The Things Our Fathers Saw—The Untold Stories of the World War II Generation From Hometown, USA-Volume I: Voices of the Pacific Theater

by Matthew Rozell

  [43] Supplemental information from “Memorial Day- Three Wars, Three Vets Remember”. Writings From Main Street, https://dadoonan.wordpress.com, May 17, 2007.

  [44]Islands of the Damned

  The chapter title was inspired by R.V. Burgin’s World War II Marine memoir of the same name.

  Berry, Henry. Semper Fi, Mac: Living Memories of the U.S. Marines in World War II. New York: Arbor House, 1982.

  [45] Carola, Chris. “US Survivors of WWII Battle Recall Saipan Attack.” Associated Press. July 6, 2014.

  [46] O’Brien, Francis. Battling For Saipan. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003. xi.

  [47] Interview with John A. Sidur. Interviewed by Wayne Clarke, New York State Military Museum, October 1, 2010. Due to the loss of records, John Sidur was not awarded a Purple Heart for his actions on Saipan, but would receive one for suffering a wound at Okinawa the following year. He passed away in 2015 at the age of 97.

  [48] Interview with Nicholas H. Grinaldo, Interviewed by Michael Aikey, New York State Military Museum, September 26, 2001. Nick Grinaldo passed away in 2012 at the age of 92.

  [49] Carola, Chris. “US Survivors of WWII Battle Recall Saipan Attack.” Associated Press. July 6 2014.

  [50] Miller, The Story of World War II. 379.

  [51] Interview with Joseph Fiore. Interviewed by Katelyn Mann, Jan. 13, 2004. In his civic activities, Joe Fiore worked with many veterans organizations. He was instrumental in the establishment of the local chapter of the Marine Corps League, and with the help of many of the Marines in the book, began the annual “Toys For Tots” Christmas drive for underprivileged children. Joe Fiore passed away in May 2015 at the age of 92.

  [52] Dan Lawler visited my classroom several times. Lawler’s reminisces for this book were also recorded and analyzed by Kristyn Wagner in an interview she did on Dec. 4th, 2005 at his home. As a side note, Lawler remembered an incident as they were preparing to land at Peleliu that reminded him of home: “As we left for this island, I boarded a landing ship. There wasn’t enough room in the mess hall for all of us, so we ate our meals topside. One afternoon while eating lunch, a friend of mine hollered to me if I was from New York, and I said, ‘Yes!’ He then asked if I knew where ‘Hudson Falls’ was. This big machine that we were sitting on was made at the Sandy Hill Iron and Brass Co.; there was a nameplate on the side. It was a big winch. My father helped make this machine! I asked a sailor what it was used for, and he said that after the ship has unloaded, this winch, which was attached to the anchor, would pull the ship off the beach.” Dan passed away at the age of 90 in September, 2015.

  [53] Hough, Frank O. The Seizure of Peleliu. USMC Historical Monograph. Historical Branch, G-3 Division, Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps. 94.

  [54] John Murray was evacuated and later awarded the Purple Heart at a hospital in San Diego. A Glens Falls Post-Star clipping dated Jan. 13, 1945, indicates he was wounded at ‘Palau Island in the South Pacific area.’ This is technically incorrect, but not surprising. Little was known about the battle for Peleliu back home at the time it was being fought, and it was soon overshadowed by larger campaigns. Hearing the division commander’s pronouncement that the operation would take three days at the most, few of the press corps were on the scene, many opting to travel with MacArthur to the long-awaited re-conquest of the Philippines. John’s narrative has been excerpted from a private account written in 1995. He passed away in 1998.

  [55]Taken from a series of classroom interviews with Dan Lawler and James Butterfield over several years, beginning in May 2000.

  [56]Captivity—Year 3: The Hellships

  “Defenders of the Philippines.” Hellships.

  http://philippine-defenders.lib.wv.us/html/hellships.html.

  [57] Blakeslee, Robert B. Unpublished interview conducted in 1945. Robert Blakeslee passed away in 1976. His daughter Nancy Blakeslee Wood recently discovered a collection of her mother’s letters, which were always marked ‘Returned to Sender’, and also his postcards which amounted to a short checklist regarding his health status and what he could receive from her in the camps, but never did.

  [58] Burr, Patten. “John Parsons, Local GI, Recounts Jap Tortures”, The Glens Falls Post-Star, Jan. 30, 1946.

