Tucked into one of the letters home following the occupation of Okinawa, I found a wad of Imperial bills. They are pretty nifty, I must say.
Imperial Japanese currency (front); one
Imperial Japanese currency (back); one
Archive for category Media
Another Photo and a Painting
Sep 28
These came from Chuck Donaldson as well.
Rhea 52 in Welland Canal, 1959
More information on Welland Canal in Ontario: on Wikipedia
Rhea 52 painted by Chuck Donaldson’s brother Bob by memory in 1992. The dock was owned by the government of Canada and rent was $1 per year.
YMS-299 Additional Photos
Jun 25
As a follow-up to the previous post (http://yms299.org/archives/35), I’ve been sent a handful of additional photos of YMS-299 in post-war service as a cadet-training ship in Canada. Photos provided by Charles “Chuck” Donaldson.
I’ll come back to this post and update with as much date/location info as I have for each.
Rhea 52
I have a handful of photos of Chuck with his friends stationed in California for training, then in Hawaii. I’m not sure if any of these guys are still alive. I don’t have all of their names, but their nicknames and such are on a few of the photos.
Photos include (in order of appearance):
- William “Bill” Loren McIntyre, RdM3c (Svc. #896-64-93), of Hattiesburg, MS
- Charles Dean Paul (CDP), MoMM3c (Svc. #660-35-65)
- William “Bill” “Red” Hatch Davis, SoM3c (Svc. #884-88-90), of Salt Lake City, UT
- Joe Aragon, S2c/RM3c (Svc. #381-95-02)
- Welch
- Richard Millington George, S1c (Svc. #564-97-25), of Los Angeles, CA
- John, Eugene, Charlie, and Barbara (in the car photo)
Update: I found a family member of Joe Aragon and confirmed this is him on Find a Grave (1926–2012).
William ‘Bill’ Loren McIntyre, RdM3c, of Hattiesburg, MS and CDP; December 1944, Hawaii
Campaign Medals
Mar 7
Chuck was awarded three medals and a bronze star for his service in WWII. The medals would have been the same as those below. One of these medals would have had the bronze star pinned to the middle of the ribbon, though I am not sure which.
World War II Victory Medal
This medal was awarded to any member of the US military to serve between December 7th, 1941 and December 31st, 1946.
The medal’s front depicts Nike standing victorious, holding a broken sword, representing the broken power of the Axis, with one foot upon the helmet of Mars, the Roman god of war, representing the end of the conflict. Behind Nike is a sunburst, representing the dawn of peace. The reverse recalls the “Four Freedoms” speech by President Roosevelt, with a laurel sprig, surrounded by the words “United States of America”, and the dates of the conflict, “1941-1945”. The edges of the ribbon revisit the multi-colored rainbow ribbon of the Allied World War I Victory Medal. This again honors all the allied nations. The wide red center represents the new sacrifice of blood by World War II combatants. The thin white lines separating the central red band from the outer multi-colored bands represent the rays of new hope, two of them signifying that this was the second global conflict.
World War II Victory Medal
48-Star American Flag
Mar 7
Measuring smaller than a sheet of paper, this flag was tucked into the personnel file. It has holes in the corners, as if it were attached to something, though no rivets or visible weathering. With that in mind, it was probably not a flag hung anywhere on the exterior of the ship, but was more likely a rally flag that would have been attached to a stick at a parade. None-the-less, it is period and a neat little trinket.
48-Star, Handheld, American Parade Flag
If anyone reads Japanese, I am very interested in finding out what this is. It was amongst the rest of the naval paperwork. It appears to be a postal receipt or subscription to “The Rocky Mountain Times“.
Update: Thank you to Jeff Hannan of Cheshire, UK for the information on the history of the paper (see below).
Update: Thank you to M.S. for transcribing the receipt (see comment).
The Rocky Mountain Times
History of Rocky Mountain Times
Based in Utah, with a Christian focus, Rocky Mountain Times was one of four Japanese-American papers that published in the United Stated during the WWII. It was originally published by Shiro Iida, until it was absorbed by Utah Nippo (another Japanese-American paper) in 1927. Utah Nippo was a collaboration of husband and wife, Uneo and Kuniko Terasawa, begun in 1914. In 1939, when Uneo died, his wife took over the publication. Soon after, she added an English section to the paper that caused it to peak in circulation during the war. Then running three times per week, the circulation was up to 8,000 during the war. After the war, the paper steadily declined in circulation until Kuniko’s death in 1991.
