A patriot of the highest order and the subject of a new documentary, “Return to the Philippines,” World War II veteran Leon Cooper hopes to right what he considers an egregious wrong from seven decades ago: the disregard of the repatriation of the 7,000 soldiers missing in action that remain unaccounted for.
“We need to remind our country that if you have a statement that no one is left behind, then for Christ’s sake, make that a reality instead of a hollow slogan,” said Cooper, 95, of Malibu. “It’s an unfathomable insult to all the guys who died.”
The film, scheduled for release in 2015 on Memorial Day, is about the American soldiers who remain unidentified in graves at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in Fort Bonifacio, Metro Manila.
“Thousands upon thousands of guys were killed here; one cross or another says we don’t know who this guy is … only God knows,” Cooper states in the film while viewing a cross on a grave that reads: “here rests in honored glory a comrade in arms known but to God.”
The purpose of the film is to make the U.S. aware of the need to fulfill its promise to bring them back, he emphasized.
“There’s no way we can recover all those guys, but we need to make a major effort,” Cooper said in a recent interview with The Malibu Times. “This hypocrisy that we’ve been living under for years really needs to be exposed.”
He also hopes the film will bring closure to those who have no knowledge of what happened to their loved ones.
“The survivors, millions and millions of survivors, next of kin, will never know anymore about their loved one than they’re missing in action,” Cooper said.
Cooper’s latest endeavor is the result of his war experience that began at age 20 when he was drafted to engage enemies of the United States of America.
“I was scared stiff,” recalled Cooper, who served as a U.S. Navy landing craft officer. “All I could think is I would wind up being in the trenches with a lot of other guys and being essentially bait for the enemy gunners.”
He recalled his first battle (one of six) like it was yesterday.
“Bullets were singing all around my head and I was watching guys fall who had been hit near me.”
The initial experience led to his choice to accept he’d be killed.
“I decided I’m not going to make it and that was able to calm my concerns, my worry, my fear, my anxiety,” he said. “So the second battle I was able to … just relax and enjoy the fight.”
He attributes the fact he didn’t die to pure luck.
“There’s a saying during the Pacific War that goes ‘I know there’s a bullet with my name on it; the one that worries me the most is the one that says ‘To whom it may concern,’” he said. “I had plenty of very close calls but fortunately none that was for whom it may concern.”
Although he was never physically injured “inside I was mentally … but that was a long time ago. Life goes on.”
“Return to the Philippines,” directed by Matthew Hausle with executive producers Steven C. Barber, Scott Minerd and Eloy Mendez, is Cooper’s next step toward making a difference.
“I want to do something worthwhile … some kind of heritage of what I tried to do during my life,” said Cooper, who is also the focus of “Return to Tarawa,” a documentary about his experience in the Pacific War battle fought in 1943.
“The thing I’m proudest of is that I’m spending my last years doing something about the guys who died defending my freedom – our freedom,” he said.
Cooper added he has no desire to attend a Veteran’s Day celebration.
“I’m proud that I served in the war, but at the time I wanted to get the hell out of there; I didn’t want to kill anybody.”
Nevertheless, he has nothing but pride for today’s active military, he further emphasized.
“They are very remarkable people by and large … so I have nothing but the highest respect and understanding of what they’re doing,” Cooper said. “And hopefully they will get far better treatment than the guys in World War II did.”
For more information about “Return to the Philippines” visit vanillafire.com
