In writing this semi-biographical offering, I have drawn upon my father's family's history regarding the actions, suffering, imprisonment, and ultimate death of my uncle, Sergeant William A. Kenel, U.S. Army Air Corps during WWII.

Sargeant William A. Kenel was among the 12,000 American soldiers who were surrendered to the Japanese at the tip of the Bataan Peninsula on April 9, 1942. He survived the infamous Bataan Death March where over 1,000 soldiers perished during the nine day, 55 mile long trek. Following the Bataan Death March, Sargeant Kenel survived being a Japanese prisoner of war and the atrocities of Cabanatuan Prison for thirty-one months following the fall of the Philippines.

On October 11,1944, he, along with 1774 other prisoners was crammed, at bayonet point, into the cargo hold of an unmarked Japanese "Hell " ship, the Arisan Maru, that sailed from Manila, Philippine Islands to the Japanese mainland.

On October 24, 1944, the Arisan Maru was sunk by the American submarine, the U.S.S. Snook in the South China Sea. The captain of that ship committed suicide when he learned that his torpedoes had killed over 1500 men who had been chained in the cargo hold of the Japanese ship. My uncle was one of those men.

For his valor, my uncle was awarded the Purple Heart posthumously. He was twenty four years old when he perished.

I never knew my uncle Bill, but I am honored to possess one of his carvings given to me by my father: a mother robin sitting upon her nest framed by branches of dogwood.

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