The aftermath of Nagasaki
Sardis pharmacist recalls his WWII service for Library of Congress project
By Anne Marie Kyzer Staff Writer

Wynne, pictured at center, used photographs he saved from WWII to tell of his experiences during the war.

John Thomas Wynne stepped off the landing craft that carried him from the U.S.S. Sanborn into Nagasaki, Japan.

Atomic bombs had been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki just weeks before.

In the mangled shipyard, Wynne saw only the twisted metal that once supported buildings. In the distance, he could see charred hillsides blackened from the blast. At the bomb's detonation site, there would be nothing to see. Only ashes remained.

"It was devastated," Wynne recalls, describing flattened structures and ubiquitous black dust.

Wynne, then a 23-year-old pharmacist from Sardis, landed in Nagasaki on a medical mission with the Second Marine Division to set up a hospital. The Sanborn was only the second ship to unload at the site, and Wynne volunteered to be one of the first few to venture out into the destruction.

Their hospital took shape in a three-story school building on a hilltop. The windows were blown out from the force of the bomb that exploded several miles away.

Wynne straightens the uniform he wore as a Pharmacist Mate 2-C in the U.S. Navy during WWII.

Wynne set up the division's pharmacy in what was left of the janitors' quarters and spent his days dispensing medication for soldiers who fell ill.

Last Friday afternoon, Wynne reached back more than 60 years into his past to describe his service during World War II. He did so as part of a national effort to preserve the memories of WWII veterans. With a videotape rolling, he tried to recall his experiences during the war and post-war occupation of Nagasaki.

The retired pharmacist brought along several mementos to help illustrate his story.

He arranged his old Navy uniform, running his fingers over the insignia and explaining the meaning of each one.

"They call this the ruptured duck," he explained, pointing to the golden duck emblem given at discharge.

Just handling the garment seemed to bring back memories.

Prompted by questions from Burke County High School history teacher Karen Reeves, Wynne outlined his service, starting with his entrance into the U.S. Navy in 1944 and then his deployment as part of the "first replacement draft."

Wynne described the "miserable" 59 days he spent eating Spam on a crowded ship as forces secured Guam for their landing.

Wynne talked of his mission on Saipan with D Medical Company. He told of the Easter morning in 1945 he spent just offshore during the Battle of Okinawa, where they faked two landings to draw the Japanese from the invasion site.

He continued through his return home, where he was back to work filling prescriptions within a week.

Wynne jogged his memory with several photographs he'd saved for more than half a century. Among a stack of pictures taken in Saipan and Nagasaki, he came across an old school picture from Waynesboro Elementary School. Wynne named the faces in the black and white photograph, stopping when he came to two of his classmates who didn't make it home from the war.

Wynne's wife, Martha, brought along a tattered scrapbook that contained every one of the letters he sent home to his mother during the war.

By the end of the afternoon, Wynne's first-hand experiences from WWII had been captured on tape. They will soon be part of a collection in the Library of Congress.

Local organizers of the World War II Oral History Project will spend the next several months interviewing men, like Wynne, who left their jobs and homes in Burke County to serve during the war.

After the interview, Wynne said he believes the project is worthwhile and the documentation is important. Not only will it be a part of a larger, national project, but his family, who will receive a copy of the interview, will have his memories to pass on for generations to come. Local World War II veterans and family members of deceased veterans may contact Karen Reeves to participate in the WWII Oral History Project.

Telephone:

706-554- 6691

Email: kreeves@burke.k12.ga.us or

kreeves@burke.net.