Iwo Jima veteran reflects on the 75th anniversary of the bloody battle

Also, new art exhibit honors the 100-year anniversary of the Negro Baseball League

• Merideth Bucher
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  Producer of WITF's Smart Talk
• Alexandra Stein
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Seventy-five years ago,  U.S. Marines invaded the small pacific island of Iwo Jima.  The island is strategically located about 750 miles off the Japanese Coast and was considered a possible staging base for an invasion of Japan.

But before that could happen, U.S. Marines would face one of the bloodiest battles of World War II. Some estimates say that all but about 200 of the 21,000 Japanese forces defending the Island were killed, along with nearly 7,000 U.S. Marines.  

Pfc. George Aukamp, a 94-year-old Lancaster County native, was one of the Marines who fought on Iwo Jima. Aukamp operated a flamethrower when he landed on the island with the 4th Marine Division. He fought for eight days before being wounded and evacuated from the battle.

George Aukamp appears on Smart Talk to share his experience as a veteran of the Battle of Iwo Jima.

 

Also, the Susquehanna Art Museum’s new exhibit, Separate and Unequal, celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Negro National League, a black only baseball league that formed in 1920.  The exhibit will be open to the public on March 6, 2020 and will feature four different artists.

For more than thirty years, the league thrived. Black teams played other black teams, and white teams, as well. The league was the black community’s answer to sports segregation and became the “proving ground” for big names like Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige.

Joining Smart Talk to discuss the anniversary and impact of the Negro National League is Ted Knorr, a local baseball historian who specializes in the Negro League history.