The very human nature of the war in the Pacific
file:///Users/edmarek/Documents/Talking%20Proud/HistoryHu...
The very human nature of the war in the
Pacific
Go!
By Ed Marek, editor
December 10, 2007
Concluding comments: What some Pacific veterans have
said about war's end
Table of Contents
Guadalcanal through the
Marianas.
Philippines
Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
Concluding section offers
opinions about the end of
the war from the troops who
were there
We honor service and
sacrifice. Please click the
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help keep this station alive.
Thanks.
Allied prisoners of war cheering their rescuers, as the U.S. Navy arrives at
the Aomori prison camp, near Yokohama, Japan, on August 29, 1945. They
are waving the flags of the United States, Great Britain and The Netherlands.
Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National
Archives. Presented by USN.
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General George Marshall, Chief of Staff of the Army, saw the
end of the war in Europe as the opportunity to "prepare for the
final kill." Japan was surrounded, the US had cut a deal with
Russia for Russia to enter the war against Japan. Michael
Perlman, writing "Unconditional surrender, demobilization
and the Atomic bomb," published by the US Army Command
and General Staff College in 1996, wrote this:
"Most of the U.S. military, especially the Army,
conducted planning on the premise 'that defeat of the
enemy's armed forces in the Japanese homeland is a
prerequisite to unconditional surrender.'"
Debate continues to this day about whether President Truman
made the right decision about dropping the A-bombs on Japan.
We will simply reiterate that when those bombs were dropped,
the execute order for Operation Downfall invasion was still on
the table, as was Operation Blacklist, the plan for occupation.
The latter was implemented, the former was not. The former
would have been implemented had it come to that, of that you
can be sure.
The Blacklist plan was for the 8th and 6th Armies to occupy
Japan, the 10th Army Korea. Blacklist was implemented
almost immediately after Hirohito made his radio speech,
August 14, 1945. American forces moved immediately from
the Philippines and Okinawa to Japan and took control right
away.
The 6th Army, which had the task under Downfall to invade
Kyushu, now had the task to occupy it, Shikoku and Western
Honshu, General Walter Krueger in command.
The 8th Army had the task of invading the Tokyo-Kanto Plain,
and now had the task of occupying Northern Honshu,
Hokkaido and Karafuto, Lt. General Robert Eichelberger in
command.
The 10th Army was to have been a reserve invasion force, and
was now designated to take control of the Korean peninsula,
General "Vinegar Joe" Joseph Stilwell in command.
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Marines of the 4th Regiment, 6th Division, come ashore at Yokosuka during
initial landings in the Tokyo Bay area, 30 August 30, 1945. They are in full
battle gear in preparation for any treachery from the Japanese. Their LCVP is
from USS Waukesha (AKA-84), and they appear to be pulling a 75mm pack
howitzer. In the distance are the Japanese battleship Nagato (in the center)
and Yokosuka dockyard facilities (at right). Presented by USN.
We'll return to Army Major James D. Brinson's thesis on the
subject of Operation Blacklist, "A study of postwar Japan
(1945-1950):"
"Blackist urged the Army Forces Pacific to be prepared
to disarm as many as 2 million remaining Japanese
regular forces and over 3 million civilian volunteers.
Plans for an invasion of Japan had also assumed that
Japan still possessed over 12,000 serviceable aircraft of
either military grade or Kamikazes. Moreover,
American commanders were acutely aware of the
well-orchestrated Japanese propaganda campaign that
had convinced much of the population that the
Americans aimed to destroy Japan—its culture and its
people. Resistance from the civilian population was
expected and prepared for. In other words, no one was
sure that the Japanese would simply lay down their arms
even after Emperor Hirohito surrendered.
"The occupation of Japan is commonly cited as a major
success of post-war nation-building. Suicide attacks
against the occupation failed to materialize, resistance
turned out to be minor, the population was quickly
disarmed as planned, and difficulties providing the
necessities of life were overcome within a few years.
