Luke Hostetter
5/21/2001
4th Period Social Studies
Richard Myler Watts was born on July 8th, 1920, in Wyoming. His father was a civil engineer when Mr. Watts was born. A few weeks later, his father got a job in Denver Colorado. After this the Watts family moved to New Mexico and to West Virginia where his father worked on mountain roads, some of which are still around. Later they moved to Kentucky during the later part of the 1930’s. Mr. Watts was in the middle of his youth when the stock market crashed and the country fell into a depression. Mr. Watts does not remember much from this period of his life because it was such a long time ago. In 1939 he enlisted in the Navy because he knew trouble was beginning with Hitler and America and he thought that he’d better get enlisted before he was drafted. He felt that Hitler was “A dirty rat, the scum of the earth.” Mr. Watts said that he volunteered for the Navy so he could avoid serving in the United States Army. He became a member of the United States Navy when he was just 19.
Before the US entered the war, Mr. Watts served on the USS Idaho, and was in charge of the laundry for over 2,000 sailors. Living quarters were cramped aboard ship; there was no relief on the hot deck. A typical day on the USS Idaho mainly consisted of regular ship duties such as cleaning, assigned work, and target practice. Before Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, men on the ship would have regular target practice. Tugboats would pull targets through the water while the men on the ship shot at the targets with their second battery. Mr. Watts was stationed at Pearl Harbor just a few short months before it was bombed, where he would practice shooting at the tugboats. During the months after he left Pearl Harbor, Mr. Watts was aboard the Idaho sailing eastward through the Panama Canal and along the eastern seaboard towards Iceland.
The Idaho stopped in Norfolk before sailing towards Iceland. While sailing in the Atlantic, Mr. Watts did not encounter actual U-Boat combat, but he and his crew came very close. “It was a very hot evening,” recalls Mr. Watts, “and I went out on deck to cool off. While I was on the deck I looked over the starboard bow to view the ocean when I saw the wake of a torpedo about 50 feet from the ship.” Once Mr. Watts reached Iceland he was stationed in Rejavik to defend the northern sea from the Von Turp and the Graaf Spade, two German U-Boats. He recalls one of his most vivid memories of the war during this time. One night he was sleeping underneath the forward turret where there was a large steel overhang. Mr. Watts put his cot underneath the overhang that night and slept on the USS Idaho under the stars. The next morning when he sprang out of his cot for morning call he hit his jaw on the overhang and had to have his tooth replaced. After Iceland Mr. Watts and the USS Idaho sailed back through the Panama Canal towards the Pacific. There Kamikaze fighters in the middle of the sea attacked the crew. Mr. Watts remembers the suicide bombers racing towards the ship and then exploding. One plan hit at the water line near the ship. Mr. Watts recalls, “The remains of the Jap and the plane were all over the Quarter Deck.” The ship had to undergo only minor repairs on a floating dry dock. Once it was repaired it was made ready for further battle. The crew then attacked a number of Japanese controlled islands, smaller islands of which Mr. Watts cannot remember the names. After months of fighting in the Pacific the crew was sent to Sydney, Australia for some rest and relaxation, a week of “nice liberty” after the island bombings. When their week of nice liberty in Sydney was over, it was back to the war. While in the Pacific the crew of the USS Idaho was assigned to attack the island of Iwo Jima to knock out the bunkers on Mount Suribachi in an effort to clear the way for the Marines. Fortunately Mr. Watts experienced the battle on the island from the sea. Others were not so lucky.
The Island of Iwo Jima was considered Japanese soil throughout the course of the war. It is only 650 miles from Japan, and was ruled by the government of Tokyo. The island was a very important location to the Allies as well as the Japanese. It lay between Japan and American bomber bases which were in the Marianas. If the Allies could take the island, it would be a tremendous asset in the Pacific. Not only was it a base for 3 airfields, it was a place for Japanese soldiers to retreat to before returning to their homeland.
Lieutenant General Tadamichi Kuribayashi was in command of the island of Iwo Jima. He had taken cavalry training in Fort Bliss, Texas, and had often visited the United States. He once told his wife “The United States is the last country in the world Japan should fight.” When the Allies invaded the island of Saipan, Kuribayashi began to prepare his small island for battle. Iwo seemed like the perfect place to kill; it was a volcanic island full of ash with no life and water. It smelled of sulfur and even had been given the nickname Sulfur Island. That is why Kuribayashi built up the island underground. Engineers from Japan were brought in to construct underground cave fortifications. Kuribayashi himself placed himself inside of Mount Suribachi, a 556-foot tall mountain located on the south end of the island. It was on this mountain where one of the most heroic tales in American History would occur.
Kuribayashi also had to gather an army on the island, which he did rather swiftly. He gathered 21,000 men during the summer of 1944; only 2,700 were his own. Kuribayashi had developed a plan of action that shocked even the non-surrendering Japanese. He would not permit suicidal banzai attacks; he decided each man was to kill 10 American men before they were killed themselves. By the new year of 1945, Kuribayashi had built up 16 miles of tunnels that led to bunkers, command posts and hospitals. One tunnel was 800 yards long, and it had 14 entrances. The hidden tunnels were packed with extra food, water and ammunition. They were powered electrically and contained many forms of communication. Kuribayashi himself was doubtful of his own survival on the island. He wrote his wife saying, “You must not expect my survival.” His own command center had 5-foot thick walls with a 10-foot thick ceiling. All of this was beneath 75 feet of solid rock. The Japanese were surely prepared for an enormous American invasion.
