THE AWFUL SIGHT: A SEA OF BODIES From our ship we could see them jumping off the cliffs. They were hitting the rocks below and drowning in the water. This was a little more horrible than the sight I sought in Tinian. We could actually see groups of people going off at one time. We assumed it was entire families. I will never forget the view, and the bodies that were floating in the Bay. It seemed like the Bay was so full of bodies you could step from one to the other and get to the shore. I had seen a lot of American soldiers, sailors, and Marines floating in the water before, but this was more than I could understand. The fear of being captured was worse to them than death, because of what they had been told by the Japanese troops. I can remember a beautiful young woman who was about 17 years old. She had long black hair that would have hung to her waist when she was alive and standing. She was wearing a long silk red dress, with a bordered edge. Her hair was going straight out from her body and she was floating face up, as though she was looking up at the ship and just floating by. Her body was going up and down with the waves, as they lapped at the ship. We pulled an American officer out of the Bay that was floating in the water. His hands and feet were tied and stretched across two bamboo poles. On closer examination you could see that his fingernails had been pulled out, and that his ears and private parts had been cut off. The Marines and some of the army men told us that the Japanese played cards with the parts of the service men they captured. I knew the Japanese were getting desperate when they had their wives and girlfriends, that they always took along with them, come out of the caves where they hid, with hand grenades tied to their back. The Japanese would send them out naked. The safety pin was tied to a string leading up to their hand. When the servicemen would see them come down the hill from the caves, they would come up to them, and when there was a group around them the women would pull the pin. Most of the men that came to help them were killed. The Japanese even used young children. The children would have hand grenades, one under each arm. The pins had already been pulled so when they raised their arms, the grenades would go off, killing them and whomever else was around. Index | Photographs | My Stearman | My Flight Instructor | Learning To Fly WARTIME EXPERIENCES Liberty In Leyte | Leyte | Tokyo Rose | Sea Of Bodies This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page