By Rachel Lippmann, St. Louis Public Radio
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kwmu/local-kwmu-934549.mp3
St. Louis – Hidden among the uniform white headstones that dot the rolling hills of Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery is a granite plaque engraved with the names of 100 men who gave their lives in war.
They were civilians and soldiers from four of the Allied Nations of World War Two who died while held at just one of the Japanese prisoner of war camps - Fukuoka #1, located at the southwestern tip of the island.
The men were cremated after their death, and originally buried at the camp. After the war ended, officials from the U.S., Britain, the Netherlands and Australia attempting to repatriate their dead discovered that the urns holding the ashes had rusted, and individual remains could no longer be identified. St. Louis was chosen as the site of the mass burial because of its location. The memorial plaque was dedicated September 28, 1949.
Since the late 1980s, military officers of the British Commonwealth, the United States, and the Netherlands have gathered every Veterans Day to pay tribute to the men buried so far from home.
In this audio portrait of that ceremony in 2010, you will hear the voices of United States Air Force Colonel Mike Cassidy, Mary Anne Hansen Collins, Australian Army Warrant Officer Matthew Dickson, and Colonel David Radford-Wilson of the British Army.