LeRoy Pennysaver & News

LE ROY PENNYSAVER & NEWS - AUGUST 23, 2020 by Lynne Belluscio History is not written in stone. There is always something new to be discovered. In 2011, I wrote an article “The Story of Forgiveness” about the Covell family of LeRoy. Rev. Milton Covell, a Baptist minister and his family came to LeRoy in 1905. Their youngest son Howard Covell graduated from the LeRoy High School in 1913. He attended the University of Rochester, Brown, and Union Theological Seminary. He became a missionary and was sent to Japan where he was an instructor at a boys’ school. In 1922, he married Charma Marie Moore, who was teaching in Osaka, Japan. In 1923, their home was destroyed by fire during the terrible earthquake in Yokohama. Their three children Margaret, David andAlice were born in Japan. As Japanese forces escalated prior to World War II, the Covells returned to LeRoy and addressed the congregation of the Baptist Church. Howard Covell made a plea for understanding. He explained that the Japanese people should not be measured by the acts of the imperial g o v e r n m e n t . T h e y returned to Japan, but as the war escalated they sent their children back home to the United States. Howard and his wife were transferred to the Philippines where Howard was a professor of English. He wrote a letter to his mother who lived on Myrtle Street, saying that they were safe and had plenty of food. That quickly changed when the Japanese invaded the Philippines, and the Covells and other missionaries went into hiding in the hills. Months passed, and Howard’s mother heard nothing. Finally, Howard’s brother received a letter in March 1944. The Baptist Foreign M i s s i o n a r y S o c i e t y reported that the Covells were among a group of eleven missionaries that had been executed by the Japanese in December 1943. The gruesome story told that they had been beheaded. The story took an unusual turn, when the Covell’s daughter Margaret – known as Peggy, became part of a story of forgiveness. The story of Peggy Covell and forgiveness was included in a book, “For That One Day – The Memoirs of Mitsuo Fuchida, Commander of the Attack on Pearl Harbor.” He related that a returning Japanese soldier from a POW camp in the United States told of being held in Utah, where a young woman, by the name of Peggy Covell, treated the Japanese soldiers with compassion and forgiveness, even after she told of her parent’s murder. Mitsuo Fuchida, said that the story of Peggy Covell compelled him to convert to Christianity. I remember several years ago, that I was contacted by a researcher who wanted to know more about the Covell family, and their time in LeRoy. And I couldn’t really give him much i n f o rma t i o n , but apparently the search for the real story of “forgiveness” c o n t i n u e d . Peggy Covell died in 1995. Her sister, Alice, vehemently stated that Peggy did not have anything to do with Japanese POWs and the story told by Mitsuo Fuchida, could not have been her sister. In late 2018, Roberta Stevens, a member of the “History Mystery Group” and who also had connections with the school in Japan where the Covells taught, contacted Peggy’s sister- in-law, Betty Covell. And she too said that Peggy never had contact with any Japanese POWs. An o t h e r r e s e a r c h e r , K a t h e r i n e S c o t t Sturdevant from the Pikes Peak Community College in Colorado Springs, was also looking into the Peggy Covell story, and she too came to the conclusion that Peggy’s story was probably mixed up with a story of another American woman who worked in a POW camp. But Sturdevant said that Peggy Covell did firmly believe that it wasn’t the fault of the Japanese people that resulted in the death of her parents. Peggy sincerely extended forgiveness to the Japanese, but she never was in a situation where she would have come in contact with a POW. I recently received the 2020 edition of Mitsuo Fuchida’s book and there is a postscript devoted to the Peggy Covell story and says that it is now believed that the story of forgiveness is more than likely mixed with a story of another young woman who worked in a POW camp. But it was such a popular story that few people challenged the sources. So, the question remains, who was the young woman who showed compassion and forgiveness and will she ever be identified? Setting the Story Straight