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"The first post-war elections were held in April 1946,
scarcely six months after MacArthur had accepted the
Japanese instrument of surrender onboard the Missouri
... Japan resumed full sovereignty in 1952, and
American troops remained at the invitation of the
Japanese Diet."
So, that's how it ended, with all kinds of hiccups along the
way.
Well we started this report introducing you to the WWII Vet
who was training for Downfall in Guam. He was happy the
"fly boys" stopped that requirement from flowering. So, we
have tried to find out what others who fought this war in the
Pacific have said.
Harry E. Schack was with L/3-35th Infantry, 25th Infantry
Division, and fought in Luzon:
"In Crow Valley, near the town of Tarlac, we continued
our training and would be taken to Lingayan Gulf to go
over the sides of ships on a rope ladder and climb into
landing barges to hit the beach in preparation for the
invasion in Japan. They estimated that 85-90 percent of
those hitting Japan would be killed or wounded. The
atomic bomb was dropped and saved thousands of
lives."
Beginning in July 1945, the 25th Infantry Division began
training for Downfall. The 25th was to be a lead element and
it conducted amphibious exercises to prepare. The 25th was
instead assigned an occupation sector in south central Honshu.
Schack's 35th Regiment began serving in the city of Nahoya
and in January 1946 moved to Otsu.
Lt. (JG) Horace Edwin Sullivan,
USN, participated in five
invasions all the way through to
Okinawa. He was in the Landing
Ship Docks (LSD) business, with
LSD-7, the USS Oak Hill:
"So, Okinawa was a real
mess, I tell ya, I can't
believe it--how many
people were killed there ... And then, of course, then we
were there when the bombs were dropped at Hiroshima
and Nagasaki. And we heard about it and what
happened. I wondered at that time and I still have
misgivings sometimes about the number of people that
were killed, the Japanese people that were killed in
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those two bombings. But looking at it retrospectively,
there's no question that those two bombings saved any
number of lives that would have been lost had we had to
invade Tokyo or Japan proper, 'cause that would have
been a mess. 'Cause those people were--they were
suicidal, I mean that was it everywhere they went. They
were not gonna let anybody in there if they could avoid
it."
Sullivan's LSD-7 had served in the Marianas, Carolines, both
the Leyte and Luzon operations, and on Okinawa. Following
the war, she served in Korea and China. She earned five battle
stars in WWII and six campaign stars in Vietnam.
Vern Jensen was an infantryman
with the 96th Division and
invaded Okinawa and stayed
there for the entire battle.
Michele Linck, writing for the
Sioux City Journal about him,
said this:
"Jensen said he didn't
know what an atom was or
even how to spell it. But
he said it would have been
impossible to invade Japan
without being killed. The Japanese had hundreds of
boats loaded with explosives set to ram U.S. ships.
'There would have been hell to pay. Mr. Truman, I think
you did a wonderful job.'"
Vern was right on the mark. This National Archives Photo
127-N-140564 presented by the National Park Service shows
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scores of suicide motorboats ready for operations against a US
invasion of the Home Islands.
Jensen's 96th Infantry Division departed Okinawa from July
through August 1945 for Mindoro Island, the Philippines, and
positioned near the city of San Jose. The 96th rested,
rehabilitated and began to train for the invasion of Japan. The
division was scheduled to participate in the occupation, but
was not needed and was held in Mindoro. The vets with the
most points (longevity and performance in battle) started to
return to the US in a dribble in August 1945. The division was
reduced in half beginning in December 1945. Those left were
sent to the 86th Infantry Division on Luzon and most men left
for the US in January 1946.
Robert Christensen's son has created a web site dedicated to
his father, who served in B/108 Combat Engineer Battalion,
33rd "Golden Cross" Division. The 33rd landed on Honshu
Island, Japan, September 25, 1945. He tells us this:
"The 33rd Division was then ordered to prepare for
Operation Olympic, the invasion of the Japanese home
islands. The 33rd was scheduled to be in the first wave
of the invasion forces and planners estimated that the
33rd Division would suffer 80 to 90 percent casualties.
