Putting the deaths of World War II in perspective, and those in wars since

The Fallen of World War II by Neil Halloran

WORLD WAR II’S IMPACT VIEWED IN A NEW LIGHT IN “THE FALLEN OF WORLD WAR II”

About time...

Graduation Heals World War II Internment Wounds

Miyada was 17 when he was sent with his family and more than 17,000 other detainees to a patch of desert land near Poston, Arizona, shortly after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor during World War II. A teacher later sent him a letter expressing shock that he couldn’t finish high school and included a diploma — but Miyada always regretted that he missed the celebration.

In May, Miyada met Newport Harbor’s principal, Sean Boulton, during a Memorial Day service at the high school and Boulton invited him to walk with the 560 seniors who would be graduating. Boulton even found a copy of the program from what would have been Miyada’s graduation day in 1942.

“My name was on there,” Miyada said. “I wasn’t able to attend, of course, but my name was there anyway. It was very emotional.”

After two years in the camp, Miyada moved to Michigan, where he was drafted. He went on to serve in the U.S. Army in Europe and then earned a doctorate in chemistry from Michigan State University. He eventually became a professor at the University of California, Irvine.

Kudos to the school for inviting this man to finally walk in graduation. It was a great injustice that so many were sent away into internment camps for the sin of being Japanese-American, yet as his story shows, the same government had no trouble drafting him and sending him into war. The Allegiance musical, whose site hosted this story, also tells a story of internment. One cast member is George Takei (Sulu from 'Star Trek'), who himself was sent to an internment camp in Arkansas as a boy, and who worked very hard to get the play off the ground. I really wish I could watch it on Broadway.

This was pretty cool

Ghost Army: The Inflatable Tanks That Fooled Hitler: The Allies saved thousands of lives by embracing the artistry of war

Bill Blass was one of them. So was Ellsworth Kelly. And Arthur Singer. And Art Kane. Before these men embarked on the artistic careers they would become known for, they served together during World War II. But they were a particular kind of soldier, serving in a particular kind of unit: Blass and his brothers in arms were recruited from art schools and ad agencies. They were sought for their acting skills. They were selected for their creativity. They were soldiers whose most effective weapon was artistry.

Because their job was to fool Hitler.

One of my co-workers really enjoyed the documentary on PBS called 'Ghost Army' that was mentioned in this article. You can watch it on the PBS website.

Fancy a try at cryptography?

Here's an historical puzzle:

CAN YOU CRACK THE PIGEON'S CODE?

A coded message found attached to the remains of a hero D-Day carrier pigeon may never be cracked, British top codebreakers have admitted.

Hand-written on a small sheet of paper headed "Pigeon Service," the message was found in a red cylinder still attached to the bird's leg bone.

The pigeon's skeleton emerged in 1982 from the chimney of 17th-century home in Bletchingley, Surrey, when the home's current owner David Martin decided to restore the fireplace.

The code is transcribed in the article's text and what elements are known are mentioned. Have at it!

Sweet

Tom Eblen: Married 65 years, couple who served during World War II keep memories alive

Time is accomplishing what the combined forces of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan could never do: wipe out the generation of Americans who won World War II.

Nearly 16 million U.S. veterans came home after the war ended in 1945. Only about 1.5 million of them are still alive, including about 3,100 in Kentucky. The Veterans Administration estimates that these men and women in their 80s and 90s are passing at the rate of 740 a day.

So when I got a call recently from Donald and Mary Jane Roser of Lexington, who both served in the military during World War II and have been married for 65 years, I figured they would have interesting stories to tell.

Donald Roser, 93, was in the First Marine Division in the South Pacific, including nearly five months in the Guadalcanal campaign. "I always say I must be going to heaven, because I've already been to hell," he said.

Mary Jane Roser, 91, was one of 350,000 women accepted into military service during the war. She joined a new Navy unit called the WAVES, which stood for Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service.

I'm so glad to hear that these two not only survived the war, but have managed to live long and productive lives together for so long.

I had three grandparents who served in the war--both grandfathers and a grandmother who served as an Army nurse and lost a kidney in the war when a patient kicked her. One of my grandfathers was at Iwo Jima in a tank division. I never knew the other; he survived the war but he and my father were estranged. My father, in turn, served in Vietnam.

Both of the grandparents I knew fell not to war, but to tobacco--one had emphysema and was on oxygen for years; another had lung cancer.

I miss them still, even though it's been several years since they passed. My grandmother died in 1993. She got me through my divorce and helped me back on my feet, dying just before I graduated from library school. My grandfather, whom I loved dearly, died in 2000. I can still remember the sound of their voices. There's only my last remaining grandmother left, and she turns 88 on Tuesday.

Tom Brokaw called them 'The Greatest Generation'. I'm just sorry we're losing them so quickly now. It's nice that these two are still together, going strong.

Imagine finding out you were stolen as a child--in World War II

New Zealand man discovers he was missing person in post WWII Germany
He finally discovered his real family, but sadly, shortly after the deaths of his mother and sister.

Apologies are long overdue...and for many, may come too late

Unfinished Business: For 65 years, Japanese corporations have escaped responsibility for abusing American POWs during World War II

Lester Tenney entered World War II as a strapping 21-year-old, weight 180 pounds. By the time he emerged from Japanese captivity in 1945, he was a shattered, emaciated cripple. His left arm and shoulder were partly paralyzed due to an accident in a coal mine where he'd been sent as a slave laborer. His overseers there -- civilian employees of the Mitsui Corp., not members of the Imperial Army -- had knocked out his teeth in repeated beatings with hammers and pickaxes. At war's end, he weighed in at 98 pounds. It took him a year in U.S. Army hospitals to regain something like a semblance of his old well-being.

