USS
Ruticulus AK-113
Nagasaki,
Kyushu, Japan
Sunday,
September 23, 1945
Dear
Folks:
Here
it is Sunday, Holiday Routine again. Boy, does the time fly. It seems
as if it were only yesterday that I sat out here topside of the veranda
and wrote the last time. We've gotten mail twice this week and I've
my share, eight of them. The last one I got was mailed the 10th
of September, the same day we left Okinawa. A letter in twelve days.
That's not so bad.
Well,
to come to one of the two main topics I am to discuss (like they say
in the movies): yesterday I went on my first, and most likely, only
liberty in Nagasaki. The crew was divided into six sections and one
went every hour. Each tour lasted two hours. We went to the beach
and were put in trucks and given a tour of the city of Nagasaki. First
we visited the main part of the city. It wasn't, but is now, as it
wasn't hurt so much by the atomic bomb. The only activity you see
is people walking, going nowhere, it seems. Just walking.
Now
I now what they mean when they say, "a dead city." You remember
when I first described the place to you? About the city being in two
valleys going at right angles to each other from the harbor, with
a string of mountains between them? The smaller of the two, about
the same size and five or six times the population of Tecumseh, was
the first we visited. It was damaged of course by the concussion of
the atomic blast and also by two previous bombings. But the main part
of the place, in the other valley, about the size of Lincoln I would
say, and five or six times the population, was completely inundated.
The sight I saw from the top of the hill, over which it was approximated
the center of the blast, was a sight I hope my children, if I am so
fortunate, will never have to see, hear of, or ever think of. It was
horrible and when you get to thinking, unbelievable. To think that
a thirty-pound bomb the size of a basketball, exploding a thousand
feet in the air, could cause such a holocaust was simply unbelievable.
I shudder to think what these people underwent when the blast occurred.
A blast that literally dissolved their homes, family, friends and
any other material thing in the vicinity. A blast that pushed over
huge steel structures a mile and a half away as if they were made
of blocks. Now I can see what they mean when they say "Dead City."
A city with no buildings, no trees, no facilities, and no people.
All you see from the top of the hill is a ground covered with bricks,
burned wood, twisted and pushed over steel frames of buildings for
several miles in each direction. There is nothing for the people of
this "Dead City" to do but walk around and think, "What
manner of people would do such a thing to us, who are a peaceful,
courteous, and civilized people?" I wondered what they thought
when they looked at us as we were driving along. "Are these the
barbarians who did such a thing to us? What can we expect now that
we are at their mercy?" I only wish they could be made to suffer
a tenth of the atrocities that they performed on our men whom they
held prisoner. People can say these people are simple, ignorant of
the facts, or under a spell, but a nation cannot wage war as they
have without the backing of the majority of their people.
Such
a thing as I saw yesterday cannot be described in words. You have
to see it and I hope no one ever has to see such a thing again.
Well,
I found out that my enlistment expires next March. If I get out then
it'll just about be right. Here's hoping. Well, folk, I've got a couple
other letters to write before the movie. I'll see if I can't get another
letter off before next Sunday.
'Til
then,
Love,
Son
