The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Cecil Dykes. Dykes volunteered for the Navy in July of 1944. He was trained to become a LCVP crewman on the USS Bosque (APA-135). Dykes traveled to Okinawa and took part in landing troops and ferrying wounded back to the ship. He witnessed several kamikaze attacks. Dykes was aboard the Bosque at Tokyo Bay the day of the surrender and helped land troops from the 1st Cavalry Division for the occupation of Japan. He was discharged 8 June 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Laura “Sally” Bussey. Bussey was born in Goree, Texas on 29 April 1916. She attended Mary Hardin Baylor College in Belton, Texas receiving a teaching degree. She married in 1939 and tells of Thomas J. Taylor, the father of Lady Bird Johnson, offering to build and furnish a new house for her and her husband if she would take a teaching job in Karnak, Texas. She accepted. Her husband entered the United States Army soon after the declaration of war and she describes the experience of having living essentials pre-packed and ready to go during multiple location changes and the living conditions encountered at these locations. She tells of war time rationing, planting victory gardens and doing volunteer work with the Red Cross. She describes keeping up with the progress of the war by listening to the radio news reports by Edward R. Morrow and fireside chats by President Roosevelt. She also describes a wonderful reunion with her husband upon his return from Europe at the conclusion of World War II and tells of their life until his retirement from the Army in 1967.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Robert Morrison. Morrison joined the Army Air Forces in December 1942 and was sent to Chicago to train with aviation cadets. He received further training in Santa Ana, Tucson, and Phoenix. His night-flying was done in the B-25, guided by a radar operator. The casualty rate was extremely high from crashing into unseen objects. Upon completion of his training, Morrison became an instructor in flying the BT-13 and the AT-6. He was then sent for training on the Northrop P-61 Black Widow. In preparation for the dropping of the atomic bomb, Morrison participated in experiments for radar-guided bombing in overcast conditions. His flying career ended when the atomic bomb was dropped. Morrison returned home and became a dentist. One of his longtime patients had manned a navigational hut in Arizona that Morrison routinely flew over during his training. When Morrison realized the connection during an appointment, he gave his old call signal, which caught the patient quite by surprise. Morrison went on to travel extensively and met Paul Tibbets and pilots from the Doolittle Raid, whom he describes as a rough bunch.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Bill Hardin. Hardin joined the Navy’s underwater demolition team after attending Officers Candidate School at Columbia University. He received water training and depth training at Pearl Harbor. He cleared underwater obstacles in Guam, Saipan, and Okinawa in preparation for invasions, often under enemy fire. At Guam, he noticed a native girl in need of serious medical attention. He called in a medic, who arrived by plane and treated the girl. When Hardin returned during a second trip to Guam, he met the girl at the newly erected aid station and learned that she named her infant daughter after him: Bill. In Saipan he recalls seeing the atomic bomb being loaded, although he didn’t know what it was at the time. At Okinawa he and his team tied together several tons of explosives and towed them six miles out to sea before detonating them. Although he was miles away at the time of detonation, he could still feel its impact in the water. He returned home and elected to join the Reserves after the war ended. He was the only of five brothers in his family to survive the …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with John Kenneth Ryan. Ryan joined the Marine Corps in May of 1943. By February of 1944, he completed Radio Operator School, Radio Material School and High Speed Code School. Ryan served as a radio technician with the 3rd Joint Assault Signal Company (JASCO), 3rd Marine Division. He participated in the Battle of Guam and the Battle of Iwo Jima. Ryan returned to the US in August of 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Harold Leith. Leith joined the Army and learned Chinese at the University of Chicago. Upon completion, in May 1945 he was assigned to the OSS in Kunming, China. He parachuted near to the Mukden prisoner-of-war camp in Manchuria where General Wainwright was being held. A group of Japanese soldiers unaware of the surrender held Leith and his group hostage, despite a Nisei’s attempt to reason with them. Leith’s group was brought to the Kempeitai, who released them after learning of the surrender. They arrived at the POW camp in Hsian, now known as Shenyang, and found that even General Wainwright didn’t know the war was over. Wainwright, like the other POWs, was severely malnourished. He confided in Leith that he was sure Americans would find him cowardly for surrendering to the Japanese. Soviet forces then arrived at the camp and made arrangements for the POWs to be evacuated. After the POWs returned to the States, Leith remained in China to spy on Soviets, who grew annoyed with him and threatened to send him to Siberia. He then left for Beijing to study communist China. In 1945 Leith returned …