Sixty-five years later, Tenney and his fellow ex-prisoners of war (POWs) -- the rapidly diminishing group of those who remain alive, that is -- are still awaiting the full fruits of victory. The Japanese companies that once abused Tenney and his fellow prisoners have never acknowledged responsibility for their crimes, let alone offered compensation or regrets of any kind. (The companies needed the POWs to compensate for a wartime labor shortage.) The Japanese government has only just begun to offer its regrets for what happened -- far too late for most of the veterans, but, still, something. Perhaps most depressingly of all, the U.S. government has spent years allowing the Japanese to get away with it -- a policy of complicity that has its roots in the two countries' complex postwar relationship. There are signs that this, too, may finally be changing. Hope never dies, as they say.

Just like businesses that reaped the benefits of Jewish slave labour in German areas of Europe in World War II have a moral obligation to apologise and offer reparations to those who suffered (and in several cases, that has been the case), so do Japanese companies who used American POWs.

Survivors of Japan's WWII POW Camps Call on Japan for the Same Treatment as Siberian Internees

World War II former prisoners of war of Japan are calling on Japanese government and industry to provide the same commitment to the memory of their suffering and forced labor. The call comes after Japan's parliament approved on June 16th $200M to benefit Japanese veterans who survived the Soviet Union's post-WWII Siberian labor camps and to provide an accurate historical account for future generations.

Three past commanders of the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor (ADBC) applaud Japan's government for taking action now. Dr. Lester Tenney, Mr. Edward Jackfert, and Mr. Ralph Levenberg all survived Japan's notorious prisoner of war camps and endured brutal forced labor, providing profit for some of Japan's largest corporations during WWII. Over 60 well-known Japanese companies, such as Mitsui, Sumitomo, Kawasaki, Mitsubishi, and Nippon Sharyo, used American and Allied POW labor in harsh conditions to sustain their war production.

In memory of the last surviving leader of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising

(Photo by: Mariusz Kubik)

For three weeks in 1943, a group of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto fought against the Nazis, even though they had few guns and almost no food. It was doomed from the start, but it was a brave attempt to stall the liquidation of the ghetto, as transports took Jews away to death camps. Unfortunately, 55,000 people were killed or deported when it failed. After the uprising, most of the leaders died by their own hand rather than be captured by the Nazis. Marek Edelman escaped with others and joined a partisan group who continued to resist Nazi oppression. After the war he stayed in his beloved Poland, becoming a doctor. He fought against communism and was a member of Solidarity, the movement that eventually brought the downfall of the communist regime in Poland.

Warsaw Ghetto uprising leader Edelman dies: 90-year-old fighter defied Nazi extermination in doomed 1943 struggle

The Nazis "wanted to destroy the people and we fought to protect the people in the ghetto, to extend their lives by a day, or two or five," he said.

Warsaw ghetto uprising head dies


Wikipedia article for Marek Edelman

Seventy years ago today

war was officially declared in response to Germany's invasion of Poland on September 1st, and thus World War II began. A solemn moment of remembrance for the millions that died is in order. According to one website, an estimated 48,231,700 people died, including both military and civilians--with the majority of deaths being civilian. Think of that...nearly 50 million, enough to populate six metropolises the size of New York City.

Everyone has the potential to be a hero, but not everyone steps up to the plate

Retracing a life-saving journey

Jewish children from Czechoslovakia were saved when Nicholas Winton, a young British stockbroker, arranged for families to take the children back in England. Between March and August of 1939, trains carried 669 children to safety. Another 250 were to leave on September 1st--the day Hitler invaded Poland--and were prevented by the Nazis. But for those who were saved, his work made all the difference.

In other countries, refugee organisations had begun organising the "Kindertransports" - a series of trains carrying thousands of Jewish children out of central Europe. But no such plan existed in Czechoslovakia.

After visiting refugee camps outside Prague, Winton realised he had to act quickly.

"I found out the children of refugees and other groups of people who were enemies of Hitler weren't being looked after. I decided to try to get permits to Britain for them.

"Everybody in Prague said, 'Look, there is no organisation in Prague to deal with refugee children, nobody will let the children go on their own, but if you want to have a go, have a go'.

"And I think there is nothing that can't be done if it is fundamentally reasonable."

Many ordinary people did extraordinary things during World War II that saved lives. This kind of quiet heroism is always present in some amount through wars, famines, disasters, etc. from time immemorial through today, and it is one facet that reminds us of the beauty and good of humanity, especially in contrast to the darker aspects.

Nice

Dame Vera Lynn re-enters charts

Legendary singer Dame Vera Lynn has become the oldest living artist to enter the top 20 of the UK album chart, her record company said.

Dame Vera, who kept up the spirits of millions of soldiers during World War II, has entered the album chart at number 20 - at the age of 92.

In a video, Dame Vera expressed her surprise and delight at getting on the charts when the music that is the norm today is so different than the type she sang in the 1940s. I say it's rather nice. Good music should be appreciated no matter what the style.

Remarkable, especially for her time

Pearl Witherington (or as she was after her marriage, Madame Cornioley) led a faction of the French Resistance during WWII, working as a spy for the British government. Given a civilian award because it was not possible then for a woman to receive a military equivalent, she returned the award saying that she had done nothing remotely 'civil' during the war.

That was later rectified, and she received others, but the one she cherished most was her parachute wings, for the jumps she'd made six decades before.

She definitely sounds like someone I would like to have met. She died on Sunday.