okay, 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.
= new reply since forum marked as read
sad and heroic story. worthwhile project.
too much to comprehend. heavy stuff...you deserve a break. yeah.
Please re-post this in GD.
You have written a most compelling post and everyone needs to read it.
Blessings on you.
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.
