![]() ![]() The forgiveness was for me,” he explained. So, the forgiveness that I did was not for them. ![]() “I couldn’t go there and talk with them if I hadn’t learned to forgive and get on with my life. ![]() Tenney remarked that all the while he pursued these apologies, he had come to realization that he had to forgive. In 1995, he published an account of his wartime experiences in a book called “ My Hitch in Hell.” In addition to calling for apologies from the Japanese government and Japanese mining companies, Tenney made enormous efforts to educate both Japanese schoolchildren and American society on what had happened during the war. He also spearheaded a movement that pushed Japan to acknowledge the mistreatment of American POWs during World War II. Tenney received business degrees from San Diego State University and the University of Southern California and became a college professor. But the war ended one week later.” After returning home, Tenney discovered that his wife, presuming he had died, had remarried. I guess we were witnesses to it because we were right there. It was the bomb at Nagasaki that we heard. We heard an explosion and we saw a tremendous cloud rise. Tenney recalled witnessing the atomic bombing of Nagasaki: “We were in our prison camp in Omuta. He was forced to labor for three years in a coal mine for the Mitsui Coal Mining Company. ![]() He then endured 32 days in a “hell ship” that transported him to Japan. Tenney survived the Bataan Death March, where he and his fellow soldiers were forced to trek approximately 75 miles, with thousands dying from starvation, dehydration, and gratuitous violence. forces surrendered to the Japanese on April 9, 1942. troops fell back to the Bataan peninsula, Tenney participated in months of desperate fighting before U.S. tank battle of the war against the Japanese near Lingayen. He served as a radio operator and tank commander and participated in the first U.S. Tenney joined the 192nd Tank Battalion of the National Guard in 1940 and was deployed to the Philippines in 1941. He later worked to obtain apologies from Japan for mistreatment of POWs during the war and to promote reconciliation between the U.S. Lester Tenney (1920-2017) was an American World War II veteran who survived the Bataan Death March and endured years as a prisoner of war in Japan. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |