Comments on: Hospital ship Haven in Nagasaki, Japan, 1945

By: Edward C Wilson III

Edward C Wilson III — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 15:37:47 +0000

Thank you for this story. My father, Dr Edward Comstock Wilson Jr, also an officer and surgeon with the Naval Medical Corps, was transfered from the USS New Jersey to the USS Haven for the Nagasaki operation. Although my father had a very successful post-war career, he looked back at his service during WWII as the most important and rewarding time in his life. He passed in 1989.
EC Wilson III

By: Lila Burner Housden

Lila Burner Housden — Thu, 26 May 2011 22:12:08 +0000

I am delighted to find this post even though it is two years old. My father, James G. Burner, served as a medical corpsman on the USS Haven during WW II. He often spoke of the condition of the POW’s and going into Nagasaki itself and the unbelievable destruction.

Daddy was scheduled for submarine duty when an officer found he had had some first aid training during his time with the CCC. As my Dad wasn’t too thrilled at the prospect of sub duty he jumped at the chance to serve on the Haven.

My father passed in 1995. He loved the Haven and spoke of her often and with deep affection until he left us.

Lila Housden

By: Mike Pickering

Mike Pickering — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 17:14:28 +0000

My father was Able Seaman Arnold Pickering on HMS Exeter.
He was at Fukuoka #2. I am compiling a family history book and it would be nice to hear from anyone or their relatives who served on Exeter and was in the same camp. Sounds as if Derek Robertson’s grandad was there at the same time and might have known my father.
Be grateful for any info.
Mike Pickering 29 April 2011

By: Chris Aegerter

Chris Aegerter — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 09:14:44 +0000

Robin
just found this post having today found that my father: S/SGT Robert Paul Aegerter was a Japanese POW having been taken prisoner in Malaya. From there he spent time at Changi, in Singapore, Thailand and final he was shipped to the Island of Kyushu to work in a munitions factory. He said that he had no idea where the stuff they made was going to be used, but he was sure it was never going to work!
He was liberated in Sept 1945 by Allied Forces, I’ve never known who they were but assumed they were American.
From there he went to Nagasaki and would have been one of those men your father saw! (22nd Sept) He was on board when the USS Haven lef,t arriving in the UK on 18th Nov 1945.
Your Dad must have done a good job as he lived on till 2007 aged 94 years If you are able, please thank him for me and my mother; who incidentally will be 100 in June this year.
regards
Chris

By: Karen Marie Cinkay

Karen Marie Cinkay — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 20:49:51 +0000

Thank you for sharing these remarkable memories. My father, Americo “Gooch” Arcamone was a Pharmacist’s Mate on the Haven and was there in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well. He was 19 years old. When I was writing my family’s history and got to World War II, I had to stop writing and record my father’s voice in his own words of these amazing life experiences. My Dad is 84 years young and remembers all of this as if it happened yesterday. I am grateful to have it all written down.

By: Celiane Milner

Celiane Milner — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 18:55:50 +0000

I’d like to find Wendy Beaird Harrrison. My father was a corpsman on the Haven. Don’t you think our fathers most likely knew one another? Would love to share your memories and mine. My parents met aboard The Haven- my mother being an RN. My brother and I are the results of that shipboard romance.
Today is the 65th anniversary of VJ day. I am overwhelmed.
Celiane Milner

By: Thore Kibsgaard

Thore Kibsgaard — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 19:01:55 +0000

My father Torvald A Kibsgaard was a Norwegian POW liberated from Fukuoka #17 probably the early days of september 1945.
He was working in the coal mines and survived the bomb.
He is 92 yrs old and still has his clear mind from those days. He also was 2 or 3 days onboard this hospital ship before they were sent to Okinawa probably onboard a hangar ship but the name I do not know.

Many thanks

Thore Kibsgaard

By: Derek

Derek — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:52:44 +0000

An interesting article, thanks for posting it.

My grandad was a British POW liberated from camp Fukuoka #2 on Koyagi Island by Nagasaki in September ’45. He’d been there since October 1942 working in the Kawanami shipyard.
He was 4 miles from the epicentre of the Atomic blast and lived to the ripe old age of 88.

Cheers,
Derek Robertson.

By: Wendy Beaird Harrison

Wendy Beaird Harrison — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 07:14:50 +0000

Hi Robin…
Thanks for posting this story…it’s really good. My father was on the USS Haven on that voyage to Nagasaki in 1945 – he was a pharmacist mate. To me, it’s interesting to read the various stories of that voyage – I think your dad’s is the best I’ve seen.

By: Steve Jones

Steve Jones — Tue, 26 May 2009 14:35:17 +0000

Fascinating and sobering stuff, especially in light of the news that North Korea has tests an A-bomb of very similar yield to the one used at Nagasaki. I sometimes wonder what would have happened if the bombs hadn’t been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki – not, in terms of what would have happened in the resolution of WWII. Opinions vary on that. No, I wonder what would have happend in the forthcoming Cold War. The effects of these two relatively modest A bombs on two Japanese cities were devastating – more so than even the greater loss of life of the fire-bombing of Tokyo, simply because this was just one, single event. Truly a game changer.

Those images were burnt into the consciousness of a a least two generations. The wartime generation and that of mine, born in the decade or two after the war. That post WWII era always had those images and the apocalyptic novels and films that ran through the period. Nevil Shute wrote “On the Beach”, Walter M Milmr jr wrote “A Canticle for Leibowitz” and Stanley Kubrik filmed Dr Strangelove. All the whils there were those images – was it that which stopped the Cuban Missile Crisis running out of control? Was it that which allowed the politicans to reign in General MacArthur in the Korean war?

With the first hand experience of these events fading away, I wonder if “A Canticle for Leibowitz” will prove prescient – that human beings are ultimately unable to control organised agression and that we are bound to repeat our mistakes. The history of conventional warfare rather supports that notion.

By: Lyca

Lyca — Tue, 26 May 2009 12:51:18 +0000

Robin,
Thanks for sharing this, it really makes you put things in perspective.
Lyca

By: Kosta

Kosta — Tue, 26 May 2009 05:01:21 +0000

This was one of the best memorials I have read today. Thanks Robin! Your insight into the real world is remarkable.

By: Boyd Waters

Boyd Waters — Tue, 26 May 2009 04:59:29 +0000

Thanks very much for these memories on this Memorial Day!

I can’t imagine what my grandparent’s generation lived through — but they could not, perhaps, imagine the international zoo of people that I have lived with, worked with, and consider dear friends.

Let us hope that we can continue the work to make the world better for us all.