"...several guards stand over a withered American digging his own grave..."
Posted on 06/01/2010 9:06:30 AM PDT by SwinneySwitch
An enraged Japanese guard, the flaps of his hat flying into the air, charges with his bayonet toward an exhausted American soldier on the ground.
In other works by Ben Steele, a Japanese soldier strikes a captured American across the face with the butt of his rifle, several guards stand over a withered American digging his own grave, and GIs drink from a mud hole. Copies of these works are currently on display at the Brownsville Museum of Fine Art.
"I just kind of want to give people an idea of what went on over there," said the 92-year-old Steele from his home in Billings, Mont. Steele was a prisoner of the Japanese in World War II and took part in the infamous Bataan Death March in the Philippines before spending time at Camp O’Donnell, Cabanatuan, and Bilibid Prison. He later was sent to Japan where he was a coal miner for a year.
Jennifer Cahn, museum curator, found the works thought provoking.
"It’s interesting because I’m not a historian," Cahn said. "I’m an art historian. The exhibition, aside from teaching me a lot about our military involvement is also personal. It’s about the experience of soldiers. It has just confirmed my feelings about war, that we should avoid it at all costs. I don’t know if World War II was avoidable. But we’re certainly involved in a military action right now that I think could be avoided."
The Japanese attacked the Philippines, where Steele was stationed, on Dec. 8, 1941. A statement released by the museum reads that, after Bataan surrendered on April 9, 1942, American and Filipino troops "were forced on a 60-mile march by the Japanese from Bataan through the Philippine jungles with almost no food or water.
"Thousands died on the march from exhaustion, torture, and starvation," the statement reads. "At Camp O’Donnell more than 2,000 American soldiers died within the first six weeks of imprisonment. In June 1942, Steele was one of 325 soldiers sent to work on the Tayabas Road detail; Ben was one of only 50 who survived the work camp."
By the time Steel finished this work detail he was ill from beriberi, scurvy, and malaria. Beriberi is caused by a deficiency of Vitamin B1, and scurvy is caused by a Vitamin C deficiency. Malaria is a disease spread by mosquitoes.
Because of his numerous medical maladies, Steele was sent to the hospital at Bilibid Prison where he stayed for more than a year.
"When I was in Bilibid Prison and thought I was going crazy, why, I started to draw, and I drew on the floor with charcoal out of the fires and all that stuff," he said.
He also drew on scraps of paper and hid them in the false bottom of a mess kit belonging to a Catholic priest who was imprisoned with him. However, the priest was later put on a ship to Japan, and the ship was quickly sunk soon after departure. The priest survived, but the drawings were lost.
After the war, Steele reconstructed many of the lost drawings from memory because the Catholic priest, who survived the sinking ship, planned to do book.
"He never got around to it, and I wound up with a lot of these drawings," he said.
However, he had by now become very involved in his artwork and created even more drawings.
"The more I learned about it, the more I got excited about being an artist," he said.
Steele eventually studied at the Cleveland Institute of Art and Kent State. He received his master’s degree at the University of Denver in 1955.
How do other survivors feel about his artwork?
"They like ‘em, you know," he said. "I’m a pretty popular guy among the survivors."
Lest we never forget......
but but but the atom bomb!..../s
1. Doesn't get it.
2. Just has to change the subject to her own antiwar views.
Proof once again that liberalism is a mental disorder.
Steele’s book is pretty good.
The Japanese never really atoned for this barbarism especially what was done to the Chinese also if you consider what Germany was made to do after the war. It’s basically glossed over.
Instead we are routinely treated to how terrible we were for dropping the atom bombs on them.
“I don’t know if World War II was avoidable.”
Of course it was avoidable. We could have just accepted Germany and Japan as our overlords. See? All we are saying is geben Sie Frieden eine Wahrscheinlichkeit (German-speakers: babelfish, OK?)
I remembering reading somewhere that the Americans commanders kept the troops ignorant of repeated reports of Japanese atrocities committed iagainst the British soldiers and others .The Japanese murdered half of the men they captured ;the Japanese miltary made the Germans look positively benevolt in comparison(provided you weren't Jewish).
“Lest we never forget......”
Thus the reason I’ll never buy a japanese car...
Yeah, thank GOD for the atom bomb
I agree about her wacky ideas. Seems she thinks it is better that the whole population be subjected to the same treatment rather than standing and fighting against it?
Jennifer Cahn is a stupid moonbat. She says war should be “avoided at all costs.” Really? She would rather surrender? What a f—kin’ idiot. There something worse than war....it’s called being a slave, without one shred of freedom or human dignity. Liberal child.
“...Lest we never forget......”
Dam#ed right!
I just wonder what the PC crowd is going to do about this exhibit. This generation needs to see this to remind us of how much brutality members of the military then had to deal with. Our generation will never endure what those warriors had to. Our freedom was paid for with their suffering.
Wars just happen yah know.....if you don’t fight then there ain’t no war...ya know...../s
I had an uncle who spent 22months as a POW in Germany. Never a big guy, he weighed 89 pounds when he was Liberated.
He always said he was glad he was not captured by the Japs.
He was a tailgunner on a B-17.
"It’s interesting because I’m not a historian," Cahn said. "I’m an art historian. The exhibition, aside from teaching me a lot about our military involvement is also personal. It’s about the experience of soldiers. It has just confirmed my feelings about war, that we should avoid it at all costs. I don’t know if World War II was avoidable. But we’re certainly involved in a military action right now that I think could be avoided."
Avoiding war "at all costs" is called surrender honey. It's sad, Jennifer, that you as an adult are too stupid to know that WWII wasn't avoidable and that if America was full of mush-headed liberals like you at the time, our state language would now be German.
Apparently, "the works" weren't really as "thought provoking" as they could have been in your case.
Obambi, what a complete, utter and pathetic putz and sissy POS.
there are stories of horrible “medical experiments” and germ warfare also. look up Unit 731.
Yes, this history should be known. and the US response to Japanese aggression put into context.
How does an “art historian” become an art historian without an understanding of the historical context of the art? This woman isn’t just a drone (Lavin context), but is claiming an expertise not in evidence. If this is the basis for her position, she should be fired.
The NappyOne
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