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Honored M emory
Veterans Return to Saipan and Tinian
An Arizona Memorial Museum Association Publication
The United States Navy’s 7th Fleet Band gets ready to play at the 60th Anniversary of the WWII Battles for Saipan and Tinian Formal Commemoration Ceremony.
Inside Features
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Get on the Bus VIP members of Military Historical Tour’s bus trip around Saipan included veterans from the battles 60 years ago. See the island through their eyes.
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A Memorial for the People Hundreds of Chamorro and Carolinian names, inscribed on the walls of the new Marianas Memorial, will be remembered forever.
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History Alive The Arizona Memorial Museum Association sponsored a three-day seminar featuring historians and scholars. The veterans themselves, however, provided the best education.
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Flying the Affirmative A special exhibit on aircraft art proves that patriotism can be sexy.
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Talk of the Town No one seemed to mind that the parade of veterans stopped traffic on Saipan’s main commercial street during rush hour. In fact, the locals wouldn’t have had it any other way. Campfire Story The rain couldn’t dampen the memories of the veterans, their families, and the people of Saipan. Criticality Paul W. Tibbets, pilot of the Enola Gay, gives an historic speech on Tinian. Death and Duty The monuments that line Suicide Cliffs remind the visitor of the cost of war.
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EdITor Ray Sandla WrITErS Tammy Ann Duchesne Ray Sandla PhoTogrAPhy Ray Sandla The Arizona Memorial Museum Association is a non-profit cooperating association of the National Park Service providing funding for interpretive and educational programs at the USS Arizona Memorial, Kalaupapa National historical Park on Molokai, hawaii, War in the Pacific National historical Park on guam, and American Memorial Park on Saipan.
Editor’s page Education - Live, Learn, Teach Inside the Parks - Guam’s Virtual Museum
Cover: Russell Hofvendahl, USMC 2d Div. with Saipan invasion beach Blue 1 in the background All photos by Ray Sandla unless otherwise credited
remembrance is a Quarterly Publication for Members of the Arizona Memorial Museum Association
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I admittedly was a little leery about climbing down into atomic Bomb pit no. 1 on tinian Island. It wasn’t only because I halfexpected to hear, “Hey you, get out of that bomb pit,” from one of the workmen setting up for the ceremony later in the day. I also felt a strange sense of superstitious awe. this was the spot where time irrevocably had changed. the nuclear age, with all the baggage that particular term implies, began when the Enola Gay backed over a hole in the ground, loaded the first atomic weapon into its bomb bay, and headed toward Hiroshima, Japan. the spot had been excavated for the occasion of paul tibbets’ return, the man who piloted the famous B-29 on august 6th, 1945. He was to speak at events in connection with the 60th anniversary Commemoration of the World War II Battles for saipan and tinian. this issue of Remembrance focuses on that commemoration and tries to give an overall view of the week by looking at what I felt were a few of the more fascinating events. the ceremonies as a whole were compelling for a variety of reasons: 1) AMMA involvement - even though amma ran satellite bookstores at several sites on saipan during the event, the primary motivation for funding accommodations for guest speakers, publicity, organization, etc., was philanthropic. president tom shaw, Chairman of the Board George sullivan and the rest of the Board of Directors of amma unanimously felt that helping to finance the activities on saipan and tinian furthered one of the main goals of the association: to foster a better understanding and appreciation of the sacrifices made by veterans of World War II in the pacific, their families, and by civilians living in these war-torn areas. 2) The relationship between the local Chamorro/Carolinian population and the returning veterans - saipan had been a thriving Japanese possession since 1914, important strategically and industrially to the home islands. While the indigenous population was considered a second-class minority to the eventual 42,000 imported Japanese, Okinawan, and Korean workers, they did not suffer the torture and terror inflicted by the Japanese on the Chamorro of Guam. most people in saipan view the american occupation in 1944 as the first step in their eventual release from decades of imperialism and exploitation. But they still remember the days and nights of shelling that destroyed entire towns in the necessarily violent and widespread pre-invasion bombardment. the veterans themselves had expressed uncertainty about how they would be received. some declined to come at all for their
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own, understandable reasons. When one veteran was asked if he would attend the commemoration, he said simply, “I didn’t want to go the first time.” the commemoration proved to be a remarkable homecoming for the veterans however, as they were greeted by the saipanese with sincere appreciation and respect. stan Photo by Patricia Lucas Bader said upon his return home to Cape Coral, Florida, “that ribbon [60th anniversary ribbon identifying visitors as VIp veterans] was not only the key to the city, it was the key to the island,” he remarked in an interview with a local paper. “If you were wearing it, you couldn’t do anything wrong. You couldn’t pay for anything. You had everybody from little kids to old grandfathers running up and shaking your hand.... It was unbelievable. the way we were treated and the attitude of the people — every guy there was treated like a rock star.” amma would like its members to know that it is through your continuing generosity and dedication to the mission of the organization that all the men and women who fought in pacific WWII battles far from home are remembered and honored. the veterans of saipan and tinian felt a welcome and an appreciation for their service far exceeding their expectations. amma thanks you for making our idealistic goal a reality. ray sandla editor
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I would like to thank everyone involved for the outstanding job done in the recent 60th Commemorative events on saipan and tinian. It was an amazing job of preparation and coordination by a lot of dedicated people. those of us who attended had a wonderful experience due to your efforts. I joined amma on saipan while attending the events after I learned of the valuable services it provides. thank you. sincerely Gary Boothe r e m e m b r a n c e
I recently read the NY Times article regarding the 60th anniversary memorial of the Battles of saipan & tinian, and its lack of media attention. While I am not from the pacific islands, as a 1st generation Chinese american, I am very aware and grateful to the american veterans who fought in the pacific. my parents’ and grand parents’ generation all suffered through the horrors of World War II and the Japanese occupation in China and singapore. Without the sacrifices of these veterans, I am sure that I would not be enjoying my life of freedom here in the united states. so please, convey my pride
as a fellow american and appreciation as a person of asian descent to these veterans who sacrificed so much. I for one will never forget their deeds. sincerely yours, Waikong Chung
please write to us with questions, comments or stories of World War II. remembrance 99-1444C Koaha place, aiea, Hawaii 96701 email: remembrance@hawaii.rr.com s u m m e r
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Get on the Bus Remembrance joined Military Historical Tours for a trip around Saipan Island with veterans of the battles that raged across the Pacific, conflicts both international and highly personal. military Historical tours, a company that brings veterans, family members, and history buffs to the scenes of past conflict, allowed me to ride along with them on the first day of their tour of saipan. 24 veterans had made the trip and I wanted to try to see the island through their eyes. It had been 60 years since the islands of saipan and tinian had been attacked by a united states military seeking strategic airfields and bases in the pacific as it closed in on the home islands of Japan. the men I sat with on the tour bus had been among the eventual 70,000 or so responsible for the success of those operations. there were men from amphibious tractor battalions and mortar companies; there was a medic and a pharmacist mate; an aircraft nose artist and a navajo code-talker. all remembered the events of the invasion as if they had just received their orders. Melvin Dieter Maple Hill, Kansas
melvin Dieter, a medic with the 2d Div. 8th marine reg., 2d Battalion, e-Company, stands looking out at Lake susupe, a small body of water behind the old Japanese sugar refinery. Dieter’s Company advanced southeast after landing at beach Green 2. “I was here 27 days, but the days...time went so fast.” as with most of the men I spoke to, Dieter will talk about his experiences up to a point. they’ll tell you how hot it was, the treacherous landing beaches, the buddies that were lost. none ever speak with any added sense of drama, or with any trace of self-importance. their tone is matter-of-fact, their gaze, distant. mr. Dieter spoke about the bullets that seemed to rain down from the enemy. “they were up in the hills over there, “ he said pointing to the east, “It felt like they were always shooting down on us.” “I’ll tell you something we learned pretty quick out here. as soon as a mortar round exploded, we’d all go jump in the hole it made. they never aimed at the same place twice.” Myron Kampfer Oceanside, California
Top: Melvin dieter was a medic with the Marine 2d division. After landing on green Beach 2, Mr. dieter’s E-Company made their way to the southeast. Bottom: Myron Kampfer was with the 4th Marine division, 23rd reg., designated to land south of Afetna Point. he spoke about standing on live ammunition during the amphibious tractor ride in to Blue Beach 1, and the watch with the bloody face he still carries.
