WWII POW mystery unravels 30 years after prisoner's death. Some stories are never meant to be kept secret.

SFC Mark Merino — Fri, 11 Sep 2015 12:44:31 -0400

Hitomi and I watched this on NHK (Japan TV). This article doesn't do the story justice. I pray this becomes a movie some day.

A son stumbles across a stack of letters in his deceased father's 'war chest' and since he knew nothing of his father's war experiences, he decided to run this mystery to ground, which would take him to the address on the envelope....in Japan. When he got to Japan the mystery was easily solved, as one of the poems sent in gratitude (some 30+ years prior) was etched in granite at the family's burial plot. The Japanese family was just as puzzled by this inscription in a foreign language (English) and everything had finally come full circle.
The Englishman was a POW and the Japanese man was one of his jailors. But instead of a story of brutality, this was a (rare) story of friendship. This prison guard risked almost certain execution by his own countrymen if they discovered that he was secretly passing along his own food to the prisoners and spent his miniscule military allowance to purchase food for them as well. As best I can tell, neither of the war veterans shared any of their wartime experiences with their families after the war. There friendship continued for decades after the end of the war.

http://sacratomatovillepost.com/2015/08/22/families-of-british-prisoner-and-japanese-guard-united-by-poem-70-years-on/

Families of British prisoner and Japanese guard united by poem 70 years on

Toby Norways travelled to Japan to research his father Bill’s friendship with Kameo Yamanaka, and found an ode in English next to Yamanaka’s grave Toby Norways with members of the Yamanaka family a...

Response by SCPO David Lockwood made Sep 11 at 2015 12:45 PM

SCPO David Lockwood — Fri, 11 Sep 2015 12:45:41 -0400

Sounds like this would make an awesome movie. Thanks for sharing!

Response by Maj Chris Nelson made Sep 11 at 2015 12:55 PM

Maj Chris Nelson — Fri, 11 Sep 2015 12:55:23 -0400

Awesome!!! Fantastic read. I would agree...this has great potential for a movie, but would need to be carefully crafted to honor this friendship appropriately! (I would hate to see this as one of "those movies" that are just completely crappy)

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Sep 11 at 2015 2:49 PM

SSG Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 11 Sep 2015 14:49:37 -0400

This is a great story SFC Mark Merino Thank you for sharing

Response by SGT Scott Bell made Sep 11 at 2015 2:50 PM

SGT Scott Bell — Fri, 11 Sep 2015 14:50:53 -0400

Man how cool

Response by MAJ Ken Landgren made Sep 11 at 2015 3:22 PM

MAJ Ken Landgren — Fri, 11 Sep 2015 15:22:02 -0400

Nice! Japan is expensive, are you both working?

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Sep 11 at 2015 7:31 PM

SSG Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 11 Sep 2015 19:31:48 -0400

A beautiful read. Thank you for sharing!