War Stories II: Heroism in the Pacific

by Oliver North

  General MacArthur was so impressed with his attitude that later he grappled with the problem of what to do with the emperor. The American, British, Soviet, and Australian press all assumed that the emperor would be tried as a war criminal. But MacArthur reasoned that the emperor could be very helpful in the reconstruction of Japan. So he announced to the Joint Chiefs of Staff that the emperor’s name should come off the criminal list.

  This created a furor among the Allies. Oddly enough, Winston Churchill was one who said, “The general should make the decision, and not the press or the attitudes of the people.” The emperor’s name was taken off the list.

  Now, the general had also made a decision on the model to be used in the occupation. He considered two models. One resembled the model used when the Allies took over Germany. But General MacArthur didn’t like that model. He said, “Military people are not governors, mayors, police chiefs, or judges in a court of law. We’ll only use the military government teams to ensure that our orders are carried out in the field. But we will operate through the existing mechanism of government. We’ll purge the bureaucrats, and get people in there that we can train and trust, and work through them.” That second model, of a civilian government, was the one we used in Japan. In that model, the emperor proved very helpful.

  The people of Japan were pleased about the way the general had handled his visit with Hirohito. He’d shown kindness and courtesy and did not insult the emperor. He allowed him to save face. The general established a relationship between himself and the emperor. They’d meet every six months and he would ask for and get advice from the emperor. And on one occasion, it really paid off.

  During the development of a new constitution, the general couldn’t get anywhere with the Japanese cabinet. He was blocked by a committee of scholars and government people, who were supposed to work out a constitution. They didn’t come up with anything acceptable.

  The general staff consensus was that the Japanese were dragging their feet. They simply didn’t want to change their way of life, which the constitution change would do. I said, “I don’t think it’s that. I think the Japanese just don’t understand a constitution based on the principles of democracy. Maybe we’ll have to impose a constitution on them.”

  The general accepted that and said, “Okay, let’s write a constitution based on the principles of the American Constitution.” And that’s what he did. He had some sharp lawyers to help him and they developed a constitution that General MacArthur liked. He tooled it personally for a week or so. Then he gave it to the Japanese cabinet and said, “I would like your concurrence with this. But if you don’t concur, I’ll probably do it anyway.”

  They knew that he had the authority to do it. He wanted not to simply impose it on them—he wanted them to bring it to the people in a referendum. He wanted the people to vote on it. Well, the cabinet didn’t know what to do. So they sent it to the emperor.

  In a few days the emperor came back and said, “I like it. This is the way Japan should go.” With that, the cabinet then put it before the people in a referendum, and it was overwhelmingly approved. General MacArthur had written it, but it turned out to be the Japanese people’s constitution because they and their emperor had approved it. There was a shift of power, very clearly, from the emperor to MacArthur.

  I think that MacArthur had a sense that this was his show. But he had never done anything like this before. He had been a great military hero. And now he was thrown into this job. He built it from the ground up. And he had a sense that it was going to work. And he did make it work.

  Following the Pacific war, despite thousands of documented atrocities, only twenty-eight Japanese war criminals stood trial, compared to six times as many German war criminals. And to the surprise of Allies and others in the American chain of command, MacArthur had taken Emperor Hirohito’s name off that list. Geoffey Perret, author of Old Soldiers Never Die: The Life of Douglas MacArthur, explained part of the difference. “You cannot run a prison without the cooperation of the prisoners. You cannot run an occupied country without the participation of the people who live there. MacArthur did not go after and seek prosecution of more Japanese war criminals, because he did not believe it was possible to provide anything resembling a truly fair trial for Japanese war criminals.”

  Perret said that MacArthur was critical of the Nuremberg trials. “I think it’s important to remember this whole business of trying people for war crimes is absolutely new in international law. There wasn’t much in a way of precedent. And the concept of these crimes against humanity is open to interpretation.

