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Bataan Barb

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26. EPILOGUE

For the Japanese, their victorious Bataan Peninsula campaign ended with the surrender of the American island fortress of Corregidor on May 6, 1942 and the completion of the infamous “Bataan Death March” with the final internment of as many as 60,000 American and Filipino POWs in prison camps, where many would suffer and die of hunger, disease and maltreatment.

On Bataan, intrepid bands of Filipino and American fighters persisted in carrying on a bitter guerrilla-style campaign against the occupying Japanese forces until the Philippines were finally liberated in 1945.

Among these bands was the one jointly led by Alejandro and Whitaker, who learned over time to bury their differences and work together for the good of their common struggle. Both survived the war, as did Whitaker’s two sidekicks, Norm Kowalski and Clem Papeleux.

Alejandro was celebrated after the war as a popular hero, and was elected for repeated terms of office as Mayor of Balanga.

Whitaker returned to the states and settled down in Los Angelwhere he wrote a published memoir of his wartime experiences on Bataan.

Kowalski returned to his native Chicago, where he married, moved to the suburbs, raised a family and made a living as an insurance agent.

Papeleux went home to Louisiana, where he opened a successful Cajun food eatery on Bourbon Street in New Orleans’ French Quarter.


NurseGroupe.jpeg
None of Barb’s nurses survived the Bataan Death March, although nurses from other ANC units did, and a few made it home from the POW camps following liberation in 1945. An American graduate student who in 1978 wrote a thesis on the fates of U.S. ANC nurses taken prisoner on Bataan, interviewed an aging Alejandro and learned something of Barb and Natalie during the brief time they spent with his partisan band, but could unearth nothing about their fate after Alejandro lost contact with them following the raid he led on the Lubao compound. The official communication their parents received from the War Department simply listed them as missing.

We Will Remember Them.jpeg

On the Japanese side, Lieutenant General Masharu Homma, commander of the 14th Army, was relieved of his command shortly after the fall of Corregidor, due to his deteriorating relationship with his superiors at Southern Army Command over his alleged lenient treatment of his adversaries and the Filipino population. He was sent home to Japan and forced into retirement in 1943. Soon thereafter The New York Times erroneously reported that he had committed suicide. After Japan’s defeat, he was tried in the Philippines, ironically for failing to prevent his subordinates from committing war crimes, and was sentenced to death by firing squad.

Captain Tanaka survived the war, and prospered as the founder of a highly successful Japanese manufacturer, first of transistors, then microchips. He courted and married a girl from the American Midwest, whom he revered. But tormented by guilt and nightmares of what happened in the war, he poured his energies and fortune, late in life, into supporting a number of charitable foundations dedicated to alleviating hunger, disease and violations of human rights around the world.

Major Ohno continued to serve in the Philippines where he, as in the story, persisted in undercutting General Homma at every opportunity. A few days prior to Homma’s dismissal, Ohno was run over and killed by a lorry when crossing a road just outside the town of Lubao. The lorry continued on without stopping, and investigators were never able to identify the driver or find the lorry.

Lieutenant Kinoshita spent the remainder of the war assigned to the Camp Donaldson POW camp where, in recognition of his work in Lubao, he served as the garrison officer in charge of executions. He was killed when the camp was liberated in 1945.


Private Sadao Sanao was shipped later in the war to Guam when the Japanese High Command ordered reinforcements sent there to bolster the existing garrison’s ability to oppose the anticipated U.S. invasion of the island. He met his death, along with hundreds of others, in a desperate last-ditch banzai charge against a firmly entrenched U.S. Marine position.
 
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Major Ohno continued to serve in the Philippines where he, as in the story, persisted in undercutting General Homma at every opportunity. A few days prior to Homma’s dismissal, Ohno was run over and killed by a lorry when crossing a road just outside the town of Lubao. The lorry continued on without stopping, and investigators were never able to identify the driver or find the lorry.
Now that's spooooky.

