Lakeland PBS presents Common Ground.

Brought to you by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

Production funding of Common Ground is made possible in part by First National Bank Bemidji, continuing their second century of service to the community.

Member FDIC.

Welcome to Common Ground.

I'm producer-director Scott Knutson.

In this episode, Jim Wheeler of the Bemidji area tells the heroic tale of his uncle who died in World War II, Captain John Wheeler.

My name is Emily Thabes and I am the Executive Director of the Beltrami County Historical Society in Bemidji, Minnesota.

After Pearl Harbor some 326,000 Minnesota men and women enlisted in the military leaving behind families, employment and education to fight overseas.

Stateside men and much for the first time women, contributed to the war effort by working in fields, factories, mines and railroads.

The dynamics of rural Minnesota life changed as women left home for work and folks everywhere were subsisting on rations of food and other necessities.

Over 6,000 Minnesota soldiers lost their lives in World War II representing the loss of almost an entire generation in some small towns across the state.

This is the story of one of those soldiers, Captain John Wheeler of St. Paul, Minnesota.

I'm here today to tell the story of my uncle John Zadok Wheeler.

Born in St. Paul, Minnesota June 17,1915 and died in the Philippines on January 26,1945.

Hello my name is James Wheeler.

I've lived in Bemidji since 1967, married with three children.

I'm a retired school administrator.

I come from a very military family.

My father was a decorated B-17 pilot who flew over Germany during World War II.

He was shot up and crash-landed and spent the duration of the war in Sweden.

My mother also served as a WAC - Women's Air Corps for a short period of time during World War II while my dad was overseas.

So, the two main characters in that family are my father and his brother, John.

I was born in 1948 in St. Paul, Minnesota and so naturally I did not know my uncle.

I only knew my uncle through my father and his stories.

My dad would talk about him all the time.

It was a younger brother who admired his older brother.

In fact one of the more, one of the saddest moments that I can remember is in 1958.

We were eating dinner in Lake Elmo, Minnesota where we lived and I brought up the subject of John.

I was 10 years old and I said "Dad can you tell me a little bit about John" and he was overcome with emotion, started crying and had to leave the dinner table and so my dad spent the rest of his life trying to locate any information about his brother and his dying in the Philippine War Theater.

John was a very ambitious young man who I should preface this by saying and always I will keep in mind that he wanted to be in the military, that was his career.

His father, Merritt W. Wheeler Jr., my grandfather was a doctor.

My grandfather wanted John to be a doctor also but in John's letters home he repeatedly said that he had found his niche in life and wanted to be a soldier.

As a young man he was able to load his own ammunition.

He was a Boy Scout, achieved Eagle Scout which is the highest honor afforded by Boy Scout's of America.

He was part of the Mortar and Ball Society which was founded many, many years ago and stressed the importance of a military life for a young man.

He had gone to the University of Minnesota and was a member of the ROTC program there and so the next logical step was for him to become commissioned at Fort Riley.

He also was a member of the Pershing Rifles at the University of Minnesota.

The Pershing Rifles is the oldest military, college military, drill instruction in the United States and it was founded in 1896.

So, my uncle John Wheeler was very involved with that.

In 1935, he was stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas and he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant.

How did John get to the Philippines?

He was a Second Lieutenant and eventually became a Captain and was assigned as leader of the 26th Calvary which mounted the last calvary charge in U.S history in the Philippines.

In late February or early March, my uncle John was wounded in Luzon and when he was in the hospital, he was a feature article in the March 7,1942 Life magazine and he described the battle that he was in.

He also described, you know, the conditions under which the battle were fought.

He only wished at that time to be reunited with the Philipino Scouts.

The Philipino Scouts were the troops that he commanded.

Many years later when I was a member of the reserves, I went to Fort Riley, to the museum and I talked to the curator at the museum and he said "Jim, we have members of the Philipino Scouts who are working in transportation who may have known your uncle" and believe it or not I went down to the transportation department and I talked to a Philipino Scout who knew my uncle.

In fact, he indicated that he was one of the most gracious men that he had ever met.

As a result of his engagement in early spring of 1942, my uncle John received two Purple Hearts for wounds that incurred during battle.

He received a Bronze Star.

He received a Silver Star and the Distinguished Service Cross.

In the Life magazine article, he mentioned that he had heard that he'd been given these medals and that he had hoped that he could see them someday and that he could bring them home with him to St. Paul, Minnesota.

The day after Pearl Harbor, Japan invaded the Philippines and captured Manila, it's capital within a month.

And MacArthur was the Commanding General of the Philippines.

He ordered all of the American troops into Luzon.

American and Philipino soldiers defending Manila were forced to retreat to the Bataan Peninsula where they attempted to hold off the Japanese Imperial Army without reinforcements.

