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Post by VeeVee on Jun 27, 2012 6:11:01 GMT -5
I would like to share an email and link by one of the forum members, Carlos. ---------- Friends On our Corregidor Heritage Battalion ProBoard this new thread was started recently: corregidor.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=discussions&thread=1202&page=1This is the first paragraph in the thread: Some human remains that were found on a lady's property while digging a hole for a new septic tank. It appears to be about a 50% complete skeleton of a Japanese soldier. We figure he was Japanese due to the items found with the skeleton, which include an ID tag with Japanese writing (going to try to decipher it) a belt buckle that says "America Japan 1937" and has a relief of two guys wrestling, a flask of some sort that still has liquid in it, two Japanese helmets, and 5-round clips that we believe are Japanese as well. Two rifles were also recovered but we didn't see them. He was buried on top of a hill, probably in a foxhole. Since there are two helmets and two rifles, we think there might be another skeleton there. We'll contact a Japanese veteran's group to come and get the remains for a proper burial or ceremony.
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Post by oklahoma on Jun 29, 2012 17:45:44 GMT -5
Hey Vic.....Regarding this accidental discovery of the Japanese soldier(s) remains. Did you read my remarks (on the Corregidor Forum) concerning the "1937 US-Japan Wrestling" Event,etc. Do you think I might be on to the origin of said buckle or have I taken complete leave of my senses. I do have, at times, a too vivid imagination. Whatcha think???
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Post by VeeVee on Jul 2, 2012 21:17:48 GMT -5
Okla, that is indeed very plausible! I wonder if there were other exchange wrestling programs in other universities as well and how common they were.
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Post by oklahoma on Jul 3, 2012 14:17:32 GMT -5
Hey Vic....It's been eons ago, but if memory serves, the Japanese team, while in the US, did wrestle a few other schools, but OSU was the main stop. As I stated two of Coach Hatta's sons enrolled at my old Alma Mater soon after the afore mentioned matches and "Little Joe" came shortly thereafter, so the initial relationship was strong between Coach Hatta and his long time friend, Ed Gallagher and his school. Cheers
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Post by VeeVee on Jul 6, 2012 9:02:30 GMT -5
I wonder if that Japanese soldier they found was in that wrestling team.
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Post by oklahoma on Jul 7, 2012 12:13:10 GMT -5
Hey Vic....If so, the Japanese soldier would have had to wrestle during the 1930s matches in Nippon. The college level, NCAA,etc stateside duals took place in the late 1950s. Ed Gallagher, the OSU Coach forged his friendship with Coach Hatta during the Olympics of 1932 and 1936. Gallagher passed away in 1941 prior to Pearl Harbor, but Hatta somehow retained his connections to Oklahoma State University, probably because the Postwar Coaches at OSU were Alumni and former OSU grapplers, so the Gallagher connection remained in place. I just have to think that the dead soldier had something to do with the prewar matches. Betcha the 1937 matches, as denoted on the belt buckle, included guys who competed in the 1936 Berlin Olympics and they wrestled in Japan in 1937 versus US Olympians coached by Ed Gallagher. Relations soured shortly thereafter due to the "China Incident" and, of course, things went to Hell in 1941. There is always the chance that the buckle was taken from the body of a dead American soldier who had been on the American prewar team that wrestled the boys from Nippon, but that's a bit far fetched, even for my too active imagination, doncha think???
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