Bataan Death March survivor keynote speaker

    Col. Glenn Dowling Frazier (retired), a Bataan Death March survivor, will be among the guest speakers at a Sunday commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.

    The “Spirit of ’45” wreath laying ceremony will take place at the Mississippi Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Newton. Gov. Phil Bryant and Congressman Gregg Harper are also scheduled as guest speakers for the ceremony.

     “As we celebrate the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, we remember the great sacrifices made by those who contributed to the war effort at home and across the globe,” Harper states in a press release. “The veterans of World War II sacrificed so that the United States could continue on a path of greatness. Our country, and world, will forever be indebted to those who gave their time, talents, and their lives for freedom.”

    Frazier, 91, was born in the rural town of Fort Deposit, Ala., on Dec. 1, 1924. At age 16, he lied about his age and enlisted in the peacetime Army.

    “I enlisted in the Army so young because I wanted to get out of town,” Frazier said. “My girlfriend was going to see her new boyfriend, and I told her if she went I wouldn’t be here when she got back. She went, and I said, ‘Look out Army.'”

    Within a month of enlisting, Frazier said he was assigned to the Philippine Department in Manila, P.I. 75th Ordnance Company under the leadership of Gen. Douglas MacArthur.

    “My feelings about MacArthur is he didn’t treat us good, and he did some things that nobody should have done,” Frazier said. “At that time he had control, and he could do it.”

    Frazier said on Dec. 7, 1941, six days after his 17th birthday, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and on Dec. 8, war came to the Philippines.

    “It was a day I will never forget, a day that I realized everything I had been taught as a Christian would have to change if I was going to survive,” Frazier said. “When I saw those planes with the bombs falling, I turned to the other 40 guys in my group and said, ‘Men, we are at war.’ I didn’t know how I was going to kill people because I was never taught that as a child.”

    Frazier said he didn’t want to run and disgrace his country but he knew he couldn’t kill anyone, until the unexpected happened.

    “When the Japanese bombed our hospital, and killed the 115 men that were in the hospital, knowing it was a hospital, and they bombed it anyway, that was when the meanness came out in me,” Frazier said. “I became mean — all of us did — and I didn’t feel like I was doing my job unless I killed or shot a Japanese.”

     Frazier was captured at the age of 17 and lived through the infamous Bataan Death March, spending the next three years struggling for his life in Japanese POW camps.

    “It was not like just being in jail,” Frazier said. “It was what I imagined hell to be like. When they shut the door on us that first night it left an impression on me, and I knew then it was going to be tough. We only had the strength to slave doing the little jobs they had us doing.”

    Frazier said he also survived double pneumonia when he was in Osaka, Japan.

    “Out of 28 men, I was the number two sickest,” Frazier said. “Number one died, and then three days later number three died. They gave me one aspirin — just one aspirin! I laid there two weeks getting weaker and weaker. I couldn’t walk or crawl.”

    One day, something came over him, Frazier said.

    “I knew it was God sending me the message to get up and go back to work,” Frazier said. “I started crawling to gain my strength back to stand up. If I hadn’t I would have just laid there and said, ‘To heck with it,’ and died.”

    After the war ended, Frazier returned to the states where, with the help of the GI Bill, he received a degree in Business Administration and Accounting.

    In 2007, Frazier was featured in the 14 hour documentary, The War, directed by Ken Burns. That same year he completed his book, “Hell’s Guest,” detailing his experiences before, during and after the war.

    Frazier’s numerous military awards include the Medal of Freedom, a Bronze Star and four Purple Hearts.

    Frazier said he spends his time today speaking at churches, schools, military bases and civic organizations about his experiences during WWII, and especially about his journey overcoming hatred of the Japanese.

    “I try to explain how I hated the Japanese, and how long it took me to get rid of the hatred when I came home and what happened to me because of the hatred,” Frazier said. “It is so simple. The Bible says in Matthew 18: 15-35, exactly what to do. Don’t wait on the other person to ask you for forgiveness, you forgive them and then it’s up to them to do what they have to do.”

     A Mississippi Veterans Affairs Board press release stated that

    World War II represented the largest military mobilization in the history of the U.S. with more than 16 million Americans serving in the Armed Forces, which resulted in more than 400,000 Americans killed in action and more than 670,000 wounded, a Mississippi Veterans Affairs Board press release states.

    There are currently fewer than 900,000 World War II Veterans living nationwide and less than 7,000 World War II Veterans living in Mississippi, according to the press release.

    The Mississippi Veterans Memorial Cemetery is located in Newton County about three miles east of the city of Newton and five miles west from the town of Hickory. The cemetery was established in April 2009 with 87 acres donated by Mississippi State University and was dedicated on Memorial Day 2011.

What: Spirit of ’45 70th Anniversary of the end of World War II

When: Sunday, at 11 a.m.

Where: Mississippi Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Newton

Activities: Flyover, wreath laying