Tag Archives: Pacific Paratrooper

Pacific Paratrooper: Intermission (5) – POW in Japan

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An amazing tribute to a WWII POW turning 100 years old! ooh rah!

Pacific Paratrooper

Japanese_atrocities_imperial_war_museum_K9924-640x444

Can you imagine what it must be like to be marched out to face a firing squad, say goodbye to your closest friend who is standing next to you and then have the squad shoulder their rifles and march away having not fired a shot?  What are the odds on that happening during a war situation?  The mind boggles at the odds of this happening but this did happen to Charles Rodaway who served in the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment during World War II.

POW camps in Japan POW camps in Japan

He joined the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment and was posted to Shanghai in 1934.  He undertook guard duties in Shanghai before  being transferred to Singapore in 1938.  At the fall of Singapore in 1942, he was captured by the Japanese and put to work as a labourer in the Kawasaki shipyards, near Tokyo.  In 1944, he and a friend attempted to escape…

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The Big Band Era

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Great blast from the past!  My son’s football team coach encouraged the kids to swing dance and as community services went to different events.  This also provided great exercise for the players!

Pacific Paratrooper

“You ain’t got a thing, if you ain’t got that swing…”

Hi-do-ho all you hep-cats out there!!

Vincent Lopez Vincent Lopez

Swing was a verb that musicians used long before press agents turned it into a noun or adjective to describe both an attitude toward music and a special way of performing it. “Swing” suggests rhythm and a regular propulsive oscillation, a form of jazz that is still influencing music today. There are many instruments reinforcing the others, then other times, playing against each other and a solo instrument playing against a background. The jazz form traveled north out of New Orleans in the 1890’s and slammed into the Chicago scene in the 1920’s.

Fletcher Henderson Fletcher Henderson

The beginnings can be traced back to Fletcher Henderson in New York and Bernie Moten in Kansas City. Fletcher and his brother Horace created the pattern for swing arrangements and was the first to train a big band…

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