MY BIRTHDAY GIFT

January 9, 1945. By the time the troop transport Sea Swallow arrived in the Lingayen Gulf, on the northeast coast of Luzon, Philippine Islands with 6,000 men— a small portion of the American 6th Army—the Emperor of Japan, whose subjects revered as a god, concluded that maybe attacking Pearl Harbor back in 1941, wasn’t such a good idea after all.  

I will always feel grateful that President Truman probably saved my life, for I believe I was destined to be among those young men who were to land on one of the home islands of Japan.  

By August of 1945, General Douglas MacArthur had more than 100,000 personnel under his command and once again was in control of the thousands of islands spread across the Pacific Ocean.

On September 2, 1945, I received the best birthday present that any 18-year-old could possibly imagine. When the nuclear bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Emperor Hirohito told General Yamashita, head of the Japanese forces in the Philippines to surrender. The island of Leyte had already come back under U.S. control after MacArthur and Philippines President Quiriño had waded ashore in the surf, a landing craft’s door open behind them.

-– Phil Richardson, Editor