Correspondence, World War, 1939-1945., World War, 1939-1945--Women.
106/111a (I found an envelope with the first number still on it. Don't know whether I actually skipped it or not.) Friday 19 Jan. 6:45 pm My dearest darling, I feel like a different man to day after last night's good sleep - rested for the first time in about 2 weeks. I find that it doesn't hurt to work hard for that long, even under a little tension, provided that I know when to stop. (That's one of the things I've been learning.) It makes the days go a lot faster, and up to a certain point I work more efficiently because my mind's wholly on the job. In mailing you that list of Korean names I made one little slip, tho - as you no doubt noticed right away, it had the name of the island on it! Originally, the same name appeared in place of Navy #3247 at the beginning and end of the first sheet. In order to make the thing unclassified material I changed the two - completely forgetting that the name of the island appeared both in one of the written paragraphs and at the top of every subsequent page. Well, it's too late to be helped now, and if it came through to you all right we’re in the clear. A small request: send me any pictures of school children at work, such as those of Horace Mann School and Teachers’ College. When we get a bulletin board erected at the school we may be able to use them. [pg 2] Glad to get the photograph map of Tokyo, the Time clipping on Brazil and Costa Rica and those on China, the cartoons and other laughs - a lot of the clippings about B29 raids or the war in Europe (detailed ones) I just don't have time to read. And yet I sometimes sit down to a whole copy of Time when I can get ahold of it. Another request - will you see if you can get me a Blitz cloth (for shining metal)? Back to #121 - I too wish (Again) that I were there to talk about Doug, honey, or discuss the way this war is affecting people. Not that I’d want to get you down with stories of it; I don't take too calamitous a view of such things, though I might if I lived very long in the Officers’ quarters at Pearl - a real place of spiritual desolation, partly because it is many an overly drawn out waiting place with nothing to do. There are some bad people out here - capable in their own way, but selfish, sometimes even childish, unimaginative - grudgingly willing to see that these people (the civilians) are fed and clothed, but unwilling to improve their standard of living (that is, restore it; they cannot even see that the people had a standard of living before the blitz, and imagine that the way they came into camp in tatters represents little less than what they had before) - I could write an essay on that but I'm not in the mood to - feel too good, and am doing my own little jobs - and at any rate there are enough people [pg 3] of imagination and foresight to make the climate here bearable or even interesting. The first time I really get thwarted in something I'm doing and believe should be done, you'll hear me squawk. Has Wendy crawled yet? Give her a boost for me. (Still can't get over being impressed with that proof - hope the mailman hurries along with the others.) No, I didn't get a cholera and plague shots. They’d certainly be given to men going to the China coast, but on the other hand those going to somewhere else might get them too. Could you get that Navy number straight? It's perfectly all right to write them, and I can probably find out where any of them is. -Well I'll be a monkey's uncle! I just heard the air raid siren in the distance (there's another one on the island that usually goes off before ours) and having looked up at the sky tonight and thought - oh-oh, our two weeks or more of peace are over again - I had my cartridge belt and steel helmet on, the light of fin a matter of seconds, found my way out the door and was about to head for my post some distance from here when I noticed that nobody else's light was going out and that the movie near here continued to play. Yep - you [pg 4] guessed it: the air raid was in the movie. Take it back. The movie's over, Charlie just came in and says, “Oh, you mean the jail break.” But the siren was the same. Darling, I don't ever want to be separated from you again, either. I think probably it will be that way - I'll get home for a month and have to go out again. But I feel reasonably sure the second time won't be as long as the first, and there may not be any at all. Wouldn't it be wonderful if I could get stateside duty after my 18 months are up? You mustn't hope too hard, dear. But always remember it means so much to me to have you faithful to the spirit of us - if we both are that, we will have lost nothing but 2 or 3 years - years which are making us forever doubly precious to each other. Even the first year of our life together after I return for good will be worth a lifetime of the routine married life of a great many people. I believe that. And you? Tell me more about the sort of life Doug says he wants. (#124) This was another good letter, sweetie, so graphic because it was written about five different times to give me a running account of Wendy's progress, or that of her cold and fever. I was relieved when I came to the “9 am - Everything under control,” It's fun to know I'm getting another box from you [pg 5] (say, it's about time my sea bag got here! It will, eventually) with cookies and knickknacks - the china cement was smart of you; I've almost used up the first tube - and the soap dish: I'm currently using the other one to keep money in, having taken orders for small Eng.-Jap. conversation dictionaries. Already've received 15 of them from the Univ. of Hawaii bookstore, whom I wrote some six weeks ago; now other civilians want them. The marbles were a swell idea. It's about time I took you and Wendy on that walk around camp. It'll have to wait a little bit more til I get settled in the new half-time job. I would get myself into something just when I was due to begin taking an afternoon or a day off. I love you with all my heart, darling, and so wish I could have you with me. Warren