Lunga Point (CVE 94) - Naval Cruise Book

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adjoins Toyko, was fvcn more modern in its an liitcriurc than Tokyo; liowtvtT. Ixjili f itits arc about ()0 [X-r crnt destroyed in lh -ir bus- iness and indnstrial areas. Shoppini was niiK li better in bntli ol these cities, houcxci-. A rokvo cirbu tiian in W ' akanonra. because the stores that were left were modern and you could usually find someone in them who had lived or been educated in the States and who could speak very good English. In fact, some even spoke American. Actually, there were few blocks left in the business section of Tokyo with more than one building standing. C onsequently, the crowded streets were even more congested by make-shift shops set up along the edge of the sidewalks where buildings had been burned or bombed out. In any event, just visiting Tokyo as we did was well worth while. The most important thing that happened to us while in Tokyo Bay, though, was getting our orders transferring us from the 5th Fleet to Magic Carpet duty, meaning that thencefor- ward we were a transport CVE. Our orders further told us to start loading passengers and, when loaded, to proceed to Pearl Harbor and Uncle Sugar. It didn ' t take us long to start looking for passengers; however, for several days, it seemed like we weren ' t going to gel any, they came al)oard in such small numlK-rs. Meanwhile, we had si-cn in the Sims and Siri jfs that the Army was giving a Jap rifle and l)ayonel to every .soldier going back home on orders and we .saw n(j reason why our Blue- jackets shouldn ' t get .such a souvenir also. Cion.sequently, we sent a working party up to ' okohama and talked the 8th Army into giving us rifles and i ayonets. Therefore, (■ cry officer and man in the ship ' s company iiiui .Scjuadron has at least one good souvenir to take home from the wars. While we were waiting for sufficient passcn- i ers , ' dmiral Durgin again demonstrated his desire to show the men under him how much he appreciated their efforts, this time in the form of a letter, of which we are very proud, and which we fiuote as follows: To the Officers and Men of the U.S.S. Lunga Point : Prior to your departure for the States I want to tell you once more that I am most pleased with the excellent work done by the crew of the LUNGA POINT. We started out together a little over a year ago and have gone through Youngster eats his lunch amid ruins of Toky 2.36

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who rcportfd aboard 14 May — (first group). aljoiit two hours from Tokyo; however, ar- rangements for liberty were well organized and we had an LSM call for our liberty party each morning and they were able to spend the better part of the day there, shopping along the Ginza (Tokyo ' s Fifth Avenue or Lincoln Road), sightseeing around the Imperial Palace, the Diet, the American Embassy, the Zoo and other points of interest. Tokyo turned out to be the modern city we had expected to find; however, we would have found more a year earlier. Yokohama, vhich fl5 t Enlisted men who reported aboard since 14 Ma — (second group). 235

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Homeward bound pennant. Point Loma; our first view of U. S 237