Fortunately, the Japanese surrendered after the cities of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed with atomic
weapons. The 33rd Division did invade the Japanese
home islands, as an occupation force where they
remained until April of 1946 when they were
deactivated and returned home to Illinois and National
Guard status."
Roy Anderson was on the Navy radar picket destroyer
Mannert L. Abele (DD-733) when it was attacked and sunk by
kamikaze pilots off Okinawa. Alan Pollock wrote about him:
"Andersen said there are many historians who opine
about World War II, but the most credible are those who
actually fought in the war. He bristles at 'revisionist
historians' who question the U.S. use of the atomic
bomb to end the war, saying it averted an allied invasion
of the Japanese homeland which would have been very,
very costly in human lives."
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The Abele was struck by a Yokosuka MXY-7, known to GIs as
the "Baka Bomb," or "Idiot Bomb," shown above captured by
US forces in Okinawa. This is essentially a manned cruise
missile. It was carried by a bomber to within range of the
target, and released. The pilot would glide it at the start, and,
when he got his missile close enough, he'd fire up rocket
engines and guide it to the target. On April 12, 1945, the Abele
was approached by three Aichi D3A Vals, but the Abele forced
two away and struck the third. Then she was approached by
15-20 Mitsubishi A6Ms, known as the Zeroes or Zekes. Three
broke out of formation and came at the Abele. Abele's crew
drove off one, shot down a second, but the third made it
through and struck Abele on her starboard side, penetrating to
the engine room where it exploded. A minute later, she was hit
by a second kamikaze, a Baka Bomb, and that did her in. As
crew ran to safety while their ship was sinking, Japanese
attack aircraft commenced strafing runs, but nearby ships
drove them away. These are the kinds of air weapons that
would have been the mainstay of Japan's air defense had
Downfall proceeded.
Bill Johnson was an Army radio
operator with the 288 Signal Co.
and had fought in New Guinea
and the Philippines:
"We were tied up for
refueling at the boat dock
at Leyte Gulf. We had
come back from Manila to
Batangas and to Leyte. I
could pipe the radio into
the company area and
receive a radio broadcast
and that's when we found
out the Atom Bomb had been dropped. Of course it was
a big thrill because we thought it would be over then."
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Billy Joe Gentry was a Marine. His daughter, Donna Ross:
"He told me of them living on the Island (Okinawa) for
roughly two weeks; without rations (no food) then one
of the men found some coffee, so they boiled it up in a
helmet, drank it, all got very drunk on coffee from
having no food! He would joke about it; the other
stories were tough ones, the few he did speak of are too
awful to tell here. He told me that the bombing drop by
the Enola Gay was what saved so many American lives.
(He only explained that after I was older, when I asked
about the "bolt" he had, which came from the Enola
Gay).
We do not know which division Gentry was in, but he also
fought at Peleliu, and the only MARDIV to do both those
landings was the 1st MARDIV. Three weeks after the
Japanese surrendered, the 1st MARDIV was sent to North
China for occupation duty, and had numerous encounters with
the Chinese Communists. This is all a story unto itself.
This division came to be known as the "Old Breed." It was a
division loved by Australians for the job it did on Guadalcanal
when the Japanese were knocking on Australia's door. We
understand that to this day the division sings "Walzing
Matilda" when it deploys. As an aside, the Old Breed was
selected for the invasion of Inchon which turned the Korean
War in our favor.