How on earth did Barb's ghost get hold of the keys to an army truck? :lupie:
 
26. EPILOGUE

For the Japanese, their victorious Bataan Peninsula campaign ended with the surrender of the American island fortress of Corregidor on May 6, 1942 and the completion of the infamous “Bataan Death March” with the final internment of as many as 60,000 American and Filipino POWs in prison camps, where many would suffer and die of hunger, disease and maltreatment.

On Bataan, intrepid bands of Filipino and American fighters persisted in carrying on a bitter guerrilla-style csmpaign against the occupying Japanese forces until the Philippines were finally liberated in 1945.

Among these bands was the one jointly led by Alejandro and Whitaker, who learned over time to bury their differences and work together for the good of their common struggle. Both survived the war, as did Whitaker’s two sidekicks, Norm Kowalski and Clem Papeleux.

Alejandro was celebrated after the war as a popular hero, and was elected for repeated terms of office as Mayor of Balanga.

Whitaker returned to the states and settled down in Los Angelos where he wrote a published memoir of his wartime experiences on Bataan.

Kowalski returned to his native Chicago, where he married, moved to the suburbs, raised a family and made a living as an insurance agent.

Papeleux went home to Louisiana, where he opened a successful Cajun food eatery on Bourbon Street in New Orleans’ French Quarter.

None of Barb’s nurses survived the Bataan Death March, although nurses from other ANC units did, and a few made it home from the POW camps following liberation in 1945. An American graduate student who in 1978 wrote a thesis on the fates of U.S. ANC nurses taken prisoner on Bataan, interviewed an aging Alejandro and learned something of Barb and Natalie during the brief time they spent with his partisan band, but could unearth nothing about their fate after Alejandro lost contact with them following the raid he led on the Lubao compound.

On the Japanese side, Lieutenant General Masharu Homma, commander of the 14th Army, was relieved of his command shortly after the fall of Corregidor, due to his deteriorating relationship with his superiors at Southern Army Command over his alleged lenient treatment of his adversaries and the Filipino population. He was sent home to Japan and forced into retirement in 1943. Soon thereafter The New York Times erroneously reported that he had committed suicide. After Japan’s defeat, he was tried in the United States, ironically for failing to prevent his subordinates from committing war crimes, and was sentenced to death by firing squad.

Captain Tanaka survived the war, and prospered as the founder of a highly successful Japanese manufacturer, first of transistors, then microchips. He courted and married a girl from the American Midwest, whom he revered. But tormented by guilt and nightmares of what happened in the war, he poured his energies and fortune, late in life, into supporting a number of charitable foundations dedicated to alleviating hunger, disease and violations of human rights around the world.

Major Ohno continued to serve in the Philippines where he, as in the story, persisted in undercutting General Homma at every opportunity. A few days prior to Homma’s dismissal, Ohno was run over and killed by a lorry when crossing a road just outside the town of Lubao. The lorry continued on without stopping, and investigators were never able to identify the driver or find the lorry.

Lieutenant Kinoshita spent the remainder of the war assigned to the Camp Donaldson POW camp where, in recognition of his work in Lubao, he served as the garrison officer in charge of executions. He was killed when the camp was liberated in 1945.


Private Sadao Sanao was shipped later in the war to Guam when the Japanese High Command ordered reinforcements sent there to bolster the existing garrison’s ability to oppose the anticipated U.S. invasion of the island. He met his death, along with hundreds of others, in a desperate last-ditch banzai charge against a firmly entrenched U.S. Marine position.
It seems that other than for the poor nurses in Barb's unit, Karma played its fateful part in the lives of most of the other protagonists. A very fitting epilogue to a wonderful story Barb. Thank you.
 
This is probably an unpopular opinion, but I’ll risk it anyway.

a beautifully written epilogue, Barb, thank you. I have a lot of catching up to do and really enjoy your style. I’ll be reading in delight

Overall, I felt the final chapter finished so beautifully it didn’t require an epilogue. I’m certainly glad Barbs final demise was mysteriously left unconfirmed but overall prefer the piece without epilogue. This is meant to indicate a huge compliment to your story writing skills. The big ticket loose ends were covered extremely well. In my unpopular opinion each reader can come up with their own epilogue...
 
