December 7, 1941 Remember what happened.

Today would be the day of my wife's great uncle's Japanese captivity... He was a South China Marine working at a 45 man detachment at US embassy in Tientsin China as a radio operator and Dec 8, the nips (not my words, but everyones back in '42) stormed in and arrested every American and threw them in prison camps. They were already in control over there but the US embassy was still sovereign and not occupied. He was a POW for the rest of the war and didn't get liberated from Niigata POW camp until one morning the guards were gone. None of the POW's dared to leave for 2 weeks as they thought it was a trick . Finally a local told them the war was over (Aug 15, surrender signed Sept 2) and Sept 5, Army units came and formally repatriated them. He didn't go home for 2 months because he was embarrassed about his emaciated condition! He finally got home after putting on 40 lbs. His foot locker is in the Smithsonian "South China Marines" exhibit. Fact: Dec 8 in Philippines and China WAS Dec 7th in Honolulu due to international dateline.
<Edited so I could straighten out the date line issue>