Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] An article from The Honolulu Advertiser

[William Alford <walford@dbtech.net>]

At 08:36 AM 9/19/2002 -0400, ToolRoomTrustee@aol.com wrote: 

>
> Though the original participants of the "Battaan Walk for Life" 
> have already gone on their survivors still talk loving of the Japanese.


Actually, some of the Battaan Death March participants are still with us. I
personally know one, Bert Bank of Tuscaloosa, AL, who is actively quoted in the
amazing chronicle of that atrocity, "Ghost Soldiers" now being made into a
movie by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Cruise. I highly recommend it. Mr.
Bank returned to AL after going completely blind during his imprisonment,
regained his sight, started a radio station which he still manages to this day
and became a millionaire. I've heard him speak about the event several times
and amazingly Mr. Bank has stated repeatedly that he holds no ill feelings
against the Japanese, a sentiment not shared by all survivors. He authored a
short narrative of his experience, "The March of Death" while he was
recuperating which he still sells to this day for $10, all monies of which go
to a scholarship fund at the University of Alabama. I got Mr. Bank to autograph
a copy for my father as a gift. Can't wait for the movie, billed as the most
daring rescue operation of the war.

William Alford
walford@dbtech.net

Tout comprendre c'est tout pardonner