These are the Dangerous Days We Forget To Remember

Published: Fri, 02/28/20

Author Mary Cronk Farrell

Stories to Inform & Inspire

February 28, 2020

Hello ,

I've had my head so far down in my work this year, I failed to recognize this month marked the 75th Anniversary of very important events.

American military nurses held POW by the Japanese for nearly the entirety of U.S. involvement in WWII were liberated in February 1945.

As you know from my book Pure Grit: How American WWII Nurses Survived Battle and Prison Camp in the Pacific some of the women were scheduled to be shot the day they were liberated, and others would have soon died of starvation.

Being too busy to remember important events from 1945 is dangerous. More dangerous now than ever before.

Dangerous Days not to Forget

(Calendar Below)

Around the country and the web, there will be many important commemorations and celebrations on our way through the calendar to September 2nd, the 75th Anniversary of the end of WWII.

As fewer and fewer people remain alive who lived through the war years, it falls on all of us to preserve and spread the truth.

A survey two years ago showed 52 percent of Americans wrongly thought that Adolf Hitler came to power through military force.The New York Times reported a poll indicating 41 percent of American didn’t know what Auschwitz was.

Probably, even fewer have learned about Imperial Japanese Army atrocities in the Philippines during WWII, which I only learned of while researching my book Pure Grit.

Americans walking Bataan Death March, Philippines, April 10-16, 1942.

Thousands of sick and wounded U.S. soldiers who'd been under the care of American nurses during the Battle of Bataan, later died due to inhumane treatment by the Japanese army during the Bataan Death March.

But in addition, Filipino civilians were killed throughout the war, often shot outright, sometimes burned alive in their villages. Similarly, the Japanese secret police conducted a series of massacres in the countries they invaded in Southeast Asia.

Photo found among Japanese records when British troops entered Singapore. Picture shows Japanese soldiers shooting prisoners, seated, blindfolded in a rough semi-circle.

As many as ten thousand civilians in the Chinese community in Singapore massacred, some rounded up and hauled by truck to remote locations across the island for execution.

Dates to Remember in 2020

6 April: Discovery of Ohrdruf, an annex of the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany, and a turning point when photos of the camp began to be released to the public around the world.

7 May: at 2:41 a.m. Germans sign unconditional surrender

8 May: VE Day, Nazis defeated after six years, and millions of lives lost. The war in Europe is over.

22 June: Battle ends on Okinawa Island, the last major battle of WW II, and one of the bloodiest

6 Aug: The first atomic bomb is dropped, an estimated 200,000 people killed at Hiroshima

2 Sept: Japan surrenders, VJ Day

Commemorative events are scheduled at the National WWII Memorial in Washington D.C. But many events will also take place around the country, so check out your local scene.

African American members of the Women's Army Corps will be honored at a living history exhibit at the Chickamauga National Military Park, Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia,

April 18-19.

Fort Oglethorpe was home to the Third WAC Training Center, one of the largest training sites for women soldiers during WW II. The women of the segregated 6888th Postal Battalion trained at Fort Oglethorpe for their mission overseas. Their story is told in my recent book Standing Up Against Hate: How Black Women in the Army Helped Change the Course of WWII.

Members of the Women's Army Corps (WAC) pose at Camp Shanks, New York, before leaving from New York Port of Embarkation on February 2, 1945. The women are with the first contingent of Black American WACs to go overseas for the war effort From left to right are, kneeling: Pvt. Rose Stone; Pvt. Virginia Blake; and Pfc. Marie B. Gillisspie. Second row: Pvt. Genevieve Marshall; T/5 Fanny L. Talbert; and Cpl. Callie K. Smith. Third row: Pvt. Gladys Schuster Carter; T/4 Evelyn C. Martin; and Pfc. Theodora Palmer

If you hear of celebratory events to mark memorable dates in 1945, let me know and I'll add them here, as well as a calendar I hope to put together on my website. And don't hesitate to recommend my three WWII books to educators, friends and family to help keep important memories alive. They are all listed here... The courageous of the women in my books can help us hold fast to the center amid all the bad news.

News and Links

In the last four years the U.S. has seen a rise in anti-Semitic violence and incidents of Holocaust denial. Last year, a high school principal in Florida had to be fired for refusing to state that the Holocaust was a factual historical event.

You can read the full results of the Holocaust Knowledge and Awareness Study here...

Battle Field as Crime Scene, an article on Historynet.com tells how Japanese soldiers

massacred tens of thousands of civilians as American troops advanced into Manila in early 1945.

If you go

Chickamauga National Military Park

Fort Oglethorpe, GA
April 18-19, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Living history weekend focusing on the Women’s Army Corps training facility at Chickamauga Battlefield. Throughout the day, visitors will have the opportunity to interact with WAC living historians at various training stations. Including hands-on experiences for young people, with the opportunity to earn a WAC Training Certificate and a special Junior Ranger Badge.

Each day: 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.: 30-minute formal living history presentations on the Women’s Army Corps;

2 p.m.: 1-mile, 90-minute hike to the ruins of the historic WAC training facility.

All programs originate at the Chickamauga Battlefield Visitor Center.

Until next week...

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