1929
Lt. Herb Ball, Gunnery Officer on the U.S.S. Teton AGC 14, was 72 days off Okinawa. For that job he has been recommended for the Bronze Star. The following letter, written September 2, is so good that it speaks for itself:
The peace is signed. I just stood less than an arm s length from MacArthur as he returned from signing the peace. It was a thrill of a life time. We are tied up at a dock at Yokohama, a half mile from General MacArthur's headquarters. We are his communication headquarters. We also are the headquarters for the communications coming from the Missouri to the world, but I'm getting ahead of my story, which is the God's truth, though that I should be in on it seems like a dream.
in Manila one day we received orders to be prepared to take General MacArthur and his staff aboard and sail for Japan. Rear Admiral Hall and his staff were aboard and summarily, though they fought to stay aboard, were transferred to a troop transport and we waited for the big boys. Came a change in plans and it was decided that we would carry all MacArthur's signal corps outfit for him and be his source of communications back to the outside world. We left hurriedly one fine day and sped to Okinawa at our fastest speed. I managed to get ashore for two hours and it was a different Okinawa than when I last left it—the Navy had taken over a good deal of the Island and it was just another navy base. The Army had turned the rest of the island into tremendous airfields and. a staging area for troops getting ready for the invasion of Japan.
From Okinawa the next stop was Sagami Wan, the large bay outside of Tokyo. We arrived to find the Missouri on one side and the lowa on the other. There we were just four ships, because the Age-4, the Ancon carrying a hundred newspaper correspondents was then with us. Circled around us were aircraft carriers, British, Dutch, and American men of war of all kinds. The next morning we were to move into Tokyo Harbor which is navigable only as far as Yokohama. The next morning we moved in, the lowa, the Missouri and us, led by the San Diego. Right smack up to the great Yokosuaka Naval base.
The ships dropped anchor and I got my men ready. But of course I'm getting ahead of my story. Late the night before I had been called to the Executive Officer's office and told that I was to furnish two tough gunners' mates who were crack shots and an officer who was a crack shot. I had the two men and I convinced the Executive that I was an expert pistol shot and had qualified on the carbine, rifle and Sub-machine gun. Our mission was to guard a detail of Signal officers who were to make a dash by jeep to Yokohama and meet some airborne troops and both take over the Japanese communications system. With us were some of MacArthur's omnipresent photographers, because we also were a photo laboratory for the still and movie pictures being made.
So immediately two boats were put over the side in a pouring rain and two jeeps with trailers attached were put in the boats.
We piled into the boats with our gear Thompson sub machine guns otherwise known as "Tommy guns" and lots of extra clips of ammunition. We hit the beach just as the Marines were landing The Jap naval base was deserted. We found a large building high on a knoll overlooking the harbor and Admiral Halsey had just arrived to take it over as his headquarters. Seamen were raising his four star blue flag on the flag pole, topped by our colors. I was riding in the front seat of the first jeep driven by the Colonel with my Tommy gun at the ready—but there was no sniping. We met a truck load of correspondents who were anxious to find the road to Yokohama. In the truck were the cream of the war correspondents. I recognized some friends whom I met when they were on board at Okinawa We found the road and set off at 40 miles an hour toward Yokohama.
A gunner's mate rode on each trailer, ready for whatever might happen. The road was full of holes and puddles and as we sped along we all acquired a coating of mud and slime. People stood and looked at us, but made no movement toward us. We kept going, and as we approached Yokohama each street corner had two to three Japanese policemen in full uniform, cape and sword, standing guard. Each one saluted or bowed from the hips. So instead of returning the fire of Japs we found ourselves returning the salutes with proper military courtesy. Then we came to sections of Yokohama where there was nothing standing. All that remained was the tile from roofs, and ashes. When the B-29's said they burned out an area, they really meant it. This was the industrial area and the small sweatshops where munitions and war materials were made in homes. Still no resistance. Some of the people turned their backs on us, others just looked and the kids were peeking out of windows. We had a radio set in the jeep and we kept in touch with the ship. The colonel drove and every once in a while the radio man would hand him the handset phone and he would talk to the ship and give them dope information on what we were finding. We also received instructions via the airborne troops who radioed to the ship, and then it was transmitted to us.
We entered the city and met the airborne troops who had landed the night before and were just coming into the city. They were armed with folding machine guns and were a tough lot of hombres. We had a map and drove to the New Grand hotel where MacArthur's headquarters was being set up.
