One survivor of the Japanese prison camps was inadvertently left out of the column last week discussing the Bataan Death March survivors. Jose Leandro Quintana of Española was staff/sergeant and 23 years old when the Philippines fell to the Japanese in 1942. He was liberated in 1945, returned to Española where his family has owned the Tropicana Bar on the Chama highway. It is still operated by his nephew.
Another correction, the book “It Tolled for New Mexico” by Eva Jane Matson, lists Death March survivor Pvt. James Diego McKensie as a resident of Chamita. His nephew, John Rodriguez, advises the SUN that he was actually from Ranchitos and a lifelong resident of that community.
His parents were Henry Paul and Aurelia Salazar McKensie and James Diego McKensie was named for an uncle, Diego Salazar, an early Española mayor. McKensie returned from his years in Japanese Prison camps totally disabled and died a few years after he was liberated, his nephew reported.