Major Ohno continued to serve in the Philippines where he, as in the story, persisted in undercutting General Homma at every opportunity. A few days prior to Homma’s dismissal, Ohno was run over and killed by a lorry when crossing a road just outside the town of Lubao. The lorry continued on without stopping, and investigators were never able to identify the driver or find the lorry.
Some said it wasn't a lorry but a Type-95 staff car?

Whitaker returned to the states and settled down in Los Angelos where he wrote a published memoir of his wartime experiences on Bataan.
That disappoints me from Whitaker. I had anticipated he had a chance to survive the war, even as a partisan, but I had expected a further military career, raising trough the ranks, and fighting in Korea and Vietnam. His years long combat experience as a partisan would have been very valuable in fighting the Viet-Cong.

ironically for failing to prevent his subordinates from committing war crimes, and was sentenced to death by firing squad.
General Homma's trial was controversial, because of holding him responsible for all acts that happened under his command, regardless whether he had ordered them or not, or whether he was even aware of them. The same for the trial of General Yamashita.
 
1st Lieutenant Barbara Ann Moore, ANC and 2nd Lieutenant Natalie Brennan, ANC - Just two of the many Heroines of the Bataan March ...

View attachment 975902

This original photograph was stolen from the Japanese by the Philippines during Japan's three-year occupation in World War II. (AP Photo/U.S. Marine Corps) ASSOCIATED PRESS.
Fossy, I invite you, to make a cover-graphic in your uniqce style! Vertical format please!
 
How on earth did Barb's ghost get hold of the keys to an army truck?
Considering the admirable strength of will that Lieutenant Moore displayed, it's not too surprising.
This is probably an unpopular opinion, but I’ll risk it anyway.
Overall, I felt the final chapter finished so beautifully it didn’t require an epilogue.
Not that unpopular. I share your sentiment about the perfection of the ending. However, of course, one can just ignore the epilogue (and all these silly little comments, like little fawning admirers hoping to bask in some of the brilliant glow of a great writer by tagging along as part of her entourage).
On the other hand, given the historical immersion that @Barbaria1 has put us through, it seems right to place it all in contrast with an epilogue. And, re my comment below, there is at least one part of the epilogue that I couldn't bear to miss.
None of Barb’s nurses survived the Bataan Death March, although nurses from other ANC units did, and a few made it home from the POW camps following liberation in 1945. An American graduate student who in 1978 wrote a thesis on the fates of U.S. ANC nurses taken prisoner on Bataan, interviewed an aging Alejandro and learned something of Barb and Natalie during the brief time they spent with his partisan band, but could unearth nothing about their fate after Alejandro lost contact with them following the raid he led on the Lubao compound.
As with the death of Shirley and Hiroko, and the unfinished description of Barb's fate, this brief passage leaps off the page and grabs my heart. As I read it for the first time, I almost stopped breathing with emotion. The unmentioned but inevitable pain for her family back home cut at my soul.
I hesitate to add more of my words at the end of this wonderful tale. But I have to reference a line in one of the greatest literary works of all time. Virgil, in the Aeneid, describes the King of Troy, Priam, beheaded, his body left on the beach with no identification. Virgil penned a brief, flashing, phrase that resounds down the ages and moved me 56 years ago as an 11th grader. When I read @Barbaria1 's epilogue it flashed back in my mind and brought tears to my eyes:
Sine nomine corpus (a body without a name)

Thank you, Barb for a work that touched me deeply! :clapping:
 
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This is probably an unpopular opinion, but I’ll risk it anyway.

a beautifully written epilogue, Barb, thank you. I have a lot of catching up to do and really enjoy your style. I’ll be reading in delight

Overall, I felt the final chapter finished so beautifully it didn’t require an epilogue. I’m certainly glad Barbs final demise was mysteriously left unconfirmed but overall prefer the piece without epilogue. This is meant to indicate a huge compliment to your story writing skills. The big ticket loose ends were covered extremely well. In my unpopular opinion each reader can come up with their own epilogue...
Never trust an epilogue. They lie :rolleyes:
 
didn’t require an epilogue. I’m certainly glad Barbs final demise was mysteriously left unconfirmed but overall prefer the piece without epilogue.