While talking about the 1st
MARDIV, E.B. Sledge, an Old
Breed veteran, wrote the book
China Marine, An Infantryman's
Life after World War II. Sledge is
quite a Marine, and quite an
author. He first wrote, With the
Old Breed: At Peleliu and
Okinawa, which describes this
war as it really was, in "GI
English." These are memoirs; he
was there. One of the big
post-war issues was with the
Japanese defeated, there was a
power vacuum in China. He
wrote this:
"Our eighty-two day battle (at Okinawa) was over, but
the endless war continued. We scrubbed the
accumulated filth off our bodies, cleaned our weapons
and other combat gear, and began the long process of
preparing for the next invasion (Downfall), God forbid.
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None of us survivors expected our luck to continue.
"The news circulated in August that President Truman
announced that an atomic bomb had been dropped on
Japan. 'What kinda bom is dat for Chroist's sake?'
someone asked. No one knew what an atomic bomb was
... The second atomic bomb was dropped and rumors
spread that the Japanese might surrender. I did not know
a single veteran who believed it, though. "The Nips
won't surrender. We'll have to go back into the islands
and wipe 'em all out just like Peleliu. Even if they do
surrender in Tokyo, we'll have to fight 'em for years
until every last one of them is knocked off,' said a tent
mate of mine as we sat around speculating about our
future. 'Yeah, they might throw in the towel to keep
their cities from being bombed flat, but those bypassed
Nip troops on Truk, Rabaul, and other places are not
going to surrender,' added another. I agreed."
Sledge was right. Rounding up Japanese forces was no trivial
project, and carried plenty of dangers.
Japanese envoys at Ie Shima waiting to board US aircraft for Manila, August
19, 1945, to work out the arrangements for surrender. Presented by USN.
Even when Sledge and his buddies saw Japanese peace envoys
fly into Ie Shima, they still didn't believe the Japanese would
surrender. They were still waiting for the "next blitz."
John E. Baylor was a bombardier
in the Army Air Force aboard
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B-24s, and went to Mindoro, the
Philippines in 1945, assigned to
the 90th Bomb Group "Jolly
Rogers" of 5th AF. For a variety
of reasons, he never flew a
combat mission. In an interview
with Sandra Stewart Holyoak, he
was asked how he and his crew
reacted when they heard about
the A-bomb:
"Let's have a beer." (laughter) A warm beer, that is.
(laughter)
Then, asked, "Were there any other reactions?":
"Yes, I think, of course, ... for all of us in the service, we
were glad the war was coming to an end. ... It was a
little more important to others, perhaps, but, certainly, ...
none of us had ... any particular desire to ... get too
further involved on Japan proper."
The 90th Bomb Group left Mindora on August 10, 1945 and
went to Ie Shima, offshore Okinawa, where the crews thought
they were to prepare for the invasion of Japan that did not
come. The group then flew reconnaissance missions over
Japan and ferried Allied prisoners from Okinawa to Manila.
The group returned to the Philippines in December 1945 and
was inactivated in January 1946.
Leslie Lund was with the Army
Air Corps, a mechanic with the
11th Bomb Group, B-24s. He
was on Okinawa when the
A-bomb fell:
"They'd told us that they'd
dropped an atomic bomb,
which I didn't understand.
I just knew it was a super
bomb. That night was
when the tracers went off
(celebrating). It sounded
like everything on the
island was shooting. I'm sure somebody got hurt. You
couldn't help it with all of that stuff in the air. I was as
glad as I could be. It really made me think that the war
was about over. I was surprised when they didn't
surrender after the first one ... I figured that when they
dropped the atomic bomb that the war was over, but I
was really happy with the thoughts of getting back
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home and like I say, that night they fired all of these
tracers into the air and filled the sky with them.
Everybody was firing up in the air. That didn't happen
after the second bomb went."
From Guam, the 11th Bomb Group moved to Okinawa in July
1945 and started preparing the battlefield on Kyushu for the
Downfall invasion. That is, the 11th bombed the hell out of the
place. The group bombed railways, airfields, and harbor
facilities on Kyushu and also struck airfields in China. After
the war, the 11th flew reconnaissance and surveillance
missions to China and ferried liberated prisoners of war from
Okinawa to Luzon. It was then transferred to the Philippines,
and then to Guam to transition to the B-29.