Questions to Answer:
- What country is this from (or what language is it in)?
- What is it? A subscription receipt? A postal receipt?
- Does it have a date anywhere on it?
- What is the watermark at the bottom? (There is part of a block-type watermark facing backward at the bottom. It reads “MMERMU”.)
Map of Japan
Jan 5
This map was originally tucked (glued) into the journal, but had since been divorced from the book. I found it amongst some other paperwork. I am guessing it was standard issue and something most naval troops had. I have Googled the document number with no hits to find out more about it. If anyone knows more, let me know.
The map’s legend reads:
NANSEI SHOTO
OKINAWA GUNTO
FROM H. O. CHART NO. 5303
"DISTANCE CHART" (side 1)
YMS-299
Nov 22
The following are a handful of the photos I have of YMS-299 (later renamed AMS-52 Rhea). The first of which came from my grandfather’s keepsakes. The rest I found online or were sent to me by former crew members (or the family of).
YMS-299 in front of the Eastern portion of the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge. The Berkeley Hills can be seen faintly to the East (on the left side of the bridge) with the Port of Oakland and (now gone) Alameda Naval Air Station to the right of the bridge. (notes from Rich Warren)
If you look at the photo in full size, it has a couple dozen crew posing and waving.
YMS = Yard Minesweeper. Mines had magnetic force to make them attack battleships. The YMS was made of wood to skirt around the mines and destroy them. Read the rest of this entry »
43-452, San Diego, CA, 1943
Nov 22
San Diego, CA, circa 1943, 43-452 after boot camp
Questions to answer:
- How would someone try to get a list of names for a photo like this? Read the rest of this entry »
On October 10th, 1997, Rhea sunk due to a rotted hull and was left sunk for a month before being raised on November 11th to be scrapped.
Below is the local newspaper article (and transcription) from the next day (October 11th), provided by post-war cadet, Charles “Chuck” Donaldson.
WWII Ship Takes Plunge; Toronto Sun, October 11, 1997
WWII ship takes plunge
MESSY SPILL… Oshawa marine rescue personnel work to clean up diesel oil that was leaking from the MV Rhea after the ship sank yesterday morning in Oshawa harbor.
Former U.S. navy mine sweeper sinks in Oshawa harbor
By BRAD HONYWILL
Toronto SunOSHAWA—A mine sweeper that led U.S. military forces into Tokyo harbor at the end of World War II sits on the bottom of Oshawa harbor today after a mysterious sinking.
The MV Rhea—a 136-foot-long mine sweeper converted into a home—sank in about seven metres of water yesterday while tied to the Oshawa dock that has been its home for the past decade.
Harbormaster Donna Taylor said the ship appeared fine during a visual inspection at 10 a.m. but, 10 minutes later, it was sinking rapidly.
Phil Murphy, a tenant on the ship, had left for work when it went down. But it’s assumed that his cat was trapped in their cabin and unable to escape, Taylor said.
Taylor said emergency personnel from COMRA (City of Oshawa Marine Rescue Association) were immediately on the scene and prevented an estimate 1,600 litres of diesel oil from escaping into the harbor. The harbormaster said the former U.S. navy ship also saw action in the Korean War after World War II.
Later it was used as a training vessel.
The Rhea is owned by Gary Zulauf of Oshawa, who was away on a camping trip and had not been reached yet by authorities.
Taylor said that, although the Rhea was being used as a home, it was in the process of being restored as an operational [boat?]
After the surrender and occupation of Japan, the veil of censorship was lifted and the soldiers were then allowed to write freely to their families. Early messages were filled with assurances that everything is fine and that morale is high, despite missing home. These letters tell a different story and express the need for venting after over half-a-year of daily battle.
September 7, 1945; Letter to Home, from Chuck
Today we had general cleaning for inspection today. Everyone was busy doing something or the other. With such short notice, we were sort of caught off guard. Nevertheless, we passed everything with “excellent”.