Lester Irwin (Tenney) Tennenberg

Pvt. Lester I. Tennenberg was the son of Mr. & Mrs. Gus Tennenberg.  He lived on the north side of Chicago at 1200 West Sherwin Avenue.  As a student, he attended Lane Technical High School in Chicago.  In September, 1940, Les knew that it was only a matter of time before he would be drafted into the army.  To prevent this from happening, and to have a say with whom he served with, Les joined the Illinois National Guard's 33rd Tank Company in Maywood, Illinois.

    In November, 1940, the men of the 33rd Tank Company were federalized and sent to Fort Knox, Kentucky as Company B, 192 Tank Battalion.  Here Les had the privilege of serving the company as its first cook.  When other members of the company completed baking school, he then trained as a tank crew member. 

    After Fort Knox, Les and the other members of the company were sent to Camp Polk, Louisiana.  The 192nd Tank Battalion took part in the Maneuvers of 1941.  To Les, these "maneuvers" were somewhat of a joke because the 192nd had few tanks.  Without knowing it, the 192nd had already been selected for overseas duty in the Philippine Islands.  On the side of a hill, the members of the battalion were informed that they would be in the Philippines from six months to six years.  The192nd was sent west to Angel Island where it awaited transit to the Philippines. 

    Upon arrival in Manila, the company was rushed to Clark Field.  Thanksgiving dinner consisted of leftovers from the 194th Tank Battalion.  For the next few weeks, the men spent the majority of their time loading ammunition and attempting to make their equipment combat ready.  

    War came to the Philippine Islands just ten hours after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor when planes appeared over Clark Field and bombed the American planes sitting on the runways.  For the next four months, Les and the other members of his company fought to hold the Japanese as long as they could.  On April 9, 1942, the men of Company B were ordered to destroy their tanks and other equipment that could be used by the Japanese.  With this order, Les and the other men of the company became Prisoners of War.

    Les took part in the death march.  On the march he was accompanied by Bob Martin also of B Company.  Les would first be held as a POW at Camp O'Donnell and then Cabanatuan.  He would then be selected for shipment to Japan.

    In Japan, he was held at Fukuoka Camp 17, which was located near the town of Omuta.  Here, Les and the other prisoners would be used as slave labor to work in a coal mine that had been abandoned by the Japanese because it had been determined to dangerous to mine.  It was also at this camp that Les witnessed POWs willingly give up their food for cigarettes.  The men had given up all hope and wanted to die. 

    It was at Camp #17 that his friend, Bob Martin, would save Les' life.  Bob had been injured and assigned to work in the camp kitchen.  Bob would sneak food to the prisoners being held in the camp's internal guardhouse.  One of these prisoners was Les.  Bob did this knowing that he was risking his own life.  The two men would stay friends for the rest of their lives.

    In September of 1945, Les was liberated from captivity by the occupational forces of the American military.  In 1947, Les would change his last name to "Tenney," which is what many of the other POWs had called him in the camps.  Les would go to college and become a professor of finance and insurance at Arizona State University. 

    After he retired from Arizona State University, Lester Tenney wrote the book  My Hitch in Hell, about his experiences as a POW under the Japanese.  Today, Les travels the country talking about his life as a POW.

Courtesy of Jim  Opolony, Project Manager of the Bataan Commemorative Research Project - 192nd-194th Tank Battalion Website   http://www.proviso.k12.il.us/Bataan%20Web/index.htm

 

    Linda Dahl and Lester Tenney
   ADBC Convention May 2008

   Lester Tenney  is very involved in seeking an apology for the hardship
   and misery he and other American prisoners of war endured in that 
   country.  

   See Related article below.





Long March to an Apology

By MINDY KOTLER   Published: May 26, 2008   New York Times, Washington

LESTER TENNEY, an 87-year-old veteran of World War II, plans to travel to Japan today to seek a meeting with the prime minister and an apology for the hardship and misery he and other American prisoners of war endured in that country. For a variety of reasons, beginning with the State Department's stance on the issue, it is an apology that he is unlikely to receive.

In the fall of 1940, Mr. Tenney enlisted in the 192nd Tank Battalion, Company B, of the Illinois National Guard,
which was sent to the Philippines a year later.

When the Japanese attacked in December 1941, the American and Filipino forces were unprepared. A three-month siege on the Bataan Peninsula left Mr. Tenney and his comrades starving and sick. On April 9, 1942, the American commanders surrendered, and the 65-mile Bataan Death March began. The march lasted four to seven days (for some it was 14), in the tropical sun with no food, water, medicine or rest. The Japanese guards beat, beheaded, bayoneted, buried alive and shot the Americans and Filipinos at will.

When they reached the town of San Fernando, the P.O.W.'s were herded into boxcars and packed so tightly they could hardly move. Men gasped for air in the rising heat and died standing up. Those who survived the four-hour ride then had to stumble six miles to Camp O'Donnell.
But Mr. Tenney's ordeal was just beginning. Herded onto a 'hell ship', he and his comrades were sent to Japan to work in mines and factories and on docks owned by companies like Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Kawasaki and Nippon Steel. Beatings and other abuses continued. Food and medicine were in short supply; Red Cross food boxes were never delivered to prisoners. Mr. Tenney spent more than two years in a Mitsui coal mine so dangerous that some Japanese miners refused to work there. The death rate for the Allied prisoners of Japan in World War II was 27 percent, far greater than the rate for British and American soldiers in German captivity, about 4 percent.

Since the war ended, the Japanese government has either ignored or denied efforts by American former prisoners of war to obtain compensation or an apology. Japanese companies have sought to suppress historical documentation of forced P.O.W. labor. In 2005, one of Japan's most prominent magazines, Bungei Shunju, published an article arguing not only that the Bataan Death March was less severe than reported but also that the testimony of the survivors was 'gathered based upon the assumption that an atrocity of the Death March did take place.'

Remarkably, members of Japan's Parliament plan to introduce a bill having to do with prisoners of World War II' but it is meant to provide back pay and pensions for Korean and other non-Japanese camp guards who had been convicted as war criminals for abusing Allied P.O.W.'s.
More troubling in some ways, however, is the American government's attitude toward the legal claims that former P.O.W.'s have filed in American and Japanese courts. In many cases, the State and Justice Departments have supported arguments by Japanese corporations that the

1951 San Francisco Treaty between the Allies and Japan waived all compensation claims. The State Department has also on occasion joined forces with the Japanese Embassy to argue against legislation in Congress asking for compensation from either the American or Japanese governments. Australian, British and Dutch prisoners held by Japan during World War II have received apologies from Japanese prime ministers and invitations to visit Japan to encourage healing, understanding and education. Their own governments have also compensated them.

Lester Tenney, the current and most likely the last commander of the veterans' organization American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor, wants only the same: an apology and an honorable closure of this horrible chapter in American-Japan relations. And he hopes that this time the American government, which so far has not supported his request for a meeting with Japanese officials, will not abandon him.

Mindy Kotler is the director of Asia Policy Point, a research center that studies Asian regional security.

Lester Tenny's visit to Japan May 2008

 
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