TAKEN FROM LETTERS DATED SEPTEMBER 4, 5,AND 6, 1945…

"First, I must ask you to forgive me for not writing before now. The last letter I wrote you was on the 28th, and then I told you I'd write tomorrow. Well, this is a long story so I shall start from the beginning.

"On the 29th, I was awakened at 4 a.m. to go to Saipan to have my ship loaded with supplied for "Prisoners of War." We stayed there all day loading the plane, and got back here about 9 p.m. We were briefed immediately for our mission and were then told to get 3 hours sleep and we would leave.

We took off early the next morning (August 30th) for our mission. It was a long way away and after we dropped the supplies, we headed back home. We came to the tip of Japan near Tokyo and Johnston & Zalman (his navigator and engineer) figured we did not have enough gas to get to Iwo. So, our only alternative was to land in Japan. By that time the USA had acquired a field there and MacArthur had landed there. I called the tower and asked for instructions. They told me to come in and land. We did, and shortly thereafter set foot on 'Imperial' soil. Well, they had no gas on the field --no nothing for that matter. They said we would have to stay there until they got some. So there we sat. We had no writing paper, and could not have mailed letters anyway. 

We parked our airplane in an order like this: Gen. MacArthur, Gen. Spaatz, Lt. Lamar, Gen. Richardson from Hawaii, Gen. Stillwell, Gen. Doolittle, Gen. Lamay and numerous other lesser generals. We did get to see some of them but our main interest was gas. We waited around and finally on the 2nd they gave us some and we left on the 3rd arriving here late last night. While on the field in Japan I was able to inspect some of their equipment.Believe me when I say, if what we saw was characteristic of the whole empire, they were sadly outclassed.

When we arrived there the operations personnel told us they had a lot of Jap trucks. Wylie (one of the gunners) got one to run so we had transportation. They all have the steering wheel on the right and they drive on the left hand side of the road. 'Tis all very confusing.' Their roads were awful and our truck had no springs. Several of the boys drove into Yokahama which was only a few miles away, and they said the city was completely destroyed.

We saw some prisoners who had been liberated. We found one boy from our own Squadron who was lost on May 26th. (John MacEachern) He certainly was glad to see us and he told us all about how he was treated. I must say that the treatment was not good. He says the Japs beat them all the time with their fist, and they had to catch 100 flies a day to get one cigarette. He wanted to come back here with me, but they want to question him so they can find out who the heads of the prison camp were, so when they get to having trials, they will have enough to hang them with.

The weather there was damp and cold. We slept in the airplane, and the paratroopers there gave us some K rations to eat. I must say we faired pretty well. The K rations are not appetizing, but are enough to keep you from going hungry. I got a souvenir --- a Jap plane insignia off of an old wreck on the field that must have been used in 1920. It was all beat up but I have something to remind me that I was there.

Bobby Marting was somewhere in the vicinity but I never got a chance to see him. I did see some people who knew him, however. We were on the field surrender day and saw all the B-29's come over in formation. They put on quite a show. Later that day the generals came out and got into their planes. Mealer (his bombardier, who is Group Public Relations officer, now) took some pictures of them, and we also got some pictures of us all there.

We got back last night and everyone was excited to hear all about my adventure; especially the boys from the crew the prisoner was on. You see, he was on his first mission riding with another crew (Jack Siler) when he had to bail out. All of his original crew came over to our tent and I had to explain all that he had told me.

Then I went to see Major Jendriek (he was with us at Maxwell & Tampa) who is now our Squadron Commander. Our original Squadron Commander, Col. Miller, just flew a plane to Washington; made it in from Hawaii in record time. You probably will read about that in the papers. Anyway, I went to tell Jendriek I was back, and he told me the Colonel wanted to see me first thing in the morning.

Seems that one of the Generals (Wing General, Gen. Ramey) wanted to know why I had landed there. I can easily understand why because it was a pretty busy spot and had a lot of rank around with this one poor little 1st Lt. in the middle.

The Colonel was very nice and listened to my story word for word. He agreed with me that I had a very logical reason to land there. I had to write out a statement, however; and he was going to send it to the Wing General and I guess that he will decide whether I was right or wrong. But, regardless of his decision, I did the safest thing and my main outlook was the safety of my crew and my airplane. Seeing as how the war is over, I'm more safety conscious than ever. Possibly, had I not landed up there, I might have landed in the Pacific Ocean which definitely I do not want to do. At any rate, my conscience is clear and whatever he decides I shall take. I don't think it can amount to much because everyone seems to think I did the right thing.

 I was the first B-29 pilot and first B-29 to land and take off from Japan. I have really caused a lot of talk here on Tinian. Boys from all over the island have been to see me to hear the latest news from their buddies who were in prison camps.