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mr. Kampfer commanded a mortar company with the 4th Division, 23rd reg, 3d Bn. and landed on Blue Beach 1. the amphibious tractor ride in to the beach was almost as dangerous as the landing itself. “I remember we were standing on live ammunition as we made our way to shore,” he recalled as he spoke into the crackling pa system on the bus. But that wasn’t the thing he had risen to say. the bus grew quiet as mr. Kampfer shifted nervously, bringing the mic up again while putting his left hand in his pocket. “It was on June 15, 1944. I got hit on the first day...still got the watch I was wearing, blood still inside of it. I lost two of my squad members; they got killed some time during the battle. I thought maybe it was my fault.” spontaneously, hands reached out to mr. Kampfer as he made his way back to his seat, grasping an arm, or a hand. many on the bus knew the guilt of living while others had died. Russell Hofvendahl San Jose, California
russ Hofvendahl’s 10th reg., 2d Batt., e-Battery howitzers supported the 2nd marine Division. Once on the island, mr. Hofvendahl got the unenviable task of censoring his unit’s mail. “some of the boys were real bitter,” he recalled as he stood on the pier that juts out between the landing beaches Blue 1 and Green 3. “a lot of people back at home were paying attention to the european war at that time, with normandy and all. We just wanted everyone to know, there was a war out here too.” the tough veteran of saipan and tinian caught slightly on the words as his eyes r e m e m b r a n c e
began to tear. He shrugged his shoulders and straightened up as I took his picture, which appears on the cover of this issue. Raymond “Hap” Halloran Menlo Park, California
at a stop in front of a old Japanese bomb storage facility, B-29 pilot “Hap” Halloran started to talk. a small group gathered to hear the extraordinary story of mr. Halloran’s last flight over tokyo. “a Japanese pilot came straight for us. It looked like he was going to ram us but instead caught our tail and 2 engines as he flew up and over. We realized we had to abandon our plane over enemy territory. I left the bomber through the front bomb bay, as the nose wheel blocked the normal front escape route. “I fell free for an estimated 24,000 feet before opening my chute at about 3,000 feet over Chiba prefecture east of tokyo. Japanese fighters closed in as I hung in my chute. On the third pass the pilot of the last plane pulled in close, throttled back, and saluted me.” mr. Halloran’s subsequent experiences with the Japanese were not so chivalrous. as a pilot of the hated B-29, a plane that was leveling the major cities of the Japanese home islands, mr. Halloran was treated brutally by his captors. transported to the notorious Kempe tai torture prison in downtown tokyo, mr. Halloran was beaten often and kept in solitary confinement. adding further humiliation, the american was displayed naked in a tokyo zoo’s tiger cage before being moved to the Omori pOW camp where fellow inmates included Gregory “pappy” Boyington of Black sheep squadron fame. mr. Halloran’s story is one of perseverance, courage, and ultimately, though it took a very long time, forgiveness for his Japanese captors. mr. Halloran stopped his story and moved off from the crowd. He stood by himself on the dry grass behind the bus and remembered, again.
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Top: Military historical Tour guests gather on the shores of Lake Susupe, in 1944 an unforeseen obstacle to the Marines advancing beyond the totally destroyed city of Charan Kanoa. Bottom: hap halloran explains how the Japanese fighters attacked the huge B-29’s in the air. s u m m e r
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Clockwise from top right: Robert Klein Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USMC, Saipan - 4th div., 20th Marine Engineers, K Company. Teddy Draper (left) Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Chinle, Arizona USMC, Saipan Navajo Code Talker Donald Crain deer Park, Washington USMC, Saipan 2d div., 2d Amphib. Tractor Battalion, Tinian - 4th div. Amphib. Tractor Battalion. John Munka Akron, ohio USA, Saipan - 27th Infantry div., 106th reg., 3rd Batt., I Company.
Other veterans on the Military Historical Tour of Saipan and Tinian: Arsene Berube Waldwick, new Jersey usmC, saipan - 2d Div. signal Quartermaster Joe Crawford Jacksonville, texas usn/usmC, saipan - 18th anti-aircraft artillery Batt. Clifford Davenport Galena, Illinois usmC, saipan/tinian - 2d Div 8th marine reg. 2d Jasco/10th marines 1st Batt., B Battery Wilbert Dietrich reading Ohio usaaF, saipan - 73rd Bomb Wing, 498 BG, 873 Bs Truman Finch Granbury, texas usn, saipan - tanapag seaplane Base James Higgins Chicago, Illinois usmC, saipan/tinian - 2d Div., 2d reg., 1st Batt., B-Company Albert Jehning mountain View, California usmC, saipan/tinian - 2d Div., 10th reg., 2d Batt., e-Battery Richard Klassen Louisville, Colorado usmC, saipan/tinian - 2dDiv., 2d tank Batt., C Company Joel Luther snelville, Georgia usmC, saipan - 2d Div., 2d marines 3rd Bn., K Company Hal Olsen albuquerque, new mexico usn, tinian - Carrier, air service unit/ItG-31 Fred Smith surprise, arizona usn, saipan - naval Hospital, pharmacist mate 3rd Class William Tosline Wilkes Barre, pennsylvania usmC, saipan/tinian - 4th Div., 25th marines 2d Bn., Headquarters Company Remembrance regrets not being able to profile all of the veterans on the tour 4
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a memorial for the people
the marianas memorial commemorates the Chamorro and Carolinian people who lost their lives when World War II arrived in the mariana Islands. Caught between two warring armies, the united states of america and Japan, more than 400 Chamorro and Carolinian people died of wounds, starvation and thirst. During the bitterly contested three-week battle of saipan, Chamorros and Carolinians hid in caves desperately seeking shelter from ground battles, air attacks, and naval gunfire. When opportunity offered, they made contact with american marines and soldiers who took them to safety in Camp susupe. World War II did not end after the Battle of saipan for the Chamorro and Carolinian peoples in the mariana Islands. the american military re-developed saipan into a huge military base, and the native peoples were interned in Camp susupe. With the surrender of Japan in august 1945, the tides of war receded. the Chamorro and Carolinian survivors were granted their freedom and began working with americans to rebuild their homeland. a re-birth of native culture flourished. new concepts, such as democracy took hold, while health services improved, vegetation returned, and a modern economy emerged. Let us remember our family members, who were not able to share with us the reflowering of the islands, which grew from the ashes of war into the islands we live on today. The source for this description of the Marianas Memorial is the official 60th Anniversary website, www.worldwarii.info hundreds of Saipanese, and many of the guests on the island, attended the official opening of the Marianas Memorial on Sunday, June 13, 2004 at American Memorial Park. Most of the locals could identify someone among those memorialized.
