chapter 7 | for god and country
Destination Tokyo
Monday, August 20, 1945 We are underway at 1400 for some unknown destination. Speculation rife on what it will be.
Tuesday, August 21, 1945 This afternoon we catch up with a convoy of seven fat-bellied tankers and one PA [attack transport], whose escort duties we take over from the USS Makin Island. Destination still unknown. Morning meeting with speech by Executive Officer and Captain on opportunities for staying in the regular Navy. When show of hands was called for from 45 officer reservists on how many intended to stay in, not one raised his hand.
Wednesday, August 22, 1945 We are steaming on a course dead north off Iwo Jima where so many Marines paid the last full measure of devotion. Weather has happily taken a change for colder with the face of the ocean green again, exactly like the Atlantic. Waves are riding high with tremendous crests and deep troughs. Day is one of the roughest we have had but it is a normal Atlantic day. Some of the men are sick, but most are able to act like sailors, even though we are rolling and pitching a bit. Press release is full of information about conditions of surrender dictated by MacArthur. We only know that we shall be very close to the Island of Honshu.305 In case the Japs perpetrate a piece of treachery, we shall be on hand for action. The landing will be a full scale
invasion, with skies black with land-based and carrier planes, numberless combat transports, destroyers, battlewagons, cruisers, destroyer escorts, etc. A typhoon is brewing that grounds all our planes which have been flying anti-submarine patrol. Sea grows nasty, sullen clouds blot out the sun, waves increase to a mountainous size as we continue to plow north.
Friday, August 24, 1945 We are slowly steaming along behind the tail of one typhoon [Typhoon Ruth] and just ahead of the nose of another [Typhoon Susan]. Newscast reports that day of surrender has been postponed due to the fact that Tokyo airfield has been turned into a sea of mud by the typhoon which is hitting it. Our planes are lashed down with normal lines, plus four steel cables where there would normally be one. Such is the insurance against the effects of the typhoon. Wind is racing across the deck at a high speed and all hands are told to keep off flight deck forward of the barriers and away from the palisades which are perpendicular steel staves inserted in the security tracks on the deck to break the force of the wind as it howls into the planes lashed down topside. Looking out on the horizon, we discover that we have grown considerably since yesterday. Instead of eight ships, we now number 24, being increased by five other carriers, destroyers and destroyer escorts. Cruiser, Detroit, is command ship with an admiral aboard.
305 Japan’s main, and most populous, island. The major industrial cities of Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, and Nagoya were on the island, as was Hiroshima.
218 | chapter 7: destination tokyo
