Originally Posted by
CameronBlue
My wife's father, Jesse, was on the Bataan Death March, spent 3.5 years in a Manchurian prison camp. When he died in 1984 his funeral was well-attended by those army buddies who remained behind. They told stories of Jesse's bravery in the face of prison guard abuse. Was liberated by the Ruskies who created accurate manifests of those liberated, you can easily find on-line. I stand in awe of my in-laws really. My wife has endured 25 years of debilitating diseases and "disabling" cardiac events. I know from whence she draws her fighting spirit.
I had a colleague at work back in the 1980's who was on the Bataan Death March. One of the other soldiers was Harold Johnson, who became chief of staff of the Army in 1964 and, my colleague said, looked out for the survivors who were still on active duty.
Let me add this, to show how much we owe these heroes (from Wikipedia):
World War II
After the Battle of Bataan, [future Army chief Harold] Johnson became a prisoner of war (POW) of the Japanese on 9 April 1942. Participating in the Bataan Death March, Johnson was eventually imprisoned at Camp O'Donnell, Cabanatuan and Bilibid Prison. In December 1944, the Japanese attempted to transfer Johnson and 1600 other POWs out of the Philippines. On 14 December 1944, American fighter planes sank the Japanese ship Ōryoku Maru, killing over 300 of the POWs. Johnson survived and was eventually transferred to Japan. Unwilling to give up their POWs to the advancing Allies, Japan again transferred Johnson. Finally ending up in Korea, Johnson was liberated by the 7th Infantry Division on September 7, 1945.
Last edited by sagegrouse; 03-28-2021 at 11:39 AM.
Sage Grouse
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'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013