In the 1940s , Emory University students , alumni , and faculty served in the Asia-Pacific War and European theater of World War II . Lieutenant Commander James L. Starnes , a graduate of Emory Law , was the navigator of the battleship and served as officer of the deck during the signing of the Japanese Instrument of Surrender . Bobby Jones , the golfer , served during the Battle of Normandy . Dr. Alfred A. Weinstein , a professor of surgery at Emory University School of Medicine , was a prisoner of war of the Empire of Japan between 1942 and 1945 . His memoir , " Barbed Wire Surgeon " , is considered one of the finest accounts concerning allied prisoners under Japanese captivity and highlights the abuses of the war criminal Mutsuhiro Watanabe . Kiyoshi Tanimoto , who graduated from the Candler School of Theology in 1940 and is portrayed in John Hersey 's '' Hiroshima '' , was able to organize the Hiroshima Maidens reconstructive surgery program based on the associations he made while studying in the United States . Tatsumasa Shirakawa , a Japanese student at the Candler School of Theology , was placed under arrest temporarily until Dean Henry Burton Trimble negotiated his release . Emory helped the nation prepare for war by participating in the V-12 Navy College Training Program and Army Specialized Training Program , programs designed to supplement the force of commissioned officers in the United States Navy and United States Army . The Candler School of Theology trained men for military chaplaincy . During the war , university enrollment boasted two military students for every one civilian . Emory University alumni would go on to serve in the Korean War , Second Indochina War ( Vietnam War ) , Persian Gulf War , Yugoslav Wars , and the Global War on Terrorism
allied prisoners under Japanese captivity
Japanese war crimes
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