  “The prosecution of war crimes in both the Far East and in Europe was to some degree simply punitive or exemplary justice where people are being punished as much to set an example as for anything else. Well, if you’re going to use people as examples in that way, how many do we have to execute ?”

  Perret believes that this is why MacArthur went after just a few of the full possible list of people who could be charged with war crimes. “These were people he really wanted to see executed,” he says. “Beyond that, he didn’t see much point to it. He did not see this as really a service to history.”

  EPILOGUE

  The soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and Guardsmen who fought during the Pacific campaign were tested in many ways—and persevered. They were a part of a “generation” who set an amazing example for others to follow. Here is what happened to the brave defenders after the war.

  FIREMAN FIRST CLASS KEN SWEDBERG, whose ship the USS Ward fired the first shots of World War II against a midget Japanese submarine, came home to Minnesota with a sense of genuine humility and patriotism. When asked, as a Pearl Harbor survivor, how he wanted to be remembered, he said, “I guess I would like to be remembered as somebody who volunteered for my country.”

  LIEUTENANT STEPHEN WEINER captured the first Japanese prisoner of World War II at Pearl Harbor, before Kazuo Sakamaki could release the torpedoes from his midget submarine on 7 December 1941. Following the war, Weiner was promoted to captain and stationed at Redding Air Base, where he met his wife. After that, he became successful with the first Kaiser-Fraser automobile franchise in Pennsylvania. He later went into banking. Today, he’s an active consultant for the First Republic Bank of Los Angeles.

  LIEUTENANT KAZUO SAKAMAKI, the first Japanese POW of World War II, spent the war in an American POW camp. Sakamaki wrote a book about his experiences in 1949. He joined the Toyota Motor Company in the late 1940s and was sent to South America, and later worked for Toyota in Texas.

  SERGEANT RICHARD GORDON, a survivor of the Bataan Death March and a slave laborer in Manchuria, was liberated at the war’s end. He spent months recuperating aboard various hospital ships. After he recovered, he reenlisted, received a commission to second lieutenant, and went back on active duty. He remained in uniform until 1961.

  CORPORAL RALPH RODRIGUEZ, JR. received a business degree after the war and went to work as a lumber company supervisor. Five years later, he was managing the company. In 1946, he attended the first meeting of Bataan Veterans, a group of survivors of the Bataan Death March. He also served as national commander of the American Ex-Prisoners of War in 1964. He never missed a national convention in twenty-five years.

  PRIVATE ANDREW MILLER was promoted after his release from POW camp and was discharged in July 1946. Back home, he entered the University of Nebraska, earned a mechanical engineering degree, and was hired by the GE Corporation. In 1951, he left GE, moved to New Mexico, and took a civil service position with the U.S. Air Force (4925th Test Group–Atomic), where he worked for twenty-six years. Miller remains active in the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor, and serves today as its national commander and national historian.

  PRIVATE JOHN COOK lobbied for a memorial plaque to be placed in the Ranger Hall of Fame after his rescue in January 1945 from Camp Cabanatuan. It was finally unveiled on 11 August 2000, more than fifty-five years after that daring rescue. Since the dedication of the m
emorial plaque, Cook appeared on several national television programs supporting the Alamo Scouts and Rangers. He died in May 2003.

  GENERAL JIMMY DOOLITTLE was picked up by friendly Chinese, who helped him return to the U.S. weeks after bailing out over China when his B-25 ran out of fuel. He was expecting to be court-martialed for a mission that he felt was a failure. Instead, he was honored by FDR, promoted to general, and went on a war bond tour. After the war, he held a number of “Raider Reunions.” Jimmy Doolittle died on 27 September 1993, fifty-one years following his audacious bombing raid over Tokyo.

  SERGEANT JACOB DESHAZER was one of the Doolittle Raiders held as a POW. He was captured following the Tokyo Raid that inspired Americans and terrorized Japan. DeShazer experienced a dramatic conversion to Christianity following his reading of the Bible while imprisoned. After the war, he came home to become a missionary, then returned to convince the Japanese people to follow Jesus Christ. Amazingly, one of his converts was the famous Japanese fighter pilot Mitsuo Fuchida, who had led the attack on Pearl Harbor. DeShazer spent over thirty years as a missionary to the Japanese people and retired to Oregon.