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Veterans of the Battles for Saipan and Tinian gather on the History Alive seminar stage to sing the Marine Corps hymn.
Historyalive A seminar series delivers the real thing.
normally, historical seminars are best avoided by those not intimately involved with the obscure details of major historical events. Dry speeches by academics followed by the feared power point presentation put off most people simply looking to learn more about the past. the History Alive seminar on saipan during the 60th anniversary Commemoration was different. speakers included veterans of the campaigns who spoke not only authentically, but eloquently about what human beings go through during war. to be sure, there were the usual complement of academic speeches by World War II in the pacific scholars, but even these were enlivened by original and unique connections. the eminently quotable Dr. Dirk Ballendorf explained the causes and effects of
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the rivalry that existed between the united states and Japan for influence in micronesia. Encyclopedia of the Pacific Islands editor mr. Hiroshi nakajima traced Japanese interest in the pacific from the meiji restoration to pearl Harbor. mr. Bill stewart, a prominent saipan scholar and cartographer, presented readings from diaries written by Japanese defenders and saipanese civilians. the simple language, rendered dramatic and heart-wrenching by the poignant delivery of mr. nuki rogopes and mr. Horiguchi, was an effective counterpoint to the violence and terror that must have surrounded the writers. and that was just the first day. In the two days that followed, the seminar presented veterans Hal Olsen (story on page 7), the artist who painted pictures on aircraft based at tinian, including the words Enola Gay on a particular B-29; Lawrence snowden, a retired Lt General who was a 4th marine Division first lieutenant on June 15, 1944; Hap Halloran, the B-29 pilot who was shot down over Japan and forced to endure months of brutal treatment as a pOW; teddy Draper, a navajo Code talker from Canyon de Chelly, arizona who was wounded on Iwo Jima after serving honorably on saipan. the final day produced the most inadvertently touching scene I’ve ever witnessed. mr. Daniel martinez, uss Arizona memorial historian, asked the veterans to receive the appreciation of the audience onstage. mr. Draper then sang a song he had written after watching the american flag being raised on Iwo Jima’s mt. suribachi...in navajo. the soaring tones and rhythmic stanzas of the song floated out and over the surrealistic setting of the sandcastle room at the saipan Hyatt Hotel. even though not many in attendance could understand the words, the song wrapped a spell around the men on the stage and those in the audience. after a request from an audience member, the marine, army, and navy men began to sing the marine Corps hymn. When the song ended, the veterans cheered like the teenagers they had once been, during a war they had given their all to win. a war that many, after 60 years, could finally say goodbye to. History was alive and well.
amma president tom shaw’s opening remarks the arizona memorial museum association is dedicated to in this park, is an inscription that more than adequately sums up the remembering and honoring the sacrifice and courage of american self-sacrifice of the american servicemen lost in this battle: servicemen who fought in the pacific theater during World War II. War drew them from their homeland in the sunlit morning of their youth We are also dedicated to honoring those pacific islanders whose Those who did not come back, remain in perpetual lives and homelands were forever changed by the springtime, forever young shadow of war. and remembering this, it is with And a part of us is with them always a deep sense of gratitude and service that we have We cannot forget what happened here; the accepted the role of sponsor and contributor to courage, sacrifice, honor and duty. We should some of the events this week. also remember the enormous efforts in the sixty years ago this week began a series of batreconstruction of these islands as homes for those tles for the mariana Islands that lasted almost two who survived. We rightly remember those who full months. During that time tens of thousands have passed as we begin the celebration with of souls lost their lives in this horrendous struggle; those who remain and are the beneficiaries of the american servicemen, Japanese servicemen, and sacrifice of so many. We enjoy many freedoms civilian men, women, and far, far too many today which would not be possible without this President and CEo of AMMA Tom Shaw children. so precious was this land that many struggle. I hope that you will now learn, benefit times combatants held out until the last man, spoke at the opening of the History Alive seminar from and help to spread the memory of those rather than surrender. moments in history 60 years ago which shaped ultimately, us forces gained a major foothold in the mariana the world forever. they will now be presented before you, so that Islands which enabled them to begin daily bombing of the main islands we may collectively remember. of Japan for the first time. at the Court of Honor’s Flag Circle, here 6
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Left: hal olsen stands next to the original Accentuate the Positive for a photo that appeared in the a 1948 issue of National geographic magazine. Below: hal olsen fan Betty Ichiro meets the artist and has him sign a 60th Anniversary program.
Latch on to the affirmative
Aircraft art of scantily-clad women gave flyers another reason to live during the last, dangerous days of World War II. amma regional manager for Guam and saipan Cynthia rapadas had an idea. she wanted to show people who were attending the 60th anniversary of the Battles for saipan and tinian how influential one of the invitees had been to the progress of the war in the pacific. Hal Olsen would be attending the commemoration with a group of veterans from the mainland us and while the flyboys who had been stationed at tinian’s northfield had certainly known mr. Olsen during the days when the strategically important airfield had been the busiest in the world, not many others did. “We wanted to show people how important ‘nose art’ was to the pilots and their crews, and the integral part mr. Olsen played in the development of the art form,” ms. rapadas said in a recent telephone interview. “We decided a traveling exhibit would be the perfect way to tell that story to people all over the country.” a former tool maker for pratt & Whitney, mr. Olsen has always been interested in art. He arrived on tinian Island as a aircraft mechanic with the us navy. With $50 worth of paints and supplies he had brought with him from the states, mr. Olsen took over decorating airplanes when the former aircraft artist’s paint locker took a direct hit from a Japanese bomb. Designed and fabricated by International museum Corporation of Houston, texas, the exhibit takes guests through the very early history of heraldry, the ancient antecedent of aircraft art, through World War I, and finally to the many and varied images from World War II, when the practice reached its peak. mr. Olsen recreated his most famous piece, Accentuate the Positive, inspired by the Johnny mercer song, for the exhibit, as well as donating other items from his personal collection. mr. Olsen explains the appeal of fuselage art this way: “nose art for the crew was a personalized reference to a piece of military hardware. You are trusting your life to the plane to get you back safely. It gave a signature to their unit. By putting a girl on a plane, the crews felt they were protected on their way out to bomb and patrol. It inspired the crews and gave them a sense of belonging to an organized team. the main purpose, I guess, was to inspire the crews to have faith they’d be coming back.”