On February 19, 1945 the United States opened fire on Iwo Jima from the sea. Mr. Watts was on one of these ships, bombarding the island. The firing went on for about an hour, then stopped. The island was seemingly on fire. Then the attack from the air came. 110 bombers flew in and raided the island. A reporter on the transport Bayfield said, “I can’t help thinking ‘nobody can live through this,’” as he watched the raid, “But I know better.” By 7:30 that morning the island hap been doused with napalm, rockets and machine gun fire. After the air and sea attacks, the Marines were ready to come on shore.
The first men came on shore scrambling up 10 to 15 feet high beaches made of volcanic sand which was almost like quicksand, the men could hardly get through it without sinking. About 3,600 marines were ashore before the Japanese began assaulting them with a few mortars and small arms. The Americans soon realized how equipped the Japanese actually were. Some of Japanese men were equipped with 320mm mortars, which were 3 times as large as the largest American mortars. The shells produced a much larger explosion that spread over a wider radius. Also they had rockets that weighed hundreds of pounds. These weapons helped hold the Americans at bay on the beach while the Japanese fired on. About a thousand yards from the main original landing point, Marines moved through the island easier because it was so weakly defended. By afternoon the first airfield at the southern tip of the island had been taken.
On D-day plus 1, 16 Sherman tanks were brought to the island. The tanks were used to take a rock quarry on the island, which was captured by 4:30 that afternoon. By 5 p.m. of the 20th of February, 30,000 marines were ashore and only 566 were dead or missing. The men began to hole up for the night, and as one soldier described the task, “It’s like diggin’ a hole in a barrel of wheat. Kuribayashi decided to attack the men during the night, sending mortars into the foxholes.
Days went by and the Marines began attacking Mount Suribachi on the southern end of the island. The fighting that was about to occur on the mountain was some of the most intense fighting seen during the war. On the 20th troops began their advance towards the mountain. Air support from the Navy and Marine pilots was nearby as they made their march. Many Japanese were entrenched inside the mountain, and had to be blown out by satchel charges and flame-throwers. D-Day plus 2 on Suribachi was similar to the day before except it began with a carrier plane bombing only 100 yards ahead of the US soldiers. Tension was rising under the mountain between Japanese officials. Colonel Kanehiko Atsuchi radioed Kuribayashi saying, “Enemy’s bombardments from air and sea and their assaults with explosives are very fierce. If we try to stay and defend our present positions it will lead us to self-destruction. We should rather like to go out and choose death by banzai attacks.” Kuribayashi said no to this idea, he wanted his men to fight until the death taking down as many Americans as possible. Even so, it was beginning to look grim for the once determined Japanese.
The Marines were gaining ground around Mount Suribachi, taking the mountain and the island was now in sight. On D-Day plus 3, the mountain’s defenses began to grow weaker. That evening the remaining Japanese escaped the mountain, only 20 out of 300 survived. The next morning US Marines reached the top of the mountain. Lieutenant Colonel Johnson supplied them with the flag that would become a symbol of American military valor. Even though the flag was up on Suribachi, the fighting was not done. For the next 20 days the Americans slowly but surely began to gain control of the island. On D-Day plus 23 American leaders felt that the battle was over. A ceremony was held and another US flag was raised. The final tally for casualties was 6,821 American killed, and 19,217 wounded. The battle was over on March 25, 36 days after it began.
After Iwo Jima, Mr. Watts bombarded Okinawa in a similar manner, and headed towards Tokyo. In August of 1945, Japan surrendered to the United States in Tokyo. Mr. Watts was there. After the peace treaty was signed (by General MacArthur and Japanese leaders) there was a celebration. As Mr. Watts recalls, “There were more fireworks there than I’ve have ever seen in my life.”
Mr. Watts lived throughout the war and went on to lead a wonderful life. He married Anna Watts and they had children, and much later grandchildren. He now lives peacefully in Knightdale with is his daughter and her family. This experience has been wonderful for me. It has helped me realize that everyone has a story to tell and not the only history comes from the book. I now know how lucky Mr. Watts is to have survived the war because so many did not. Before this interview I did not know how much destruction the Japanese caused. I previously thought that only Germans were responsible for the war, for the evil that was during throughout it. Now I know that the Japanese were very much involved in the destruction as well, from the Banzai attacks to the Kamikaze raids. I think that much of today’s generation does not appreciate what these fighting (and non-fighting) men and women did for our country and for the world. These brave men and women have helped mold our countries values and traditions that we as Americans cherish so much today. These men were heroes; I am glad to say that I know one of them.
Luke Hostetter
5-21-2001
Social Studies, 4th Period
Bibliography
Iwo Jima, May 10th, 2001.