In June of 1942, the Japanese assault continued to be ferocious.

Unfortunately, at that time the war effort was just building up and the Americans were recovering from Pearl Harbor and they were not able to, at MacArthur's request to send reinforcements.

General Douglas MacArthur asked his officers to retreat.

They retreated time and again and finally his officers were instructed to surrender.

After three months the U.S. and Philipino army of 75,000 troops surrendered.

At that time Douglas MacArthur is famous for saying that "I shall return".

And so many of us have heard about the March to Bataan or the Bataan Death March.

My uncle was part of that.

These troops were forced to march 65 miles in just two weeks in brutal heat without food, water or appropriate clothing to the prisoners of war camp at the other end of the Bataan Peninsula.

The U.S. and Philipino prisoners of war were starved, severely beaten, shot, speared and beheaded if they fell behind.

John was transferred to a Kabuton prison camp I and 2, which was on an island south of Luzon and he spent two and a half years there.

He had Malaria but he was able to communicate by telegraph to his parents.

Prisoners of war were not allowed to send or receive messages for over a year after reaching their prison camps.

In 1943, prisoners were allowed to send one message of 25 words every two months.

These messages had to make it through censors and then get overseas if the mail ship wasn't bombed while those messages were in transit.

And believe it or not, he did code messages that were transferred over by my grandfather to the Army.

In those telegrams he was explaining that the Japanese were planning an attack on the island of Atoc in the Aleutian Islands which eventually did take place.

Some POW's like Captain Wheeler used the telegrams to send coded messages to American military intelligence to provide insight on enemy action and request supplies.

The information supplied through the telegrams of prisoners of war and escaped prisoners of war ultimately supported the efforts to liberate the Philippines in 1944 and 45.

Not much is known about John and his experience in camps other than his fellow soldiers who did live during the war talked about him often.

How he had to fight to get back and defend the country.

How he wanted to get home.

How proud he was of his country and that comes up all the time.

On December 7,1944, the Japanese were being driven out of the Philippines by the Americans.

Reinforcements had arrived.

Ships had arrived.

Aircraft was bombing them constantly and so they gathered their prisoners of war which they had sent many of to some of their holdings in the South Pacific and used them as slaves.

They gathered all of the troops that were in prison camps and brought them to Bilibid Prison in Manila and from there they were transferred to ships that were referred to as "hell ships" and why were they referred to as "hell ships"?

Because my uncle was put on a ship, for example, it was named Arroyo Maru.

Japanese prisoners of war were frequently transported by sea on merchant ships that were also used to carry passengers, luggage and military equipment.

Thousands of prisoners of war were forced into cargo holds, stacked on top of one another without ventilation, food, water or restrooms.

Prisoners who attempted to climb out of the piles were shot.

These inhumane conditions led to the survivors calling them "hell ships".

Over 130 merchant ships served as "hell ships" during the war.

Merchant ships were a target for the U.S. military because they had no way of knowing that prisoners of war were on those ships.

As a result 21,000 Americans were killed or injured from attacks by American submarines and warplanes.

The Japanese continued to move the ships but Maru was stranded in Manila harbor.

Captain Wheeler's ship was only a half of a mile from shore when it was attacked and sunk by a United States Navy Air offense, killing Captain Wheeler and nearly 400 American prisoners of war.

And it is believed that my uncle passed away on that ship or was transferred to another "hell ship".

Subsequent to that he died on January 26,1945.

So, this is where the intrigue had started with me, my dad's stories, thinking back to all of the information that my dad had kept.

My uncle John's trunk from his service at Fort Riley.

A leather trunk was full of all kinds of correspondence.

His mother, my grandmother, saved all the articles in the St. Paul Pioneer Press referencing my uncle.

There was a commemoration at Harvard University, where my uncle attended business school following the war.

Of all the servicemen who went to Harvard who had died, all of that information is included in my uncle's trunk.

Also, in the trunk are letters to his mother and father throughout his early life in the 1920's, the 1930s.

So, there are childhood letters he was writing letters home when he went to camp to his parents and all of it was preserved by my grandmother.

Each bundle of letters is tied together with pink ribbon.

It's very sad when you look at that and think about a mother's loss.

There are many more articles in that trunk that are special.

There are several copies of the Life magazine articles.

There are several copies of letters from the War Department and one in particular that is really interesting is from General Douglas MacArthur who sent a letter to my uncle's parents with a sympathy letter regarding the loss of their son, John Zadock Wheeler.

Almost a lifelong dream of mine has been to visit the Philippines.

My dad wanted to go there because at the Manila National Cemetery is a memorial to the men lost, the Americans and the Philipino Scouts.

Manila National Cemetery is a beautiful cemetery.

It's the largest American cemetery outside of the United States in the world.