Left: hal olsen recreated Accentuate the Positive for the traveling aircraft museum exhibit “Planes and Pin-Ups,” sponsored by the Arizona Memorial Museum Association. The exhibit will be traveling around the country through 2005. Below: Mr. olsen meets his muse as Miss Accentuate the Positive Virginia gridley, who also happened to be Miss CNMI 2002, renders the artist uncharacteristically quiet. “I’m speechless, and that doesn’t happen often,” said the former aircraft mechanic.
For more information on the history of aircraft art and artist Hal Olsen, please see www.nps.gov/wapa/indepth/PacTheatTopics/noseart.htm r e m e m b r a n c e
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Veterans of the battles for Saipan and Tinian received a heartfelt welcome home from the people of the islands
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"this is one of the greatest experiences of my life, to come back. this is where I killed my first person and many more, but this is where I saw my men die, many of them, and saw people commit suicide. I saw everything that you read about and did everything that you read about. to come back and see this today and all those little kids waving the american flag and smiling and saying thanks, thanks, thanks, and thumbs up and all that kind of things; to see what you've got going here, it is a joyous experience and I will cherish it forever. I want to say yesterday in the parade, I had tears in my eyes [because] of the love those little kids have for america. I’ll tell you, we passed this pick-up truck and the whole family was in there, the mother, the father, several kids and there was a little girl there, she was probably about four or five years old and she had her flag, and she was waving [it] and I threw her a kiss and she went, “mommy! He kissed me!” I want to tell the native people of saipan and tinian, you are a classic example of what democracy can do....there isn’t a marine that hasn’t a lot of stories to tell and to be honored...is a great achievement. Let me tell you, thank you from the bottom of my heart.” - Keith renstrom, marine gunnery sergeant
“the one thing I would like to say is if we could only take this marvelous spirit of freedom and democracy back to the rest of the us, it would be our greatest treasure.” - morris Jeppson, weaponeer on the Enola Gay
“We want you to enjoy the beauty and hospitality of a place that 60 years ago offered only hardship. We want you to see the fruits of your efforts; to let you know that your suffering was not in vain. and we want to open our arms to you in brotherhood and say ‘thank you’ from a grateful people. We will not say ‘Welcome back;’ we say, ‘Welcome Home.” - Juan Babauta, Governor, Diego Benavente, Lt. Governor Commonwealth of the northern marianas Left: (from left) glenn Miller, robert Klein, and Fred Smith ride with other World War II in the Pacific veterans down Beach road on Saipan during the parade held in their honor. right: Any doubts the veterans might have had about their reception by the local population were dispelled by the welcome they received.
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This man, a former PoW captured during the Battle of Saipan, thanked the Americans for saving his life. he then invited everyone to visit his small orange grove in Japan.
Campfire On a rainy night in the South Pacific, a group of veterans and their families gathered around a fire and talked about how the war had affected their lives, and the lives of those they loved.
"my name is raphaella," said the woman shyly as she spoke into the microphone. "I am one of the war babies, I was born June 5, 1944." When the war started, the family moved to a cave where other relatives were staying. “During that time, this marine came by and asked my mom if I had a name. they told the gentleman I have no name, because I was just born. so, his name was raphael, and my name is raphaella, and I want to thank everyone because they saved me. also that gentleman...he brought milk for me every time he came by. I think that’s why I have strong bones. “Years ago...I had a chance to go down to arlington cemetery and [see] if I can find him. the information I got, there was only one raphael that was here at that time, during the war, and his name was raphael Griffin. If any one of you gentlemen was with him, I’d like to meet you. “I thank you very much for what you have done for us. Both of my parents are gone, and I know they were always so grateful for what the united states had done for us. I hope you enjoy you’re stay here and please come back again. God bless you all.” the rain, carried by the dark clouds sweeping in from the moun1 0
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tains, fell in heavy sheets. there was intermittent wind, and the fire, set in an exposed hole dug into the green grass, burned brightly. mrs. pam marvin told of how her late husband, Lee marvin, the academy award-winning actor who in 1944 was a 20 year-old 4th Division marine, woke up on a hospital ship after receiving wounds during the invasion. "suddenly he was in clean sheets and Glenn miller music was playing, someone offered him ice cream. He heard the firefight going on...and, he cried. He said that he was leaving his buddies, and he had overwhelming guilt, I think, for the rest of his life." mrs. marvin went on to say how her husband had returned to saipan in the 1960’s to make the film, Hell in the Pacific, and how much he had enjoyed the island. “He would have very much liked to be here with you [this week] and would have felt very much welcomed by these beautiful people of saipan.” an elderly Japanese man rose from the ranks of the american veterans. a younger Japanese woman took the microphone and translated his story. the man had been a prisoner-of-war, a rare enough occurrence in a battle where only 1,000 of the nearly 31,000 Japanese contingent survived. severely wounded, the man r e m e m b r a n c e
Mrs. Pam Marvin (standing) speaks to the assembled veterans and guests about the experiences of her late husband Lee, during the battle for Saipan. At bottom left is Victoria reyes, a tenyear old civilian in in 1944, whose family was wiped out by the fierce fighting.
story was pulled out of a bomb crater by an american and carried to a jeep, then driven to a hospital. the man invited those present to please visit him in shikoku, Japan, where he kept a small orange grove. the Japanese veteran’s words were translated as he bowed deeply, "thank you for saving my life." Dorothy north's husband Bob was a member of JasCO (Joint assault signal Corps), attached to the army's 27th Infantry Division. reading letters he had sent to his mother after the invasion, mrs. north thought, "He was no longer the same person." Bob north went to school after the war, earning a phD in political science and international relations, which he taught for the rest of his life. He and other members of his unit had a great fondness for their former commanding general, ralph smith, and kept in regular contact. mrs. north would often kid her husband that, if given a chance, he and the other septagenerian veterans would again follow the hundred year-old General smith into battle. mrs. north cried at the end of her story, saying, "after the Battle of saipan, Bob felt that every day was a bonus...and he felt that way until July 15, 2002, when Bob north died." r e m e m b r a n c e
a question was asked by a member of the audience. the people, some local saipanese, some ex-pat americans, were gathered under a tarp on the far side of the campfire. the young man asked, was war a necessary evil or was it just evil? the rain had stopped. Drops of water fell from the tarps stretched over the video monitors. the question was a sensitive one, directed as it was to men and women who had experienced the effects of war directly. mrs. north emphatically stated that war was just evil, her experience carrying in the emotion of her voice. How could any good come of the tragic death and destruction left in the wake of war? another veteran quietly asserted that war was necessary in some circumstances. the freedom that americans might, at times, take for granted must be protected. another veteran, still bitter from his experiences, declared the enemy evil as evidenced by Bataan, nanking, and other places of ignominy. the stories told that rainy night proved the importance of direct communication between cultures and generations of people. Only through this kind of direct contact can a better understanding of the past, and the future, be achieved. s u m m e r
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Criticality The pilot of the Enola Gay talks about his bombing run. Tinian held its own ceremony on June 16 to commemorate the return to the island of Enola Gay crew members Paul Tibbets, pilot and Commanding Officer of the 509th Composite Group, electronics officer Morris Jeppson, and navigator Theodore “Dutch” Van Kirk. General Tibbets gave speeches and interviews on Saipan and Tinian throughout the week of the commemoration. This speech however, at the official unveiling of the pits where the atomic
territories of europe and Japan. You will be self supported. You will operate in the best secrecy that can be provided by yourself, your people, and for you.” Well, I was all of 29 years old at that moment, a lot of the seriousness of that didn’t really come home. I had to get into the job, had look at what was going on, to realize how serious it really was. not that I ever did anything with my career in the military that was
bombs were loaded into the bomb bays of the Enola Gay and Bock’s Car, was the only one that detailed the Hiroshima mission. It is a fascinating story, told by the man who helped change the course of modern history.
