War devastation Archives - Page 3 of 3

8 August 1944

Dear folks:

I have that comforting feeling that goes with a full stomach – we’ve just finished supper, and it wasn’t so bad considering the inexperienced chefs that prepared it. Our menu was especially made unusual by some fresh cucumbers that we gathered from a patch across the road. Along with these we had cocoa, corn beef, cold peas, and those biscuits that the Army insists have to be hard and tasteless. Tomorrow our kitchen will be inaugurated and it will be a relief to get some hot cooking. But perhaps what makes me feel so good this evening is that I have news from your front. Three of your letters and one from [illegible] so damn welcome and so eagerly read. I must have been doing more writing [illegible] if you received six from me in one week. But then you are about [illegible] with the exception of the Washington friend who writes me [illegible]. Yesterday had a letter from Betty S. Myers who it seems, intends [illegible]. And again there isn’t a lot to do in the evenings before dark and [illegible] uses up some time. I hope you have received my extra long one [illegible] time ago – I consumed the better fraction of an afternoon putting it [illegible] will answer a lot of questions you might have wanted answered. And for [illegible] sort of fun to describe to you all that I can and let you know all [illegible] I would give about a thousand dollars for a movie camera right now to [illegible] this, but cameras are on the ‘verboten’ list.

[illegible] dig out your letter and see what I can comment on. Well the first thing, [illegible] this operation will change Dick or myself noticeably – at least not me. [illegible) has seen enough sights of the worst nature but he’s just as jolly and matter of fact as ever. When he saw me during the middle of the operation he said he sure hated to go back in there, but knowing him probably he felt more than I thought. I think I [illegible] Garapan so I’ll skip that. Our ‘office’ is a lot different than the station- [illegible] we had on Oahu. We have a square [illegible] supported by four poles with nothing on the sides. To keep out the rain we nailed up sheets of tin taken from a blown up Jap barn but whenever it rains (and it does often), we usually run around putting up ponchos and shelter halves to keep from getting wet. The office work is pretty much streamlined but still there is much paper work to do. I am a lucky guy and have a cot that is nothing less than luxurious. Among other things the guys use to sleep on is stretchers, salvaged Jap beds, Jap mats, homemade beds and whatever you have. Our camp looks like a hobo jungle. And you asked about a PX. No we don’t have one but necessaries are issued gratis. I don’t think I’ve spent [illegible] three months [illegible] a nice paycheck I’ll have. We’re the guys that make the paychecks [illegible]. I hope you are getting my new [illegible].

[illegible] guys are [illegible] a jeep listening to sweet music from Frisco and some [illegible]. [illegible] guys the news at six o’clock at dictation [illegible]. [illegible] produced dissemination to other troops. Most of the [illegible] and news. An announcement this afternoon [illegible] and we heard a quoted portion of the new Premier’s speech [illegible]. In the evenings we sometimes get China and listen to music from night [illegible] broadcasts from Manila with the usual line.

[illegible] to knock off about here and walk down sunset boulevard to the Roxy.

Love,

7 August 1944

Dear Folks:

In a few minutes I’m going over the hill and down the road to the show but first I better scratch you out a short epistle. The last time I wrote you I was on Saipan where I was with Dick and where I could see Jack, but now I’m three miles across the channel on Tinian. Tinian is a green, oblong island with a plateau down the middle. It reminds me much of Maui. The fields are well laid out, and abounding with sugar cane, sweet potatoes and other small crops. Looking at the valley from Lake Minatare is much like the scene from here. Most of the farm homes I have seen look as though the Jap farmers must have been pretty well off. More presentable than those on Saipan. Tinian towns must have been picturesque little settlements when it was whole, but now it looks like Garapan. I never imagined I would see such destruction as I had seen in newsreels, etc., but that’s all I have seen for the last two months. Every building and shed has been hit, and even small houses setting hidden in cane fields have been demolished. On most of the Jap homes, the house is of wood with a tin roof, while the barn is usually reinforced concrete about eight inches thick, and a large cistern to collect rain water. Water by the way is a pretty important matter here and probably it contributed no little in whipping the Japs. Probably every Jap farmer was forced to build a concrete barn and maintain some stock for the army. On the southern part of the island snipers and civilians are being collected, although the island has been secured for some time. From the wreckage of houses we have taken what was left to make ourselves some shelter against the rain, and I wished you could see some of the Rube Goldberg contraptions that have been arranged. The architectural masterpieces that are showers are something to see. It seems that every piece of wreckage can be put to use in some way. It has been raining a lot lately and the mud is bad to slip around in. I’m getting behind on dirty clothes and tomorrow I think I’ll be forced to do some laundry. I wished you could see us whip up our supper. We have a small stove and we’re sure to make some man a good wife. The rations get a little tiresome but soon we’ll have a kitchen and back to good rations.

