WILL TO SURVIVE. Michael Lyga, an Independence local, has taken up the pen to tell the stories of those who passed – including those from Eau Claire and across Wisconsin. Lost to Time: Little Known Stories of Wisconsin's World War II Men and Women spans two volumes, telling the stories of those who no longer can who passed during or after the second world war. (Submitted photos)

Last year marked the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. Over the course of the years-long conflict, some 400,000 Americans died.

Michael Lyga, a retired science teacher and Independence local, has taken up the pen to tell the stories of those who passed – including those from Eau Claire and across Wisconsin.

Lost to Time: Little Known Stories of Wisconsin's World War II Men and Women spans two volumes, telling the stories of those who no longer can and could be “lost to time,” Lyga shared.

Aside from his role as an educator in the state, he continues to hone his interests in history – coupled with his father’s stories as a World War II veteran – through writing and research.

“I did a book on the histories of the World War II veterans from Independence and that required a lot of digging into newspaper articles to get the background information,” Lyga said.

“It’s been 80 years now since World War II ended and these stories are being forgotten,”  he continued.

Across both volumes of Lost to Time, Lyga applied the same attention to detail and research, as he did for A Small Town Goes to War: Histories of the World War II Veterans of Independence, Wisconsin.

Through his research, Lyga connected with descendants of World War II veterans, with the help of his very own students. They assisted with matching names and stories to Wisconsinites who served.

“He survived the war as a prisoner of war of the Japanese, one of the most brutal things to go through – just to die like that.”

michael Lyga

independence author, lost to time

590 total pages of stories, from over over 200 soldiers of the war, are documented in Lyga's latest works; an additional 236 photos span across both books – photos provided by families across the state and other historical archives.

Lyga shares the story of Eau Claire's Darrell Beaver, who he describes was “simply the victim of bad luck.”

Beaver, who was stationed on Wake Island during World War II, did survive the war after he and other American civilians surrendered to the Japanese. In late 1942, Beaver and others were transferred to a refugee camp near Shanghai, followed by another camp in the years which followed.

Michael Lyga, author of Lost to Time, pictured above. (Submitted photo)

Conditions varied from camp to camp, and Lyga details the differing working conditions at each one. Once the war ended, Lyga recounts, food and other necessities would be dropped from the sky – by B-17 aircrafts – to those who had survived.

“These drops of large, heavy barrels were quite random,” Lyga wrote in Lost to Time: Vol. 1. “As some containers ripped free from their parachutes, they exploded on contact with the ground, causing grapefruit juice cans to become deadly projectiles.”

The men hit the deck as projectiles flew in the air, but three were ultimately struck by the juice cans. One of those killed was Darrell Beaver, reportedly struck in the forehead.

“He survived the war as a prisoner of war of the Japanese, one of the most brutal things to go through – just to die like that,” Lyga said.

While Beaver’s story may be a one-in-a-million occurrence, Lyga also tells countless additional stories about survivors facing other challenges alongside civilians who also contributed to the war effort.

He hopes readers look at the faces on each page, to put themselves in the shoes of the military and Marines to experience – for a brief moment – what they did.  Just maybe, he suggests, readers will have a newfound appreciation; and thank other veterans for their service.

After all, as Lyga shared, “all they did was save the world.”

Volumes one and two of Lost to Time: Little Known Stories of Wisconsin’s World War II Men and Women by Michael Lyga, can be purchased locally at The Local Store (205 N. Dewey St., Eau Claire).