stupid....along with it I was briefed on what the united states was doing, what they thought the Germans had been doing and even the Japanese, with trying to split the atom or as the scientist said “Get fission”, not with a line and a hook, this is talking chemistry. We had available at that time two schemes working to do just that particular thing. One scheme was known to be almost fool proof, it had to work because it was so simple. that’s the Little Boy bomb
thank you ladies and gentlemen. I am truly honored and delighted to be here. the atomic weapons. I was appointed, I was told (back in those days they used to tell you what to do,) I was told “You will organize a training unit that will drop these weapons simultaneously in occupied 1 2
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that I dropped on Hiroshima. It was never intended to be the production bomb. Because little boy used pure uranium, and the world’s supply of uranium, especially to the united states, was short. We’d buy the ore from the Belgian Congo and we’d bring the ore to the united states and they had a place up in the state of Washington [Hanford engineer Works] where they separated the ore and the material in it. so, the bomb, Little Boy, as I said was almost fool proof. It gained a critical point and fission, by driving a portion, which would be 50%, that was in the front of a 75mm cannon. the other 50% is in the rear in front of powder. When it ignited, it would drive those two certain distance, I don’t remember the length of that thing, it was in meters, and if I had to guess, it was in inches
it was probably about 37-40 inches. and when that happens, you had this explosion, caused by criticality. that was going to work. Both bombs came close to being 10,000 pounds in weight, but no two of them ever weighed the same because they were made by hand, they were made out of metals that might not have had the same densities that the one before it had. Let’s get down to the night we were out here, in this particular area. We had become acquainted with and indoctrinated r e m e m b r a n c e
in the system of the 20th air Force to launch airplanes. We were isolated from everybody else. Isolation was good. It kept our guys close together. they were dedicated people. there were about 1800 of them. Dedicated as anybody could be and I think one of the things that worked so well was it melded, welded, or whatever word you’d like to use, that group of men together to do one job. and that was to put a bomb on the target. We got ready. We could not drop the weapon until the president had authorized it. now he was at, at this time period I’m talking about, he was at potsdam with Churchill, talking with stalin and so forth, and I’m told that stalin at that time told mr. truman, “Oh we know what you’re doing. You can go ahead and talk about it if you want to.” I don’t think truman did anything about it, I don’t think he talked to him because if he had said anything stalin would have been 100%. and truman didn’t want him to be one step ahead I’ll tell you for sure. When I came out at about I don’t know ‘bout midnight I guess, because we had a late supper, and Lord this place was lit up. movie cameras, Jesus I never saw so much stuff in my life. this is something that General Groves ordered. He wanted a pictorial record of what happened. Well after the surprise was over with, I went right on about my business as did the rest of the guys. We got in the airplane after checking. I didn’t do too much checking, I had a wonderful flight engineer, and I trusted him implicitly with my airplane. His name was Duzenbury, and he was the only man in the outfit older then me, he was older then me by six months or something right at six months. and I’d say, “Dooz, are we ready to go?”, “Yes sir, we’re ready to go.” Well see he had to ride in the same airplane I was going to be in, so I didn’t think he’d lie to me. I looked at Dutch Van Kirk, I said “Dutch, what time do we board this machine?” and he gave me a time, because he knew how long it was going to take to get there and he knew if it was just about right he always gave me the information to go. Dutch was my computer. He could read the stars, he could read the sun, and put it all down on paper and say, “Well we got to go, we got to do this”. my orders say that we would bomb at 9:15 in the morning, tinian time. that allowed us to use a window. Over Honshu where you had about a two hour period of weather and that two hour period of weather usually ran between 9 and 11 or maybe 9:30 and 11:30. so we wanted to be there for that one. I had two airplanes accompany me at a distance, I told the men we’re not going to fly in formation for six hours. I don’t want r e m e m b r a n c e
you to, I want you to be out there behind me, one on one wing and one on the other. Keep me in sight, I want to keep you in sights using my tailgunner. and we just leisurely go on up and we make our landfall and we get up to the point where we begin our run on the target. It worked perfectly. We had good weather. Oh, I want to say one thing, the night before we took off, there was a couple of airplanes from one of the other groups, there was one for sure, I think two of them actually went in the boondocks, but one of them lost an engine, it couldn’t stay on the runway. It went out through the boondocks, it ran through the fuel dump and ended up in the ammunition dump and there was real fireworks going. and that caused navy Captain [William] parsons, who was working with us, I would say we worked for him actually, and parsons came up with the idea we can arm that bomb in the air, we don’t have to do it on the ground. I’m not going to give you anymore technical information then that, cause I don’t know all of it.
Morris Jeppson, left, was the weaponeer on the Enola Gay. Theodore “dutch” Van Kirk was the navigator. They wear the traditional mwar mwar flower head lei during commemoration ceremonies.
