Letters From World War II

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Letters From World War II

By The Associated Press

August 4, 2005, 2:47 AM EDT

Excerpts from Navy Lt. Thomas O. Paine's letters to his parents:

* About the war's end

Aug. 16, location unspecified

"Nobody can believe it, nobody can really comprehend it -- but the war is over. We are as taken aback by peace as we were by war. This place is in an uproar of celebration and confusion. Orders follow orders, conflicting, superseding, canceling. We thank God, each of us, that we've returned from our last war patrol now and are safely through the darn thing. We sing `Hail, Hail the Gang's All Here,' and soberly think that some of the gang are not here and will never be."

* About his duty in Japan shortly after the U.S. attacked Hiroshima and Nagasaki with atomic bombs:

Oct. 7, 1945, from submarine tender USS Euryale off Sasebo, Japan, south of Nagasaki:

"Since all records and town officials are gone, 80,000 (dead) is just the estimate of other people. The exact total will never be known. They are still dying, of burns and other manifestations, though there is no radiation anymore. I have been told that the Nagasaki bomb is now obsolete, and that a third, more powerful bomb has been produced. The fight was all knocked out of the (Japanese) in that area, and none of the expected resentment was found, only wonder that the Americans, who had beaten them already, should have done that.

"Well, I can't judge a thing like that. Perhaps if the war had gone on I wouldn't have been so lucky, and thus my life would have been saved by it. Let's hope so; it makes it much easier to think about it if you look at it that way."

Oct. 23, from USS Euryale anchored in Hiro Wan (Harbor) outside Kure, south of Hiroshima:

"This anchorage is an interesting one. I'll tell you some of the sights. A few thousand yards off our port quarter the battleship Hyuga is sitting in bitter defeat on the bottom, with her main deck awash. ... Going through the Ondo Narrows toward Kure we pass the battered battleship Ise to port, lying on the bottom with a heavy list to starboard, in about 35 feet of water, and the remains of a heavy cruiser to starboard with a large port list. On the rocks, possibly a Mogami (a class of cruisers). Several carriers with battered flight decks are in sight and across the bay the much sunk Haruna BB (battleship) lies burnt out, but afloat, I believe. The dockyards lie to starboard as we enter Kure Wan, and twisted steel and blackened areas bear witness to the destructive effects of air power. ... A pillar of smoke from the corner of the dockyard marks the position of a coal pile which has been burning, despite all efforts to put it out, since the raid by B-29s early in June.

"Inside Kure Wan lie about 20 destroyers, with guns removed. ... The town of Kure lies before us, with the middle 80 percent of the town as level as a golf course, completely burnt out by B-29s. Over the hill lies an enormous scar on the face of the earth, where 100,000 people lived in a place called Hiroshima a few months ago.

"Well, we said we'd make them regret Pearl Harbor -- and we did.

"See you all soon, I hope. Love, Tom"

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