/details/2714

 

New website, "Mukden Prisoner Of War Remembrance Society," was linked.

http://mukdenpows.org/


3/26/08

Japanese student's essay posted

Mr. Gaku Ishimau, who will attend the forthcoming ADBC convention in May, wrote an essay, "Looking Forward to Attending the ADBC Convention."
 


3/15/08

Mrs. Cecily  Mattocks Marshall's childhood story added

Cecily and her family were held at a civilian POW camp in Mindanao and then in Santo Tomas camp. 

She recently published a memoir,
Happy Life Blues: A Memoir of Survival.  Here are some excerpts and her message.


 

Japanese Soldier Friend

Ms. Ruth Broaddus Chastain sent this photo to our website together with her request.



Ruth with her Japanese soldier friend

I was born in Manila, Philippines, in December 1940 the youngest of seven children. When the Japanese occupied Manila in 1941, a Japanese soldier made friends with me and my family. He told my mother that he had a daughter in Japan who was my age. He had not seen his daughter because of the war. He brought us food when food was getting scarce. We named him “Pluto” after the rice cakes he brought us. He also brought us toys. He helped us go to Santo Tomas with many of our belongings. I would like to know who he was, and if possible, contact his daughter who is my age.

Tokyo representative of US-Japan Dialogue on POWs, Yuka Ibuki, wrote:

Thank you for sharing this photo and your story with us. More than 500,000 Japanese soldiers died in the Philippine and very few returned home. Therefore, I am afraid that it might be rather difficult to find any information on this soldier. But I will try my best to help you.  


2/28/08

Zentsuji POW camp photos posted

Mr. Fumio Yoshida, whose father Lt. Shigeru Yoshida worked at Zentsuji POW camp, sent us many interesting photos that were kept by his father after the war.

Letters from Mrs. Charlene Suzana Hellmers Gloth and Mr. Kevin Menzies, whose fathers were held in Zentsuji camp, were also posted.

Please go to Zentsuji Photos.


2/23/08

Our New Advisor

Ms. Sascha Weinzheimer Jansen became an advisor to US-Japan Dialogue on POWs, Inc. Sascha will help us in our efforts to promote understanding and dialogue on the history of POWs of the Japanese.  Advisors

Sascha's childhood story as a civilian POW


2/16/08

Essay, "Manila Liberation Reunion" posted

The event was organized by Ms. Sascha Weinzheimer Jansen, whose childhood memory in Santo Tomas civilian POW camp in Manila was prominently featured in the recent PBS documentary, "The War."  

More than 200 former civilian POWs of the Japanese attended the reunion that was held on February 3, the 63rd anniversary of the liberation of Santo Tomas, in Fremont, CA.

Please go to Manila Liberation Reunion.
 


2/1/08

New essay, "Zentsuji POW Camp," by Mr. Koshi Kobayashi posted.
 


American POWs at Zentsuji POW camp


1/15/08

Meeting with Ambassador Schieffer

US Ambassador to Japan, Mr. Thomas Schieffer, kindly gave the directors of US-Japan Dialogue on POWs, Inc. an opportunity to speak with him after the Japan Society's luncheon in La Jolla, CA where he was a guest speaker.  
 

  
                             
           Clay Perkins,   Amb. Schieffer
    Dorothy Perkins, Don Versaw, Betty Tenney,           Kinue Tokudome, Lester Tenney, Bonnie Kane
 


 

Dr. Lester Tenney, a survivor of the Bataan Death March and three years of forced labor at Mitsui coalmine in Japan, said to Ambassador Schieffer:

"The past is a mirror into the future. And denial of the past wrongdoing would leave Japan as a second class nation. We want an appointment with Prime Minister Fukuda to obtain once and for all a meaningful apology for the atrocities committed to we POWs."

Dr. Tenney is the incoming and the last National Commander of the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor.  
 


1/1/08

Essay, "US-Japan Dialogue on POWs Enters into its 4th Year" posted
 

Dr. Tenney's letter to Ambassador Schieffer asking for assistance posted