Dear Folks:
I’m a long way from home but today seemed like old home week. We were taking a few minutes off with a pinochle game when somebody came striding in and said ‘Is there anyone from Nebraska in here?’ I was about ready to say your damn right when I recognized Jack Conklin. Ol’ big burly hairy-chested Jack stripped to the waist with a helmet and dark glasses on – I had to look close. He has been looking practically all over the island for me and when he did it was time for him to leave. We pumped each other’s arm for a minute then got the low down on each other. He couldn’t stay very long but we’ll be seeing each other again before long. Dick, myself, and Jack aren’t too far away from one another and probably in the next day or two we’ll celebrate by eating a can of Japanese crabmeat. It certainly is a treat to see someone like that. Jack looked good as hell and of course everyone over here is brown as a dirty penny. He said he hadn’t sent the pictures – hadn’t been able to develop them yet.
Tonight is a special night as it goes over here – its movie night – an old picture that I have seen before but I can always sit through it again. The mosquitoes will beat out those of Minatare any old day, but the GI lotion keeps them off pretty good. But then I suppose it will rain. Along with the nighttime pests is the land crab. Some of them are 7 or 8 inches across and when they get on the tin that we line our foxholes with or around boxes they scratch like hell and sometimes scare the wits out of you. They’re mean looking things. Little red ants run around too that leave a nasty sting that doesn’t go away right away. A few snipers are still afloat and only a night or two ago, a couple were killed around Charan Kanoa, and sometimes in the night you get to seeing things.
When Dick and I were out yesterday we noticed a bunch of Jap workers and thought how far behind the times they were. They don’t seem to have much labor-saving equipment and do about everything by hand. We saw a dozen of them pulling a tree stump when four of them could have picked it up and carried it off in a few minutes. On Maui the sugar cane production used a lot of cranes etc. but over here I guess it’s all by hand. They say that most of the working class are Japanese of the lower classes brought in from Southern Japan. Many of the Imperial Marines taken on the island were said to be pretty good sized but all I’ve seen are little short runts, bow-legged, and squint eyed. Several loads of Jap civilians go by every morning where they are put to work handling supplies or just cleaning up.
You should have a pretty good idea of the place from all I have written you – it has all been interesting and new to me and I thought perhaps you would be as interested as I was. I guess I better line up for chow – suppers are usually pretty good, but my appetite still could stand improvement. It is easy to get diarrhea or dysentery here and with so many flies you must be pretty careful. Well I’ll wind up for this time and hope I get some mail from you tomorrow.
Love,