News flash: June 1972: Two ANC nurses found in the mountains of Bataan, 27 years after the war was over. They had survived all those years on a diet of fruit, nuts, rats, pigeons, and native plants.

No wait. My mistake. :doh:

It wasn’t Barb and Natalie and it wasn’t on Bataan. It was a Japanese soldier on Guam, by the name of Sadao Sanao.
 
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News flash: June 1972: Two ANC nurses found in the mountains of Bataan, 27 years after the war was over. They had survived all those years on a diet of fruit, nuts, rats, pigeons, and native plants.

No wait. My mistake. :doh:

It wasn’t Barb and Natalie and it wasn’t on Bataan. It was a Japanese soldier on Guam, by the name of Sadao Sanao.
You’re such a teaser, lmao :D :p:p
 
Bataan Barb - Barbaria.jpg
Now in the archive:

and the libary:

@Fossy : thank you for the nice cover and the illustrations
Special thanks for @settantuno and @bobinder too!
 
News flash: June 1972: Two ANC nurses found in the mountains of Bataan, 27 years after the war was over. They had survived all those years on a diet of fruit, nuts, rats, pigeons, and native plants.

No wait. My mistake. :doh:

It wasn’t Barb and Natalie and it wasn’t on Bataan. It was a Japanese soldier on Guam, by the name of Sadao Sanao.
Two years later, on March 10th 1974, Lieutenant Hiro Onoda surrendered on the Phillippines, after nearly 30 years of hiding.

Having arrived ony in december 1944, he never had heard of Lieutenant Moore.

*****

Now, the epilogue leaves us behind with a still unsolved mystery : the fate of Lieutenant Moore :
Captain Tanaka survived the war, and prospered as the founder of a highly successful Japanese manufacturer, first of transistors, then microchips. He courted and married a girl from the American Midwest, whom he revered.

Did this American Midwest girl ressemble Lieutenant Moore?
Lieutenant Moore, who was herself from the Midwest (see episode 10)
Why was Captain Tanaka, surviving witness of the execution, never interrogated about the fate of Lieutenant Moore?
Why did he never made a statement himself about it?
It could have resolved Lieutenant Moore's MIA status, after all.

Let's go back to this fatefull hours in Lubao, Bataan Peninsula, April 25th 1942, near dusk :

As he lowered the point of his bayonet to the level of her navel, she couldn’t keep herself from looking down between her breasts at its threatening tip. She stopped trying to purchase a footing with her toes, allowed herself to go limp, and closed her eyes.

"HALT!"

Private Sadao held his bayonet, and looked behind him. All looked surprised, and Major Ohno, was about to look after and dress down the miscreant who had dared to intervene in the execution. Then, all officers jumped in attention and saluted, as they saw that the figure emerging from the half dark, was no other than General Homma!

"Who is in charge of this!?" Homma asked sternly, looking around, and noticing the most obvious culprit, "You, Major Ohno!?"

"Yes Sir, I ..."

"Lieutenant!" Homma ordered Kinoshita, "bring these prisoners to their quarters! Immediately!"

"Yes, Sir!", Lieutenant Kinoshita replied, and immediately barked orders to rally the prisoners away.

"Now, Major Homma! Explain me this!"

"General, I have direct orders from Southern Armies Command to find out and resolve the escape of prisoners!"

"Indeed, you have, Major! But this here is interfering with my command, and I have never given orders to commit such acts, which I call atrocities! There is still a campaign going on, and I urge you and all the other officers in the jurisdiction of my command, to focus on essential tasks and abstain of unnecessary demonstrations like these! And now, get to hell immediately out of here!"

After, clearly disgruntled, Major Homma had left the compound, General Homma turned to Captain Tanaka, and pointing to Lieutenant Moore, still attached to the post..

"Captain! That woman! What are you going to do with her?"

"General I..." Tanaka replied, hesitating.

"She is yours Captain! Do with her what you want!" General Homma said. And then he left, leaving Captain Tanaka behind in a state of total confusion.
 
