On my birthday 1945, I turned 18 years old. I was sworn into the Navy to join the efforts to fight the WWII battles.
Little did I know what I was getting into nor was I to learn until I read the book by John Toland, author of BUT NOT IN SHAME. In his book, Toland recounted the history of the 6 months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
I remember well where I was and what I was doing when the news came of the end of the war. I was awaiting a ship to take me and a number of other Hospital Corpsmen out to the battles raging in the Pacific. I had been transferred to the Fleet Marine Forces. Talk about a plunge from pure laid back sanity to pure hell; this was it.
We had all read of the atrocities committed against Allied troops in The Bataan Death March, the attacks on Pearl Harbor; the battles for Midway, the Philippines and other tragic battles the Allies has suffered. Taking those island back one island at a time was projected to be bloody and dangerous... especially for junior officers and Hospital Corpsmen who were the personnel up and moving around during the fierce landings and fierce confrontation with the Japanese occupiers.
I never had to get on the ship. It was in the Port but not ready to receive us.
Truman, thank God, dropped 'the bombs' and the war ended. I had volunteered for the 'duration and six months.' Like a whirlwind, the war ended, the troops were thinned out and I was among the first to be released.
I knew the fighting had been horrible. I had missed it, by the Grace of God, and never gave it all much thought. I did track the “Victory at Sea” and other graphic reports of the battles of the Pacific... as well as the great battles in Europe. I had three older brothers who were there, in Italy and in Burma. One was at Pearl Harbor when the US was first attacked. They had great stories to tell, but non ever did.
Read the book. You owe it to yourself. Start it and you will not be able to lay it down. John Toland has detailed the six months after Pearl Harbor in real feeling detail.He provides us with details so real that I wept more than once reading of the pain, suffering and true stories of unselfishness and heroism.
Live history....
Lloyd Winburn
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