Stagman
Master
My Paw Paw is a WWII veteran and my personal hero. He turned 18 in Feb 1945 got drafted and was in uniform in May 1945, he was going to be part of a D-Day type invasion in Japan before they decided to drop the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 1945. He sailed on the W.A. Mann to Japan and was boots on the ground in Nagasaki on Thanksgiving morning in 1945. The stories he has told me are amazing and he is still alive today and my Grandma waited on him until he got home to marry him and they celebrated their 69th wedding anniversary on April the 5th of this year. Every time is see him I am picking his brain on his time in the service. He was telling me stories about how well fortified the Japanese were, the had airports in mountains,they would land in one side and take off through the other side. They would find caves full of guns and ammo and he made a wooden box and put a Japanese Arasaka with the bayonette and 2 Japanese Swords in there, mailed it home never thinking it would make it but it did and he still has it along with a disarmed pineapple grenade (I have to ask next time how he got that). He was stationed in Sasebo, Japan which near to Nagasaki and he was part of the Army engineers and they built the roads and bridges. He always jokes that the Marines bragged about being the first in an area when his group of engineers built the roads and bridges for them to go in there. There is stories he has told me about the terrible smell of dead bodies, the railroad tracks curled up like coil springs from the heat the bombs produced. He also toured Hiroshima and Tokyo while there, I need to make recording of these conversations being he is 89 years old, if I don't I will regret it. Next time I go to his house I will take picture of the Arasaka, swords, grenade and post them here. I will also try to post more stories that I have because it is fascinating to me. Also he said dropping the bombs saved a lot of American live because it would have been a dog fight because of how well fortified the Japanese were. More stories to come, I'm tired of typing for now.