History Talks

Approximately 20,000 African Americans would be trained to be United States Marines from 1942 to 1949. All would be trained in North Carolina at Montford Point, a segregated camp of Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune. The Marines of Montford would prove themselves time and time again on the World War II battlefronts of the Pacific. From Peleliu to Iwo Jima, even at the Battle of Okinawa. Features the National Montford Point Marines Association, and their President Dr. James T. Averhart Jr and Public Relations Officer Joseph H. Geeter III Want to watch more PHP History Talks visit https://www.pacifichistoricparks.org/history-talks #WorldWarII #PacificHistoricParks #PearlHarborNationalMemorial #USSArizonaMemorial #PHNM #PHPHistoryTalks #MontfordPoint #MontfordPointMarines #USMC Interview and presentation conducted by Pacific Historic Parks. Original Air Date: 4/5/2022

History Talk on Kalaupapa featuring Sister Alicia and Sister Barbara Jean. This talk dives into the treatment of the people living with leprosy in Hawaii during the mid-1800’s, who were Damien De Veuster and Marianne Cope, where are Kalawao and Kalaupapa, and leprosy in the world today. Original Air Date: May 21, 2020 Recorded in Cooperation with Ralph Krauss of Edutainment Learning

Take inside look into the specialized weapons developed specifically for the attack on Pearl Harbor. Learn how the midget submarines, torpedos, and aerial bombs used by the Japanese Imperial Navy played an important role in the success of their mission. Daniel A. Martinez entered the National Park Service as a summer seasonal park ranger at Little Bighorn National Battlefield in 1979 and worked there during college at California State University Dominguez Hills until 1985. He moved to Hawaii to take a permanent Interpretive Park Ranger position at the USS Arizona Memorial and became an Interpretive Specialist conducting training and historical research. In 2008, he became the Chief Historian. He has collected archives and records on Pearl Harbor and interviewed over 250 Pearl Harbor eyewitnesses and World War II veterans. He is the author and lecturer on numerous subjects of American history. He was also the host of “Unsolved History”, a program for the Discovery Channel for three years. Original Air Date 5/19/2020 Recorded in Cooperation with Ralph Krauss of Edutainment Learning

About Naoko Okimoto Naoko Okimoto, who was raised in Hiroshima and worked for around 10 years at the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation from 2003 to 2005 and 2008 to 2016, became an A-bomb Legacy Successor in 2018 after completing a three-year training program offered by Hiroshima City Hall. She will be sharing the experiences of Mr. Mutsuhiko Segoshi, who was exposed to the Atomic bombing in Hiroshima, when he was in the fifth grade. Mutsuhiko Segoshi is a first-generation atomic bomb survivor who endured severe beatings and bullying at his evacuation site on the outskirts of Hiroshima. A week after returning to central Hiroshima to treat his deteriorating health, he was exposed to the atomic bomb. Naoko is currently based in the Philippines and studied at the University for Peace in Costa Rica from 2018 to 2019. Aside from presenting this story at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum when she came back to Hiroshima for vacation a few times a year, she presented Mr. Segoshi’s experiences three times in Costa Rica in 2019. Original Air Date: 4/23/2020 Recorded in cooperation with Ralph Krauss of Edutainment Learning

Jay oversees the planning and implementation of visitor and educational programs at the Pearl Harbor National Memorial. He is directly involved with operations at the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center, which sees an average of 1.6 million visitors a year. He works closely with the Pearl Harbor Historic Sites partners and the U.S. Navy. Previously, Jay served as the Superintendent of the Sicily-Rome American Cemetary in Nettuno, Italy, and before that, as Assistant Superintendent at the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetary near Verdun, France. This experience came after serving four years as an active duty armor officer in the U.S. Army. Original Air Date 4/28/2020 Recorded in cooperation with Ralph Kraus of Edutainment Learning

From a farm in Illinois to Hawaii, Guadalcanal, Korea, and Vietnam, Pearl Harbor Survivor Sterling Cale’s military career has taken him around the world and back again. With a front-row view of the attack, Cale bravely rescued men from the burning water of Pearl Harbor and collected bodies from the wreckage of the USS Arizona. His story is one of service, sacrifice and what it means to be a true American. Sterling Cale, a Pearl Harbor survivor and now 99 years of age was assigned to the U.S Naval Hospital at “C” Landing, Pearl Harbor in Hawai’i, and was at the shipyard dispensary during the attack on December 7, 1941. Sterling retired with 57 years of Government service in March 2005. Shortly after his retirement, he started volunteering at the Pearl Harbor National Memorial to share what he witnessed and endured with visitors from around the world. Original Recording Date 4/16/2020 Recorded in cooperation with Ralph Kraus of Edutainment Learning

