What a special treat to meet some new friends at the dedication of the Veterans Wall of Honor in Eatonton today. I met Billy Waller and his wife, Martha Manley Adams Waller. When I introduced myself, Mr. Waller immediately recognized the name Clopton and asked if I was related to Rufus Clopton. I told him I was married to his son. He began talking all about Terrys father who was a Japanese Prisoner of War for 40 months during WWII. Mr. Waller remembered the day Terrys father arrived in Eatonton, picked up at the train station by Joe B Rossee (not sure what train station). Eatonton business owners refused any payment for his haircut, a purchase of a hat and other items. He says that Terrys father was considered a war hero, missing in action at first then family notified that he was being held a prisoner first in the Philippines after being captured on Corregidor and then used for slave labor in the lead mines in Japan. He told us several stories including one about General Wainwright meeting Mr. Clopton on the Putnam County Courthouse Square shortly after the war. After General Douglas MacArthur was removed from his position and sent to Australia, General Jonathan Wainwright became the senior field commander of Filipino and US forces. Wainwright was responsible for resisting the Japanese invasion of the Philippines. He was in Eatonton serving as the Grand Marshall of the Dairy Festival parade. After the parade, while walking on the square, Terrys father spoke to him and shook his hand. General Wainwright immediately recognized Mr. Clopton as a POW he had met while a POW himself in the Philippines and Japan. Mr. Clopton had been on Bataan but escaped to nearby Corregidor Island just before the Japanese took over and the Bataan Death March occurred. . I read on this website: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_M._Wainwright_(general) Gen. Wainwright was the highest ranking POW to be held by the Japanese. He had to make the difficult decision to surrender Corregidor after his men ran out of food and ammunition. This was May 6, in the interest of minimizing casualties, Wainwright surrendered. By June 9, Allied forces had completely surrendered. Dubbed by his men a fighting general who was willing to get down in the foxholes, Wainwright won the respect of all who were imprisoned with him. He agonized over his decision to surrender Corregidor throughout his captivity, feeling that he had let his country down. Upon release, the first question he asked was how people back in the U.S. thought of him, and he was amazed when told he was considered a hero. He later received the Medal of Honor, an honor which had first been proposed early in his captivity, in 1942, but was rejected due to the vehement opposition of General MacArthur, who felt that Corregidor should not have been surrendered. Macarthur did not oppose the renewed proposal in 1945.[3][4]
Posted on: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 03:06:25 +0000
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