And, so I asked my wife and bless her heart, she said she would go with me and so we left, I think it was on November 17th of 2017 and we flew from Minneapolis to Detroit and then on to Hanita in Tokyo and then down to Manila, then we boarded a taxi and we went to the American National Cemetery with all of my information and we were met there by Bobby Obell, the Superintendent of the American National Cemetery in the Philippines who was unbelievably gracious.

He had been Superintendent of two national cemeteries in France and this was his final stop before retiring.

He took us to the tablets.

There are 36,000 names on tablets and by the way, the Smothers Brothers father's name is on one of the tablets.

He had to point that out but there on one of the tablets and they are numbered, he showed me my uncle's name, Captain John Wheeler, 26th Cavalry.

We took lots of photos.

He allowed me to tape up his medals which John had never received right next to his name and then I read a note to my uncle thanking him for what he had done for his country, what he had done for me.

November 26, 2017, Dear Uncle John, the American National Cemetery in Manila established after World War II to memorialize the dead and missing who fought so gallantly in the Philippines during World War II.

My wife, Joy and I are here to pay our last respects to you.

Today, nearly 73 years after your death on January 26,1945 on behalf of the Wheeler and Glenn families who want to express our gratitude for your service to your country.

I treasure it.

My dad's wife told me later on "Jim your dad would be so proud of you" because he never was able to achieve the dream of visiting where his brother had died and for me that was the best thing that could ever have happened and again my wife was there, Joy, to support me.

It was a fantastic trip and I must say that we went to Corregidor where General MacArthur had left and where he had come back and we were able to view the military complex there and the bombed out barracks that were cement barracks, still there the shelves and just the vestiges of war still remain there.

But the people are the most gracious people.

The Philippine people are the most gracious people I have ever met and they love us to death because we saved their country.

And so for me that's significant to know that we have helped so many people.

As I think back to that occasion, I wanted to tell the story.

It has a lot of significance for me and for my family.

The older I get the more I think about that visit.

I know and I honor my uncle.

I know him and I've spent a lot of time reading his letters and I know that he loved this country and I became very emotional during this time.

I think just the input from my dad, from my dad's sister, Henrietta, the family and that for me is very, very important.

He was a role model and as I said to him, as I delivered his medals to him, I said "I don't know you, but you've taught me so much".

BooZooh I am Hilary Koepenick.

I am a member of Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa.

I am an artist here today at the Watermark Art Center.

I'm with my installation piece aguate, which is translated as "She is Reflected in the Water".

I reside in Grand Forks, North Dakota with my two young daughters and my husband Aaron where we're making that our home.

I am a studio artist.

I am also an advocate for artist issues along with a lot of the advocacy issue, environmental issues that we have in our communities and worldwide.

So I utilize my abilities as an artist to just bring another dynamic and perspective to the issues and causes.

This particular piece is titled "She is Reflected in Water" and it is in honor of the Water Walkers that are actually as we speak, doing ceremonial walks across our nation to bring awareness but it's again, it is a form of ceremony and so there's a lot of praying as they're carrying these waters that come from different areas throughout the United States.

The piece that I have created here was inspired by the theme Nibikong - from the water.

I was asked to be a juror for the show.

So, a year ago I had the opportunity to think and meditate on how I wanted to discuss the issues of water.

So, they offered me space to do an installation piece.

As I was reflecting about what was important to me, I think it's really important for us to pay our respects to those that take a lot of time out of their lives as advocates and also for those that take time and prayer and protect the water also.

A decade ago Water Walkers actually had come through the community I was residing in and I had a chance to visit with them and that really spoke deeply to me and has left a lasting impact on me.

As a child I was always connected to the water.

Very few memories are without water.

That accessibility was always there.

With that, being connected to the water, we also had clean water issues.

I remember having to deal with brown water that we would bathe in and have to cook with and so on and so forth and so there was a lot of people working to remedy those issues whether it was advocacy or through their jobs.

So, this has always been a long-standing issue for me and it was just really beautiful with the gift of technology that we were able to connect all these different people and so this advocacy and concern and prayer always continue for myself and for my family and I'm hoping through this piece it will give people time to meditate and you know as it says "She Refects in Water, He Reflects in Water", that gives opportunity to really think about you know the beauty of water and its simplicity but the impact and power that it has behind it and the life that it gives.

I'm very thankful for Watermark Art Center and for their opportunity and support for me as an artist and what they're continually doing for the Bemidji community and the Indigenous communities in providing space for us to discuss these issues that are important.

Thanks for watching.

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Production funding of Common Ground was made possible in part by First National Bank Bemidji, continuing their second century of service to the community.

Member FDIC.

Common Ground is brought to you by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund with money by the vote of the people November 4th, 2008.

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