Anastasia Harman has always been fascinated by World War II.
“I read my great grandfather's memoir," she said. "He was a P.O.W. during the war and he came home. He was one of the lucky ones.”
Her great-grandfather was captured by the Japanese and became a prisoner of war at the age of 45 during the Philippines campaign in the 1940s. The U.S. surrendered this battlefield.
“He was in the P.O.W. camp for almost three years and they were sick," said Harman. "They had dysentery and all sorts of other diseases and they were starving for three years, and he survived that.”
For the last 15 years, Harman has been researching others like her great-grandfather and recently launched a podcast titled 'Left Behind.’
“The fact that we surrendered is not a narrative that is put out there a lot," she said. "So I say it's a podcast about the people left behind when the U.S. surrendered in World War II because we did. We surrendered so many people, and we surrendered an entire country.”
More than 400,000 Americans are estimated to have lost their lives during World War II. Even though it's been almost 80 years since the end of the war, Harman believes every one of those individuals has a story worth sharing.
“I can go through every single person up here, and I can tell you their story, and their story is amazing, and it's very different from anybody else's story," she said.
On Memorial Day, Harman encourages people to try to learn about just a few of the Americans who gave their lives up for their country.