  LIEUTENANT ROBERT HITE dropped to just eighty pounds during his forty-month stay in a Japanese prison. He endured captivity, torture, and starvation before his release on 20 August 1945, nearly a week after the war ended. Hite went on to serve in Korea and Morocco. In civilian life, he had a career managing hotels in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. He and his wife, Dorothea, live in Camden, Arkansas.

  LIEUTENANT RICHARD COLE served out his time until the end of World War II as an Army Air Corps pilot. Dick flew transports over “the hump”—the menacing Himalayan mountain range—until June 1943. Then he came home, reenlisted, and stayed in the service for twenty-six years, after which he retired to his home in Dayton, Ohio.

  LIEUTENANT HENRY POTTER came back home with the four other crew members from the lead aircraft of Doolittle’s Task Force 16, and shortly afterwards was reassigned to his old unit and a B-26 bomber. This time he headed for North Africa until the end of World War II. Potter stayed in the Army for thirty years, reaching the rank of colonel, then retired to his home in South Dakota.

  FIRST LIEUTENANT JOHN ALISON made the first night kills in the CBI theater, for which he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and the Silver Star. Ending his tour as commander of the 75th Fighter Squadron, Alison left as an ace with seven confirmed “kills” and a number of “probables.” After the war, Alison served as an assistant secretary of commerce, president of the Air Force Association, and a major general in the U.S. Air Force Reserves. He recently retired as vice president of the Northrop Corporation.

  LIEUTENANT CHARLES TURNER was discharged in July 1945 and returned to the States, where he accepted a sales position with a Chevrolet dealership. He later accepted a position with a new company and stayed with them for eighteen years. In 1968, Turner formed his own company and sold it in 1976. He remained active on its board and has served as chairman since 2000. He and his wife, Dorothy, have two daughters, five grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. Turner and his wife live on a ranch outside Waco, Texas, where he has been ranching since 1971.

  STAFF SERGEANT RAYMOND “STUB” BLUTHARDT returned from the war to join his wife’s parents in operating a Phillips 66 filling station and garage. He later took a civil service position at nearby Ft. Riley, where he stayed for twenty-five years. Bluthardt served as a committee chairman with the Boy Scouts and was the fire chief for the local volunteer fire department. He married his sweetheart, Geraldine, and they had a daughter and a son, four grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. Ray Bluthardt passed away on 28 March 2004.

  PRIVATE FIRST CLASS KYLE THOMPSON returned to the U.S. and wrote a book about his experiences, A Thousand Cups of Rice, the story about the “lost battalion” and their survival as slave laborers for the Japanese. After the war he became a journalist, serving as Austin bureau chief for United Press International and as an editorial writer for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Kyle Thompson passed away 5 March 2004.

  CAPTAIN JOSEPH ROCHEFORT was the code-breaker whose expertise made the difference at the Battle of Midway, but he never received recognition by Washington. After the war, he settled in Manhattan Beach, California. He remained in the Navy and was called to duty for the Korean War and later for the Vietnam War. He finally retired from the military at age forty-nine and returned to his home in California, where he died in 1976. In 1985, Admiral Mac Showers took it upon himself to “right a big wrong” and recommended the World War II code-breaker for a medal. President Ronald Reagan awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, the nation’s highest civilian honor, to Rochefort posthumously.

  ENSIGN LEWIS HOPKINS received the Navy Cross and was promoted following his exploits at Midway, Guadalcanal, and other South Pacific battles. After World War II, Hopkins reenlisted in the Navy, achieving the rank of admiral. He retired in 1974.

