from SERVING ABOARD LCS 11 in WWII by LBS
Aomori Wan, Northern Honshu, Japan, September 30, 1945
Dear Folks,
I want to tell you some of my experiences and opinions about the occupation of Japan in progress now. We are anchored in a bay just off the city of Aomori. The city has a population of 93,000 as recorded by a chart I was looking at several days ago.
We arrived in this area on 24 Sept. On 25 Sept. we made our landings at Aomori without any kind of opposition. We weren’t surprised, but from at sea we could not really know the reason. We could see with binoculars two tankers sunk at their piers and one other type of ship sunk here. We knew that our bombers had been at work here. Over in the Bay of Ominato I saw a Japanese cruiser and a destroyer with the majority of their sterns under water—- more work of our bombers. I know that it was bombers because it would have been suicide to have come through the straits and down this beautifully-shaped bay in war ships.
Yesterday morning at 0800 a small boat came by our ship and picked up a sight-seeing party. I was in that party. As we neared the beach, I thought how many Marines and sailors and soldiers had approached the enemy beach like this, but with more apprehension, I am sure. As we neared the beach, we saw a crudely painted sign that really struck us as funny. On the concrete wall was written: “THE SEABEES WELCOME THE US ARMY 9-22-45.” In other words the Seabees had preceded other American units by 3 days. I guess key men were placed ashore at different places just as soon as possible after the V-J Day signing.
Then I looked for Japanese. They were there all right. And I couldn’t help but remark to one of my pals, as we stepped onto Japanese soil, “These are the Japanese that were going to march down the streets of New York and Washington.”
As we went ashore there was a feeling of apprehension at first, but that soon passed. As we walked down the streets, we felt confident and proud. And I must say right here that we should all be proud of every war bond we bought. I surely am. Where the uptown section used to be there are only acres of rubble and little piles of tin and metal that the Japanese have gathered together. In every pile I could see there was a smashed bicycle. There were no walls remaining like you see in the pictures of bombings in Europe. But occasionally there were a few vaults standing. I had read how our pilots had bombed industrial sections of Japanese cities and hadn’t bombed their churches and schools. I had half-way believed it. Now I know that it is true. I saw amidst all the rubble a shrine. The grounds around it were clean. Even grass grew along the walks. The trees on the borders of the grounds had been singed, the only damage done. This shrine only covered an acre, probably less. I saw four school buildings. A few windows had been blown out; all the walls were standing.
Now I will give you a few of the rules of our going ashore. Every group of men must have an officer with them. Nothing was explained to us, but we were told that officially there was to be no trading with the Japanese. It is a difficult situation. If we traded, it would put them on an equal basis, and soon their discipline would become lax. If we took things without trading, it would be looting. And that is what the Japanese would do if they invaded our land. It is the same fraternization problem in Germany. . . . We planned to trade or do something to get some souvenirs.
No one in our crowd had any sort of weapon, besides a few knives in our group. I thought this unusual. In pictures, I had noted that everyone seemed to be wearing a side arm in Germany, and here we were in the most treacherous of countries and none of us carried a gun. We never needed one.
We walked through the streets that had been cleared. Some new wood houses were going up. But they would be more like a garage to us. Some of the Japanese were beating out smooth scrap tin up into bundles. From outward appearances there is plenty of clothing but no one wearing shoes, except soldiers, among the Japanese. There were plenty of Japanese dressed as soldiers.
Our group entered a school house. There were rooms that had adults in them looking busy like they were carrying on the city government or something. They had arm bands that said PREFECTURE GOVERNMENT. We looked at the posters on the walls, the writing in Japanese. We went up stairs and in the process of doing so, we saw the children’s classes in the yard back of the school. Adults crowded the hallway. They stayed out of our way. Some of the older Japanese sometimes took off their hats and bowed. A few younger ones had a slight look of contempt. One thing very noticeable was the Japanese policeman’s uniform. Admiral Nimitz could take lessons —– the epaulets on their shoulders had designs and stars in yellow gold.
We went into one room in which there was only one man. The desks were small and crude. We looked through their class books and other equipment. In a corner was a baby grand piano. The boys found it to be locked. The Japanese never protested against anything we did, but they surely looked on closely. After some gesturing we managed to get someone to unlock the piano. One of our fellows began to play boogie woogie. The Japanese from up and down the hall gathered around. Some smiled, others looked fearful. The fellows were patting their feet and gesturing with their hands and the piano was roaring. This was really comical. I am sure the residents wondered what was happening.
After a couple of tunes we went out the back way. We stopped where the kids were sitting at their desks in the yard. We stopped and Charles A. Dubois took out some candy. Our guys broke the candy up and threw it in their midst. That is when the school class was forgotten. They charged like a bunch of cattle. But one of them spotted an old Japanese coming out of the school house and with a little rattle, rattle sound, warned the others and they remembered their seats. The teacher came up in a half smile, talked to the youngsters, and they looked sheepish and slunk down in their seats. Our officers arrived about this time; they happened to be the most carefree that we have and enjoyed everything as much as we did.
The squealing kids had brought all the Japanese to the windows in the school house. My pal got a book that had pictures of Japanese bombers bombing American warships. But the pictures were drawn, not photographs. Another drawing showed Japanese soldiers charging a beach, running over an American flag.
Soon we came to the area that had been untouched by bombs. We crossed a railroad which apparently had been untouched. The streets between the closely jumbled houses were fairly crowded with bicycles, carts, and rubber-tired taxis drawn by horses. Here we had a chance to see many examples of how the Japanese reacted to our presence. Some looked curious, but all seemed to go about with the air of business as usual. The older men and women bowed. One cigarette is worth about 50 cents here. It was really comical the way some of our fellows did the Japanese. One had something wrapped up. One of our fellows would look at it hard, and the Japanese man would bow and unwrap it. He would smile and bow when the fellow shook his head negatively and walk on. But about this time another of our fellows would come along and stare at the object and the Japanese man would unwrap it again. I guess he thought we were inspectors. The people wear everything imaginable for shoes. The women were wearing traditional dress.
Some of the kids were pathetic. And an American soon feels kind-hearted toward them. The kids would steal their mother’s household belongings and trade them for candy. And some of our fellows traded. Also some of the grown-ups traded. They were fast learning that the Americans can’t hold a grudge. They bestow a very charming smile upon us when we give their children some candy. We became quite disgusted with one of our fellows. I guess he thought we came here to give the Japanese relief. I guess he has already forgotten the suicide planes that came at us. Also our friends that have been killed on the lonely islands of the Pacific. This fellow took candy and cigarettes and handed his out like the Red Cross. . . .
On our arrival back at the beach, we saw that some Japanese were working for the U. S. Army, probably getting good pay. Their job was giving boxes a shove on a roller chain. Well, I guess this is enough of my observations of what is going on around here.
LBS
Tags: Aomori Japan at end of WWII, Japanese children, LCS 11, sailors on liberty, small warship, US Navy, WWII