Martin L. Allday was with the
382nd Infantry of the 96th
"Deadeye" Infantry Division. He
landed at Okinawa on May 1,
1945. The Austin, Texas Chapter
of the Military Order of the
Purple Heart reported this:
"Pfc Allday rejoined
Company C the day the
island (Okinawa) was
declared secure, but they
spent the next ten days in 'mopping up,' an operation
that Martin describes where, 'No prisoners were taken,
they did not take prisoners and neither did we.' The 96th
Infantry Division remained on Okinawa for another
month and then was withdrawn to the Philippines for
refitting and training in preparation for invasion of
mainland Japan. Martin remembers that they were
aboard ships enroute to Mindoro Island when the
Atomic Bombs were dropped and the war ended. The
men of the 96th Infantry Division stayed on Mindoro
for three months waiting their turn to be shipped home.
When they sailed, Martin was left behind."
Allday did not have enough points to go home just yet.
The 96th "Deadeyes" left Okinawa and went to Mindoro, the
Philippines, to train for the Downfall invasion, on the roster
for Operation Coronet. It returned to the US in January 1946.
Warren Jack O'Brien was a
corporal with the 8th Marines of
the 2nd MARDIV. He helped
"mop up" Okinawa. He has
written this:
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"We returned to Saipan (after Okinawa) and began
training for the final show, the assault on Japan. On
August 6, 1945, at about 10:00 p.m. Saipan time, the
head of the Communication Section came out of his
radio shack to announce to one and all that some sort of
tremendous bomb had been dropped on a Japanese city,
nearly destroying it. We all felt that he had somehow
stumbled onto a cache of Saki and was drunk or crazy.
The next morning the word of the atomic bomb was
officially passed. I thought that we had all been
reprieved."
Fields of rubble greeted Marines as they made their way into central
Nagasaki, site of the second atomic bomb dropped on Japan. The Nagasaki
Medical Center was the only building left standing near ground zero.
Norman T. Hatch Collection, MCHC. Presented by the National Park Service
"Marines in World War II Commemorative Series."
Following this, O'Brien landed at Nagasaki as part of the
occupation force. He commented about seeing Nagasaki this
way:
"We subsequently landed in Japan at Nagasaki, the
second city to have been hit by an atomic bomb. We
rode by truck through the center of the city. The
devastation was complete. What appeared to be bits of
lath and plaster overlaid the entire landscape. Partial
skeletons of concrete buildings were the only standing
elements. I remember looking at the surrounding hills.
The pine forests appeared as though they had been
swept over by a giant hot wind. They had indeed.
"I don't remember hearing a word said all the time we
traversed the devastated area. The growl of the exhaust
of the truck is all I remember. It was a subdued bunch
that unloaded at Cummamato where we were stationed
during the occupation of Japan."
Louis Jiminez was with the medical unit of the 124th Cav in
the China-Burma-India Theater:
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"On August 6th, the atomic bomb was dropped on
Hiroshima and three days later another one was dropped
on Nagasaki. It seemed like the War was coming to an
end. All of a sudden we were brought back to life from
an unending hopelessness. I thought about my parents
and about Ofelia, my future wife, who had been waiting
for me for almost five years."
The 124th Cavalry was part of the 56th Cavalry Brigade, a
National Guard Brigade which had the only purely "Horse
regiments" left in the Guard. The 56th was federalized in 1940
and deployed along the southwestern border with Mexico. The
124th then landed in Bombay, India in August 1944, fought
through northern Burma and along the Burma Road, and in
May 1945 was flown "Over the Hump" to China. It became
known as the "Marsmen," since they were part of Task Force
Mars. It then received orders to deactivate and the regiment
was deactivated in July 1945.
