(Editor's note. The following letters were written by Bud Lieb to his wife Betty shortly following the Japanese surrender in 1945. At the time he was 23 years old. The first is scanned in from the original, and the second I have tried to re-produce it as exactly as I could, including typos and slang in use at the time; i.e. "can"="tin can" or destroyer, and the surrender was actually signed aboard the Missouri, not the Wisconsin. Please note that the attitudes expressed are those of a very young man away from his small home town for the first time to fight an enemy that his government had taught him to revile. In the post-war years until his death in 2008, Bud had the greatest respect for the Japanese people. RDL)
Tuesday night Sept. 3,1945
My darling Betty, I'm going to try and tell you everything I've done and every where I've been since the Hawian Islands. I'll probably get all mixed up at times but I'll try and do my best. We still had on our load of pontoons and also a lot of piping material when we left Pearl Harbor. We were only at Pearl Harbor for a few days. I guess it was about the fifth of May when we pulled into Guam. At that time Guam was the advanced operating base of the Navy and the Marines. Anyway we just laid there in the harbor until about the 20th. of May when we left for Saipan. That's when we found out that we were going to Okinawa. We stayed at Saipan until the first of June. From there we left for Okinawa. It was a six day trip but June 6th, we recieved word by radio that a typhon was heading directly in front of us. So our convoy turned around and ran the other way for a day and a half. We only hit .part of the typhon but even that small part was about all this old tub could stand. The waves were as high as the bank building in Uniontown. Unbelieveable, but nevertheless true. On June 8th. we were right out side the harbor at Okinawa and we could see heavy gunfire and bombing all over the island. General Quarters was sounded and we proceeded into the harbor with all our guns manned ready to fire. Ofcourse I was upon the con trying to wear out a pair of binoculars looking around at the sights. They shoved us off into a harbor clear off on the other side of the island from where all the fighting was going on. Things looked pretty peaceful there to us for awhile. We were anchored right out in the middle of the harbor all by ourselves. To our starboard side facing the island about a half mile from us were a large bunch of Liberty ships and also quite a few Cargo ships. There were only a couple of cans to our port. Behind us away from the island there wasn't a thing but water. Well at first we didn't realize what a dangerous position we were in. That night we had our very first air raid. It was about ten oclock right after every one had hit the sack, when General Quarters was sounded. We came running up from below still trying to throw on a few clothes. The first thing I saw when I opened the hatch on the main deck was something which reminded me of that fourth of July we spent at Idle Wild Park. Remember dear? The sky was lit up from anti aircraft fire until it was as bright as day out/ It wasn't until I got up on the con that I noticed what a dangerous spot we were in. All the other ships were covered up with smoke from their smoke machines. That is--all but our ship. We were the last ship in the harbor --and the wind was blowing all our smoke in towards the other ships leaving us naked, you might say. You can imagine how conspicuous we were with all that white smoke rolling away from the rear of our ship. What a target we must have made. But we were lucky because the Nips were concentrating on those large liberty and cargo ships off our starboard side, a half a mile away. Two Nips bit the dust that night. I saw one of them fall,thru a pair of binoculars. What a sight to behold. Well that air raid broke the crew in and also showed us our standing position. But we couldn't do a darn thing about it. A couple of nights later I had a midnight to four watch and about twelve -thirty we recieved a flash red control green over the radio. That means Nip planes heading our way--all ships stand by for a raid. Anyhow a few moments later the can on our port side was lading her guns and accidently fired three shots right across our ship. One of the shots just missed my friend Jungers by inches. We never did see the nips that night though. Most of our air raids came in the evenings about eight or nine oclock. Just when every one was either seeing a movie, writing letters, or taking a shower, or in their sacks. But the raid when they sank the L.S.T. 534, was in the morning about eight oclock. That was the worse raid we had. Nip planes were coming in at us from all directions. We usually only got them from the North, but this morning they in 360 degrees. We almost got it that