I took a look on YouTube to see what kinds of YMS videos there are. Surprisingly, there were more than zero…which is about what I expected to find. Here’s what I found:
Archive for category During Battle
Our Muster Roll and More!
Jan 23
In other news, I was also contacted by Jim Harlan, son of John Harlan, who served alongside my grandfather on the ship. He happened upon the YMS-299 muster roll I’d been searching for. I got my hands on dozens of pages from several roll calls. I am in the middle of transcribing them all and will begin posting pieces of them very soon so people may Google their family members’ names and find this site.
I am holding out a glimmer of hope that one or more of the soldiers on my ship are living. I know it isn’t very likely, but I have found another YMS sibling’s crew member who is living. It isn’t my ship, but I’d like to visit soon to ask questions about the ship that I was never able to ask my grandfather.
Stamps
Nov 1
After transcribing a few letters, I wanted to take a look at all of the stamps together. It turns out, I only have four unique stamps across the batch.
6 cents; Air Mail
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
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)
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”.
We are preparing for another big push somewhere. There will be plenty of small craft. We heard we will probably see China. Just so it is the right part. We may receive plenty of opposition, and yet we may not. Anyway, we are preparing for it. There hasn’t been any real excitement for a few days. It does not seem natural at all. “Pistol Packin’ Mama” [1943], was the show tonight. No one cared much for it.
We can take it a little easier now. Just do odd jobs and look busy. We traded movies, so had a little entertainment.
Today was slightly easier. We work on the generator, as the oil seal was broke. By dark we were finished with the generator and done a little extra work on the main engines again. Well anyway, we had all night in, and we sure needed it.
We started work after four hours’ sleep. We are all pretty tired, and look forward to a good night’s rest. We have been working all night again, finishing up the main engines.