By design, we have not discussed
the China-Burma-India Theater
of War, the CBI. We do want to
say here, however, that there
were very few American ground
forces in the CBI. Merrill's
Marauders were the first, their
unit was an unconventional war
outfit, it was small, and together with a similar British unit
able to do a great deal of damage behind Japanese lines in
Burma. The Mars Task Force (MTF) was the successor to the
Marauders, who had fought so hard and taken so many
casualties that it could barely continue to function. The MTF
would continue operating behind enemy lines. Captain
Richard W. Hale, USAR (Ret.) has written a nice piece on the
MTF which we commend to you. One of the reasons the 124th
was chosen to join this force was because they were
cavalrymen, and mules were the main transportation of the
day in their fight. Their expertise was needed.
Lavern Owen enlisted in the
Marines at the age of 17, and
recalls how quickly they got him
through basic training and off to
fight in Iwo Jima:
"That was not a good time.
It was hurry, hurry, hurry.
They needed to get a
whole bunch of new
(troops) ready, because we
figured we would have to
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invade Japan. Thank God it never came to that. It (the
A-bomb) was a horrible thing and it took a lot of lives,
but it ended the war. It probably saved more lives than if
we had invaded Japan."
Jens C. Madsen was with the 503rd Paratrooper "Rock
Regiment" of the 11th Airborne, and fought in the Philippines:
"Then, early in August, we were told that President
Truman had ordered the dropping of atomic bombs on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki. None of us had ever heard of
an atomic bomb before, but when Japan surrendered on
August 14th, we thought they were the greatest things
ever invented. Today, people still say what a terrible
thing it was to use the bombs and kill all those Japanese
people. But I know it saved the lives of thousands of US
soldiers, probably mine also."
The 503rd Rock Regiment served in five major combat
operations including Markham Valley, New Guinea,
Noemfoor island off the coast of Dutch New Guinea, Mindora
Island, the Philippines, Fortress Corrigedor, the Philippines,
and Negros Island, the Philippines.
James Mullaney received this and other photos of a Japanese major
surrendering to the 503rd Parachute Regiment on Negroa Island, the
Philippines, September 2, 1945. In this photo, the major, in the dark uniform,
has just surrendered his sword and is walking away to be taken prisoner.
From the left, Joe Conway (back to camera), Jim Mullaney, with the sword,
and Al Miele, also with a sword. Presented by the Corregidor Historical
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Society.
At war's end, about 7,500 Japanese troops emerged from the
jungles of the Philippines to surrender to the 503rd
Regimental Combat Team. The regiment was deactivated in
November 1945, the old-timers went home, the new guys
transferred to the 11th Airborne Division and occupied Japan.
"Soldiers lived in close, uncomfortable quarters in New Guinea, and even
when they returned home, leaving the stifling tent camps behind, many
suffered difficult adjustments to civilian life. Some veterans of the 163rd
Regiment continue, more than sixty years later, to struggle with the horrors
of the war." Presented by the State of Montana.
Lewis E. Schwarz was with the 163rd Infantry of the 41st
Infantry Division. When he came home, he and his friends
swapped war stories. His little brother listened in, and has said
this:
"The living WWII veterans today cringe, and the dead
must turn in their graves, when they hear Americans
lament the use of the atomic bomb to finish the war in
the Pacific - they have no idea of the brutality of the
Japanese military, of the crimes they committed, and the
extent of fiendish fanaticism they would extract from
their own peoples had America attempted to invade
Japan to fight on their shores."
In his book Poplar to Papua: Montana's 163rd Infantry
Regiment in WWII, Martin Kidston used personal journals and
diaries, news stories, and interviews with survivors. He relates
how American pilots dropped nearly 60,000 leaflets, printed in
kanji, over eleven Japanese cities. The following is an excerpt
from those leaflets:
"Read this carefully ... In the next few days the military
installations in some or all of the cities named on the
reverse side will be destroyed by American bombs ...
We are determined to destroy all of the tools of the
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military which they are using to prolong this useless war
... Heed this warning and evacuate the cities named."