We then were on the run. I don’t know how long we ran. Dutch, you’re sitting out here in front of me, you shake your head yes or no, but we were somewhere seven or eight minutes on that run if I remember, and it was basically a westerly run. so when we got there I was worried about the other airplanes, are they in position? now what they were going to do, they were going to listen to me, I was going to tell them that we were over the initial point. they would then be alerted to listen to my voice, ‘cause I said I will tell you and I will go down the line on the clock basis, until we get down to 10 seconds and by that time I will only use
the minimum number of words, 10, 9, 8 and all that kind of stuff. With that we were on our way to drop the first atomic weapon. everything was quiet in that airplane, and so calm. I told everybody it’s the most damn boring flight I ever made. and that’s true, nothing happened that wasn’t supposed to happen and that’s a little bit unusual. We were coming down and before I’m counting down Ferebee’s [thomas Ferebee, Enola Gay bombardier] busy telling me over the interphone how far out we are. He’s looking at his bomb sight, and when we get down to the last ten seconds, I’m hearing tom, he didn’t talk too much but he did utter some noises. [He was saying] something about the correction of the thing, I don’t remember what it was, but tom said, “Help, it’s going down the track, I can’t correct anything”. Credit mr. Van Kirk with that. He put him on there, had the wind drift and everything all cranked into the problem. Okay, we get down there, when the bomb leaves the airplane there’s a lurch, also, we had a dial tone on there, a single tone, when that tone quit that told the guys in the other two airplanes the bomb’s gone and that allowed them to make this turn to get away from it. I said to Oppenheimer, I said, “How do I get away from it?” He said, “real simple, turn tangent to the ever expanding shock wave that comes up.” I said “Yes, sir. I’ve had a little physics; I’ve had some trigonometry, what is tangency in this case?” He said without hesitating he said, “159 degrees either direction. turn 159 degrees either way as that thing comes up to get tangent to it and you get your greatest distance.” now I had to practice that turn, because you don’t take an airplane the size of a B-29 and go up to 30,000 feet and just, you know, piddle around and make a turn, you got to get it done a certain number of seconds. they’re big and they’re high and they’re harder to turn then a fighter. much harder. But I practiced with that enough until I got to the point that I felt confident I had the answer. my hands would start to tremble, and I’d hold onto it until I just didn’t have any guts to go any further because I was afraid to snap the tail off. my co-pilot helped on that, I think Dutch helped me too. From the time we started to turn, I could get that airplane around there in between 40 and 42 seconds. as soon as that thing left and I got into the turn, I’m watching on my gyro, and as soon as I get to the point I’ve got to level it, I do, I level it. I had dropped the nose to keep my airspeed up. I pulled the nose up to come level with the horizon and the whole sky in front of me lit up with the most awesome blues and purples and whites and reds that you ever saw. It was s u m m e r
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like a, I don’t know what you call it, but anyway, it was the atmosphere reacting to that thing and it was very colorful. I guess that was something that happens when a ray of sunshine is on a certain place and you get a rainbow, same thing. But anyway, that’s where, and when that did happen I tasted it, well how do you taste the bomb exploding? When I was a kid you got a cavity in your tooth, folks took you to the dentist, and the dentist started drilling and cleaning that cavity out. and he packed some kind of material, it was cotton, with some kind of a metallic type material that was easy to mold and wield around and he put that in there and then with a hammer he’d impact that stuff tight, so that you had a filled tooth, and it worked real good. But I learned before atom bombs that you’ve got something when you put a spoon of ice cream in your mouth and then taste that damn thing and you’ve got electrolysis right now and you quit. It left a dirty taste in your mouth. I wanted to get that airplane out of there
that mr. Farrell [marianas historian Don Farrell] can tell me where that someplace was. there were more high powered brass in different uniforms then you can possibly imagine. I had been ordered to not open the door, don’t get out of the airplane until we have men on the sides with Geiger counters. to see what kind of radiation the airplane got, whether it’s safe for people to be near it. and of course the people on the ground got the same information. I don’t think it took 3 minutes, with two Geiger counters on each side, going on and they gave the signal. now Oppenheimer, I’d asked him about radiation and he said “Don’t worry about it...just flash through a cloud or two and it’ll wash off”. and that’s just exactly what happened, it washed off. see people, when we first talked about this they talked about radiation and all that sort of stuff, getting burned, and what not. Well you did if you did something wrong, but if you did what you were told by some of those people that knew what they were doing everything worked out real well. I
“this is where it started, right here, when we loaded the bombs.” - paul W. tibbets and out over the sea of Japan as fast as I could because I thought had I been on the ground as a Japanese, I’d sacrifice anything I had to sacrifice to get that airplane to find out what happened. We got out of there pretty fine, things settled down after a bit and everything had been done that had to be recorded except that Ferebee had to put into his log the time of bombing that we supposed to do it at 9:15. Ferebee asked Dutch what time to bomb. Well Dutch says “9:15 plus 15 seconds”. Ferebee hesitated and he said “Jesus Christ, what lousy navigating!” Dutch never been outdone yet, I thought, but he said “If you had told me you were going to take 40 seconds for the damn thing to fall I would’ve adjusted the course.” Well then everything quieted down and we’d been on our feet doing a lot of things for quite a few hours. We had a box lunch and I took my box lunch and ate part of it. and I told the co-pilot, Bob Lewis, I said, “Bob, you watch this thing, I’m going to take this parachute and put it back up here behind my head and I’m going to get some sleep.” Well, I did. I think slept about 2 hours, which was very refreshing at that point, worked out real good. normally I would take the airplane to its regular revetment, [but] that didn’t work because there was a “Follow me” jeep out there and they kept flashing their lights for me to follow them so alls I know is I landed and he took me someplace, and I’m hoping 1 4
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was in awe of those people, because they could give you a lot of theoretical answers. In practicality what took place is exactly the way it happened. so that’s about the gist of the first bomb as such. I’ll hasten to say that the second bomb the guys ran into trouble with weather, because, not necessarily their fault, they couldn’t get started on time and all that. It was, again, it was a rush to get the thing done. they would’ve been in an airplane called “the Great artiste” in honor of their bombardier, because he was Kermit Beahan from Houston texas. Beahan and Ferebee were buddies and they were two guys that knew how to handle a bomb sight. I wouldn’t say either one of them was better then the other one. and we had a navigator on that airplane, Jim Van pelt. Jim was a wonderful navigator. Flight engineer, was also a wonderful guy, but the most sourpuss bastard you ever talk to. John Kuharek was his name. and John was, he was all business. Oh I mean he was all business. But again he was like Duzenbury. I would’ve taken John on any flight, you know, if I couldn’t take Dooz. I trusted him so much. I trusted those guys, and they trusted me. that’s why we got along so damn well. so I didn’t have any trouble. I want to tell you that I’m delighted to be here, I said that to start with. I didn’t know what to expect when I came here. First off
I said I don’t want to go to the marianas. and then I thought, “no that’s not fair. I do want to go again, to the marianas. I want to go particularly because the people that live there have heard my name or something about me for years. and I want them to see me as I really am, instead of thinking that I might have horns in my head, a tail and so forth. I said, “I want them to know who paul tibbets is and what makes him tick”. and it has just been so damn nice you can’t believe it. all you people are so wonderful...I didn’t know what to expect. But it’s a reward what I got and I’m proud of you. A short question and answer period that included Morris Jeppson and Theodore Van Kirk followed the speech. Question: If there was one lesson that you had learned from your personal experience of World War II what would that be? tibbets: Calmness, perseverance. that’s the lesson. too many people got excited and got killed in airplanes because they were excited and didn’t know what the hell to do. Q: If there was one thing you could tell youths today about World War II, what would you say? Van Kirk: Don’t do it again. tibbets : that’s right, hell of a mess. Jeppson: that’s right. Van Kirk: Don’t do it again. Q: General tibbets I have a question. General tibbets if you could just describe for us your emotion seeing the bombpits unveiled today. tibbets: Well, look it. It could be a hell of a lot worse. I can see the shape. I see the thing there, and I understand, particularly with this cover on it now. I can’t complain over the years because nobody really understood what was going on and why this thing should not be filled with trash. But anyway, it has a historical significance for this area. this is where it started, right here, when we loaded the bombs.