  The Sands of Iwo Jima

  The chapter title was inspired by the famous film of the same name.

  [59] Walter Hammer, nicknamed “Sledge” by his buddies, went on to receive the Silver Star for his brave actions under fire at Iwo Jima, which he did not bring up in our conversations. He passed away in 2008 at the age of 83.

  [60] Interview with Sanford Berkman. Interviewed by Michael Russert and Wayne Clarke for the New York State Military Museum, September 26, 2007. Also, incidental information gleaned from Murphy, Tyler, “WWII Marine commander recalls wounds of Iwo Jima”, The Altamont Enterprise, July 31, 2013.

  [61]Art LaPorte was interviewed on many occasions for this project, both at his home and at classroom symposiums for this project. Mary Lee Bellosa and Heather Aubrey worked on the Oct. 1998 interview I conducted. He was also interviewed by David Elliot on Jan. 9, 2004. Like many World War II veterans, LaPorte would go on to serve in Korea, sustaining additional wounds there.

  [62] Interview with Herbert Altshuler. Herb enjoyed giving freely of his time to our high school students and was interviewed on several occasions. Interviewed by Marissa Huntington, Jan. 8, 2012; Mark Ostrander, Fall, 2008; Britneigh Sipowitz, Dec. 18, 2010. I also interviewed Herb in 2009.

  [63]World War II: Time-Life Books History of the Second World War. New York: Prentice Hall, 1989.

  [64]Captivity—Year 4: The Copper Mine

  Source: Minder, Joseph G. World War II Diary of Joseph G. Minder, 1941-1945.

  This particular mine was owned by the Kajima Corporation. “Working condition were dangerous and mistreatment a daily occurrence. Most slave labor was for the Fujita-gumi Construction Company.” Source: “Hanaoka Sendai #7-B”, Center for Research, Allied POWS Under the Japanese. www.mansell.com/pow_resources/camplists/sendai/sendai_07_hanuoka/hanaoka_7_b.html.

  A Rain of Ruin

  The chapter title is inspired by President Harry S Truman’s Aug. 6, 1945 admonition that the Japanese would face a "rain of ruin from the air" if they did not surrender.

  Miller, The Story of World War II. 441,448.

  [65] Doty, Andrew. Backwards Into Battle: A Tail Gunner’s Journey in World War II. Palo Alto: Tall Tree Press, 1995. Used with author permission. I have enjoyed corresponding with Andy Doty, a graduate of my alma mater. After the war he married his high school sweetheart, Eleanor Baker, daughter of the local druggist, and raised three girls, settling in Palo Alto, California, and retiring as Director of Community Affairs for Stanford University.

  [66] Miller, The Story of World War II. 458-61.

  [67]The Kamikazes

  “MacArthur's Speeches: Radio Message from the Leyte Beachhead”, American Experience: MacArthur www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/macarthur/filmmore/reference/primary/macspeech03.html

  [68] Miller, The Story of World War II. 415.

  [69] Miller, The Story of World War II. 416.

  [70] Crossing the ‘T’ illustration, Stephan Brunker 2004. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

  [71] Interview with Alvin Peachman, June 16, 2003. Interview by Matthew Rozell. Al Peachman turned 93 in March 2015. My interview conducted with him at his home occurred 25 years after having had him as my high school history teacher.

  [72]Typhoon of Steel/Okinawa

  Interview with Bruce Manell. Interviewed by Kayla Cronin, Dec. 18, 2003. Bruce Manell enjoyed a renowned career in area law enforcement, retiring as Deputy Chief of Police in the Hudson Falls Police Dept. He passed away in 2009.

  [73]Interview with James Butterfield. Interviewed by Matthew Rozell, Veterans’ Symposium, May 29, 2001. Sara Prehoda and Jackie Quarters helped with the transcription.

  [74]Classroom interview with Dan Lawler and James Butterfield. Interviewed by Matthew Rozell, Nov. 24, 2003.

  [75]
Interview with Katherine Abbott. Interviewed by Elizabeth Conley, January 11, 2007. After the service, Ms. Abbott worked for Albany Veterans Hospital as an RN. She passed in Dec. 2007 at the age of 90.

  [76]Sloan, Bill, The Ultimate Battle −Okinawa 1945 −The Last Epic Battle of World War II. New York: Simon & Schuster. 2007. 257.

