{"id":39979,"date":"2025-11-07T09:37:05","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T14:37:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=39979"},"modified":"2025-11-11T14:11:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T19:11:12","slug":"magazine-history-on-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/magazine-history-on-film\/","title":{"rendered":"History on Film"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wandering through his grandfather\u2019s office and perusing the black-and-white photos of soldiers and officers, Cole Kennedy \u201925 felt like he grew up in his family\u2019s personal military history museum.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The snapshots from World War II captured soldiers talking to one another on a base in the Philippines, and an officer in dress uniform at a ceremony. Medals and other curios kept by the family over the years are neatly displayed throughout his grandfather\u2019s office. In a place of honor sits a long, slender katana sword resting in a black scabbard.<\/p>\n

Right below it, a photo told its story, showing the moment a Japanese military officer surrendered that sword to Kennedy\u2019s great-grandfather, U.S. Army Lt. Gen. William H. Arnold.<\/p>\n

\u201cA simple family artifact can lead to a story that changes how I look at my family\u2019s history,\u201d Kennedy says. That artifact was the start of Kennedy\u2019s quest to tell his family\u2019s story and uncover this little-known part of World War II history. These relics had always flooded Kennedy with a sense of pride in his family, but months of research and interviews gave him a deeper respect for his great-grandfather\u2019s historic role.<\/p>\n

Arnold was a major general in 1944 when he was assigned as commander of the Americal Division \u2013 now known as the 23rd Infantry Division (Americal) \u2013 which he led through combat operations in the southern Philippines. He accepted the first surrender of a large-scale Japanese garrison on Cebu Island on Aug. 28, 1945, days before the formal Japanese surrender on Sept. 2, 1945, which marked the end of World War II.<\/p>\n

Kennedy was driven to tell his great-grandfather\u2019s story, and when he came to Furman, he sought guidance from communication studies instructor Mary Sturgill. When Kennedy told relatives he was working on a documentary, his grandfather, retired Army Col. Joseph C. Arnold, \u201cbrought over all his father\u2019s photo albums and biographical documents\u201d and connected him with relatives who could point him toward more information about the lieutenant general.<\/p>\n

Kennedy\u2019s research into oral histories, interviews with World War II historians and a book on the Americal Division produced a 10-page biographical timeline of William H. Arnold\u2019s life and career. Sturgill taught Kennedy how to professionally edit and frame his shots, and with these skills he was able to produce the 18-minute documentary film \u201cVictor
\nII: Cebu.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWitnessing Cole’s storytelling journey unfold here at Furman \u2013 from clarifying his initial ideas and supporting his research to collaborating on production logistics and creative presentation ideas \u2013 has truly been rewarding,\u201d Sturgill says.<\/p>\n

Kennedy put those skills to work piecing together the historical record and new interviews with historians. He was able to breathe new life into the family photos and artifacts. While reading through a transcript of a conversation Arnold had with another military officer, Kennedy said his great-grandfather had been \u201clooking for a map of Cebu with the rest of the Americal Division\u2019s leadership\u201d moments before Japanese forces launched a surprise attack against the American troops. In a flash, Arnold was \u201cshooting out the window to repel a Japanese assault,\u201d Kennedy says.<\/p>\n

Through engaged research supported by faculty mentors passionate about enabling student success, Kennedy was able to find a deeper, more personal connection to his own family\u2019s history and explore the greater historical context his relative was a part of.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cole Kennedy’s WWII documentary deepens his family ties by telling the story of his grandfather and great-grandfather.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":401,"featured_media":39765,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3493,3484,2717,1963,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-around-the-lake-fall-2025","category-fall-2025","category-furman-engaged","category-furman-magazine","category-history"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/401"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39979"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40243,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39979\/revisions\/40243"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}