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1945: Mrs. William T. Parker had plenty of help stuffing her turkey, as her son, William Jr., right, and his buddy, James. H. Roach, Jr. who were prisoners of the Japanese, lend a hand in preparations for their first Thanksgiving home in five years. Cpl. Parker, 28 and Cpl. Roach fought in the Philippines campaign and endured the "Bataan death march, days of agonized toiling in Japanese construction gangs, days of weariness and despair in mills and mines of the enemy homeland." After being captured, Parker worked on the docks and in the steal mills of Osaka while Roach was kept in the Philippines at first, falling victim to pneumonia, malaria, beri-beri and “just about every disease that came along.” His weight, which at the time of this photograph was 185, dropped to 105 lbs. Both Parker and Roach were in Japan when the Japanese surrendered. The Japanese “turned us loose in the Kyushu hills for 30 days. We took over the town of Iizuka, the police station and all supplies, including a brewery. Boy, what a night! Later on I (Parker) went down to see Roach and he had two chickens and a rabbit under his bed.”