Dear Friends,
Amazing news about my father, Casey Bazewick, Sr.!
Today I learned that the Bataan-Corregidor Memorial Foundation of New Mexico has found, in an archive, a film of the liberation of his prisoner-of-war camp in Mukden, Manchuria, taken shortly after Japan's surrender in August 1945. OSS paratroopers had just liberated the camp.
I had no idea this film existed.
"Hoten POW Camp Liberated" is now on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytYOOjwzoAw
At 0:35 in the film, you can see Hoten POW camp where he had been a POW since November 1942. POWs were enslaved, starved, beaten, tortured, shot, and subjected to medical experimentation. He endured three Manchurian winters, with temperatures plunging to forty below zero and colder. From the fall of Corregidor, May 6, 1942, he was a prisoner of the Japanese for over 39 months.
At liberation he was almost 27. It so happens that today is his 93rd birthday. My wife Kristi and I showed him the film at his nursing home. He watched it intently twice. For me, it was most moving to see his reaction. What a gift for all of us!
He doesn't seem to be in the film, nor is there anyone he recognizes, but clearly he remembers the time and place.
In the attached still photos, taken at the same time as the film, he smiles at us across the years, standing shoulder to shoulder with the 4th Marines of the camp. In wonder, we smile back at him, 66 years later.
Two years ago, he was awarded the Purple Heart for beatings he received at the camp, which nearly cost him his life.
Best regards and Semper Fidelis,
Casey Jr.
08/24/11