Bataan Death March Survivor to Be Bar Mitzvahed
WASHINGTON, Nov. 6 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — On Saturday, November 8, 2008, Dr. Lester Tenney, 88, Commander of the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor, will be called to the Torah as a bar mitzvah at 4:00 pm at Ohev Sholom Synagogue, 1600 Jonquil Street, NW, (202) 882-7225 (http://www.ostt.org/). He is a survivor of the infamous Bataan Death March and 3 1/2 years as a prisoner of the Japanese.
A Chicago native who enlisted in the Illinois National Guard at 20, he never had an opportunity to become a bar mitzvah.
On November 11, Dr. Tenney will be the last representative of the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor (ADBC) to attend the annual Veterans Day ceremonies at Arlington Cemetery. The ADBC will disband for lack of members and with it will end its 62-year quest for justice from both the United States and Japan.
The ADBC represents the fallen and the survivors of the battles of the first months of the war with Japan. All ADBC members were held in brutal captivity, and provided slave labor for at least 50 private Japanese companies, including Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Kawasaki, Nippon Steel, and Hitachi. Dr. Tenney worked 12-hour days in a Mitsui coal mine.
Neither the Japanese government nor the companies that used POW slave labor have ever compensated or apologized to these men. Republican and Democratic administrations alike have worked to defeat ADBC attempts to find justice in the U.S. Congress or courts.
Dr. Tenney is Professor Emeritus of Finance and Insurance in the College of Business Administration at Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona. He earned his doctorate from the University of Southern California in 1972. He served as a radio operator and later as a tank commander in Company “B” of the 192nd Tank Battalion in the Philippines. His many awards include the Bronze Star, with an oak leaf cluster, Purple Heart with oak leaf cluster, the Combat Infantryman’s Badge, three Presidential Unit Citations, and the Prisoner of War Medal. His first-person account of the Bataan Death March, My Hitch In Hell, was published by Potomac Books in 1995.
American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor
CONTACT: Mindy Kotler, +1-202-822-6040, access@jiaponline.org, forAmerican Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor
Web Site: http://www.ostt.org/