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| USS James O'Hara, the ship that carried the 92nd Evac Hospital to Japan |
6 Oct. '45
Beloved,
What a merry-go-round! First we were going to anchor at Wakayama at 6 P.M. Then they decided to make it 6 A.M. tomorrow morning, so we turned around and went directly south for about 6 hours. Now we are going north again. But the worst part is, we may have to stay on board for 8 more days [it turned out to be more]! Words fail me. Why if that is true it will be downright criminal!
Supposedly, the Navy doesn't have the harbor swept - held up by the weather. I'll say no more for fear I'll scorch the paper. The sea has been smooth today. I've read and yawned and paced up and down. Such a life. We had a punk Dagwood picture this evening.
7 Oct. '45
So this is Japan! We are now well into the inland sea and are strung out single file, going along a wide buoyed lane. We should be at Wakayama in an hour. Golly but these are a rugged, rocky set of islands! They looked just like New Guinea from a distance. Closer up you can see the bare rock hill tops. There are lots and lots of small to tiny islands of rock. The high ranges are hidden in clouds. It is overcast with a downright chilly wind. Are the aspens turned already? I suppose they are.
8 Oct. '45
That was a good picture show but it had a sad ending. It was "The Woman of the Town" - a story of Bat Masterson and Dodge City. The heroine was killed in a gun fight.
We are quite comfortably situated, thank you! On this darn boat! The only time I'd want to be a sailor would be for shore duty! But it is better sitting here than in Lingayen Gulf.
It was cloudy and rainy all day. The water is quiet as a mill pond. There are shore parties of the crew going ashore every day for a few hours. We [the 92nd Evac] have to stay put. We will see enough later, I suppose. They claim we will pull right up to the dock at Nagoya.
Here is a good one. Last evening in a bull session about vacation spots, resorts, etc., I said that was the thing I liked about Colorado - that if I took an afternoon off, in just an hour I could be out in the wilds. With one breath, [Maj.] Joe D. [Davis] and [Warrant Officer Jim] Colvin (Californians, Beth adds) said, "What takes you so long in that place - you can just walk out, can't you?"
I kept busy all day. The work details were all changed to even up the work. It should go smoother this time for I'm keeping all the officers. The men have done a very good job. Decks are swept 4 times a day. Everything in the whole ship is swept and mopped once a day.
We saw several small Jap fishing boats today with 2-3 men in them. The boats are peculiarly shaped - sharp prow, heavy wood, and powered by a one cylinder engine. I've been reading some of Ibsen's plays. I enjoyed "The Doll House", thought "The Master Builder" a bit odd, and "Peer Gynt" absolutely crazy!
Oct.9, '45
You should see me - all tonsorialled fresh! We really are fortunate on this ship. They allow us lots of privileges. One of the soldiers has the use of the ship's officers' barber shop in the evenings to cut hair for the officers. We moved anchorage this noon getting ready for another typhoon. It is supposed to be passing about 100 miles from here. I'll be glad to get ashore. The typhoon season for these latitudes is supposed to be over, darn it! This will further delay our landing, I supposed. They say we will land at Nagoya on the 15th, but I'll bet we are delayed.
It has been chilly and rainy all day. When we moved this noon we saw 2 baby carriers [small aircraft carriers], 2 cruisers, a battleship and all kinds of destroyers. We moved about 2 miles. My new police detail is doing O.K. I may have [Warrant Officer Jim] Colvin stay behind to police the boat. I'm anxious to go ashore.
Oct. 10, '45
Last evening I thought that by this morning I could tell you what it was like to be in a typhoon. Thank goodness I can't though! It passed about 100 miles from us. We had a high wind all night with velocities up to 50 miles an hour, I guess, and the ship rolled and pitched a bit. But the report is that at Buckner Bay in Okinawa the velocity was 131 miles an hour and that a number of ships were lost, probably landing craft. So it goes. We are lucky but I suppose it will further delay our landing. We have been here 5 days now and it hasn't been all clear any of that time. It hasn't even been clear enough for me to take pictures of the shore line!
