Lunga Point (CVE 94) - Naval Cruise Book

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4 l J Q .mm Q M. , t Enlisted men who reported aboard since I4 lNIay-lhrst groupl. sightseeing around the Imperial Pzilaee, the Diet, the American .l2IHlJ2lSSY. the Zoo and other points of interest. Tokyo turned out to be the modern City we had expeeted to find: liowex'e1'. we would have about two hours from Tokyog however, ar- rangements for liberty were well organized and we had an LSM call for our liberty party eaeh morning and they were able to spend the better part of the day there, shopping along the Ginza QTokyo's Fifth Avenue or Lincoln Roadj, found more a yez11'earlier. Yokohama.whirh 51 .Eff . Q n. 41 A - KA fi 441 4 Enlisted men who reported aboard since I4 lNIay-CSCCOUCI EVO'-'Pl 235

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adjoins Toyko, was even more modern in its architecture than Tokyo, however, both cities are about go per cent destroyed in their bus- iness and industrial areas. Shopping was much better in both of these cities, however, if a 4 A Tokyo debutante waiting for a street car. than in Wakanoura, 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. Consequently, 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. Cur 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 werenit going to get any, they came aboard in such small numbers. Nleanwhile, we had seen in the Stars and Strzpes that the Army was giving ajap rifie and bayonet to every soldier going back home on orders and we saw no reason why our Blue. jackets shouldn't get such a souvenir also, Consequently, we sent a working party up tg Yokohama and talked the 8th Army into giving us rifles and bayonets. Therefore, every officer and man in the shipjs company and Squadron has at least one good souvenir to Htake home from the warsf' While we were waiting for suflicient passen- gers Admiral 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 quote as follows: UTo 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 Youngslvr eats his lunch amid ruins of Toky0-