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Letters Home: Soldier among first at Hiroshima
| Tuesday, Oct 23 2007 8:42 AM
Last Updated: Saturday, Oct 20 2007 6:21 PM
Dear "Mom & Pop" --
Photos:
Pete Gianopulos in Hiroshima just days after the atomic bombing on Aug. 6, 1945.
Links:
How are you? I trust this letter finds you in the best of health. Everything over here is okay and I am getting along just fine. Weather has not been too agreeable the last few days. It rains at night and very warm through day.
How is mail coming to you? I have been sending the letters free and I have no idea how long it takes. As yet we are not near our barracks, bags, so I shall have to continue this. Maybe you could send a few air mail stamps in one of your letters. I have not had any mail for about a week now. Never can tell when it will be in.
All of us are okay, both Jim & Dave. We all went to church Sunday and took communion. That is the same as andithero (Greek for "bread") and metalatame (Greek for Communion).
Dave and I get together almost every night and we go over to the Red Cross tent where they have a small radio in Jap, and listen to the news and programs from the states. We are pretty lucky to have this. I guess and it was really a good thing for the fellows. It really sounds good to hear these programs from home with all the good music. The news is also very good, as you already know these days. We may get this war over with yet.
I have not been doing much lately although we are still in combat. Most of any spare time I read magazines and books that we get from the Red Cross provider, a good pastime.
It is probably pretty hot at home now with plenty hot weather abroad. I guess the people will not be going on any vacation this summer as they used to do. Are they going to ration gasoline anymore?
I'm still waiting for those packages to arrive with all the good things to eat. I can hardly wait.
I shall sign off for now and hope that some more mail comes in soon.
All my love,
Your son,
Pete
About the letter writer
Pete Gianopulos, 83, an educator at Taft High for 35 years, joined the Army as a fresh-faced teen just out of high school.
“Never having left home before, this was a very unusual experience for an 18-year-old,” Gianopulos wrote in a letter to The Californian.
“The goodbyes at home as I was leaving were very emotional. Everybody in the family was crying.”
Gianopulos shipped out to Australia after basic training, where he was assigned to the 163rd Infantry Regiment Headquarters Company. He trained to be a scout in what was called the Intelligence and Reconnaissance Platoon.
During action in the South Pacific, Gianopulos, like all other servicemen, was forbidden from letting folks at home know where he was fighting. But Gianopulos and his parents had devised a clever code that allowed his family to ascertain his whereabouts during combat.
Gianopulos was among the first wave of troops sent to Hiroshima after the U.S. atomic bombing. He said when he landed in Japan, there were no civilians around, but that the Americans received an interesting reception from Japanese policemen and soldiers. They turned the muzzles of their rifles down and turned their backs to the street as the conquerors went by.
Gianopulos remembers seeing an imprint of a person’s image on a bridge in the devastated city. He worried about his exposure to radiation for years afterward.
“After being there for about three months, I was shipped home and returned to Taft and the family and was honorably discharged. The homecoming after 2 1⁄2 years overseas was as emotional as it was when I left. We all cried,” wrote Gianopulos.