The aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CV-6) arrives in New York Harbor to celebrate Navy Day at the end of WWII, 27OCT45. Enterprise was one of three Yorktown-class aircraft carriers in the U.S. Navy at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor and the only one to survive the first year of the war. For a time she was the only U.S. fleet carrier in the Pacific, leading some to comment that it was the Enterprise vs. the Imperial Japanese Navy.

Three Naval Aircraft Factory N3N primary trainers fly over Manhattan in February 1941. The N3N was one of the primary flight trainers in U.S. Navy service, pilots referred to it as the “Canary” or the “Yellow Peril” due to its high-visibility paint scheme. (NASM Rudy Arnold collection)

A beautiful portrait of the Manhattan skyline taken from Jersey City by Charles Cushman in 1941, showing the ever-present ferry and barge…

A Far Cry From Kensington by Muriel Spark

“I was Mrs Hawkins” is the theme of one of Spark’s later novels of a rooming house and its residents, of publishing houses and their weaknesses, and of a remarkable woman’s view of postwar London life in precisely 1954. Published in 1988, this story of a looking back on a life from decades later as a different person in so many ways is full of the dry humour and sharp observations of the author best known for her portrait of the formidable Miss Jean Brodie. It deals with the small details of life and especially other people; the words, gestures and more that convey a real sense of a person, and the settings of rooms, houses, even travelling on London buses that are described with near forensic precision. The people of the world of Mrs Hawkins are tremendously varied, from self -conscious…

What prompted this post was my sighting of another cat with similar markings. This was a visiting cat that I had heard about but had not actually seen. I spotted the wandering Calico cat from my 3rd floor window as I raised the blinds this morning. She was walking through the shrubs on a path to one of the other buildings here at Ida Culver Broadview. There is a cat named Oliver who belongs to one of the residents. Oliver encourages other outside non-resident cats to visit. I will name the one I saw this morning Katerina 2 – and think happy thoughts of the real Katerina.

Winged Samurai: Saburo Sakai and the Zero Fighter Pilots

By Henry Sakaida

Softcover, 159 pages, heavily illustrated

Published by Champlin Fighter Museum, August 1985

Language: English

ISBN-10: 091217305X

ISBN-13: 978-0912173054

Dimensions: 8.2 x 0.5 x 11.0 inches

First-hand accounts of Japanese airmen from the Pacific War are rare in the West; biographies are almost unique. In Winged Samurai author Henry Sakaida presents the results of several interviews with Saburo Sakai, who is recognized as Japan’s fourth-highest scoring ace.

There has been a biography of Sakai’s exploits published in English, Samurai! By Martin Caiden, an adaptation of Sakai’s own Ôzora no samurai (Samurai in the Sky). It appears Caiden took several liberties with the narrative in order to dramatize the account for Western readers. These are not limited to the construction of details and conversations, Sakai himself indicates many incidents related in Caiden’s book never actually happened.

Henry Sakaida corrects Sakai’s…

I have been adding ancestors to my family tree – Janet’s Family Tree – on Ancestry.com These ancestors range from 8th Great Grandfather (or 8th Great Grandmother) to as far back as 13th Great Grandfather (or 13th Great Grandmother).

One set of Grandparents has 2 people. A grandfather and a grandmother

Two sets of Grandparents consists of 4 people. 2 Great Grandfathers and 2 Great Grandmothers

Four sets of Grandparents consists of 8 people 4 Great Grandfathers and 4 Great Grandmothers

and so the numbers keep doubling

1 Grandfather

2 Great Grandfathers

4 Great Great Grandfathers

8 Great Great Great Grandfathers

16 Great Great Great Great Grandfathers

32 Great Great Great Great Great Grandfathers

64 6th GGF’s

128 7th GGF’s

256 8th GGF’s

512. 9th GGF’s

!024. 10th GGF’s

2048 11h GGF’s

4096 12th GGF’s

4192. 13th GGF’s

8384. 14th GGF’s

16,768. 15th GGF’s

33,536. 16th GGF’s

etc.

So when…

As I pulled out the letters for this weekend’s post from my 1945-1946 binder, I discovered that there were several letters out of chronological order.  These letters shed some more light on the situation during the last days of the war on Okinawa, so I have decided to post them out of order.

There is no salutation or date on this letter.

On Thursday afternoon, June 21st at 1500 Okinawa time, the Island was officially declared as being secure.  All organized Jap resistance had ceased, and only the mopping-up of the island was left to be done – at the South end of the Island but there were still snipers – hiding in the caves – harassing the victorious American forces.

At 1000 Friday morning, in the Tenth Army HQ.  Area, Old Glory was raised on a beautiful tall, white flagpole.  A Marine division band played a few selections before…