Negotiating Reconciliation with Japan: American POWs of Japan

Filed Under: Events, Events

Featuring:

Lester Tenney | Former POW and Bataan Death March Survivor
Jan Thompson | Founding President of the American Defenders of Bataan & Corregidor Memorial Society

Friday, May 1, 2015
12:30 PM – 2:00 PM
Bernstein-Offit Building, Room 500
1717 Massachusetts Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20036

Please join the U.S.-Korea Institute at SAIS and Asia Policy Point for a panel discussion featuring Bataan Death March survivor Lester Tenney and documentary filmmaker Jan Thompson, who will discuss reconciliation efforts between POWs and Japan, as well as what is left to do. They will also address the idea of closure for both the victims of the war and the generations to come.

Lester Tenney, 94, was the last National Commander of the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Memorial Society (ADBC-MS). He successfully convinced the Japanese government to deliver a formal apology to American POWs of Japan in 2009 and create a reconciliation program for former POWs to visit Japan. He was a tank commander from the famous Maywood, Illinois National Guard, Company B, 192^nd Tank Battalion and fought in the Battle for Bataan from December 1941 to April 1942. He survived the infamous Bataan Death March, a hell ship, and slave labor mining coal for Mitsui at Fukuoka #17 Branch POW Camp in Omuta. Dr. Tenney is a professor emeritus of finance and accounting at Arizona State University. He lives with his wife in Carlsbad, California.

Jan Thompson is the Founding President of the American Defenders of Bataan & Corregidor Memorial Society (ADBC-MS). For nearly three decades, she has devoted much of her time to researching and creating works about the POW experience.  Part of this work includes two documentaries: The Tragedy of Bataan, narrated by Alec Baldwin, and Never the Same: The Prisoner of War Experience. Thompson is a professor at Southern Illinois University, where she teaches documentary production. She is the daughter of Robert E. Thompson, who served as a Pharmacist’s Mate on the USS Canopus and survived the Bilibid and Mukden Prison Camps as well as three infamous hell ships: Oryoku Maru, Enoura Maru and Brazil Maru.

 The event will be webcast HERE.