Kidston then talks to Downfall, citing James Davis' work,
"The Story of the Invasion of Japan." Davis said this:
"In the mountains behind the beaches (of the Home
Islands) were elaborate underground networks of caves,
bunkers, command posts and hospitals, each connected
by miles of tunnels with dozens of separate entrances
and exits. The paths leading up to these underground
fortresses were honeycombed with defensive positions
... Twenty eight million Japanese had become part of the
National Volunteer Combat Force and had undergone
training in techniques of beach defense and guerrilla
war."
Joe D. Waddington Sr. was with VMF-212 of the 1st
MARDIV. His son wrote this:
"Okinawa, 1945........One way or another, the end of the
war was drawing near. My father looked at the troop
transports, landing craft and war ships massing in
Buckner Bay and knew that the invasion of the Japanese
homeland was imminent. Dad had grown to hate the
Japanese and would often relate the atrocities
committed against Marines by the Japanese. Some were
so bizarre as to defy belief. Marine's livers served up to
Marine prisoners is the story that stays with me most.
Surely such a barbaric story had to be rumor.
"Not until Dad was on his deathbed in the 1990's did I
find this to be true as the Japanese delegate to a war
memorial service at Pearl Harbor acknowledged the
atrocities of their countrymen."
Irving Wenger as a crewmember with the 17th Photo Recon
Squadron of the 13th Army Air Corps, stationed on the
Philippines:
"Our unit provided photo reconaissance for 13th Air
Corps military operations. We were in Palawan,
Philippines and were packing for a landing on the main
island of Japan when we heard of the atomic bomb raid
in Hiroshima. There have been many commentaries on
the use of the atomic bomb over the years - its
destructive force and loss of civilian lives....that is what
war is all about. Without that decisive blow who knows
when the war would have ended and how many more
US servicemen would be added to casualty and death
lists. I for one am grateful for that weapon that ended
the war."
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John E. Bogers was a Marine
with the 4th Marines of the 6th
MARDIV and fought on
Okinawa. He would land in
Japan as part of the occupation
force. His comments are telling:
"After three months of
Okinawa, we were sent to
Guam for rest. We were
just getting set up there
when orders came that the
President wanted the 4th
Regiment to make the initial landing in Japan ... We
were told there were 150,000 Japanese Naval personnel
at Yokosuka, where we were to land and they were not
sure if they knew the War was over. At this point, there
were 5000 of us and they said we could have 5000 Navy
in reserve. We met no resistance and occupied Yokosuka
town and Navy base. I left there in January 1946 for
discharge and home."
Pete Stiponovich was a tank driver and gunner with B/24th
Tank Battalion, 13th Armored Division "Black Cats." He was
in occupied France and then fought in Germany with Patton's
3rd Army. Judy Stiponovich tells us this:
"My father left his tank on the Inn River near Neuotting,
Germany when the War in Europe ended in May 1945.
When I left for my first trip to Germany and Austria, my
father said 'See if my tank is still there on the Inn River.'
His battalion went back to California and was readying
the tanks to invade Japan when Japan surrendered and
WWII was over."
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Harry Fukuhara, right, interrogates a prisoner of war in 1944 at Aitape, New
Guinea. Presented by the News Tribune.
This is a most interesting story. Harry Fukuhara, an American
citizen, returned to Hiroshima with his family during the
Depression. He returned to the US as a teenager, to California.
He was shipped to an internment camp in Arizona. He
urgently wanted to get out of the camp, so he volunteered to
become a language officer, and served throughout the Pacific
theater as an interpreter, language teacher, and translator.
Vanessa Hua, a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle,
wrote this recently:
"For Harry Fukuhara, the United States' decision to drop
the bomb had an especially personal impact ... During
the war, he feared that his three brothers had been
drafted into the Japanese Imperial Army -- putting them
on the other side of enemy lines. Knowing that the
United States might invade Japan, he and other Japanese
Americans hoped that the odds of facing relatives on the
battlefield would be slim."
