Posted on 09/14/2009 7:22:27 AM PDT by Night Hides Not
Henry Grady Stanley survived malaria, dehydration and dysentery. He's been beaten, nearly starved to death and slashed with a bayonet.
But those aren't the memories that disturb 89-year-old Stanley, a former POW and survivor of the Bataan Death March. He's hurt by what he sees as hypocrisy.
Next year, nearly seven decades after forcing 75,000 U.S. and Philippine troops to march 70 miles up the Bataan Peninsula, Japan is expected to invite American POWs to the island nation for an official state apology.
"It's a little late now," said Stanley, who lives in Garland with his wife, Jo Ann. "Most of the boys who were over there on Bataan are gone now, and the rest of us are about in our 90s.
"It just doesn't make any sense for us to go over there now."
(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...
The article simultaneously angered and saddened me. I had never heard of the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty until now. That treaty absolved Japan from paying financial damages to POWs. I need to read up on that treaty, although I believe it was written with the Versailles Treaty in mind.
When i was a kid, one of the guys that lead our Boy Scout group was a survivor of the march and years digging coal in Japan as a slave. Years later I still get chills thinking about the stories he told us. My Dad told me he only told us the tame stuff. I can only imagine the horror this man went through.
I can also tell you that he was the most gentle man. He told us over and over that he had forgiven the Japs. That he had to, or it would have been impossible to live his life as a good Catholic.
The fact that he could bring himself to square that treatment with God, and the Japs cannot bring themselves to apologize for the horrors they committed makes me all the more angry.
God Bless you Atonio. I pray you are resting in peace.
From Wikipedia:
“Compensation to Allied POWs
Clause 16 of the San Francisco Treaty states:
As an expression of its desire to indemnify those members of the armed forces of the Allied Powers who suffered undue hardships while prisoners of war of Japan, Japan will transfer its assets and those of its nationals in countries which were neutral during the war, or which were at war with any of the Allied Powers, or, at its option, the equivalent of such assets, to the International Committee of the Red Cross which shall liquidate such assets and distribute the resultant fund to appropriate national agencies, for the benefit of former prisoners of war and their families on such basis as it may determine to be equitable. The categories of assets described in Article 14(a)2(II)(ii) through (v) of the present Treaty shall be excepted from transfer, as well as assets of Japanese natural persons not residents of Japan on the first coming into force of the Treaty. It is equally understood that the transfer provision of this Article has no application to the 19,770 shares in the Bank for International Settlements presently owned by Japanese financial institutions.
Accordingly, Japan paid £4,500,000 to the Red Cross.
Clause 16 has served as a bar against subsequent lawsuits filed by former Allied prisoners of war against Japan. In 1998, a Tokyo court ruled against a suit brought by former Allied POW’s, citing the San Francisco Treaty.[11]
According to historian Linda Goetz Holmes, many funds used by the government of Japan were not Japanese funds but relief funds contributed by the governments of USA, UK and Netherlands and sequestred in the Yokohama Specie Bank during the final year of the war. [12]”
How much they suffered and continue to endure in order to guarantee our freedom and how little we have done to protect it for our posterity.
My father was a marine who fought in the south pacific. Told me similar stories of men he met after the war who were on the death march. That was a moving little story you told. Thanks for sharing.
My father worked for Col Parker who was commander of the Australian Forces in Singapore. The mere mention of the word japan started him visibly shaking.
A cousin of mine survived the march but was on the Hell Ship “Arisan Maru”. It got torpedoed because the Japs put the Red Cross on the munition ships. When the fish hit, the ship they cut the rope ladders to the hold and about 2,500 of our guys drowned.
They have yet to pay for what they did to those Americans and Filipino prisoners, The Book Ghost solders is a good one.
Many years ago I worked with a man who had been in the march. He said he was skin and bones and dug fox holes with spoons. He hated Japan, Japanese ...and Toyota.
I worked at Caterpillar years ago, and there were many many managers who fought in WWII and had a bitter hatred for the Japanese. It really fueled their competitive spirit against Komatsu Company, and I think largely what has made that company so great.
Compare that with GM and Chrysler.
My dad knew a couple of these guys when we were overseas in the 1950s. After they had recovered, they joined Civil Service and worked for the US Army in Japan as DACs.
The Left is hell-bent on establishing communism in America—with the brutal dictatorship required for its establishment and implementation. If they can get their way, we’ll all revert to the 1940’s; Leftists will be the Japanese, and the rest of us will be the Philipinos and U.S. P.O.W.’s—the Leftist Dream!
My grandfather’s brother did the grand tour as well. O’Donnell, Cabanatuan, Japanese mainlands as a slave coal digger for Japanese heavy industry. One of the kindest and most gentle men to wear the Silver Star.
But he said “no thanks” to Toyota when they offered him a car . . .
MacArthur is a curse word at my house.
These stories need to be remembered. I'll never regret Truman authorizing the atomic bombs dropped at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It's folly to view our actions during WWII from the prism of today's perspective.
I often go off on tangents during my weekly Old Testament class (I'm starting my 12th year at my parish, teaching the OT to sixth graders). I exhort my kids to be excited about their Catholic faith, and to not be defensive or apologetic.
Similarly, I tell them they do not need to apologize for their country. Yes, we have made many mistakes, but there is no country on the face of the earth that has done more to right previous wrongs than the USA. Nor has any country done more for the rest of the world than the USA.
I get more enjoyment out of teaching those classes with each succeeding year.
It's also a tragedy that everyone remembers Pearl Harbor and forgets the brutal attack on Clark AFB and others a few hours later. That attack left the Philippine islands defenseless and they were conquered by Japanese forces a few months later. *A lot* more people died in the Japanese invasion than died in Pearl Harbor and scars from the war remain to this day. Japan was rebuilt. Manila was not.
I've had the unique opportunity of living both in western Tokyo and in Manila. One would be hard-pressed to tell from looking around which was the enemy and which was the ally in WWII. While we should forgive Japan for what happened in that war, we must never, ever forget.
That is disappointing behavior from an ally.
Next year, nearly seven decades after forcing 75,000 U.S. and Philippine troops to march 70 miles up the Bataan Peninsula, Japan is expected to invite American POWs to the island nation for an official state apology.
I was blessed to live "on the economy" in Germany for approximately four years. I feel exactly the same as you. I loved my tour in Germany, and had German friends in the area I lived (near Trier), and in Northern Germany (near Kiel) from a TDY assignment during the summer of 79.
Naturally, there was not much talk of WWII as it had occurred some 35-40 years ago (at that point). I visited the concentration camps at Dachau and Flossenburg (twice each), and those memories remain with me today.
I use my experiences to bring a greater perspective in my conversations and the lessons I teach to my students.
I simply think that these apologies from the Japanese are far too late to be meaningful or heart-felt.
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