We drew up in front of the hotel just as the airborne troops were taking it over. His guard of honor that acts as a body guard were lined up in front with fixed bayonets, spic and span, and out we piled, covered with Japanese mud. We found the General we wanted. We got our orders and went to the Customs House which was being taken over as communications center. It housed the nerve center of communications. We went in, took over, and then Mac Arthur arrived and sent us a secret message with orders to take it back to the ship, code it and send it out via our facilities, and some other things to do, such as to bring our ship into the city as close to his headquarters as possible. We jumped in our jeeps and started back. We saw plenty, even though it was a fast trip. The people were shabbily dressed. The stores are empty because they have either hidden what little they have or have been so busy they haven't had time to work on civilian gifts, and goods. Some little resistance from fanatics had developed in Tokyo which is five miles from here, just across the bay, and the troops were moving in. The harbor was filled with transports bringing men in full battle equipment in for landings.
Our boats were commandeered to bring prisoners from the prisoner camps to the hospital ships standing out near us. Our boat crews worked day and night for two days on this mission and then collapsed from fatigue and the horror of looking at prisoners as they limped or were carried aboard, emaciated skeletons, covered with sores, with marks and wounds from the beatings they received. They cried when they were carried aboard and it made us so mad we felt like going in and cleaning out the place. Some were killed when B-29's dropped supplies to them and they ran out to get the supplies only to be hit by them. They all were full of tales of Jap beastiality.
On the trip back to Yokosuka base the people had seen more troops come in since we came in. There had been a slow movement of troops in behind us and they were put out on the streets. The street cars were running, the electric interurbans were running and they were carrying on as usual. We arrived back at the base, and it was still pouring. We had no food and found some Marines who shared their K rations with us. They were in a blacksmith shop cooking bacon and coffee over the forge. Outside was a latrine that stunk to high heaven and overall was 'Jap Smell,' once having smelled it you can never forget it. Our boats finally arrived and we loaded our jeeps and returned to the ship.
We did fire. On the way back as we rounded a turn in the road we came to a cliff facing the harbor and stopped to radio the ship because the facilities were so much better there. "We took our guns and fired at seagulls, bottles in the water and a few shots over the tops of some houses to let them know we would shoot if it were necessary.
Back to the ship we upped anchor and with a Jap pilot aboard we came into the breakwater in front of the Customs House. It is the pier where the large Japanese steamships used to tie up in civilian days of peace. We have a gangway that was used by the Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK) and a brow from the Osaka Shosen Kaisha Line (OSK), both well known lines. Yokohama is the port city for Tokyo and this is the finest pier. Across the pier yesterday morning three destroyers tied up; all had received the Presidential citation for action. They put out their gangways and the airborne troops who are guarding the pier wrth our men and who are quartered in one of the large buildings on. the pier where passengers' baggage used to be examined, went over to make conversation. They said that they would take the peace delegates out to the Missouri for the signing. Last evening I went through one of the warehouses on the pier that has approximately three hundred or more large sacks of mail. It is marked with the Red Cross seal of the Swiss Red Cross and are packages for prisoners sent from the U. S. and never delivered. It has been lying there since 1942 as the postmarks on the packages show. This is typical of the Japanese. It is irritating to find regular Japanese Army troops turning their backs on our soldiers.
This morning at 5:45 Mac Arthur's army band came down to the pier and formed right along our ship. From then on newspapermen from all nations began to arrive. Australian, Chinese, Russians in their colorful uniforms with much gold on the shoulder boards. All nations were represented. I was in charge of the security of the pier so had a free run of the pier and mixed among all. Then an honor guard of Japanese officers ar rived. They looked just like the comic opera Japs and several were of the killer type, butchers to be exact. Their uniforms were comic opera. They were in very shoddy condition. The Russians arrived in a blaze of color, the Chinese were magnificent in well tailored uniforms, the Australians swaggered in and the British Admirals and generals were a blaze of color and with ruddy complexions that looked as if they had popped off an English Christmas card. The American delegation began to arrive, Doolittle, Wainwright Kenny, Spaatz, and dozens of names that had formerly been just something I read in the newspapers and saw their photos in Life.
Two-star Generals stood aside to make room for the higher ranking officers. Then MacArthur made his entrance, but only after the Jap envoys had boarded another destroyer. The Jap envoys were half military and naval and half civilian The civilian representative was a Prince of the Royal family with a game leg. Their morning suits and silk hats looked as though they had been in moth balls for twenty years. The Prince's hat brim was warped. The Admirals and Generals still strutted a bit, and their faces were masks with just enough of a smirk to make one feel like rushing over and wiping it off with a good roundhouse punch.
