Pathways to the Past

by Faye Teitloff
Special to Livingston Ledger

Our pathways lead us to an article written in the Livingston Ledger by Ava Magee Siener entitled “Warfield recalls Hiroshima bombing”. Siener was interviewing Bob Warfield of Livingston County probably in the 1990s.

“A day which will live in infamy” was the way President Franklin D. Roosevelt described the December 7, 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. The act brought America into World War II.

The war with Japan ended on August 16, 1945 after America had dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Hiroshima was the first city to experience the devastation and destruction of a nuclear bomb; Nagasaki the second. The bomb had only been tested less than a month before on July 16, 1945.

The 9,000 pound bomb, nicknamed “Little Boy,” was dropped on Hiroshima a little after 8:15 a.m. from a B-29 bomber named Enola Gay. The plane was named after the pilot’s wife.

The bomb was detonated 1,980 feet above the city. Those people who were within the central part of the city were vaporized. The city was described as an inferno and was reduced to rubble.

Bob Warfield of Livingston County was one of the first Americans to visit the Japanese city and witness the destruction first hand. Warfield had been working in Michigan when the war started. As his work was considered important for the work effort, he kept receiving draft deferments. To join the war effort, he resigned his position and moved back home to Smithland. It wasn’t long before he was called to duty. In his mid 20s, Warfield was assigned to the US Navy and began his tour of duty on the AO 75 USS Saugatuck, a naval fleet tanker.

The USS Saugatuck was the first tanker in the China Sea, reaching there on August 16, 1945. His journey to Hiroshima, however, began on July 1 in Okinawa.

American forces were preparing for an invasion of Japan. The American forces, based in Okinawa had experienced several suicide mission attacks by the Japanese. Smoke boats, those which pumped smoke over the ships, were kept busy in an effort to provide cover for the vessels. Warfield’s ship began to move before August first on a mine sweeping operation.

“We moved out of Okinawa on a mine sweeping operation, to clear the mines around Japan so this invasion could take place. They had mines everywhere. The mines, floating just below the surface of the water, were attracted to ships by magnetic force.”

“While we were out there, they posted our schedule and any news which might be important, on something similar to a bulletin board every day. They posted 10 Japanese cities and they told the Japanese that one or more would be completely destroyed in just a short time. And, they advised all people to evacuate. They distributed these notices over all these ten cities by plane. They covered the cities with them and put them on every ship. We did not know about the bomb.

Looking back on World War II and the United States’ decision to use nuclear bombs on Japan, there have been suggestions made that America used the bomb because the Japanese are a non-white race. Warfield doesn’t agree with that theory.

“Well, I think they did it because of this invasion. They said it saved a million people. I believe that because they really would fight. We were ready to go and either drop that bomb or invade.

“So they didn’t leave the city after they gave them that notice that their cities would be destroyed. They didn’t believe us, so that is why so many of them were killed.”

Warfield said they were notified that the bomb had been dropped, but they continued their mine sweeping work until after the war officially ended on August 16, 1945.

“But there were so many Japanese who didn’t know or care that the war was over, they just kept on fighting in submarines and planes. A month later you could still be sunk. Even today they find some Japanese soldiers on these islands.”

“Shortly after September first we moved into the Suo Sea, just off shore from Hiroshima and we dropped anchor. The bomb had been dropped and the war is supposed to be over. We were one of a few ships who had moved into the area.

“Everything was upset over there, in disarray. Then we made a trip, we just happened to run into it, where there were caves along the edge of the water and where all these one-man submarines were hidden. That’s where they had been operating out of. The submarines were used to sink ships and the Japanese did a lot of damage with them during the war.”

After a day or two of running around in a motor launch, the captain and four officers were joined by about 20 sailors who boarded a motor launch and started into Hiroshima. “I don’t think we had any reason to go but the captain wanted to.”

The city was in rubble but what Warfield remembers most vividly is the people. “They looked and acted as if there was no resentment or hatred or anything. After we got into the major part of town, you didn’t see any younger people at all. No kids, just older men and women. A few could speak English and were very friendly. They had bruises, cuts, and burns and I know some could not have lived long after that.

“So, as we started in, it was sort of a shanty town on the edge of a canal, built on stilts and the further we went, the more damage you could see. The small mud huts survived better than the larger buildings. As we went along the edge of the mountain, it was all caves where the people lived. The people looked okay but of course, I know they got radiation and probably died later. Then we got farther down, say two or three miles from downtown, everything was just leveled to the ground. An automobile could not be recognized because all you could see was twisted metal. Bridges that crossed the river were blown right out of the ground.”

“Everything was in complete disarray and nobody knew what they were doing. They were digging under buildings to find things to trade with Americans for food or whatever we had. All the dead people had been moved but it still smelled terrible and I am sure bodies were still buried under rubble. I just don’t know how the people existed.”

Those who survived Hiroshima are called hibakusha, meaning victims of the bomb. They carry the physical and emotional scars which brought the world into the nuclear age. The world has not forgotten Hiroshima and what was complete devastation has been rebuilt and flourishes. But by remembering what was, maybe we can prevent another holocaust in the future.

We are proud that Mr. Warfield told some of the terrible things he remembered about the war. It makes us realize the sacrifices which our service men and women have given for our freedom. We must pray for our soldier’s safety each day and for the wars to end peacefully soon.

For comments call (270) 928- 2033 or fayteitloff@windstream.net