Hiroshima
1945
U.S. Atomic Veterans
Henry Dittmer
Henry called to ask about the atomic veterans meeting and to say he had been ill and was not able to attend. I filled him in on the details and told him another meeting was being scheduled for July. I then asked if I could get some details about his service at Hiroshima. My questions and comments are in italics.
Henry asked if I had seen the newest VFW magazine (March issue)? It has a cover story about atomic test veterans. I said I had.
I found it pretty weird, I was never involved in anything that bad(atomic testing). We went ashore only two days in Hiroshima. I was in the Medical Corp. There was, I think, two of us Medics went in, with the rest of the groups. I was in the amphibious group 11. We were with the flag ship for Rear Admiral Rodgers and, we went in about the 3rd of October and stayed until about the 21st. Then we were gone for five days to Mitsashuma, Japan, then we came back to Hiro again. After that, the 6th of November, we went to Yokohama, and picked up the 1st Marine Division and brought them home. After we docked in San Fransicso, I had enough points, I got off the ship there, and went to Bremerton for discharge. Then the ship went back to Japan to bring more troops back.
If you got there in October, I asked, and the bomb was dropped in August, what had been done in the city by the time you got there? He asked me if I had seen the National Geographic magazine pictures of Hiroshima? I told him I was sure I had.
The place was still a mess, just flattened out. I guess all the bodies had been cleaned up and everything. It was just an absolute mess. You'd walk across a bridge, across a canal and the railing on one side would be blown over on the bridge and the other side, it was blown off. Once in a while there would be a building standing there all by itself. But I think a lot of their construction was wood and paper, you know, light construction. Especially in the residential parts. With the brick buildings, once in a while there would be one standing. I do have some pictures, I compared my pictures with the pictures in National Geographic and saw quite a few of them.
You took pictures?
Henry said, I've got probably five of them or something like that.
I told him we would like to have the pictures for the website.
They are black and whites, and they're getting pretty old.
He asked for my address and said he'll send them to me. I promised to scan them in and send them right back. He said just keep him in mind for the next meeting. I asked him if he knew what they did with all the people who were killed, did they bury them in mass graves?
I don't know what they did with them, I never got into that part of it. When I was there all that had been cleared up.
Were the roads all cleared up when you got there?
Yes, they had the debris cleaned off of them.
We had a Japanese group tour us through a factory, and then we picked up some souvenirs on the way. We got some Japanese flags while we was there and some ships that were made, I had one that was about 3 feet long, with all the masts on it and everything, I left it on my ship. It was a model somebody made. We picked up swords and I got one of those Italian carbines, like Lee Harvey Oswald used.
I asked, Did you have a radiation monitor with you, at that time?
No, nobody knew anything about radiation.
What was your job there?
I was a Corpsman with the group that went in. They never had a big onshore job, it was sorta touring the area. And I suppose the officers were touching base with the land base officers. We were off the ship and we would go ashore in the morning and come back at night.
Were there quite a few people there, I mean Japanese?
Yeah, there was a lot of them there, and they seemed reasonably friendly, You always had an erie feeling, because you didn't really know what was going to happen.
You really couldn't expect them to be friendly.
No, you didn't, after all that had been done. Apparently they were pretty relieved that everything was all over, too.
Did you see survivors there? People who had been wounded and injured?
No. I have an idea that they were all confined in some type of home or hospital or something. We never got to go through a hospital over there. We got to see more when we went to Yokohama and we went up toTokyo, too.
What did Tokyo look like?
A mess, I mean they had been firebombed pretty bad.
Real Bad, I added.
Yep, But basically they were cleaned up a lot better than Hiroshima, because those type of bombs don't cause nearly as much damage as the atomic bomb did.
To this day, you look at it, it's awesome, and that was just a little one.
Did anyone point out the oddities of an atomic detonation? like the blistering on roofing tile, or shadows on the sidewalks?
No, only what we saw on our tours. They turned us loose for a while and we walked down through that stuff and the odd things you'd see would be like, a building standing with everything else around it would be collapsed. It was weird in that respect. Here would be one standing; one would even have some glass on one side. It was so awesome, people weren't looking for things like that.
(The scientific observers were looking for things like that and found many of them. --editor)
So your impression was that the place was flattened?
Oh it was, yea. It's pretty obvious when you look at the pictures. It had to really be a terrible thing. The National Geographic made a panorama view of the destruction.
Were you in World War Two?
Yes.
Where were you?
We were in the Phillipines, Leyte, Mendenow,
You were in the Battle of Leyte Gulf?
Yea, I'm reading that book right now. I was a part of the landings, I wasn't part of the warships. We were on an APA, and the Warships were the ones who had the big battle.
Do you ever go to reunion of your ship?
No, I never have.
What was the name of your ship?
USS Calvert APA.
I've got a book about the history of the Calvert. I was going to bring it along to the meeting, but I didn't make it.
I'm real sorry you didn't make it. But I told Fred (Oregon NAAV Cmdr).
Is he from Lebanon?
Yes.
He contacted me, and that's when I joined the Atomic Vets (NAAV). It's really odd that so few people know about the atomic vets.
We talked a bit more and I told him I sure appreciated him taking the time with me and I'd be sure to let him know about the next meeting scheduled for July.
Well, It was sure nice talking to ya. He said.
Thanks for the interview, Henry.
--Keith Whittle
Monday, March 23, 1998
Atomic Veteran Henry Dittmer's Photo Album | Hiroshima, 1945