Cuttlefish
Posts: 2454
Joined: 1/24/2007 From: Oregon, USA Status: offline
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March 18, 1943 Location: Tjilitjap Course: Docked Attached to: TF 72 Mission: Air Combat System Damage: 3 Float Damage: 0 Fires: 0 Fuel: 381 Orders: Await further orders --- Excerpt from a letter to Chief Petty Officer Shun from his daughter, Nanami: …and the doctor says Grandmother may be well enough to return to Okinawa by next month. She has already gained some weight back and looks ever so much better than she did. Meanwhile Aunt and Uncle have been very good to me, and I have enjoyed staying here in Osaka. But it is all very busy here. Everyone always seems to be in a hurry, and it is hard to get used to the noise and the crowds. It will be nice to go home again. And (since I know you have given very strict instructions to Uncle!) you will be glad to know that he has taken your words seriously. No suitors have come to call, and I do not talk to any young men of whom you would not approve. Which means, of course, I do not talk to young men at all. But please do not hear any reproach in my words, dear father! You always know what is best, and I know that you will see to my future in a proper and fitting manner… --- Excerpt from a letter to Captain Ishii from his wife: …and they have named her Sachiko, after your mother. She is a tiny little thing, but her cry is very healthy and she has no lack of appetite. She is very pretty, too. I know it is hard to have another grandchild born while you are away, husband, but life does go on here, war or no war. It would be easy sometimes to forget that there is a war, in fact, if it were not that so many men are gone, scattered across the Pacific or Asia or who knows where. Those families who have the honor of a son who has died in battle do not forget it, of course. And neither do those of us who watch the sea, and send our prayers for safety and courage to those who we miss so very much… --- Excerpt from a letter to PO2 Taiki Takahashi from his brother: Mutsu has sailed again, better than new, and I am aboard her! I am still no prize to look at, but I passed the physical. We are heading to…well, there is no point in writing that, it would just get blotted out. Suffice to say that just the thought of our destination leaves me cold. I have thought of you often, little brother. I hear of your ship every now and then. It sounds like you were in on that business down around Timor. What a glorious victory that was! I am envious that you got to participate in that, and I want to hear all about it the next time we meet. How are you getting on as a noncom? Are you learning the ropes, and are you still bedeviled by the terrible Shun? I may be a junior officer, Taiki, but one thing I have learned is that petty officers are the ones who really run a ship. It is strange to think of you in that role, but this is a time where many of us must grow and change to meet the challenge of war, and I think that perhaps you are capable of more than anyone suspected. Well, anyone except me. I always knew that you were the smart one of the two of us, even if I used to have all the good looks…
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