Well Mom and Dad I’m still very well. Dengue fever has hit some but I’ve been okeh so far. Of course the only really bad element to it all is the distance from home. I haven’t seen Dick for a week or two and probably won’t get to see him for some time although you can never tell. Probably I may not see Jack again either. Dusk is pulling the shades down so I better grab my mosquito drop and flashlight and get along to the show. Last night we sat in the rain and saw a show that was bad for the dogfaces titled ‘Love Can’t Be Rationed’. About the scarcity of men in the states and the feminine wolves. What a situation. Well adios this time.

Love,

24 July 1944

Dear Folks:

I received Dad’s letter today acknowledging the first one I mailed from here and I’m so glad it made you feel better. Also had one from Mom but it was several days older. I guess the first thing on this communiqué will be about yesterday. Minatare moved 7,000 miles across the Pacific to Saipan when Dick, Jack Conklin and myself got together for an afternoon’s reunion. Until yesterday the three of us had been unable to get together at one time, but we finally got CO’s okeh. Dick attended services at the 27^th Division cemetery just after dinner and met Jack and I at Jack’s outfit about three o’clock. This tripartite reunion means more than you realize. While we were there Jack took several pictures and he’ll send them as soon as possible. We thought also that it might be interesting to have it put in the Star-Herald with a short story below it. Jack will send the pictures to his Dad, and he left the writing end of it up to me, but now I don’t know how much the censors will allow. Probably by this time you have received my three page letter and there should be some material in that. Jack wanted me to write his dad with a little story to go with the picture but you can get all the information from his folks, and you can fit something together. About the first thing we do at these meetings is exchange news about the ‘old country’ and each adds to his bit of gossip. It seems there are a million changes back there and very few of the old faces will be left. Vic Sage getting wedded drew quite a comment, and every time someone has a baby we wonder how they could grow up so fast. And Jack Lupher too – it seems they are all marrying the Russians. Maybe it’s a good thing Dick got out when he did. And speaking of Dick, he does a lot more talking than before and because he had so many harrowing experiences than Jack or I, he had quite a little to say. I don’t suspect he will be writing much now but I’ll do his share and let you know all I find out.

The money enclosed is some of that I found that I told you about in a previous letter. This little guy I got it from must have been a paymaster or something of the sort for he sure had a wad. I’ve given away quite a slug too. The 100 yen note is pretty scarce. The holes in the bills were caused by a bullet which I found bedded in the center. The exchange rate is 20 yen for an American dollar, and the smaller bills I believe are 50 sen or a half a yen. As soon as I can arrange it I’m going to send home the sword and a few other items that Dick and I found – Dick found most of them. The souvenir racket runs into some big stuff here and some fancy prices are quoted for some things. Swords are quoted from $500 to $1,000. But ours weren’t boughten, they were found. Dick and I tried to imagine Mom’s little gasps if she could see some of the things.

I believe this is about all of interest this time. A Bob Hope movie is on tonight. Our ‘theatre’ is a hole scooped out by a bulldozer and the seats, the scooped out dirt. Well, adios and ‘buenos noches’ for now.

Love,

18 July 1944

Dear folks:

