World history pawns

Spanish civil war vets, Vietnamese journalist boat people, U.S. slaves of Japan in Philippines, Korean War vets, Sacco and Vanzetti, Hotel Del removes pro-Nazi Windsors

Author

By Various Authors

Publish Date

Aug. 29, 2015

Members of B Company, 1st Marine Division, 1st Motor Transport Battalion, Korea (Robert Weishan at far left). Weishan: “There were terrible problems with high tides — at Inchon they ran 18 to 20 feet."

For those who went to Spain via the Communist Party, motives were carefully scrutinized to insure that potential recruits were “politically sound.”

For Whom the Bell Tolled

A Spanish Civil War story

Dave Chriss balances a Scotch and water on the arm of a crushed-velvet chair in his Mira Mesa living room. He awaits the arrival of seven other senior citizens who survived the Spanish Civil War and are about to hold the first official meeting of the country’s newest, smallest chapter of the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.

By Sue Garson, July 17, 1980 | Read full article

I opened the door of my box and stepped outside. Lying close to the ground, I crawled for a short distance past the meeting rooms of the camp commander. (Helen Redman)

Escape!

From Saigon to San Diego, a tale of survival.

Slave Soldiers

Local vets sue local companies that enslaved them.

As a soldier, Tenney said, he accepted the likelihood that he might be captured and imprisoned, maimed, or killed in action. “What I did not expect was that I would be forced to work for a private company” — that is, Mitsui & Co., Ltd., the parent of companies that are themselves gigantic, Toyota and Toshiba among them.

By Jeanne Schinto, March 13, 2003 | Read full article

“When I came back, I didn’t talk about it much. I don’t recall people being that interested. That’s it. They just weren’t interested."

The Forgotten War

Conversations with men who never forgot

I do not recall putting my foot on Korean soil for the first time. I only remember the cold rain, and running, and others running with me.

By David Burge, June 20, 1996 | Read full article

Sacco and Vanzetti in handcuffs

The Good Shoemaker and the Poor Fish Peddler

Were Sacco and Vanzetti innocent?

“He say goodbye to his wife, he say goodbye to his friends, he say goodbye to his children. He say, ‘Long Live Anarchy!’”

By Thomas Larson, Aug. 18, 2005 | Read full article

Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson in the Mediterranean, 1936. Both books accuse Edward of being a Nazi sympathizer who cozied up to Hitler, possibly handing intelligence to Germany about Britain’s intentions toward Belgium in 1940.

Hotel del Coronado expels prince

Remodel or in recognition of history?

The Prince of Wales restaurant has become 1500 Ocean. The historic photos featuring Edward and Wallis downstairs have disappeared, all except one of the prince saluting for a photographer in his Royal Navy captain’s uniform. The black-and-white image hangs in a much-diminished history gallery downstairs. Wallis, the Coronadan who almost brought down the British monarchy, can only be found in books sold in the hotel’s souvenir store.

By Bill Manson, July 22, 2015 | Read full article