The War Ends

In August we were all working in Toyama on the foundries and then all of a sudden, this was in the middle of the day, “Spido, Spido, Spido, Campo, Campo!” I mean everything had to have an “O” on the end of it, you know. So we were all marched back to the camp and we were left in the enclosure what we called the parade square. We were there for quite a while and one of the guys with good eyesight was looking down and everybody, all these Japanese were bowing and bowing and up and bowing. I guess that was when the Emperor was speaking to them. And then the interpreter, an elderly fellow, came out and said that the war was over in Japan and Japan had quit. Then they brought in a live pig and we started to eat a little bit better. But you should have seen the guys trying to catch this pig, in the shower room. I think they must have put some grease on it. And then shortly after that airplanes came over and started to drop food to us. And one plane came over which was sad and he went to sweep and he was down too close and one of his wings hit the ground, flipped him over and killed him. Just a young fellow too, about 19 years old. In fact, he had a letter in his pocket that the doctor read that he was on his first and that he’d be home soon and all of this and here he was dead.