THE JUKE BOX

LAST WEEK ON TALK OF THE TOWN WE DISCUSSED THE BATAAN DEATH MARCH AND A BOOK "TEARS IN THE DARKNESS" BY MICHAEL AND ELIZABETH NORMAN. FOR ANYONE WHO WOULD LIKE TO PURSUE THIS HORRIBLE PART OF HISTORY. OTHER BOOKS ON THE SUBJECT ARE "WE BAND OF ANGELS"  THE STORY OF THE NURSES ON BATAAN, WRITTEN BY ELIZABETH NORMAN, AND ""DEATH MARCH" BY DONALD KNOX, THE STORY TOLD BY THE MEN WHO ACTUALLY EXPERIENCED THE SAVAGE MISTREATMENT. 

SINCE THESE PRISONERS WERE TAKEN IN THE VERY EARLY PART OF WWII, THOSE THAT SURVIVED, HAD TO ENDURE YEARS OF MISTREATMENT, AT THE HANDS OF THE JAPANESE.  THERE WAS AN EFFORT TO SEEK REPARATIONS FROM THE JAPANESE AFTER THE WAR, BUT OUR OWN GOVERNMENT DID NOT PURSUE IT.

PERHAPS ONE OF THE MOST GRUESOME STORIES, IS THAT RELATED IN "FLYBOYS" BY JAMES BRADLEY. OUR AIRMEN WERE SHOT DOWN WHILE ATTACKING THE ISLAND OF CHICHI JIMA, THE JAPANESE COMMUNICATIONS CENTER FOR THE ENTIRE PACIFIC. THEY WERE CAPTURED, AND BEHEADED AND OFTEN PARTS OF THEIR BODIES WERE EATEN BY JAPANESE OFFICERS.  

I KNOW OF ONLY ONE LOCAL MAN WHO LIVED OUT THE WAR AS A JAPANESE PRISONER, THAT WAS JAY NEVENZEL, A MARINE WHO WAS TAKEN PRISONER ON WAKE ISLAND, AND WORKED IN THE JAPANESE COAL MINES. 

DOES ANYONE KNOW OF ANY OTHER PRISONERS OF WWII?  THEIR STORIES SHOULD BE TOLD.