Two years later, on March 10th 1974, Lieutenant Hiro Onoda surrendered on the Phillippines, after nearly 30 years of hiding.

Having arrived ony in december 1944, he never had heard of Lieutenant Moore.

*****

Now, the epilogue leaves us behind with a still unsolved mystery : the fate of Lieutenant Moore :


Did this American Midwest girl ressemble Lieutenant Moore?
Lieutenant Moore, who was herself from the Midwest (see episode 10)
Why was Captain Tanaka, surviving witness of the execution, never interrogated about the fate of Lieutenant Moore?
Why did he never made a statement himself about it?
It could have resolved Lieutenant Moore's MIA status, after all.

Let's go back to this fatefull hours in Lubao, Bataan Peninsula, April 25th 1942, near dusk :

As he lowered the point of his bayonet to the level of her navel, she couldn’t keep herself from looking down between her breasts at its threatening tip. She stopped trying to purchase a footing with her toes, allowed herself to go limp, and closed her eyes.

"HALT!"

Private Sadao held his bayonet, and looked behind him. All looked surprised, and Major Ohno, was about to look after and dress down the miscreant who had dared to intervene in the execution. Then, all officers jumped in attention and saluted, as they saw that the figure emerging from the half dark, was no other than General Homma!

"Who is in charge of this!?" Homma asked sternly, looking around, and noticing the most obvious culprit, "You, Major Ohno!?"

"Yes Sir, I ..."

"Lieutenant!" Homma ordered Kinoshita, "bring these prisoners to their quarters! Immediately!"

"Yes, Sir!", Lieutenant Kinoshita replied, and immediately barked orders to rally the prisoners away.

"Now, Major Homma! Explain me this!"

"General, I have direct orders from Southern Armies Command to find out and resolve the escape of prisoners!"

"Indeed, you have, Major! But this here is interfering with my command, and I have never given orders to commit such acts, which I call atrocities! There is still a campaign going on, and I urge you and all the other officers in the jurisdiction of my command, to focus on essential tasks and abstain of unnecessary demonstrations like these! And now, get to hell immediately out of here!"

After, clearly disgruntled, Major Homma had left the compound, General Homma turned to Captain Tanaka, and pointing to Lieutenant Moore, still attached to the post..

"Captain! That woman! What are you going to do with her?"

"General I..." Tanaka replied, hesitating.

"She is yours Captain! Do with her what you want!" General Homma said. And then he left, leaving Captain Tanaka behind in a state of total confusion.
An amazing alternative ending, Lox. Opens up all kinds of possibilities like General Homma ordering Ohno to do the honorable thing and step in front of a speeding lorry.
 
A sob escaped his throat, his body convulsed. No! How could this have happened? She was dead! Shot dead!
You know, I feel really quite sad for young Hiroko. In another time...

Have your men string these two ladies up by their wrists to that roof support. Be sure to get them up high enough so that their toes barely touch the ground. I want them fully stretched out.
I dislike this Ohno very much. Seems to know his torture though.
“Fuckin' Japs!” growled Clem. “Lookee ... the little pisser is a try’in to surrr-en-dar!
Can't say I like Clem either.

Tanaka felt sick with revulsion at the sight of their sufferings, but there was nothing he could do to help them.
The "following orders" thing again. Tanaka is just as guilty as Ohno if he doesn't do something, according to the logic of the post war trials.

“It has, Lieutenant. I don’t need you to tell me that! We’re through here. These two are of no value. Go find Kinoshita. Tell him to take them away and execute them!”
This doesn't look good, if you need anyone to point out the bloody obvious.

Barb regarded the Japanese soldier warily as he methodically polished and then replaced his thick eyeglasses. T
Warily. Resignedly. Objectively. The Bataan death march didn't have a happy ending.
Absolutely superb, Barb!! You made the history come to life. Even though there are obviously bits that were fictionalized, it captures a realistic essence and the quandaries and moral dilemmas of war. Kudos for all the research and careful thought that went into this. But all that is the serious stuff.

What you've also done is give us a rich, engrossing, sexy story that was so very worthwhile reading.
:thumbsup::besos::besos::clapping::clapping::clapping:
 
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