Ensemble concert performed at the UNT College of Music Recital Hall.

Ensemble concert performed at the UNT College of Music Concert Hall.

Ensemble concert performed at the UNT College of Music Recital Hall.

Jazz concert performed at the UNT College of Music Kenton Hall.

Ensemble concert performed at the UNT College of Music Recital Hall.

Ensemble concert performed at the UNT College of Music Recital Hall.

Ensemble concert performed at the UNT College of Music Organ Recital Hall.

Ensemble concert performed at the UNT College of Music Recital Hall.

UNT Men's and UNT Women's Chorus concert performed at the UNT College of Music Concert Hall.

Concert featuring new compositions performed at the UNT College of Music Recital Hall.

African Percussion Ensemble concert performed at the UNT College of Music Recital Hall.

University of North Texas College of Music concert performed at the Prestonwood Town Center, Dallas, Texas.

Jazz concert performed at the UNT College of Music Kenton Hall.

Ensemble concert performed at the UNT College of Music Recital Hall.

Ensemble concert performed at the UNT College of Music Recital Hall.

Ensemble concert performed at the UNT College of Music Recital Hall.

Jazz concert performed at the UNT College of Music Kenton Hall.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Robert Donihi. Donihi was born in Erie, Pennsylvania. He graduated from high school in 1934. During the Depression, he worked low wage jobs and lost his leg in an automobile accident while hitchhiking to Florida. His experiences influenced him to attend law school. He passed the Bar in 1941 and went to work in Tennessee. He was exempt from the draft, but was motivated to learn to fly under the Civil Air Patrol. He joined the Coast Guard Reserve during World War II and became a Seaman First Class, ferrying submarine chasers down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico for shakedown cruises. After the war, he met Tom Clark, President Truman’s Attorney General (and later Associate Supreme Court Justice). Clark offered Donihi a job in Tokyo and introduced him to Joseph B. Keenan, who had worked in President Roosevelt’s White House. Keenan was setting up an organization named Project K, which operated out of the Justice Department. Its purpose was to prosecute Emperor Hirohito and other suspected Japanese war criminals. In Tokyo he lived with Keenan and 15 other lawyers and judges. He attended several meetings …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with William Gill. Gill was born in Pennsylvania 21 July 1920. He attended Pennsylvania State College and graduated in December 1942. He then reported to Ft Benning, Georgia to attend Infantry Officers Candidate School. Upon graduation in March 1943 he was commissioned and assigned to the 98th Infantry Division at Camp Breckenridge, Kentucky. While there he was assigned as an air-ground umpire during maneuvers and he explains the functions of those assigned to this position. In early 1944 the unit went to Camp Stoneman, California where they boarded the USS General W.M. Black (AP-135) where they joined the 304th Infantry Regiment for a trip to Honolulu. Upon their arrival, the unit maintained defensive positions among the islands. In 1945 after receiving advanced training for the invasion of Japan, they began loading the ships for the invasion. When the war ended, the division became part of Operation BLACKLIST and proceeded to Wakayana, Japan. Soon after his arrival, he was assigned to his regiment’s ordnance company to supervise the collection and destruction of Japanese weapons. In October, Gill reported to the US Army War Crimes Legal Section in Tokyo. He investigated …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with David P. Newton. Newton was born in Birmingham, Alabama 2 December 1915. In 1937 he enrolled in the Birmingham School of Law, graduating and passing the bar examination in 1942. He was inducted into the US Army in 1943 and had basic training at Camp Wolters, Texas. He was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant and assigned to the 346th Harbor Craft Company. Traveling to Finschhafen, New Guinea he was assigned to a port battalion as a deck officer. He tells of the battalion commander assigning him as the defense counsel for a pending court martial trial. He outlines in detail the cause of the trial and of the favorable ruling rendered toward his client. Soon thereafter, he was sent to Hollandia, New Guinea and assigned to a small boat used for evacuation of wounded from shore. He recalls being part of the invasion force during the landing at Tacloban, Leyte and participating in the evacuation of the wounded. He recollects being ordered to report to the War Crimes Commission in Tokyo in October 1945. He was appointed as a special investigator/prosecutor into the operations of a number of prisoner …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Ike Kampmann. Kampmann was born in San Antonio, Texas on 2 October 1918 and graduated from the University of Texas, Austin with a law degree. In the spring of 1945 when he was stationed at 6th Army Headquarters at Lingayen Gulf, Luzon Island, Philippines, he was attached to the Staff Officer for Personnel (G-1) as the Army was making its move toward Manila. The commanding general, Lieutenant General Walter Krueger, appointed him to a military commission defending four Japanese soldiers who had been caught behind Allied lines in civilian clothes. Kampmann was the least experienced of the six officers on the commission. The four were found guilty and hanged. Subsequently, he was appointed aide-de-camp to General Krueger. For the duration of the interview he expresses remorse over the trial’s outcome.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Jean Balch. Balch was born in Abilene, Texas and was attending Hardin-Simmons University in 1941. On 8 December, he volunteered for duty in the Navy, but was too young. He joined later that spring. He trained as a radioman and gunner before being assigned the USS Yorktown (CV-10) in the fall of 1944. Balch mentions striking targets in the Philippines and on Formosa in late 1944. On one bombing mission over Hong Kong, China, the plane Balch was in was hit, forcing him to bail out. He landed among some Chinese civilians. In a short time, Balch was captured by Japanese soldiers. After several days, he was transported to Ofuna. Balch recalls several anecdotes about life as a prisoner of war in Japan. He mentions other POWs and tells stories about various guards. When the war ended, Balch was placed aboard the hospital ship USS Benevolence (AH-13). After the war, Balch returned to Tokyo to testify at the war crime trials.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with John Rich. Rich was born in Cape Elizabeth, Maine on 5 August 1917. He completed high school in 1935 and graduated from Bowdoin College in 1939. Following graduation, he worked as a newspaper reporter and interviewed survivors of the USS Reuben James (DD-245), which was sunk by a German U-boat in 1941. In early 1941, he attended the University of Colorado and spent a year studying the Japanese language. In 1942, he joined the Marine Corps. While at boot camp in Camp Pendleton, California he was selected to join the 4th Marine Division and was sent to Camp Savage, Minnesota where he attended the US Army language school. On 3 January 1944 the division sailed from San Diego and landed on Kwajalein. Rich tells of his first meeting with the enemy as an interpreter. He also relates his experiences during the invasions of Saipan, Tinian and Iwo Jima. Following the surrender of Japan, he was discharged and went to work as a reporter for International News Service. As such, he attended the War Crimes Trials of general s Masaharu Homma and Hideki Tojo. Rich also relates his experiences …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Lanson B. Ditto. Ditto grew up in Kentucky. He went to college at Washington and Lee University and then joined the Navy in 1940. After training, Ditto chose to join the Asiatic Fleet. He went to Shanghai, China where he was assigned to the USS Langley (CV-1). The ship went to the Philippines. They were at Manila when the Japanese destroyed all B-17's at the airfield on December 8, 1941. The Langley left Manila Bay that night and headed south. On that trip, Ditto mentions that his ship fired at the planet Venus. They went to Balikpapan, refueled, and spent Christmas at Surabaya. Next, they went to Darwin, Australia, then Perth, Australia. Then, they went to Java. Before they arrived at the port, they were hit by Japanese airplanes dropping bombs. Ditto abandons ship and swims to the USS Edsall. They steam to the Christmas Island. He transferred to the Pecos. The Pecos was then bombed by the Japanese. Next the 220 survivors out of 666 men were picked up by the Whipple. He was injured and went back to the United States on the Mount Vernon. They …