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Related: Culture Forums, Support Forumsokay, I haven't been out of the house in a week now
Well, I've been out of the house to get the newspaper and empty the trash, but not off the property.
The border collie has seizure disorder, and he has had a bad week. I've been reluctant to leave him alone.
Luckily, there's someone else here to get to the store.
But what does one do with a week? Read old magazines? Clean out closets? Drink?
I did none of those.
I immersed myself in a project: editing and transcribing my uncle's letters from Corregidor that were sent prior to his capture by the Japanese. The letters contain significant historical detail and will be posted on one of the web sites devoted to WW2 POWs in the Pacific.
I also worked on my attempt to locate in the National Archives the diaries my uncle kept on paper labels of fish cans while he was a POW. When he came home from the war, he brought the diaries with him. Adults in the family read them, but no one now living in the family was allowed in the room. The diaries were sent to Washington as war crimes evidence. I am trying to locate those diaries and get copies for family members to see. We honor the suffering of the POWs when we learn their stories.
And I spent many many hours reading the extensive material on the Internet that tells the story of other men who were tortured, starved, ruined, killed at the hands of other human beings. It is numbing reading. I read into the wee hours each day. There are affidavits from GIs who watched beheadings done for sport. Affidavits from GIs who were on the Hell Ships. Affidavits from Japanese telling the story of the vivisections of eight airmen for grisly medical experiments.
My uncle earned a distinguished service cross among many other medals. His leg was sawed off in a cave on Corregidor by an Army surgeon. He never spoke of his experiences to the family that we know of. But he had nightmares, always.
Such suffering. Such inhumanity. Such ignorance among those who were brainwashed into thinking that they were a superior race. With that mindthink, they were free to kill, maim, torture with impunity.
All those American soldiers and sailors fought for America's liberty -- freedom from fascism. The country was unified in the effort. Decades of peace and prosperity ensued.
But look what has happened. A propaganda war from the right has convinced low-information America that they are superior to fellow citizens who happen to be more liberal. Millions of Americans are in thrall to liars, thugs and depots. Those millions would stomp your head against the curb, shoot you as you protest, steal your vote, hate you and your children just as blithely as our enemies hated our GIs in wars of aggression. The swiftboating, the carrying of guns to political rallies, the obstructionism, the race baiting, AND the Internet war on liberals/progressives -- it's all thuggery.
The GIs who fought fascists stared into the abyss of inhumanity. The possibility of America living under tyranny didn't go away.
I don't have any conclusions. I have to set this aside for a while.
siligut
(12,272 posts)I am not sure which forum it should go in, it is well written and thoughtful and pertinent to what we are fighting against today and I guess we will continue to fight against it for as long as humans dominate the earth. Good you can set it aside. Take care of the dog.
Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)sad and heroic story. worthwhile project.
too much to comprehend. heavy stuff...you deserve a break. yeah.
MiddleFingerMom
(25,163 posts)cliffordu
(30,994 posts)Tis needs to be seen here.
As well as everything he wrote.
CaliforniaPeggy
(149,678 posts)Please re-post this in GD.
You have written a most compelling post and everyone needs to read it.
Blessings on you.
mahina
(17,691 posts)mahalo for sharing.
xchrom
(108,903 posts)tridim
(45,358 posts)It definitely changed my life.
Little Star
(17,055 posts)I hope eventually you find what you are looking for. When you do I hope you will share the story with us.
Is this part of a genealogy project? Sounds like it. If so, please also consider cross posting in the genealogy group too.
Thank you so much for sharing.
yellerpup
(12,253 posts)I'm sure it is upsetting to spend your time steeped in war and inhumanity, but I salute your stamina and heart. K&r!
Lint Head
(15,064 posts)It is well written and deserves more exposure than just the General Discussion forum. It should be published for all to see.
Tobin S.
(10,418 posts)Excellent post, grasswire. I look forward to hearing more about your findings.
MannyGoldstein
(34,589 posts)without waterboarding or otherwise torturing the enemy as a state policy.
Thank you for your work here.
Kali
(55,019 posts)and what a fascinating search - labels off fish cans! The compelling need to express ourselves is one of those things that sets apart from the other critters, isn't it? The brutality maybe not so much.
grasswire
(50,130 posts).....in POW camps. It was the keeping of a record of war crimes, and knowing that was the task. After the war, POWs swore affidavits of what they had seen and experienced. The horror, individual and collective, is staggering.
Kali
(55,019 posts)that is also an incredible act of bravery and forethought. Still I wonder what personal thoughts will you find? (or have found from other records?)
lunatica
(53,410 posts)It's a gift you're giving us, humanity, by keeping history alive so we can grow from knowing it.
Old Troop
(1,991 posts)after the last weeks. My grandparents spent their lives trying to find out what happened to him without any success. He was an Air Corps PFC who was stationed at Clark Field before the invasion. Men interviewed by my grandfather told him that he was last seen taking off in a bomber or was seen during the death march. His name was Henry Twomey. I'd be very interested if there was any mention of him in your uncle's documents.
grasswire
(50,130 posts)I have to tell you that much may have happened in tracing people since your grandfather tried. There are many thousands of records now on the Internet, and there are organizations dedicated to preserving the memory of each and every POW in the war in the Pacific. If he was on Bataan when it fell, then he was either KIA or a POW -- in which case there will be some record I think.
My condolences for your family's loss. Your grandfather must have been so very, very sad not to have found a trace. During what years was your grandfather looking?
So sad. I'm sorry.
Old Troop
(1,991 posts)looked from late 1945 (when the POWs started to come home) until his death in 1963. Another of his sons continued the search until 1992. I've been looking since then.
grasswire
(50,130 posts)That seems odd, considering that Bataan fell in 1941. Perhaps it means that date was the official "missing" date.
http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo/wwii/reports/
That is a page with extensive detail for family of MIA from each war. Interestingly, there is an effort to collect DNA data from family members for storage, so that if any matches may be made with any remains, the soldier will be identifiec.