Lou Conter was born in Wisconsin in 1921. He joined the Navy in 1939 and went to boot camp in San Diego before he was assigned to the USS Arizona in 1940. On December 7, 1941, Lou was aboard the Arizona when the explosion occurred during the attack. As one of the 335 survivors of the ship, Lou went on to become a pilot in the famous “Black Cat” squadron which patrolled the waters in the south Pacific and rescued downed pilots and Australian coast watchers, many of them at night flying with no lights. He was shot down twice, once ending up swimming with his crew while sharks encircled. After the war, he became an intelligence officer, flew combat missions in Korea and created the Navy’s first SERE program (survival, evasion, resistance and escape) of which many of the tactics are still used today. Original Recording date 5/12/2020 Recorded in cooperation with Ralph Kraus of Edutainment Learning

ABOUT DONNA VOJVODICH Donna Vojvodich first learned about the United States Coast Guard Women’s Reserve (“SPARS”) in 2019 while serving as an Arlington Lady at Coast Guard funerals. To learn more about these patriotic women who served during World War II, she located SPARS veterans and conducted oral histories to highlight their roles. Her posts about Coast Guard women in the World Wars are published under The Long Blue Line section of the Coast Guard’s website. SUMMARY Elizabeth Ayer was washing her hair when Pearl Harbor was attacked. The United States was thrust into war, but lacked enough men to fight the battles on land and sea. Elizabeth and other women joined the Coast Guard, sending the men manning the desks off to ships. What really happened when the men were away? This presentation is about the SPARS, the women who contributed to the Allied victory by filling the shoreside jobs. Want to watch more PHP History Talks visit https://www.pacifichistoricparks.org/... #WorldWarII #PacificHistoricParks #WomenOfWWII #uscg #coastguard #TheGreatestGeneration #SPARS

The Chamorros of Guam were not totally absent from their own liberation from hostile Japanese forces at the end of World War II. One of the more significant ways they brought about their own liberation was through the Guam Combat Patrol, a force of Chamorro young men who searched the dense jungles and forests for Japanese fugitives escaping American capture. It was one way Chamorros remedied two and a half years of unwelcomed occupation.

Pacific Historic Parks History Talks Series is honored to present Jillette Leon Guererro on the topic of the A product of war is the involuntary displacement and resettlement of populations. After WWII, several communities were resettled, and neighborhoods that once existed ceased to exist. This is the story of the Padre Palomo district. It was a thriving community before the war. It was destroyed during the American bombardment before the re-taking of the island. After the war, residents were restricted from resettling there. Today it is referred to as East Agaña and is home to commercial enterprises. Original Air Date: 12/2/2022

ABOUT PENNY COLMAN Penny Colman is the author of award-winning biographies and social histories. Her intriguing topics range from Rosie the Riveter: Women Working on the Home Front in World War II to Corpses, Coffins, and Crypts: A History of Burial. A popular speaker, Penny has appeared on television and radio, including National Public Radio, and on Book TV, C-Span2. Penny has been honored by the New Jersey State Legislature for her books and public appearances that have “contributed to the advancement of women.” The New Jersey State Federation of Women’s Clubs presented her with the New Jersey Women of Achievement Award. A graduate of The University of Michigan and Johns Hopkins University, Penny has taught nonfiction literature and creative writing at various colleges and universities, including Teachers College, Columbia University and Queens College, The City University of New York, where she was a distinguished lecturer. WHERE THE ACTION WAS American women served in almost every facet of World War II. On the home front, young girl scouts collected scrap metal, rubber, and even clothing for war refugees before the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Women left their homes and joined the war production lines building everything the Armed Forces needed to fight the Axis powers. One hundred and twenty-seven women obtained official accreditation from the US War Department as war correspondents. This broke gender barriers that forbade women from covering combat. These women paved the way for women journalists today with their tenacity and bravery as they stowed away on D-Day hospital ships and dodged bullets on the black sands of Iwo Jima to get to where the action was. Want to watch more PHP History Talks visit https://www.pacifichistoricparks.org/... #WorldWarII #PacificHistoricParks #WarInThePacific #WarInEurope #Homefront #WASPs #RosieTheRiveter Original Air Date: 3/3/2022