Atomic Bomb Pit No. 1 was unveiled at the end of the official ceremonies marking the return to Tinian of members of the Enola Gay crew. r e m e m b r a n c e
...they [the Japanese] had been told that no Japanese had been captured. and if you were to give up, you would not be Japanese anymore...if you see a hundred people jumping off cliffs and a dozen families with little kids jumping off cliffs, you really think the world’s coming to an end...some...were patriotic and thought that this was a duty...there was death all around the place. major robert sheeks
Whether we attack, or whether we stay where we are, there is only death...as it says in senjinkun [Battle ethics] I will never suffer the disgrace of being taken alive. Lieutenant General Yoshitsugu saito
D e at h D u t y anD
On the cliffs above the pacific Ocean, near the northern point of saipan, stand monuments to the Japanese, Okinawans, and Koreans who took their own lives in the last days of the battle. Bound by fear to a code that the Japanese military had instilled, hundreds of civilian men, women, and children jumped to their deaths here, in a senseless display of duty and desperation. the majestic Banzai Cliffs are now serene in their isolation. the wind blows between the stone and marble sculptures. the waves crash against the rocks far below. the cost of war has never been so starkly represented.
8 July...I took two prisoners on top of the Banzai Cliffs. I talked with them at length trying to convince them to continue fighting would amount to sure death. the big job was...convincing them that we would not torture and kill them - that they would be well treated and would be returned to Japan after the war. private First Class Guy Gabaldon
the quotations above appear on the interpretive nps panel Death and Duty, and are taken from witnesses and participants.
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Live, Learn, Teach as momentous events recede into memory, history begins to claim them. Interpretation, revision, primary and secondary source review; all the equipment historians bring to the study of past occurrences are, by definition, removed from the moment. talking to a pearl Harbor survivor not only reveals the past in all its subjective glory, it connects that past to a suddenly more sharply defined present. While exceedingly important, their stories represent an explosion, a life-saving display of calm, a tragic death. the physical presence of a survivor provides a unique communication with the past. a survivor’s outlook on life, their desire for a peaceful future or a vigilant society, their pride of family, all convey a dynamic sense of interaction with the forces of time. a component of the theory of historicism states that history is determined by immutable laws, unperturbed by human intervention. after talking to a pearl Harbor survivor, it’s hard to believe that events proceed unhindered by the sometimes noble, sometimes foolish attempts of human beings to change them . a teacher's Workshop, held at Hawaii's east-West Center the first week in august, gave educators from around the country a chance to visit the uss Arizona memorial, speak with survivors, and study factors surrounding the attack on December 7, 1941. entitled, Pearl Harbor, History, Memory, and Memorial, the national endowment for the Humanities (neH) “Landmarks of american History” funded seminar is one of 17 workshops held nationwide seeking to pass on the intimate knowledge of an historical place to students through their teachers.
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Above: Namji Steinmann, director of the East-West Center’s AsiaPacificEd Program (left) and dr. geoff White, Senior Fellow at the East-West Center, Professor of Anthropology at the University of hawaii and a director on the Arizona Memorial Museum Association Board are co-directors of the NEh workshop for teachers. Below: yujin yaguchi is a professor of American Studies at prestigious Tokyo University in Japan. he presented a fascinating talk to the teachers entitled “Japanese Perspectives on Pearl harbor” based on his time as a volunteer at the Park interviewing Japanese visitors.
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Above: Pearl harbor Survivors Bill and ruth Cope visit with Josephine Manfre from Neptune high School in New Jersey and other teachers at hickam Air Force Base’s officer’s Club. The lunch allowed the educators to sit down with people who lived through Pearl harbor. As Ms. Manfre explained before the start of the seminar, “hands on workshops allow teachers to bring another dimension to their lessons.... I want to be able to pass my experience onto my students. All [the] different components of the workshop will be an incredible experience.” right: Local news crews flocked to the event and interviewed teachers and Pearl harbor veterans. here, herb West, a teacher from Columbia, Maryland, talks to Pamela young about his experience at the conference.
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Co-directors namji steinmann of the east-West Center's asiapacificed program and Dr. Geoffrey White, senior Fellow at the Center, professor of anthropology at the university of Hawaii, and Board Director of amma , felt the interaction with pearl Harbor survivors would be an invaluable learning aid. "Importantly, the workshop will introduce teachers to the 'living history' of the uss Arizona memorial and help them make connections between the methods of public history, the meanings of a 'sacred' historical site, and classroom applications," ms. steinmann said recently. member contributions allowed amma to sponsor this important workshop through its education Department, headed by Director Kendall mcCreary. "We felt strongly that visiting the memorial and talking to survivors would have a significant impact on the way pearl Harbor is taught in schools around the country," mr. mcCreary said. participants got a first-hand view of public as opposed to academic history in a spirited discussion between Yujin Yaguchi, professor of american studies at tokyo university and Daniel martinez, historian for the uss Arizona memorial. the presentation “Japanese perspectives on pearl Harbor” was borne from the six months mr. Yaguchi spent as a volunteer at the Arizona memorial interviewing Japanese visitors. His resulting paper, “Japanese Visitor experiences at the Arizona memorial,” emphasized that the articulation of history both affects and is affected by important places of memory like the uss Arizona memorial. after visiting the memorial, many Japanese express remorse for their nation’s role at pearl Harbor and responsibility for the “mistakes” committed by Japan during World War II. they feel the site should be a symbol of peace in an increasingly confrontational world. many Japanese also feel strongly that some mention
of the end of the war should be made at the memorial. Comments such as “the film shown at the Arizona memorial should also be shown in Hiroshima and nagasaki. In turn, the memorial should also show a film on the a-bombs. this is to show that both nations suffered a great deal and there is no happiness in wars,” are recurrent among the Japanese. It was at this point in the presentation that Daniel martinez got up from his chair in the audience. mr. martinez has worked as the Arizona memorial’s public historian for more than twenty years. He knows the frustration of having to face popular anger over what some might consider revisionist theories espoused by his academic colleagues. During the 1995 skirmish between the smithsonian Institution and veterans of WWII, mr. martinez testified that, in his opinion, veterans were right when they found the Enola Gay exhibition unfair in its depiction of the first atomic bomb strike. the general feeling was that the text, photos, and graphics exhibited put too much emphasis on the Japanese as victims and not enough on the amount of lives saved by the bomb’s use. placing the debate in the current context, mr. martinez stated that Japan has at times been accused “of a kind of national amnesia when it comes to the war. after all, there would have been no Hiroshima without pearl Harbor.” the confrontation might not have been what ms. steinmann expected when she referred to the “methods of public history,” but it was certainly instructive. as mr. martinez said after the dust had settled, even after sixty-three years, the meaning and lessons of the war are still difficult to assess. the teachers who attended the conference surely will remember pearl Harbor when they return home. their better understanding of the beginning of WWII for the united states will affect generations of students across the country.
