By Darren L. Court, WSMR Museum Director/Curator
Edited for this website by Jenn Jett, Museum Specialist
Content Warning: This article contains graphic content that some audiences may find disturbing.
Viewer discretion is advised.
This is the first of three articles on the 200th Coast Artillery of the New Mexico National Guard and their experiences in World War II. This first article concentrates solely on the experiences of these New Mexicans, and many of the quotes are taken from interviews historian Dorothy Cave conducted and used in Beyond Courage: One Regiment Against Japan, 1941-1945. This is the most comprehensive history of the 200th yet written. Another source for this first article was Tell Me Another War Story: The Life of Evans Garcia, Courageous Soldier, American Hero, My Dad, by Margaret Garcia. Numerous articles and papers, both online and in print, have provided content for this series of articles and will be noted with the subsequent articles on Hell Ships and Prisoner of War slave labor camps in Japan during the Second World War. Many of the images in this article are paintings and drawings done by Ben Steele, an artist from Montana and POW who lived through the Bataan Death March, Hell Ships, and slave labor camps. His collection is housed in the Montana Museum of Art and Culture at the University of Montana.
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