ABOUT FATHER ERIC Father Eric Forbes is a Capuchin friar and Catholic priest on Guam, born and raised on the island. He obtained a BA in History from San Francisco State University in 1984 and a Master of Divinity Degree from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California in 1990. As a priest, he has served in parishes on Guam and Saipan and taught in various Catholic schools. His lifelong interest in Chamorro history has led him to do archival research in the US, the Philippines, Spain, Germany, and Italy. He produced a DVD documentary titled "I Am Chamoro," and has written half a dozen books and many more magazine articles on various Marianas history topics. He maintains a Chamorro culture and Marianas history blog which is reaching 2 million visits. He is a Board Member of the Guam Preservation Trust. THE ROTA MASSACRES Many people are aware of the numerous incidents of the outright murder of Guam civilians during the Japanese Occupation. Fewer people are aware that civilians in Rota were also massacred, even though the people of Rota had no experience at all of American rule and had been under Japanese authority for thirty years already. Their sad story reflects the paranoia that gripped the Japanese in 1944, and the price the civilians had to pay for it. Want to watch more PHP History Talks visit https://www.pacifichistoricparks.org/... #WorldWarII #PacificHistoricParks #WarInThePacific #Rota #chamorro Original Air Date: 9/9/2022

About Jillette Jillette Leon-Guerrero has a BA in Anthropology from the University of Guam, an MA in Human Relations from the University of Oklahoma, a post-graduate diploma from Strathclyde University [Glasgow, Scotland], and a certificate in Genealogical Research from Boston University. She is the President of Guamology Inc., a Guam-based publishing company. She also provides historical consulting services for Guampedia.com, the War in the Pacific National Historical Park, and various other Guam organizations. Active in community service organizations, Leon-Guerrero has served on the Board of Regents of the University of Guam; is the Registrar of the Mariana Islands Chapter, National Society of Daughters of the American Revolution, and is a past Guam Women’s Club president and an avid researcher and historian. Leon-Guerrero has a passion for historical research, especially as it relates to Guam. She is an active genealogist working toward a Master's degree in Genealogical, Paleographic, and Heraldic Studies. She is especially interested in finding a link between families of Guam's early Spanish colonial period and possible descendants in contemporary Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. THE FAMILY HISTORIAN Family History is often seen as a hobby or leisure pastime more than serious historical research. Using Coming of Age in War-Torn Guam: the WWII Memoirs of Justo Torre Leon Guerrero as an example, this presentation will cover the challenges of recording family stories and reveal the value of these stories for family members, the community, and the historical record. Want to watch more PHP History Talks visit https://www.pacifichistoricparks.org/... #WorldWarII #PacificHistoricParks #WarInThePacific #guam #chamorro Original Air Date: 9/16/2022

Alfred Preis (1911-1993) is a Vienna-born man of Jewish ancestry who fled Nazi-occupied Austria in 1939 and moved to Hawaii to start a career in architecture. Following the Dec. 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, Preis and his wife were arrested and imprisoned as enemy aliens for having Nazi-approved passports. They spent four months in the Sand Island internment camp before being released. Maintaining that he was never bitter about being imprisoned, Preis designed the USS Arizona Memorial that opened 60 years ago this month. It was a crowning achievement of a career in which he designed multiple homes and buildings in Hawaii and was a leader in the arts community. Our guests are two esteemed professors who have studied his life's work. Axel Schmitzberger is a licensed architect and professor at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, curator of the exhibit Alfred Preis Displaced coming to the Pearl Harbor National Memorial, and author of an upcoming book on Preis. Laura McGuire is an architecture and design historian and assistant professor of Architectural History at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She too is writing a book on Preis. Want to watch more PHP History Talks visit https://www.pacifichistoricparks.org/history-talks #WorldWarII #PacificHistoricParks #PearlHarborNationalMemorial #USSArizonaMemorial #PHNM #PHPHistoryTalks #USMC #USN #USPACFLT Interview and presentation conducted by Pacific Historic Parks. Original Air Date: 5/11/2022

Dr. Elizabeth M. Norman shares the untold story of American Women Trapped on Bataan. She tells the story of seventy-seven Army and Navy nurses, who were the largest group of American female POWs in our country’s history, beginning in 1941 and ending in 2012. Elizabeth M. Norman PhD, RN is a Professor at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Development and Education. She is the author of three books: Women at War: the Story of Fifty Military Nurses Who Served in Vietnam, We Band of Angels: The Untold Story of American Nurses Trapped on Bataan by the Japanese, and a co-author with Michael Norman of Tears in the Darkness: The Story of the Bataan Death March and Its Aftermath. Want to watch more PHP History Talks visit https://www.pacifichistoricparks.org/history-talks #WorldWarII #PacificHistoricParks #WarInThePacific #AngelsOfBataan #BataanDeathMarch #ArmyNurse Original Air Date: 7/29/2020