And some Marines wept.................

[Bob Wright]

As Memorial Day approaches, maybe this story is in order. It was told to me by my brother-in-law, my sister's husband. He served on Bouganville, Guam, and Iwo Jima during WW II. Though he still retained his Navy rating of Pharmacists Mate, he was Marine Infantry after Bouganville. He was granted emergency leave due to the impending death of his brother, and had reported back for duty.

"We were in formation on the dock waiting to board the troop ship. (San Diego or San Francisco, I don't remember which. bw) We were preparing for the invasion of Japan. The sergeant ordered "Right, Face!" and we were ready to file aboard the ship. He then ordered "Left, Face ~ At ease!" "They dropped a bomb on Japan and we're not going." Some of the men wept at that......"


In Memory of Johnny Nerren, Pharmacist Mate 2nd Class, 3rd, Marine Division.



Bob Wright

 

[sfhogman]

Something like that happened to my Dad...having served in the European theater, he was bound for Japan when all aboard felt the ship turning. A couple of guys went up on deck and sure enough, the ship was making a U-turn! A few minutes later the info came over the squawk box: Hiroshima had been nuked, and the Japanese were surrendering. Soon they were sailing through Golden Gate and docking at Fort Mason.

 

[DeletedMember275]

My father was already on Okinawa, preparing for the invasion. His relief cannot be imagined!

 

[blume357]

To this day many people will not understand what the impending invasion of Japan was going to be like.
Folks don't like it when I point out how many men Japan lost in the war.... the numbers are still staggering.

We actually by military standards lost the battle of Iwo Jima .... if you just go by casualties....

Japanese Casualties: 18-22,000 US Casualties: 26,000

Japan did exactly what they planned on that Island and many others.... pretty much fight to the last man.

 

[Mobuck]

Dad was in North Africa, Italy, and France. They were staging up for the transport to invade Japan also. One of Mom's Cousins was a Marine in the Pacific. In his later years, he suffered terribly from some sort of degenerative bone condition that left him bed fast. He had two Sons but neither lived close so after Dad died, I was called frequently to help.
He knew I'd seen some tough things and one day he related some of the really tough things that happened during those island invasions. Things he wouldn't/couldn't/didn't tell his own Sons about what he saw and did. I watched part of the movie about the conscious objector who became a medic and received the CMH for his actions in the Pacific and I had to stop because it mirrored what the old man had told me so closely.

 

[blume357]

I once saw an interview with the director Sam Fuller where he was talking about war and specifically combat.... of which he was in the deep of it in WWII... the movie The Big Red One is about the platoon he was in.... he said you could not actually show real combat in a movie.... of course this was before computer generated stuff....