Devil at My Heels - Louis Zamperini [91]
The magazine shed light on a story we’d all heard maybe two weeks earlier when the guard whose coat I’d first tailored took me aside and said, “A terrible thing happened in a city called Hiroshima.” I’d never heard of Hiroshima. He said, “Epidemic of cholera broke out, so Hiroshima is off limits. No one can come in or come out. No one can call on the phone.”
I thought, Gee, that’s terrible. Here’s a whole city quarantined with an epidemic. The war’s not bad enough, and these people are dying from cholera?
Now we all knew what had really happened.
I think the camp was silent for half an hour, contemplating the unavoidable horror, and what the world might be like if we used these bombs again.
We also found a message inside that supplies would soon be dropped by parachute.
The first delivery was a big bag of shoes. I got a pair and some socks. Unfortunately, the package crashed through the barracks roof, killing one man and injuring two others. That stuff came down hard, and I realized the drop had to be made outside the compound. I organized a crew and, using lime, wrote DROP HERE with a big arrow pointing at a rice paddy.
On September 2, 1945, the day Japan officially surrendered, most of our supplies were delivered. I was duty officer. A B-29 brought the goods. First it made a pass at about one thousand feet, searching for a drop target. Though we had POW on the roof and DROP HERE near the paddy, the letters probably looked quite small from the air. On the next pass, the plane was at maybe eight hundred feet. Their forward bomb bay opened and disgorged a parcel, which landed in the paddy. Even though I’d discussed safety, the men rushed out of the buildings. I frantically waved them back. I tried to keep everyone inside because even with parachutes, the platforms made a dent a foot deep. The bomber circled again, came in for another drop, and, once I’d cleared the area, released its load. One eager Japanese farmer darted out anyway and got flattened.
The B-29 made a final pass at about five hundred feet, rocking its wings. I stood in the open, waving my shirt, and when I looked up I saw the pilot’s face as he banked. He saw me, too. I remember thinking how I’d love to meet that guy and his crew. Maybe he said the same to himself, wondering about me, where I came from, how I got there.
Lots of crazy stories come out of a war, and this is one. A couple of years later a friend of the pilot, Byron W. Kinney, heard me interviewed on Ted Malone’s radio show on ABC. She recognized my tale because Kinney had told her his story of dropping supplies in northern Japan, at a camp near Naoetsu. He’d remembered the soldier below, waving his shirt, and the look that passed between them. She called Kinney, who wrote to Malone and got my address. When I got his letter we exchanged information that proved that I was the guy on the ground.
Here’s part of my letter to him:
Your letter is very interesting especially since every word of it is true…
We had a total of seven hundred men in the camp at the time, including two-hundred-seventy-five Australians. Most of the Wake Is. boys were sent in the last five months. Your description of the camp was right including the drawing and the bridge. I heard your plane when you passed over the first time. You were quite high. During your first drop I was organizing a group to pick up the stuff when a bunch of enlisted men broke loose and ran for the food. I had to get them back for fear of a second drop. You gave us a real thrill when you buzzed the camp. It was more appreciated than the food, especially for the Air Corps men. We were a filthy looking lot, but the happiest men in the world…. For the first time we felt like real Americans again. It made us feel that our sufferings were all worth it…
A few Navy TBF’s came in off battleships or carriers a few days before you fellows did. They could only drop enough stuff for a taste…. Your ship was the first to drop enough food to feed the entire camp and give the fellows more smokes than they could handle…
I’m very glad you contacted me for