Time in POW Camp Still Difficult to Talk About

Council Bluff Daily Nonpareil ^ | July 30, 2003 | Greg Jarret

[Mean Daddy]

The Nonpareil has been publishing local veterans experiences the last several months from WWII to the Gulf War. Thought it was an interesting read and it makes you feel good that there were so many that were willing to sacrifice.

[Txslady]

Excellant post! Thanks

[SAMWolf]

Thanks for the post Mean Daddy

[Alberta's Child]

Great post!

[Soaring Feather]

Thank you for this post. My step dad was captured by the Germans and was a POW there. He would not talk about it either.

Thank you SAM for the ping.

[SAMWolf]

Yeah, My dad didn't dwell too much on his time as a POW in Germany either.

[Soaring Feather]

It never left my stepdad though, he would get smashed and then talk just a little about it, but only when we was not sober.

[SAMWolf]

My dad never went into details, he would mention the "good" incidents, he never talked about what it was really like.

[Soaring Feather]

Yeah really tough for them. God Bless them.

I'm going to say good nite now SAM, see ya on the morrow.

[USMMA_83]

Moved to tears...needed that...thanks Meanie!

[U S Army EOD]

When I was stationed in Germany, I had to have my gaul bladder taken out. Next to me in the hospital was a man who was a Marine guard at the U S Embassy in Peking in 1941. Next to them were the Japanese. He was basically "captured" on 6 December 1941 and spent the entire war as a Japanese POW. He ended up working the entire war in a coal mine with Japanese convicts.

[jellybean]

Thought you might be interested in this...

[kms61]

One of the many mistakes MacArthur made in the defense of the Phillipines was in not separating his command upon his evacuation. The Americans forces on the southern islands were still in relatively good shape, and had they been authorized to operate independently, they could have held out quite a while longer.

It wouldn't have prevented the eventual Japanese conquest of the Phillipines, but it would have delayed it and made it more costly....and allowed more Americans to "go guerilla," where they would have had a somewhat better chance of survival than in a Japanese prison camp.

When MacArthur was on his game, he was very good. When he wasn't, he was capable of some pretty spectacular blunders.

[radu]

Excellent post, Mean Daddy!!!!

Thanks for the ping to this, SAM.

[SAMWolf]

Good Night Feather.

[SkyPilot]

Outstanding post.

[snippy_about_it]

Thanks for the ping SAM.

Thank you for posting the story MD. It should be told often so no one forgets the sacrifices paid.

[bluesagewoman]

Makes one stop and think. Heartbreaking...and the liberals believe in the goodness all of mankind. I don't. I believe in God and men like DeVivo. Some people and countries are plain evil. Thank God for men like DeVivo who gave so much to change the world.

[krb]

In the months prior to the war's end, the Japanese had been under orders to execute all American prisoners of war. Unbeknownst to the American POWs, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki changed those plans. Arrangements had been made for the prisoners to be handed over to the U.S. Marines.

I will have to tuck that little nugget in my collection of reasons why I support Truman's decision to nuke the Japs.

[Darksheare]

For some people, they clam up for a reason.
Once they do talk about it, they can't stop.