So with several hundred airborne men, picked because they were over six feet, lining both sides of the pier, the great man arrived clad in a rain coat. He got out of the car slowly, looked around at nothing at all and gave the newsreel cameramen plenty of time to "shoot" him. The entire party passed right by me as I stood at the end of the gangway. Probably you can pick me out in the newsreels; anyway I'm there. About two hours later, the three destroyers returned and unloaded the same colorful display. The Russians hung around, traded cigarettes with us. I gave one to a general and got one in return Truly it was a meeting of all nations. The destroyers pulled out and an English Cruiser came in with its crew in white shorts while we shivered in coats.- More troops were coming in from the harbor-load of ships.
It was amusing to see the Chinese, Russian and American newsreel photographers stop their cameras when the major generals and brigadier generals started to come down the gangway. That wasn't enough rank to photograph. .... Yesterday Nimitz and Halsey arrived on our pier and something was fouled up because they had no one to meet them and one of our officers escorted them on foot in the rain to G.H.Q. I'll bet someone lost their head for that.
I feel that I was fortunate to have a front seat at this piece of history in the making. The ride into Yokohama was a treat even if I couldn't "get me a Jap."
General Wain wright was impressive. Tall, thin, grey with a pallor that showed his captivity contrasted to the color of the men who had been in the field. It was a great day.
Since I have written the above I have had another treat; really this is my lucky week. At dinner I received a request addressed to the ship from a major general via the Rear Admiral, who is Mac Arthur's liaison man. He wanted 9 metal containers that were water tight and I had just the thing. I had 9 empty containers for 5" powder charges. I had five men clean them out and I took fifty sheets of lens tissue (used for cleaning binoculars). I marched the detail up from the pier. We passed truck after truck of soldiers. The usual greeting shouted from the truck was "Hey, have any ice cream in those cans." We joshed them back and continued to the New Grand Hotel. Marched in the lobby and found it full of generals. To my surprise I found that General Headquarters had been moved to the Custom House and the hotel was now quarters for officers of the rank of general only. A major general in the lobby stopped me and said, "Have you ice cream in those cans?". I smiled and told him, "General, that is just what all the soldiers have been asking." He said, "I wish I had some ice cream, all we had for dinner tonight was some damn fish.
From there I took the detail several blocks to the Customs House and found the proper office. The Colonel in charge of the office was pleased as punch with the containers. He turned to my blue jackets who were dressed in their sea uniform of blue dungarees, blue shirts and round blue hats. They were none too clean because they had been working all day, and he said, "The Navy has really come through for us and I appreciate what you have done, so I guess you should have a look at the surrender documents." The nine cans were for the nine copies of the surrender documents, one for each of the signing powers. Two original were made, one for Japan and one for the U. S. Thr surrender document was brought out, spread the table and the five bluejackets and myself on jed around to look at a document that had t to reach the President, the King of England, the President of China. Truly a democracy is eat when it lets five ordinary sailors and an Officer crowd around and read carefully that historic document. It was a treat. The Colonel pointed out that the French delegates signed only his last name. Some delegates attached their full rank and MacArthur just signed his name.
THE INTERESTED LISTENER to Dick Rendell's earnest discourse is Senator Tom Connally. The '28 man's talk with the Senator occurred at Hamilton Field on the day of President Truman's arrival at the United Nations Conference in San Francisco.
THE DARTMOUTH CLUB OF MT. MCKINLEY meets at Wonder Lake in the Mt. McKinley National Park. Major Bob McKennan '25, left, representing the Arctic Desert and Tropic Branch of the AAF, and Major Frank Foster '29, representing the Air Surgeon's Office, were among the party which camped near the mountain for two months to try out the latest developments in emergency camp equipment of both the Air Corps and the Quartermaster Corps. Bob is now in the College sociology department.
A PLEASANT INTERLUDE in the business of occupying Germany is enjoyed by Lt. Coi. Kel Clow '30, center, and some of his fellow officers. A commander of a tank battalion during the historic final three weeks of the European War, Kel is now with the occupation forces of the 12th Armored.
Secretary, 75 Federal St., Boston, Mass. Treasurer, Batten, Barten, Durstine & Osborn 383 Madison Ave., New York, N. Y.