Tokyo University professor yujin yaguchi (l) and USS Arizona Memorial historian daniel Martinez engage in a spirited discussion about how the Japanese view of Pearl harbor. 1 8
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virtual museum Due to the effects of a super typhoon, people can’t come to Guam’s War in the Pacific museum - so the museum is coming to them
by Tammy Duchesne
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n December 8th, 2002 supertyphoon pongsona decimated the island of Guam and destroyed the War in the pacific national Historical park's (nHp) museum, administrative offices, contact facility, and the research library. a year and a half later, while still lacking a physical presence, the park's historical photos, items from the museum collection, educational publications, management documents, and park brochures are now available to the public in the new War in the pacific nHp WWII website and on-line museum. With generous funding provided by the arizona memorial museum association and the Guam Humanities Council, War in the pacific began planning the WWII website in July 2003. With the museum collection inaccessible to the public, it became apparent that action needed to be taken to provide veterans, school children, the residents of Guam, and off-island visitors with information and images about the pacific theater of WWII and the occupation and liberation of Guam. the 60th anniversary of the Liberation of Guam, only a year away, provided a deadline. truly a community and pacific islands endeavor, the site represents the efforts of scholars, professors, and historians from the us armed Forces, Guam, Hawaii, and micronesia. Complimenting the numerous stories and publications that detail the events, campaigns, and people of the pacific theater of WWII, are almost 700 historical black and white images which include: pearl Harbor images obtained from the uss arizona memorial; photos that document the events that occurred in the micronesian Islands (saipan, tinian, enewetak, Chuuk, Kwajalein, majuro, peleliu) acquired from the micronesian seminar in pohnpei; pacific theater action, including Doolittle's raid, midway, Cape Gloucester, Okinawa, Leyte, Iwo Jima, and tarawa, collected during a joint nps/ amma trip to the united states marine Corps Historical Center and the national archives and records administration in College park, mD in march 2004. In addition to the photos from different areas of the pacific, a large quantity of the War in the pacific nHp's museum collection photos were scanned and, for the first time ever, made available to r e m e m b r a n c e
the public through the new website. many of these images were from recent donations to the park's museum collection. the site includes not only information and images on those who served, including women, african americans, and native american Code-talkers, but also explains how the war affected the Chamorros of Guam and thousands of other pacific Islanders who found themselves in a war they knew nothing about. While the site looks at the events and the people of the war, it also includes stories on nose art, the uss Indianapolis, and information on historic WWII sites both on-land and beneath the ocean. On July 18th, 2004, at 5pm, the new War in the pacific website officially emerged into cyberspace ... and just in time. attending the 60th anniversary of the Liberation of Guam ceremonies were, among others, twenty-four american veterans who had stormed the beaches of Guam sixty years earlier. an additional fifty people from the island, including many Chamorros who were forced to endure the two and a half years of Japanese occupation from December 8th, 1941- July 21, 1944, were also in attendance. all were visibly touched by the images and accounts of a war that many can recount with a startling, sometimes nightmarish clarity. the feedback from the public has been tremendous. emails have already come in praising the site as a "virtual museum"; a place where the history of this sometimes forgotten battleground can be appreciated from anywhere in the world. the mission of the new website, and of the War in the pacific national Historical park, is to honor those who fought, lived, and died in the pacific during World War II. It is a place where anyone, no matter where they live, can come to remember, or to learn. the new website can be viewed by going to the In-depth portion of the www.nps.gov/wapa. Click on any of the icons on the left to enter the site. special thanks to all the people that helped make this site possible including amma, an nps web volunteer from seattle, Harry Butowsky, and June Jones. s u m m e r
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B-17C is app. 6.25” wingtip to wingtip and 4” nose to tail
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new products
Arizona Memorial Museum Association Telephone toll free: 1-888-485-1941 Email: azmemph@hawaii.rr.com
1 Air Raid, Pearl Harbor Map recreates december 7, 1941 in map form.
Includes strategy and tactics of the Japanese torpedo attack and details of the planes that launched them, specifics of the attack, and the names, types, and locations of just about every ship of the US fleet at Pearl harbor that day. A great resource for anyone interested in Pearl harbor history. Item No. 248 $5.95 + $2.80 shipping and handling 2 Boeing B-17C featuring Pearl harbor Survivor Bill Cope, is the newest edition to the “Tribute to Valor” collectible series made exclusively for the USS Arizona Memorial. request an autograph when ordering and Mr. Cope will sign it for you. Item No. 1078 $8.95 + $4.00 S&h 3 American Women Pilots of World War II by Karen donnelly provides inspirational stories of women aviation pioneers such as Nancy harkness, Jacqueline Cochran, and others. $29.95 + $7.00 S&h AMMA Members receive a 15% discount off the retail price of any bookstore item
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o Renewal member No.______
o Gift membership - please complete information below Mr./Ms./Miss/Mrs./Mr. & Mrs./Dr./other ________________
_____________________________________________________ Name (please print)
_____________________________________________________ Address
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For your convenience, please use the order form at right and the attached postage-paid envelope
o New member
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As we approach the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II, plans to honor the veterans of that greatest generation with events throughout the Pacific region depend on your continuing support. Please take a moment to renew your membership, give a gift, or sign up someone you think appreciates the importance of history and the men and women who made it.
_____________________________________________________ City
State
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_____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ Office Phone
Home Phone
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Email Address
Membership Level I wish to support AMMA at the following level: $25
15% bookstore discount + Quarterly newsletter
o Copper
$50
Brass benefits + exclusive Certificate of Membership
o Bronze
$100 Copper benefits + Bronze Pearl Harbor Medallion
o Silver
$250 Copper benefits + Silver Pearl Harbor Medallion
o Gold
$500 Copper benefits + Gold Select Medallion and an invitation to Gold Recognition Day to include a tour of significant December 7, 1941 battlegrounds, artifacts, and memorials with a National Park Service interpretive ranger
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Support Amount Membership Donation $ _________________ Gift Membership $ _________________ Additional Donation $ _________________ Total Amount Enclosed $ _________________
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o Check o Visa
Make payable to the Arizona Memorial Museum Association
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_____________________________________________________ Account Number
Expiration Date
_____________________________________________________ Signature
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thanks for your time,
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my name is everett Hyland and I am a pearl Harbor survivor. I was aboard the uss Pennsylvania on December 7, 1941 when the Japanese bombs fell, though I don't remember much about the attack after one of them hit our ship. In fact, I don't remember anything until about Christmas of 1941 due to my injuries; the guys who pulled me off the Pensy almost gave me up for dead. I went on to serve in the navy until 1945, earning seven campaign ribbons and the purple Heart. this letter is not about me though. It's about the arizona memorial museum association; an organization that needs the help, now more than ever, of people like you. I volunteer my time at the memorial because I believe that people should know how it felt to be here 63 years ago. I want to help people see that history is not just about things you read in books or see in movies. the history here at pearl Harbor is about the people who sacrificed their lives that day, and the people who lived to tell about it. a unique connection develops between the past and the present when someone like me can bring it to life. When a child hears me talk, I can see the history of this special place come alive in their eyes. I'd like to ask you now to take a minute to consider lending us a hand. Your membership donation can help in a lot of ways. But mostly, it helps to keep a time that changed my life, and the lives of so many, from becoming just another chapter in a book.
Please send a Gift Membership to: _____________________________________________________ Name (please print)
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everett Hyland pearl Harbor survivor
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The Arizona Memorial Museum Association is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Your membership donation may be tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.
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Address
1 Arizona Memorial Place Honolulu, Hawaii 96818