General Yamashita

GP's avatarPacific Paratrooper

Gen. Robert Eichelberger

From:  “Our Jungle Road to Tokyo” by General Robert Eichleberger

Although negotiations with Yamashita for surrender were completed after 8th Army had relinquished control of Luzon, the story should be told here.  It must be remembered that Japanese forces at this period had little or no communication with the homeland.

On 7 August – the day of the fall of the first atomic bomb – an America pilot was forced to abandon his disabled plane and parachute behind the Japanese lines in northern Luzon.  He was picked up by an enemy patrol the next morning and taken after 5 days of forced marches to Gen. Yamashita’s headquarters, then SW of Kiangan.

There he was subjected to vigorous and prolonged interrogation.  He was threatened with physical violence when he steadfastly refused to answer questions.

Gen. Yamashita

On 16 Aug – the attitude of the Japanese interrogators abruptly…

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Voyage to California (31) – John Jackson Lewis – January to March, 1851

Judy Guion's avatar"Greatest Generation" Life Lessons

(1) John Jackson Lewis, (2) Edith May (Lewis) Rider, (3) Marian Faith (Rider) Irwin, (4) Marian Dunlap (Irwin) Guion, (5) Judith Anne Guion.

The following are transcriptions of John Jackson Lewis’s diary and journal of his voyage to California in 1851. He was travelling  from New York to visit his older brother William in San Jose.

Diary

There was a heavy fog during the night and the vessel was stopped for a time, for fear of getting aground on some of the numerous islands or rocky shoals in the vicinity.  The weather to day is cloudy, cold and disagreeable.  We have been sailing near the coast to day.  Some of the mountains, inland, appear to be covered with heavy timber; the hills near the shore with grass or wild oats.  There is a very perceptible improvement in our fare to day.  Distance from San Francisco, noon, 195 mi., Distance sailed…

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