Time out for another communiqué from Saipan and what I did and saw this morning should give me enough material for a good one but I don’t know how much you like to know about this stuff – I mean maybe you would rather not hear all the worse aspects. Dick came around this morning about ten in a jeep and asked me if I wanted to see some of the island and I said sure so we took off up through Charan Kanoa and on through Garapan to the north where the Japs held out the longest. Dick had been around there before and knew where to go. He wanted to find a Jap pistol and at the same time show me some dead Japs, and as we got near the area I didn’t know whether I was going to feel right or not. Finally we pulled across a young cane field and came to stop about fifty yards from the beach. I noticed the stench was terrific and the flies could be counted by the hundreds, and I felt a little hesitant at having to look around. After putting a shell in the chamber I got out and Dick and I walked into the underbrush and trees. We didn’t go far before we could see plenty of dead Japs. Many of them had committed suicide by putting a grenade on their stomach and some had taken off one shoe, putting the end of the barrel in their stomach and fired their rifle with their big toe. I saw several of these. They have odd and many ways of killing themselves and one group looked as though they had lined up laying down and let the man in back of him blow his brains out. We must have walked three or four hundred yards down the beach and the dead were scattered all through the area. Some civilians had refused to give up and stayed with the soldiers and there was many of them all ages, some in family groups. A number of the soldiers had bottles of sake and more of them had nothing but a stick with a spike on the end for a weapon. Some had attempted to crawl over the rocks on the edge of the water and swim away and in one place in an opening in the rocks there must have been a dozen. Dick found a very good looking officer’s sword in good condition. They are about the most prize souvenir to get and we felt darn lucky. Well about eleven thirty we started back down the wreckage littered road. I thought a lot of things about what the war all means and how come all these people and soldiers are dead, and will they do the same thing fifty or a hundred years from now, but that’s all of no avail. Garapan is a little smaller than Scottsbluff and the town was leveled. If you can imagine the Stockfleth Chevrolet Garage when it burned and then apply it to every building in town you can see what a mess it must be. It must have been a neat little town sitting below Mt. Tapochata but it is wreckage and debris from one end of the town to the other.

I still ate a pretty good dinner when I got back, and now it’s about time to take a good shower and get the smell off me. Also this morning I found a pack of Jap money – there must have been about seven or eight thousand yen in it. The exchange rate is twenty yen to a dollar. How can I sleep with so much money? Ol’ Dick’s quite a soldier and hale as ever. He doesn’t write much I guess but he’s okeh and wanting to get home as much as I do. Guess this is enough for this time – will give another communiqué on my experiences in a day or two.

Love,

18 July 1944

[Harold types]

Dear Folks:

Dick came down to see me today and I thought while we were laying around we just as well write you a letter – or try to. Right after we had dinner we walked along the beach road from Charan Kanoa to the end of the island looking for an army cemetery but couldn’t find it. While we were looking for the place, Dick showed me the places where his outfit landed and even where he dug his first foxhole. And we found a lot of Jap caves that were well concealed and topped over with a lot of dirt and leaves. They dig in like [illegible] caves are transforming the face of the [illegible] saw several thick walled concrete [illegible] from the point we had a good view of Tinian [illegible] over there must be thinking – if they can see what is going on [illegible] there is (a) sugar factory that stands out on the landscape. It took quite a beating from navy shells and girders and machinery are flung everywhere. From the factory runs a number of narrow gauge railroad lines. The army captured a few locomotives and now you can hear their high pitched whistle as the guys chug along using the cars to haul supplies, etc. The trains are small and look more like oversized toys. We haven’t had a look at Carapan yet and I have been itching to get up there and see what goes. The town is about ten thousand so there must be quite a lot to see. I haven’t seen a newspaper or magazine since I left Oahu and today Dick walked in with a Time magazine. I’m anxious to review it from cover to cover. I was asking Dick what I should write about and he said to mention that we will be sending home some souvenirs soon when the situation permits. I told you about the bayonet and the flag. In addition to those Dick got a wallet with quite a sum of Jap money in it, and many pictures of the officer’s family and what must be his wife. Also he got his insignia of a 2^nd lieutenant. He’ll probably have some more before it is all over. The weather here is about the same as on Oahu but right now is the season when the monsoons begin and the past few nights there have been heavy rainstorms. They say hurricanes strike near the island about once every two years and I hope this isn’t one of them. Today is pretty hot and sultry and the sand all around is hard on the eyes.

We were both wondering about Phil and whether he has come into the army yet. Every once in a while you see a crude handwritten sign over a foxhole saying Frisco 7752 miles, Tokyo 1521, and then we realize just how far away we are. Guam lies about 103 miles to the south and just to the north are the Bonims(?). It’s going to be a long boat ride home someday but we’re ready to accept it any time. And remind us never to take another ocean voyage when we get home. The food was pretty good on the boats but the chow lines are hard to buck, and the accommodations are hardly first class. Well I’m going to turn this over to Dick and let him add a few lines.

[Dick handwrites]

Today being Sunday I went to communion and then to see Harold. We’re taking it easy now after a little uneasiness. I’ll write some time later.

Love,

Dick

17 July 1944

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,