“I took him to lunch and said, ‘call this lady,’” recalled Chamberlain’s daughter, Becky. “She said ‘we are going to Japan.’” The American Defenders of Bataan and Corrigedor, a memorial society, had contacted Becky with the invitation.

“There were ten of us on this trip.” Said Becky. Chamberlain was the only living U.S. POW among surviving relatives of six other POWs to make the trip.

“The only thing they could give him were the dates of his capture and his liberation,” said Becky.

There are no surviving Japanese men or guards from that camp. Some had been court-martialed for war crimes.

“We were greeted by two general managers of Mitsubishi Mining Company,” she said. “Huge thing – to be able to say they were sorry to my Dad. They had tea and cookies for us – they had gifts for us. They are truly sorry … everybody is in 100 percent agreement that these men were mistreated, and what the Japanese did was wrong. So, they are trying to make it right. We were treated with the utmost respect. My Dad was the star – the hero of this trip because he is the only survivor that was there. In April there were only 50 left – out of 350,000.”

Chamberlain was awarded two Bronze Stars. After repatriation he came home, where he found a society so changed and difficult he re-enlisted to be “among individuals that I did understand and could live around.”

In 1947 he married a “woman who made my life worth caring about.”

He stayed in the service for 28 years and spent another tour in Japan, where Becky was born. “That was good wasn’t it Dad?” asked Becky.

“No, no, I didn’t think so.”

“He never sits out in the open; his back is always against a wall. He was strict when we were growing up,” she recalled. “He never complained. Sometimes Mom would say, ‘Your Dad had a hard night,’ and that’s all we heard. They don’t like to talk about it.”

Henry and Becky continue to go to gatherings with other former POWs or their surviving families.

“You have to forgive yourself too,” Henry Chamberlain said. “You have to forgive yourself for the things you did in war, too. I wish I could get over these nightmares.”