THE HAUNTING VOICE OF TOKYO ROSE The men on our ship were very tired and worn out. We had been transferred from fleet to fleet because we were a repair ship. Because there weren't many of us left out there, we could not be relieved by another repair ship. We had been with the 5th fleet, the 7th fleet, and the 57th fleet. So we didn't get much of a rest in between battles. Besides, the Japanese airplanes continuously tried to sink us. We used to listen to Tokyo Rose on our radio, and she would mention many other ship's names that were in the harbors, or coming across the Pacific. She also knew the names of men in the service, and their attachments, and what ships they were on. She must have gotten the information from sailors whose ships had been sunk, and from prisoners of war that had been captured by the Japanese. We were very surprised by the way she mentioned our names and our ship's names. She had said many things about where we were located in the Bay, and what we were doing. She used to tell us to quit because it was impossible for us to win the war, and how the Japanese were so much superior in force to us. Many times she mentioned our ship's name and said they were sending planes out to sink us, and at what time they would arrive. It got to where you could count on what she said, because they would arrive at the time she said they would. A couple of times she reported that we were sunk, then, when she found out we were still afloat, she would come back on the radio and tell us how lucky we were, but that they were coming after us again. I don't mean to brag but our ship did a good job of repairing the vessels that got hit during the battles. There were a lot of fellows on the vessels that we repaired, who were mad at us because usually when a ship got hit pretty bad, they were sent back to a big port for repairs. So when we fixed them, they had to return to the battle. But that was our job. In fact we have a few commendations for the good work we did in the battles we participated in across the Pacific. We were very proud of the job we were doing. Index | Photographs | My Stearman | Learning To Fly | My Flight Instructor WARTIME EXPERIENCES Liberty In Leyte | Leyte | Tokyo Rose | Sea Of Bodies This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page