Fate drew brothers to post-war Okinawa

Dawes

During World War II, siblings Alejandro Treviño Zapata and Armando Treviño Dawes fought for a common cause in different parts of the world.
   Zapata was stationed in Europe; Dawes in the South Pacific.
   But after the war ended and 1945 drew to a close, an odd twist of fate reunited the half-brothers from Corpus Christi on the beaches of Okinawa.
   Nearly 56 years later, Zapata and Dawes cannot describe the magnitude of that chance encounter without being overcome with emotion.
   The two say they've left what they saw during the war behind. The one memory they choose to relive in detail still makes the grown men weep.
   'Quite a reunion'

Zapata

   "It was quite a reunion," said Dawes, 76, recalling how a Jeep rolled into his platoon's camp on Yellow Beach one day with his brother as passenger.
   "We hadn't seen each other in such a long time. I was sunburned and had cut my curly hair real short because of the heat. He got out of the Jeep and I asked 'Zapata?'
   "And he asked, 'Is that you, Chino?' "
   When Dawes heard the soldier call him by nickname, he knew he was face to face with his brother. To help celebrate the reunion, comrades gave them liquor they made from potato peelings.
   One brother leaves

Vela

   The last time Dawes had seen his older brother was in 1943 when Zapata was drafted into the Army. Dawes was 16 at the time.
   "I wanted to enlist so bad, but my mother said I had to finish high school and then take care of her," Dawes said. "We were the only two males in the family, and I kept hearing that both of us couldn't be drafted.
   "I remember telling my family, 'Just wait 'til I turn 18; I'm going,' and by God I did."
   Two weeks after enlisting in the Army in 1945, Dawes went to boot camp at Fort Sam Houston. He was then sent to the South Pacific. Dawes went from Guam to Saipan and finally to Okinawa. As part of a demolitions platoon, Dawes' job was to help secure the islands by placing explosives in the mouths of caves to flush out or seal in Japanese soldiers in their hideouts.
   After the war ended in Europe, Zapata, who had served in Scotland, England, France, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg and Germany, and whose company had taken part in the invasion of Normandy, was shipped from Marseilles, France, to Okinawa to help the Army secure the islands. During a stopover through the Panama Canal, Zapata received a letter from his mother saying Dawes was in Okinawa.
   When Zapata arrived, he immediately sought out his brother.
   "I thought I'd never see him again," Dawes said, "or that he would see me again.
   Brotherly love
   "Now, every time we see each other, we think about that moment in Okinawa and we see each other with so much brotherly love.
   "What would've happened to me had we not seen each other again then? Would I have made it back? I think it was predestined by God."
   Just like Zapata had come to his aid so many times in their youth when boys picked fights with him, Dawes said, Zapata once again was his armor.
   "I'll do anything for my country," said Zapata, 77, who now lives in Houston. "And I'll do anything for my brother."