  PETTY OFFICER WILLIAM SURGI, JR. taught aviation for the Navy in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1945. Some time later he was given the responsibility of training Argentine pilots. In 1981, he was part of Operation Unitas and was sent to Chile. After forty-three years in the Navy, he retired in 1984 on his sixtieth birthday.

  SEAMAN SECOND CLASS FRANK HOLMGREN was discharged 7 December 1945—exactly four years to the day after Pearl Harbor was bombed. He was assigned to duty at the U.S. Navy’s Earle Ammunition Depot in Colts Neck, New Jersey, to finish out his tour, and took a civilian position at EAD after the war for a thirty-five-year career there.

  CAPTAIN JOHN SWEENEY returned to Ohio following World War II but would never forget his experiences on Edson’s Ridge, or Bloody Ridge, as it was later called. For his actions on Guadalcanal, Sweeney was awarded the Navy Cross.

  PLATOON SERGEANT MITCH PAIGE received a battlefield commission following his heroism at Guadalcanal and made the Marine Corps his career. He has spent more than two decades working to expose frauds who claim to have been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor but who were never cited for the award. He has exposed a large number of frauds, including one highly publicized on 60 Minutes.

  CAPTAIN JOE FOSS, a highly decorated Marine fighter pilot, moved up the ranks to general. He held the records as the top World War II ace, with twenty-six confirmed enemy kills. Foss stayed in the Marine Corps until his retirement and then began several other productive careers: president of the National Rifle Association, Major League Baseball commissioner, and governor of South Dakota. He died in January 2003.

  MAJOR GREGORY “PAPPY” BOYINGTON was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his exploits in the South Pacific. After the war, he penned his autobiography, Baa Baa Black Sheep, and in 1976, Hollywood producer Steven J. Cannell launched a dramatic television series loosely based on Boyington’s book and the exploits of the Black Sheep Squadron in the South Pacific. “Pappy” was hired as a technical consultant for the show. He died of cancer in January 1988, at the age of seventy-five, in Fresno, California.

  LIEUTENANT HENRY “HANK” MCCARTNEY stayed in the Marine Corps for twenty-six years and retired to Florida to begin another entirely new career. Hank founded a citrus company, managed it for a number of years, and recently sold it.

  LIEUTENANT HENRY “BOO” BOURGEOIS was an ace in many of the South Pacific battles and was another career Marine, spending twenty-one years in the Corps. He left when his eyes were no longer what they’d been when he was a twenty-two-year-old pilot in the Solomon Islands. He then took a sales engineering position with a division of the Singer Company and moved up the corporate ladder until he recently retired.

  FIRST LIEUTENANT JOHN F. (JACK) BOLT was promoted to captain and returned to the U.S. in 1944, right after his first tour of duty, to marry his high school sweetheart. Then he returned to combat. After World War II he stayed in the Marines and served in the Korean War, where he became an ace all over again—shooting down six MIGs piloted by Russian aces. He retired from the Corps as a lieutenant colonel after tw
enty years and went back to school, studying law and earning his degree from the University of Florida.

  LIEUTENANT W. THOMAS (TOM) EMRICH finished his stint in the South Pacific and returned to the United States. He stayed in the Marines until he was offered the opportunity to become an airline pilot with TWA. That began a wonderful, although less exciting, career in aviation.

  LIEUTENANT ED HARPER was wounded and shot down during his stint with the Black Sheep Squadron but returned to duty. He remained in the Marines and served in both Korea and Vietnam. When he retired from the Corps, he went to work for McDonnell Douglas in California, where he worked on the Marine Harrier aircraft. He retired after eighteen years there.

  LIEUTENANT DEAN LADD recovered from wounds received at Tarawa and returned to duty with the Marine Corps. He achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel before he retired. Thirty-nine years after being wounded at Tarawa, Ladd returned to that tiny atoll, ferried to the remote site in a landing craft very similar to the LCR that had carried him away. Following that visit in 1982, Ladd helped convince the Marine Corps to put a memorial on the atoll honoring the young men killed in the three-day battle there.