Posted on September 10, 2008       

The Meaning of Independence
    by the Rev. Father Robert W. Phillips (affectionately called "Father Bob" by his POW friends and descendants)

    I was asked to write this piece for our parish newsletter; it is based on my experience as a

Prisoner of War; the experience, viewed through the lens of senior citizen and a priest, may add

some meaning to the word “Independence”.  I hope it adds meaning to your celebration of all

National Holidays.

    Independence implies that we are free to live as we choose within the constraints of the

laws of the land and within the constraints of moral and ethical beliefs; we call that “ Liberty”.

Liberty is so precious that thousands of our military men and women lay down their lives for it;

life without liberty seems not worth while.

    Like so many other things, liberty is not appreciated until it is taken away from us.

    Becoming a POW means that we have been totally overwhelmed by forces of an enemy;

in my case my fellow soldiers and I were taken prisoners by the Japanese Army in the Philippine

Islands; for more than three years (count them: 40 months; 1,212 days) we lost all of our

independence and liberties and were submerged into a subculture of slave labor in the Japanese

war industry.  Immediately, our primary duties were to stay alive despite the malnutrition, abuses,

sicknesses and attacks by our own forces.  We had no assurance that we would survive; in fact we

learned later that our execution orders had already been signed and the date for execution had

been set..

    I look back through the years and realize that, even though I couldn’t go to the “benjo”

without permission, I had not lost the liberty to worship God.  No enemy was able to take that

precious gift away from me.  Granted, I wasn’t able to “go to church”, but in my most simplistic

way, I never lost my faith in Him.  I had been reared to know that God loved me and, even

though I was surrounded by evil in many forms, I never begrudged serving my country and

being caught in this subhuman situation; most Americans were also making some sacrifices.  I

never doubted that being an American was a good thing and that good would prevail over evil.

    As we all pray for the members of our Armed Forces, let us also pray for their toughness

while under fire, that whatever circumstances befall them, they never doubt the reasons for their

being in danger, that their sacrifices have mighty precedents, and that they learn to put their

Trust in the Loving God who will sustain them through their worst experiences.

    In the Faith,

            Fr. Bob