We understand that one of his brothers was drafted into the
Japanese Army and was preparing to defend against the US
invasion at the same time Harry Fukuhara was preparing to
invade. Fukuhara's mother and brother were injured in the
Hiroshima bombing and the US Army gave him permission to
care for them after the war. He then returned to the US to
serve in the US Army's occupation and reconstruction of
Japan. Fukuhara rose to the rank of colonel, and was inducted
into the US Military Intelligence Hall of Fame in 1988.
William T. Smith served in the Army Medical Corps with the
205th Hospital Ship Complement aboard the USS Comfort
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(AH-6). The Comfort, during the Battle for Okinawa, was
struck amidships by a kamikaze, directly into the surgery
room, killing medical staff and patients. The Comfort
survived. Smith said this:
"And that kind of shook me up because, you know, we
don't know--big red cross on our ship, but yet they--we
plowed right into it. I had to wait for awhile until the
ship was back in shape, and I got on again and we sailed
around and around and we were in the Pacific in there. I
was really glad that they dropped that atomic bomb
because we were scheduled to go to Japan, you know,
and there would have been a lot of blood shed--oh, there
would have been a lot of blood shed there. So, I was
really relieved when they dropped that--when Truman
dropped that bomb."
I was really glad that they dropped that atomic bomb because
we were scheduled to go to Japan, you know, and there would
have been a lot of blood shed--oh, there would have been a lot
of blood shed there. So, I was really relieved when they
dropped that--when Truman dropped that bomb.
When we opened this report, we talked extensively about the
uncertainties of how to end this war, and we mentioned that
even as our forces prepared to occupy Japan following the
signing of the treaty ending the war, there was still uncertainty
about whether it was over. John E. "Jack" Bogers was a
Marine with the 4th Marines, 6th MARDIV. He wrote this for
his granddaughter in 1989:
"After three months of Okinawa, we were sent to Guam
for rest. We were just getting set up there when orders
came that the President wanted the 4th Regiment to
make the initial landing in Japan (as part of the
occupation), as it was the Regiment that was stationed
there before the War. We were told there were 150,000
Japanese Naval personnel at Yokosuka, where we were
to land and they were not sure if they knew the War was
over. At this point, there were 5000 of us and they said
we could have 5000 Navy in reserve. We met no
resistance and occupied Yokosuka town and Navy base.
I left there in January 1946 for discharge and home."
In closing, Tom Weiner, a historian at the Veterans History
project at the Library of Congress American Folklife Center,
has been associated with getting the memories of WWII vets
down on paper. He said this:
“After four years of war, the country wasn’t ready for
guys to come home in 1945 and talk about what they
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saw in the concentration camps, and what they saw on
Okinawa--with thousands of people committing suicide
jumping off cliffs--and what they saw in Hiroshima, all
these people who had been incinerated. I think people
just said, ‘OK, the war is over, let’s get on with our
lives.’
“Ten years ago (1997) this (oral history project) would
have been harder for them to do. Now there’s a
permission by the culture at large to say, ‘You guys did
a great deed, tell me about it. I want to hear about it.’”
Well, I was at the grocery store again today, and bumped into a
hulk of guy, 86 years old, with his baseball cap, Charlie Co.,
19th Marines, and a big 3rd MARDIV patch in the middle. I
walked up to him and thanked him for his service and
sacrifice. That brought a bright smile, and he said, "Semper
Fi." I asked him where he finished up the war, and he said
Guam. He added, "I arrived in Guam in one piece, but that's
not how I left." He smiled, and then some other guy walked
over and asked, "Is this a Marine Corps convention?" I said
no, I'm Air Force. He said, "Well that's okay."
He walked out of the store with me. It turns out he was a
Vietnam vet. He's 70 years old already.
When a GI comes home from war, stick with him, stand by
him.
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