Forgotten Civilian Ex-Prisoners of War to Gather

For Immediate Release

Overshadowed by Europe’s Victims, they are usually over-looked, even largely forgotten, by historians, but not by their fellow prisoners. They are the civilians who were captured by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II and harshly interned suffering deprivation, starvation and even death in the notorious camps. Hundreds, including Angus Lorenzen, author of  A Lovely Little War  a  book which recounts his childhood experience in the infamous Santo Tomas Internment Camp in Manila, will gather for three days on February 14^th  to remember and commemorate the major military turn in events,that opened the gates to their freedom.

BACEPOW, the Bay Area Civilian Ex-Prisoners of War, a national organization with early roots in San Francisco, will convene for three days in the Marriott Silicon Valley Hotel in Fremont, California. The reunion will commemorate the 65^th anniversary of the year that saw American forces under Admiral Nimitz and General Douglas MacArthur turn American forces into the lethal juggernaut that reversed Allied fortunes in the Pacific.

“That turning point in the war resulted in the Japanese realization that they could not win the war and that resulted in even harsher treatment for the prisoners by the Japanese in the camps. Starvation became a way of life and death an everyday occurrence,” said  author Angus Lorenzen  recently elected BACEPOW’s  Southern California’s Commander.  

A guest lecturer at the convention, he will discuss the need for the former prisoners to document their experience. “ We are a living history,” he said, “and we will soon be gone. We owe this, not only to family and descendants, but to those who study the war. Our lives during those years must be made a matter of record.”

Lorenzens statement of record, A Lovely Little War, 9781933909134, a recounting of 1112 days of internment seen through his childhood eyes was published, Oct.25, 2008, by History Publishing Company and  is available at Barnes and Noble Booksellers and fine book stores nationally.

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