Political Quotes

“I rise today to honor a great North Carolinian, courageous veteran, and the last living survivor of the Battle of Wake Island: Pearson Riddle, Jr. Born in Pensacola, NC, on October 15, 1921, Pearson joined the Civilian Conservation Corps at 18 years old upon completing high school. After spending time in Oregon and California learning to operate heavy machinery, he was sent to Hawaii to work for the U.S. Navy and later joined the Wake Island workforce in August 1941 as a general laborer, providing essential support services to U.S. Armed Forces. On December 8, 1941, Japanese forces commenced a successful siege of Wake Island despite the valiant efforts of marines, sailors, soldiers, and civilians. Pearson was among the hundreds of civilian contractors captured by Japanese forces on December 23, 1941. Forty-four months of grueling captivity and infamous brutality followed. Pearson was kept on Wake Island until early 1942, when the Japanese forced POWs to board the Nitta Maru, which was destined for a prison camp in Woosun, China. After spending 19 months there in forced labor, the Japanese shipped Pearson and hundreds of other POWs to Kobe, Japan, and again to Tokyo where he was imprisoned until a May 1945 Allied bombing destroyed the prison camp. Sent north to Sendai 7-B Hanaoka after the successful Allied bombing, Pearson and the remaining POWs were liberated in September 1945.…”