Occupation of Japan
At the war was over we did nothing but cruise around awaiting the day when we were to go in with the occupation force. Besides a large fleet of AK’s, PA’s, and LSV’s there was the battleboat Iowa, the AA cruiser San Diego and three destroyers from desdiv 106 and one 2200 can, the Southerland.
One afternoon the carriers sent up every plane they had and they all flew over the force. There was nearly 1000 planes in the air from the carriers of the 3rd fleet. They came over in waves and it really made us proud to see those stars on the wings. The sky was black and seeing them reminded me of watching flocks of geese or ducks in the sky at home only on much larger scale.
Seeing all those fighter, torpedo and dive bomber planes in the air was really a thrilling sight. After seeing all those planes it wasn’t hard to understand why this war is over and we were the victors.
For 10 days we did nothing but continually pass mail, passengers, and equipment. At one time we had enough brass on board to equip a small bar completely in the states. A few lieutenant colonels, major generals and a liberal sprinkling of commodores staffs and naval officers.
On all the troop transports we became a well known ship, going alongside of the transports as many as 4 to 8 times a day depending on what kind of duty we had.
A standing order we named our ship the "Asiatic Cab Co". Our motto was "We deliver everything but the baby. If you have one we will deliver it too". The sailors knew us almost by name and there was a lot of kidding back and forth between the crews.
All the transports were loaded with Marines and they were constantly training as well as the Navy who was to go on occupation force. It really was a beautiful sight seeing all the transports loaded with troops lumbering along at a full 8 knots with the destroyers cutting in and out like sleek greyhounds.
The deck force really caught hell handling lines for all this personnel, mail provisions, and equipment passing, as they were busy from early morning to late at night.
On August 23 we took on fresh provisions for the first time in quite sometime. Fresh food is a very rare article out here. We also fueled in preparation to enter the Harbor of Tokyo.
On the morning of August 24th we passed long rows of LSM’s and LCM’s slowly lumbering along like a bunch of ducks. To either side were long rows of two stack cans of the 1700 class. The ships are assembling from everywhere and consist of every class, all ready for the occupation of Japan.
We were headed in on the morning of August 26th but due to three typhoons were ordered back at 0300 in the morning. The Japanese destroyer that was to lead us in came out to meet us and then went back. We had him on the radar screen. During the day the weather clamed down and we once more started in for Japan.