On this day, just after Veterans Day, I must add that around that same time-- in February 1945--the Japanese were so angered by the advance of the American and Philippine armies that it ordered every man, woman, and child in the areas around Manila to be killed. 100,000 people died in that massacre, a tragedy hard to imagine. Contributing to the tragedy of this period, the Bilibid prison camp once held over 3000 soldiers. Some were sent on a ship to Formosa, which was sunk before it arrived. Another 600 soldiers were put on another boat, and was torpedoed, and 300 American soldiers were lost. The weakest, those 800 men, were left in Bilibid, and although one to four a day died of starvation or disease, they were the lucky ones. Sometimes you do have to wonder about fate. Uncle Adolph, also 89, served in the Pacific. He was stationed in Hawaii shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and due to ship out. But he had an attack of appendicitis and was unable to go. The ship was never seen again. Much about war did not make sense. The mother of Uncle Adolph and Uncle Art, Catarina, was told she had to go to an internment camp because she was an Italian citizen. The U.S. was at war with Italy, and Italian citizens were considered enemy aliens. Fortunately, her marriage to an Italian born in Argentina kept her from being sent to the camp.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 16:36:44 +0000
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