  [77] This segment was taken from a classroom interview with Dan Lawler, James Butterfield, and Mary Butterfield on Jan. 11, 2007. Elizabeth Maziejka did work on the transcription.

  [78]Miller, The Story of World War II. 151.

  [79]Redemption

  “Operation Downfall”, American Experience: Victory in the Pacific. PBS. www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/pacific-operation-downfall/

  [80] Hillenbrand, Laura. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. New York: Random House, 2010. 198-199.

  [81]Interview with John Norton. Interviewed by Troy Belden, Jan. 15, 2008. Mr. Norton returned home in 1946, and later served as Granville’s mayor.

  [82] This incident is confirmed at “Hanaoka Sendai #7-B”, Center for Research, Allied POWS Under the Japanese. www.mansell.com/pow_resources/camplists/sendai/sendai_07_hanuoka/hanaoka_7_b.html. Joe Minder’s name can also be found on the POW roster there.

  [83]Interview with Admiral Stuart S. Murray, U.S. Naval Institute Oral History interview, 1974. “USS Battleship Missouri Memorial”, https://ussmissouri.org/learn-the-history/surrender/admiral-murrays-account.

  [84]Interview with Joseph Marcino. Interviewed by Brooke Goff, Dec. 17, 2004. Joe Marcino joined the Marines after graduating from Whitehall High School and was awarded the Bronze Star for bravery under fire at the battle of Iwo Jima. He went on to become a celebrated and much loved football coach and athletic director. He passed away in 2014 at the age of 91.

  [85] Sides, Hampton. Ghost Soldiers: The Forgotten Epic Story of World War II's Most Dramatic Mission. New York: Doubleday, 2001. 329.

  Resurrection

  [86] Ralph Leinoff was interviewed on various occasions. He developed close relationships with his student interviewers and his remembrances throughout this book were from interviews with Jillian Casey, Dec. 7, 2010; Matthew Dumas, Jan. 7, 2009; Matthew Rozell, Jan. 14, 2009; and John Trackey, Jan. 2, 2010. In the interview with Jillian Casey, Jillian noted the following : “At the time the bombs were dropped, Mr. Leinoff had four landings in the Pacific and he said he ‘wasn’t looking to do a fifth one.’ He stated that [in 1945] he didn’t care what happened to the Japanese. I wasn’t expecting what followed: ‘Since then, I have questioned—I don’t have answers—I have questions about the way it was done, why we had to do it.’ ” After the war, Ralph spent 27 years in the service of the New York City Fire Department. He passed away in 2014 at the age of 91.

  [87]Interview with Walter Hooke. Interviewed by Anthony Rosa, Jan. 9, 2008. Walter Hooke was born in 1913 and joined the Marine Corps in 1942. Serving in Nagasaki with the occupation forces solidified a passion to work for peace. He became close to the Catholic Bishop of Nagasaki, Paul Yamaguchi, and returning home, became a vocal advocate for the National Association of Radiation Survivors. He was also instrumental in lobbying legislators for benefits for the Atomic War Veterans; he thought the decision to use the atomic bombs had been misguided and wrong. He passed away in 2010 at the age of 97. An admirer noted on his passing, “I regret that I shall not hear again, Walter's intoning on the answering machine, ‘Have a gentle day.’ ”

  [88] Hermes, Hudson Falls High School Yearbook, 1942. A version of this chapter first appeared in the Glens Falls Chronicle for Memorial Day, 2013. Mark Frost, the editor, later followed up with a note on the passing of Mrs. Nickie Piscitelli, the late owner of a neighborhood mom and pop grocery store in our small town: “1941 was Mike’s Grocery’s first year in business. [Following the article’s publication], Nickie told me that the Holmes family lived around the corner from the store. She said Randy’s mother came by that day, and when the news came on the radio that the USS Oklahoma had been bombed (Nickie pointed to where the radio had been on the shelf), Mrs. Holmes said, ‘My son is on that ship.’”

  [89] “World War II-Valor in the Pacific National Monument”. National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. http://www.nps.gov/valr/faqs.htm

  [90] In late July 2015, as this book went to press, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency began the exhumations of the 388 unidentified victims at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu. Modern forensics should help with the identifying of 80% of the crew. See http://bit.ly/USSOkie.