Off Japan

One day everyone showered in preparation, and that night we made an "anti-shipping" sweep at the entrance to Tokyo Bay. We encountered no ships at all, just one submarine, who fired a green flare and made a crash dive. The green flair indicated it was one of ours. So that we didn't do this exercise for nothing, we bombarded a Japanese radar station and took it out. Then we retired at high speed eastward for the open sea.

The next morning Japanese kamakazi's were after us, and they hit a destroyer escort picket ship about 50 miles out. They also came after us, but we shot them down with anti-aircraft fire. (The pictures are in the Topeka book).

That is the only action I "saw", and I didn't even see it as I was in the radar repair shop. On another night, we passed within a few yards of a floating Jap mine. But neither did I see it.

Finally, the first atomic bomb was dropped. Tokyo Rose said that they too had the atomic bomb, but were going to use it on the 6th fleet. We didn't believe her, and were not worried about it. Then the second atomic bomb was dropped. Shortly thereafter, the emperor got on the radio and said "It may be said that a country does not have the right to commit hari-kari." And then Japan surrendered unconditionally, on condition that they keep their emperor. It was a good deal, because the emperor was then de-mystified, and de-deified. The royal family was no longer an object of worship, but became instead more like the royal family of England, a good model.

So there we were, still off the coast of Japan, still blackout at night, still running zig-zag course, just in case any Jap submarines had not gotten the word.

Then it hit: A really high powered typhoon. And we were trapped between it and the coast. So we had to ride it out, and in fact the eye of the typhoon passed right over us. We headed into the waves at an angle of about 45 degrees. If you head directly into them, you can snap the bow off, just as another ship did. If you put the ship parallel with the waves, you'll flip over very quickly. The waves were about 50 feet high, and the wind got so high it broke the annemometer. At one point we were only a few degrees from flipping over. At another dime during this ordeal, the bow went under, the screws (propellers) were in the air, and the whole ship just shook. But we made it O.K.

For myself, I was in the radar repair shop. But it only had one exit, which was a big iron hatch, dogged down and opened just a few feet from the lifeline. During the port rolls of the ship, that lifeline was underwater. I didn't feel comfortable with the situation, so I decided to make a change. Timing it carefully, I quickly undogged the hatch, stepped out, re-dogged the hatch, ran quickly to the ladder leading up to the communication deck and grabbed onto the ladder as the ship rolled back again.

I hung onto the ladder which was now more or less tilted over the water. When the ship righted momentarily on the way to rolling in the opposite direction, I quickly climbed the rest of the way up to the communicaiton deck, which is considerably above the water line. There were a number of us up there, yet we could look up and incoming waves and wonder, "How are we going to make this one?" We all had on life preservers.

It became "chow time", and we all went below decks to the chow hall, which was an unusable spectacle. All the tables and chairs were loose, and crashed first to one side of the hall, and then to the other side, as the ship rolled. It made quite a racket. However, the cooks rose to the occasion, and in the hallway leading to the chow hall, they gave us sandwiches.

The next morning, I looked over at the aircraft carrier Wasp, and the forward part of its flight deck was draped over the bow like a blanket!

Some time later, maybe the following week, it was a beautiful day, and we slowly passed a destroyer "parked" in the water while the crew was firing at a floating Jap mine, trying to hit one of its "horns" to explode it. As we went by, we just stood there watching, until we were starting to get into the line of fire, and so most of us quickly went around to the other siide of the gun turret. Good thing we did, because then there was a hugh explosion because they had succeeded in exploding the mine.

It must have been maybe almost a month after the end of the war that we entered Tokyo Bay, and had some shore liberty. We remained at anchor in the bay, and went ashore in a motor whaleboat. I wanted to get a lot of souvenirs, and so on the advice of others who already had gone ashore, I purchased abouot 20 packs of cigarettes. I managed to put 15 of them around my middle, secured by a fairly tight belt, and the other 5 were under my hat.

The operation was mainly quite a success, and I was able to get quite abit of money to buy souveniers. I had not quite expended my whole supply; I was the only US sailor in sight, and surrounded by a croud of Japanese potential customers, when, I heard from the croud a "sigh", and then I got a tap on my shoulder from behind, to be confroned with the US Navy Shore Patrol, who gave me the choice of "Come with them to headquarters, or else surrender your (contraband) cigarettes. Obviously I chose the later, and that was the end of my blackmarketing, and I continued my tour of Tokyo, occasionally buying a souvenier or two.

I had one afternoon in Tokyo and one afternoon in Yokahama, and I can't tell you what happened in which place. Both scenes were very similar. Both cities were nearly flattened; most blocks were rubble with bad smells. Yet the trolly cars ran regularly, and the people were not unfriendly.

Well, I guess I'll close for now, but I still have more to tell of what I saw there.