US Embassy, Tokyo, Dec. 7, 1941

There are thousands of stories related to personal experiences in World War II and while many are tragic in the extreme, others involve circumstances and events that are interesting from the point of view of simply being of human interest.

After the war many who had been in the United States military continued their government service and joined the State Department and other agencies of the United States Government. I met many of these veterans while serving as a foreign service officer in various American Embassies. These were men who were nearing retirement and their positions were being filled by younger employees such as myself.

One such person I shall always remember while serving with the State Department told me of an episode which occurred at the American Embassy in Tokyo in the early days of the war.

He recalled that the dependents of the Embassy staff were ordered by the State Department to leave Japan in April of that year as the political situation between the United States and Japan was deteriorating rapidly.

Shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor and the declaration of war on December 8th while still in Tokyo he was visited by a Japanese officer who looked around the Embassy compound and saw several Japanese civilians who were employed as gardeners, cooks and maids. The Japanese officer ordered them to leave stating, “our countries are now at war and such luxuries will not be permitted among American Embassy employees”, and he ordered the Japanese domestic employees to leave the Embassy compound and not to return. He then told the Americans that they could not leave the compound and that an exchange of diplomats was being arranged. This trade later took place in West Africa where the Japanese diplomats who had been stationed in Washington (including Japanese negotiators Ambassador Admiral Kichisaburo Nomura and Saburo Kurusu) were exchanged for the American Embassy staff that had been assigned to Japan. This particular Japanese officer had a habit of dropping by the Embassy compound as he liked to practice speaking English. One day he brought an English language newspaper with the headline, “Guam Falls”, and remarked that Singapore, Hong Kong and Hawaii would be next and that Japanese forces would land troops on the United States’ west coast. My friend, Bill, recalled his reply, “Colonel you will never take Singapore as the city is protected by a large British garrison as well as huge naval coastal batteries, it will never fall.” With that exchange the Japanese officer abruptly left. Several days later he returned and again held up an English language newspaper in which the headline read, “Singapore Falls.” “What do you think of that?” asked the officer. Being extremely depressed at the news, Bill replied,”So Singapore has fallen – well Colonel maybe you will take Hawaii – and maybe you will land troops on the west coast of the United States – but I’ll tell you here and now – I’ll go down with my country.” With that the the Japanese officer stood up, slapped Bill on the back and said, “spoken like a man” and walked out the door. Several hours later the Japanese house boys and maids returned to work in the compound. Months later, while standing on the roof of his quarters in Tokyo, Bill heard aircraft flying overhead and looked up and thought he saw the red wing insignia of the Japanese Air Force, but all of a sudden bombs started to fall on the city — it was April 18,1942, and it was Jimmy Dolittle and his “Tokyo Raiders” flying over the city in their B-25 Mitchell Bombers from the aircraft carrier Hornet. The red “meatball” Bill thought he saw was actually the red center of the old Army Air Force wing insignia which was later changed to a plain white star.

There are many interesting stories that relate to the war, it was later learned that very little damage was done by the bombing attack. Fearing that the Army’s top secret Norden Bomb Sight would fall into the hands of the Japanese, the attack was carried out with a 20 cent, sheet metal device that resembled a protractor with a sighting arm. I well remember hearing the news of the attack on the radio, in fact it was the first good news we had received since Pearl Harbor and it certainly boosted the morale of the American people in those dark days of 1942. (William H. Stewart)