Victory Over Japan Day Memories from Dad and his LST

Today is VJ Day, or Victory over Japan Day. A day that my dad well remembers as he was there, fighting in the Pacific on the LST 734.  WWII was dad's "high school" signing up at age 17 to join the Navy.  And because of his young age he remembers it like it was yesterday at his present age of 90!  He had so many stories he could fill a book. In fact he did write it all in a Journal which my daughter is keeping safe at this time.

Dad took a few buddies with him to see Hiroshima within a few weeks after the Atomic bomb drop.  The officers really didn't want anyone to go as they didn't know at the time if there would be any after effects. But my dad's young curiosity got the best of him.  He stood in shock and awe at the enormous black crater which looked to him like a gigantic dirty bathtub. He and his friends then explored the crater picking up souvenirs along the way. They saw what had been a school and imagined the horror of that day to those children. They saw "shadow people". Perfect black images on walls of people, like their very souls had been pushed out of them and singed forever.  So horrifying but they knew that in their minds it was us or them.  This day signified he could go back to his family and put the nightmare behind him.

Dad and his sister Jane

Another vivid memory is the sinking of the freighter the USS John Burke. The John Burke was heavily laden with munitions and my dad's ship the 734 was part of the convoy.  As you watch the video provided the tiny sliver on the right is my dad's fully loaded LST. When the Kamikaze hit the John Burke the explosion picked my dad's ship right out of the water turned it in mid air and slammed it back down! My dad, all 126 pounds of him went flying, crashed into a wall and he lost his helmet and his hearing!  The worst and most gruesome part of this story is that pieces of the men he had been close enough to wave to were now raining down onto his ship.  Yes my dad was in the Navy and lucky enough to come back alive, certainly he didn't face as much as the Marines.  As one elderly Marine told him once, "you guys had the right idea dump us off and leave!"  But he saw horrors never the less, the LST on the opposite side of the John Burke sank.

 I swear my dad's ship was protected. Every day it had an "escort" of dolphins. One day I guess the dolphins couldn't make it and sent their friends- the whales!  The ONLY time his LST was hit was with a dud shell which landed on the ship. My dad ran over and threw it over the side!  So something miraculous was going on I am convinced of that.

As I close this chapter I noticed that one of my pages had 734 hits today on VJ Day and the number of dad's LST. The irony.

                                     The explosion of the USS John Burke video