Some of these are fairly gruesome.  I’m pretty sure one is the Luzon landing.  Some are from the battles in the Philippines.  I think some of it is from mainland Japan.

These are the last of the pics from Grandpa Les.

Admiral Nimitz on the USS Missouri signing the Peace Treaty with Imperial Japans Emperor.

These are more of the pictures from my Grandfathers collection. Some of these I remember seeing in LIFE magazine as a child.

These are photos of my Grandfather and his fellow soldiers in the Pacific Theatre. Grandpa Les was fond of telling us that he served under MacArthur during the war. He was part of the post-War occupation force which entered Japan after the peace was signed. I’m not certain how long he stayed on after the cessation of hostilities.

He told us plenty of stories though. Stories of Gold and Women. Soldiers and Officers looting. He brought back a Samarai Sword set. Unfortunately, one of his sons sold it cheaply because he was too ignorant to know it’s true value. Hopefully, that sword will be returned to it’s home someday.

One story that Grandpa Les told me was of gold that he and some of his fellow soldiers looted at the end of the war. I can’t remember the whole of the story. But I’ll give an outline of what I do remember.

It seems that somehow, Grandpa and a friend came upon some bars of Gold. They hid it in their barracks for a time. But when word got out that some soldiers had looted gold in the barracks, they had to find a way to hide it. What they did was crazy. They found a well. Packed the gold in Ammo crates and threw the gold down the well. They figured that they would return at a later date. Reclaim the treasure and return to America with their riches.

In time, they were all transferred out. No one to my Grandfathers knowledge was able to get back to the gold deposit.

For all I know, there is a well somewhere near the original home of the 1st Cav Division in Japan with a small horde of gold in it. I have no idea if the story is true or if Grandpa was making it all up to entertain us.

In any case, these photos are of Grandpa Les and his fellow soldiers of the Pacific Theatre. These guys went through hell and back together and with General MacArthur. Grandpa Les was proud of his service as I’m sure the rest of his fellows were. And rightfully so.

“Never in the field of human conflict, has so much, been owed by so many, to so few!”
Winston Churchill – September 1940

“Yesterday, December 7, 1941 – a date which will live in infamy – The United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan…As Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense…With confidence in our armed forces – with the unbounded determination of our people – we will gain the inevitable triumph – so help us God.”
President F.D. Roosevelt – 8th December 1941

“It is my earnest hope – indeed the hope of all mankind – that from this solemn occasion a better world shall emerge out of the blood and carnage of the past, a world found upon faith and understanding, a worl dedicated to the dignity of man and the fulfillment of his most cherished wish for freedom, tolerance and justice.”
- General Douglas Macarthur, Supreme Allied Commander of South-West Pacific (1945)

“They have given their sons to the military services. They have stoked the furnaces and hurried the factory wheels. They have made the planes and welded the tanks. Riveted the ships and rolled the shells.”
- President Franklin D. Roosevelt (addressing women’s contributions to the war)

These are just a few photos of women (Japanese and Filipina) and some native Islanders in what I believe to be the Philippines.  My Grandmother used to call these Grandpas WWII girlfriends.  One of the photos has the name of the girl written on the back.  So Grandpa Les must have known her in some capacity.  Girlfriend.  Customer.  Who knows.  Maybe he almost married one of the girls he met in post-war Japan.  Thousands of GIs did so in the years between the end of the war and today.

“The raising of that flag on Suribachi means a Marine Corps for the next 500 years.”
James Forrestal – Secretary of the Navy – 23rd February 1945″

Among the men who fought on Iwo Jima, uncommon valor was a common virtue.”
Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz – 16th March 1945

Unfortunately, someone somewhere down the years spilled coffee (?) on this photo.  When Grandpa Les pulled out pictures to show us, invariably he would choose this as one of them.  He was proud of his service and this is one of the most famous scenes from the war.

Grandpa Les was understandably proud of the moment and cherished the unique momento of history.  After all, books have been written about this moment in history. This moment has been memorialized with the United State Marine Corps Memorial and the recent movie Flags of Our Fathers.

My Grandfather brought these photographs home from the war.  I am told that he was friends with Ernie Pyle.  The famous World War II journalist. Grandma had the photo album hidden away in her house. She was afraid that something might happen to them. I think they are a treasure and should be shared.  Fortunately, back in 2001 she let me borrow them long enough for me to scan them.   I have wondered at a means of sharing them. Now that I have a blog, this is the perfect vehicle for such an endeavor. I’ll bring them out in categories that seem logical. The Bomb. The treaty. The people of Asia. The Soldiers.

These are pictures of the bomb.  One of them.  Exploding over Nagasaki or Hiroshima.  A terrible decision that saved American lives.  Possibly millions. But ended hundreds of thousands of Japanese lives and affected the next generations terribly.

War is a terrifyingly, wretched endeavor.

“A bright light filled the plane. The first shock-wave hit us. We were eleven and a half miles slant range from the atomic explosion but the whole airplane cracked and crinkled from the blast… We turned back to look at Hiroshima. The city was hidden by that awful cloud… mushrooming, terrible and incredibly tall.”
- Colonel Paul Tibbets, the pilot of the B-29 Enola Gay

“I become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds.”
- J. Robert Oppenheimer, a scientist involve with the development of the atomic bomb (July 16, 1945 quoting the Hindu Scriptures after the first atomic bomb detonation) [summited by Jim Marchetti]