morning. But thank God, the can on our port shot the plane down before it hit us. About that time another Nip plane hit the five thirty four just below the water line. The airplane engine went clear thru the ship and lodged in a compartment in the bottom of the ship. The ship didn't sink right away though. It stayed afloat all morning. About one in the after noon we recieved a report by radio that they had everything under control, and had the fire out. But about an hour later the reports came out that the fire had broken out again and was raging throughout the ship. An hour later the fuel tanks caught fire and exploded. That sunk her. It wasn't until then that the faithful radio man quit sending out his reports on the fire, and left the ship. They lost three men when the plane hit the ship, and sixty men in the afternoon, fighting the fire and when the fuel tank exploded. We stayed in that harbor for about three weeks waiting for them to un- load our pontoons. As soon as they unloaded the pontoons, we moved over to the other side of the island where all the fighting and the big air raids were. But about that time the island was secured and most of the air raids had stopped. We spent two weeks there picking up empty ammunition cans and oil drums. About July tenth we started back to Guam. There we went into dry dock and then we just laid there at Guam idle. That's were we were when the good news came that the Japs wanted to surrender. At first it didn't mean much to us because we figured they didn't mean it. But the next day about four oclock official work came by radio. We celebrated by blowing the ships horn. Right away we recieved orders to beach and take on a load of Marines. You should have seen them loading those large cargo ships. What a sight that was. On my six to eight watch that evening I watched them loading three large cargo ships, and when I got up the next morning they were still loading them. Also they had loaded our ship during the night. We had the left overs of the fourth Marine division and their equipment which they were unable to get on the large transports. That day we left for Saipan by ourselves. There we stayed over night, and in the morning we left for Iwo Jimo escorted by a small patrol Craft. We got to Iwo Jimo about three oclock five days later. That same night about one oclock we recieved orders to get underway. We were to travel by ourselves in waters where never an L.S.T. had dared go before. We were to meet up with a group from a task force of the Third Fleet, a few hundred miles from Japan. We sure had trouble finding them. Typhons had been chasing us, and also the task force, all over the Pacific, and therefore they couldn't meet us when they were supposed to. One night we traveled all night with a convoy which we thought was ours, only to find out in the morning that we had been traveling with a group of hospital ships. Well we pranced around back and forth all over the pacific a few miles from Japan in that heavily mined area, where no other of our ships had been, still trying to find our convoy. All this time typhons were just missing us in every direction. Finally we met up with our convoy and proceeded to Sogami Wan Bay, which is right outside of Tokio Bay. A day later we entered Tokio Bay and beached at a large naval base there (Yokisuko). We unloaded the Marines who were to take the base over. While we were unloading the marines, another guy and I went ashore and looked the place over. I got a Jap magazine and a few more sovenirs. Boy those Japssure live filthy. It stunk all over the base from out door toilets and other trash. All the buildings had been shatt- ered from our bombs. All the windows were boarded up in large building. This base in only about ten miles from Tokio. Now we're tied up at another place inside a little bay inside Tokio Bay acting as a mother ship for beach battalions and small boat crews. We are right up to the shore here with our bow doors open and our ramp down. Yesterday they had some Jap sailors build a walk down to our ship leading from the buildings ashore where they have set up a temporary base and sig- nal station. The Japs objected to the work, saying that they were mili- tary men and not coolies. Ah, but the honorable Japs continued their work anyway. Yesterday the Jap officials signed the peace terms aboard the Battle ship Wisconsin. So the war is really over. And I'm ready to come home, for my job is done. They drafted me because of the war, now that the war is over they'd better send me home. Of course I can expect three or four more months out here yet I guess. At least now I know someday I'm coming home. Before I kind'a had my doubts once in awhile. All the ships in the first landing at Japan were listed in the papers back home, did you see them? L.S.T. 1083 was listed there. I'll close now with all my love Bud--