Thomas Jefferson (APA 30) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 10 text:

THE UIIIIUP Tlll 4 The United States was quite used to winning battles by this timeg winning the war itself, how- ever, caught us with our trousers just slightly unhitched. You can,t get an army of occupation together and stage them over thousands of miles of ocean in a single week, or even a month. But, fortunately, the invasion of Iapan had been intri- cately planned, and gigantic naval forces assigned to it. It was not long before it was realized that the occupation would have to be the 'cinvasionf' On September 13, we arrived in the Marianas, Most hands had been in Saipan before, on the Okinawa campaign. So it was no novelty. We stayed several days, trying to get fueled. This was finally done, and we set off in a general north- westerly direction. Only 'then did we learn offi- cially that we were going to Sasebo, on the island of Kyushu, in Iapan. Most of the men had guessed that it would be somewhere in Iapan, and the grapevine had not been wrong in saying Sasebo. And the Thomas fc'17cr.von had been assigned a role. Late in the afternoon of August 24, the ship steamed out of the roadstead of Pearl Harbor bound for Maui Island, where a thousand Marines had been waiting for the invasion. It took very little time to embark them but their cargo caused more than one large headache on the T. I . The aspirin supply dwindled as the Boatswain and the First Lieutenant fig- ured how the gol-darned stuff was to be kept in order ftheir very wordsj. Nothing was labeled accurately, and all the junk the Marines had on the island of Maui came aboard, from tents to type- writers. After returning to Pearl Harbor to join up with Transdiv 39, which was part of the large convoy desig- nated Transron 22, we were informed that we would have a Transport Division of our own as far as Saipan, and that Captain Madden would be its Commander. Six ships behind us in col- umn, taking orders from us. COMTRANSDIV 22 WAS IN THE JEFFERSON 8 The men had got it from the chiefs, chiefs got it from the officers, and the officers got it from the steward's mates. But now it was official. The occupation was to be carried out as if it had been an inva- sion. In fact, the more pessi- mistic aboard fully expected a few shots to be Bred by fanatics, or even more large scale forays, which was not bad reasoning considering the nature of the late enemy. But, as the Thomas jefferson approached the entrance to the harbor of Sasebo in com- pany with the other ships in the convoy, protected by cruisers, destroyers, and minesweepers, the few lap- anese we saw were quite un- interested. The magnificent line of ships filed through the narrow channel entrance, past an old man, a peasant, fishing on a dock of rotting wooden boards. He didn't even turn around. This was the introduction to the foe. And this, we thought, would be all we would ever see of him, for liberty was not to be granted during this phase of the occupation. Sasebo

Page 9 text:

type the Navy felt was needed in a large scale operation. The APA-H was to have large bays for the sick and injured, and special facilities for medical treatment. This would involve internal structural changes on the main deck amidships, tearing out of bulkheads, enlarging of other med- ical centers, and the addition to shipis company of a large force of doctors and corpsmen. To most of the ofhcers and men, it also meant that the duty would become perhaps more hazardous than ever before. Lying off the hostile coast, day after day, waiting for casualties to be embarked, and once on board, away with them to a hospital ship, and back again for more punishment. But no one was particularly perturbed. Had not the T. I. taken the worst the Germans could throw, in the grimmest days of the war? Had not she gone through two sessions at Oki- nawa? Was she not a lucky ship? Spirits rose with the gradual approach of the emergency, a phenomenon reported often during the course of the war in every phase of every service. It was at Pearl Harbor, while the ship was tied up near the battleship N cw York, that the end of the war could be discerned approaching swiftly. It didn't come in a single day of collapse-one noticed only that people didn't laugh any more when somebody said it would be over in two weeks- mark my words! But the awful en- gulfing of the enemy, the beating down of the will to fight, the shattering of Iapan's remaining resources in the tremendous last days of the war was plain to everyone. At last, on the 14th of Au- gust, the end was ofiicially proclaimed. At Pearl Harbor, where the war had started, all hell broke loose. rKsN Vif.e-2 , Y Eff? fax lk, by 7 r rrfslflildl 44Q kr, ,,',L- H , .V -5 f WQ7' i XrxS y ll 1. ml 1 'll if l lr .9 -... , C lk -wp I V FOR VICTORY, SIR!

Page 11 text:

we were there, with even the engineers, some climbing into the higher altitudes for the first time, eocking a grimy eye at the lap landscape. itself is a splendid harbor, but small in size. It is surrounded by mountains of a sort, resembling those in western Pennsylvania, and the crew could The city of Sasebo could not be seen, since it was behind a large mountain, near to which we were anchored. Curiosity was great, but not destined to be satisfied immediately. For we had heard that see plainly the Iapanese efforts at farming. These people showed a yen for the kind of land a plow- jockey of the Adirondacks would have given up long ago. Many of the farms were more in the vertical than the horizontal. The long-glass on the signal bridge got a workout the several days sion was to proceed next to Manila. wx K 5'hf'll , X X XX ' t. Q3 T 5 l K Viv A s 'QW .l , M t IW dll QQ g' V -f A :TQ pg, C7 f Ik f Ol-F' D 'MJ 'JTLDQJ gl l L6 Xi To , KA! 'Qfld cl f fwkiid Watt xx, Ls.. .xtjlq NT 'ff.,' 'N SR X' . I A W 5 N 35 i r r N f 4 e X lt irtr hylxl A U X ll' 3- A S r T T gf r Ql i f rf' ' lxktgs 1. I 'Q xl V :fl M- QQ NOTHlNG WAS LABELED ACCURATELY . . 9 after unloading the occupation troops, our divif