More Japanese American Followup

All,

Our colleague, MG Tom Needham, who in the past commanded the Army troops in Alaska, shared some comments related to Japanese POWs in Alaska during WWII that I thought you might find of interest:

Rusty,

Many folks do not know that we had a POW camp at Fort Greely, AK during WWII. About 40 of them died and are buried at the national cemetery at Fort Richardson, in a separate area from the US graves. Memorial Day was always a tough call. In 1995 the Japanese Consulate in Anchorage wanted a combined ceremony. My boss, a wonderful USAF LTG, told me it was my call and that he would be attending. I had been heckled earlier at a combined ceremony at Fort Carson, which had become quite ugly. As a result of that experience, I decided to go with what we’d done in the past in Alaska - a separate ceremony. In the second ceremony for Japanese POWs, we provided the band, honor guard, etc. After the ceremony, the Japanese chargé d'affaires thanked me and hoped that a combined ceremony would happen one day. I am sure that by now the ceremony has become a combined affair. In retrospect, I should have agreed to the combined ceremony. The press did not comment on the separate ceremonies then, and many Aklaska citizens never knew about it. Nor did most of them know that Japan had occupied two of our islands in the Aleutian chain in WWII, until the 7th Infantry Division retook them with a lot of support from the Navy.

Happy New Year,
TOM