I read a few more of Ibsen's plays and now am reading "Oliver Wiswell" by Kenneth Roberts. It is most interesting in that it presents the Tory colonists' side of the [American] Revolution whereby Benedict Arnold is a fine fellow and Ben Franklin is a skunk and a roué!!
The police detail is running smoothly. Golly but I'm tired of this boat!
Oct. 11 '45
We were lucky in this typhoon. It passed 100 miles from here at 0300. I guess we had more wind than I thought. There's an anemometer in the ship's --- [Beth couldn't read his handwriting when she was transcribing his letters] and it showed up about 90 miles an hour. One of the ship's officers told me we dragged our anchor 3 times during the night, with the engines at full speed (ordinary cruising) ahead (77 revolutions a minute, maximum is 95). It is remarkable that the ship didn't pitch worse. The storms usually curve SE to NW, then back out to sea. If this one had done that it would have hit us squarely. I want to get off this thing before another comes along! We are still slated to leave here the 15th and to land the same day.
Now I have one of Frank Dobies books, "The Longhorn" [Gene's mother was very fond of westerns]. I've just started it. This evening we had a show "Tornado" It was a "drammer" [drama] of a southern Illinois coal mining town in which the tornado played a very small part!
This is the darnedest life. I usually get up[ between 6 and 6:30 - shower and shave and take a look at the weather. Breakfast is at 7. Then I read and loaf around till 9, when I start to think of the police detail - take a look around some of the decks. Inspection is at 10 which lasts about half an hour. I usually go thru the forward half of the boat (which contains most of our troops) with the Navy Lt. and one of the ship's doctors (there are 2). On the rounds they go thru the kitchen and bake shops so I have a look to see what we will have for dinner. Then I read till time for dinner at 12. Then I read till I start to get sleepy (usually by 1 or 2!). Then bunk fatigue until about 4. Sometimes I don't even get sleepy! Then more loafing and reading until supper about 5:30 and then more of the same. I've played a little chess. I figure that by the time I land, I'll have spent 2 1/2 months on board a ship since I got on at Frisco [it ended up being 101 days - more than 3 months!]
12 Oct. '45
They turned the heat on us today - literally! Yep, it was getting kinda chilly in our rooms! There was quite a strong wind and it was cold. But it did smell so good and fresh. I'm certainly glad to be out of the tropics. The latest word is that we will be delayed 3 days longer and won't land till the 18th. Of course that gives time enough for another typhoon which would delay it longer. There was an announcement in the Osaka paper that we landed on the 9th.
They are holding Jap language classes on board! I attended one and decided I didn't care for the stuff - I don't expect to stay that long!
13 Oct. '45
I just now came down from the boat deck where I went to look at the moon. It is about half full and fairly high in the west. It is beautiful across the water, with all the lights of the boats - red, white and green. There is scarcely a cloud in the sky. The air is quite chilly but there is no wind.
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| The Nagoya harbor from the deck of the USS James O'Hara |
Today I was looking at the shore thru the glasses [binoculars] for quite a while. It was beautifully clear and sunny all day. It was chilly this morning and chilly in the shade all day. I do like it that way for a change. There is one low range of hills quite close to us that could be anywhere in the mountains of Colorado - scattered timber (pines, I suppose) and brush and bare and rocky spots. The brush is turning various shades of brown. Huge steel towers of the electric line stretch over the hills in 2 different directions. NE of the area is a range of mountains that seems quite heavily timbered. The blue haze is all about them. For long distances up some of the hills are patches of terraces - all quite dark green. We can't see a thing of the town. There are about 25 or 30 huge, tall cement smoke stacks scattered in among the factory buildings.
Today was another lazy, useless day. There is a rumor around tonight that we may not land till the 24th. Honestly, it is criminal that the Army doesn't work things out better. If they wait long enough we will have another storm.
14 Oct. '45
Tomorrow evening I expect to have something interesting to write for a change! The C.O. of troops is allowing the Mess Officer and me to go ashore as a sort of reward for our efforts. We expect to leave about 7:30 and to arrive about 8, and return about 11:30. It should be interesting. I hope the sun is out. Today was another fine day. It looks as though we won't land for another 10 days, darn it.
All my love, Eugene
