GIBSONBURG – A chunk of burnt metal, a signed Japanese flag, a book about conversion to Christianity and a rubber personal floatation device may not seem to have much in common. Yet they are all part of an expanded exhibit at the Northcoast Veterans Museum.
The items come from real stories of World War II, relics of the fight that led to the Japanese surrender 80 years ago.
Japan’s Emperor Hirohito announced the end of fighting and unconditional surrender to the United States on Aug. 15, 1945. However, V-J Day, or Victory over Japan Day, was Sept. 2, 1945, when U.S. Gen. Douglas MacArthur oversaw the formal Japanese surrender ceremony on the battleship USS Missouri. The Second World War then formally came to an end. Victory in Europe Day, or V-E Day, had been celebrated on May 8, 1945, with the surrender of Nazi Germany.
Northcoast Veterans Museum Curator Rex Postlethwait pointed out that the surrender was unexpected by most soldiers.
Postlethwait referenced the museum’s newest exhibit on Lt. Alice Miller, a 104-year-old veteran who still lives in Fremont. She served as a Navy Nurse aboard the hospital ship USS Solace during the Battle of Okinawa in Japan.
Both sides took heavy casualties in that battle from April to June 1945. She saw kamikaze pilots bombard ships as she attended to hundreds of burn victims.
While it was the last major battle in the Pacific theater, many more battles were expected.
“Anybody who was serving over there at that time had that thought in mind: Are we going to have to go into Japan? Are we going to have to take our hospital ship over there? Is it going to be attacked? Are we going to see all the wounded soldiers, the Marines, like we did during the Battle of Okinawa?” Postlethwait said.
One of the exhibits includes a Gold Star Mother’s pin. Postlethwait said that an extra million were minted in anticipation of the extreme number of fatalities if America invaded the Japanese mainland. More than 400,000 American soldiers died during WWII and almost 700,000 were wounded.
But on Aug. 6, 1945, the United States dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. On Aug. 8, Russia declared war on Japan and invaded Manchuria on the Chinese mainland, which was occupied by Japan. Then, on Aug. 9, the second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.
Less than a week later, Emperor Hirohito announced the Japanese surrender.
The Veterans Museum concentrates on stories that personify life, the battles and the times.
That chunk of burnt metal, for example, is the shrapnel that combat medic Al MacDonald dug out from his own leg. His unit, Merrill’s Marauders, fought around Burma with little more than air-drop support.
“I like when we tell stories, especially of people who have been in combat, but most of the stories they relate to us are not scary stories or brutal stories,” Postlethwait said. “They are stories that have levity.”
When MacDonald was interviewed for a position in the service, he was asked what he did.
“I was raised on a farm. We did this and we did that…We had chickens,” MacDonald recounted Postlethwait. “We gave the chickens shots.”
“Well, his talking about inoculating chickens is how he became a medic,” Postlethwait said. “He was selected to become a surgical technician.”
MacDonald was a local soldier from Gibsonburg who last lived in Fremont.
“He was still serving, Dec. 1945 was when he was discharged. He was one of those that was sitting there asking ‘Are we going to have to go into Japan? Those guys aren’t going to give up for anybody,'” Postlethwait said. “That’s the mentality of all the people serving during that time.”
The museum also possesses several flags captured from Japanese soldiers during the fighting. Some of them are signed by Americans and some are signed by Japanese family and friends. Postlethwait has had some of it translated.
Postlethwait has stories about the culture of the men who were killed as foes. There are also weapons, like a rifle from Nagasaki that had to be tested with a Geiger counter.
Yes, it still has a very low level of radioactivity.
The museum is not just about World War II. Instead, it shows respect to soldiers of all types in unvarnished displays. War propaganda was not polite. Here, the museum shows it in all its ugliness, the warts with the stories of bravery.
The museum also has a signed copy of the Pearl Harbor Japanese Commander Mitsuo Fuchida’s book “From Pearl Harbor to Golgotha,” which is about his conversion to Christianity.
Then there’s the story of the mother who worked as a personal flotation device inspector in the Akron Firestone Tire and Rubber Company. Her son, Signalman 3rd Class Elgin Staples, was twice thrown into the water during the campaign for Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, northeast of Australia. That inflatable life belt saved him. The original story was reported by the Akron Beacon Journal in 1942.
Beyond the Pacific theater, the museum has displays about the rest of the war and the many other conflicts involving the United States. Each item has a story.
Postlethwait urges the public to recognize the 80th anniversary of V-J Day with more than pomp and circumstance. He wants the public to reflecton the stories of the people who were there.
rlapointe@gannett.com
419-332-2674
This article originally appeared on Fremont News-Messenger: Veterans Museum highlights 80th Anniversary of Victory in Japan Day
Reporting by Roger LaPointe, Fremont News-Messenger / Fremont News-Messenger
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
