Japon

4696 — JAPAN. Diary. January 14 1950 to late 1954. Various places Philadelphia Japan Fort Meade. A lengthy diary of an American officer Lieutenant Louis T. Holtz who was stationed in Japan during the Korean War. It was written on dozens of sheets of loose-leaf notebook pages and it contains many black and white photographs with captions as well as newspaper and magazine cutouts and brochures from places he visited. The diary begins on January 14 1950 in Philadelphia and he discuses seeing shows and such but notes that “All in all this constituted a very enjoyable ten days of leave prior to going overseas. Sometimes I wish I could stay at home and live a normal routine life like everyone else. Other times I find myself eager to go…Almost two years ago who could forecast a war in Korea and the manner in which it would rip everyone’s life to shreds†He writes on January 2 1951 from Kurume Japan: “…perhaps 10 years from now it the diary will be of interest – if any of our civilization remains in 1961…I collapsed 28 June and spent 3 weeks in the hospital with excessive fatigue…I am the Officer-in-charge of the Kurume Office with an area of jurisdiction of approximately 1000 square miles…â€. In April 1951 he mentions “I am very busy in my position as OIC Officer In Charge. It’s a full 7-day-a-week job…The Korean mess has everyone guessing as to eh future of the Far East…being the senior official in an area of jurisdiction of nearly 10000 square miles with dozens of mayors and police chiefs constantly catching my every word as official.â€. The next couple dozen pages contain black and white photographs of protests in Japan and Holtz’s commentary about the images including “When people get hurt propaganda fills the air. The winner: the Kremlin – always!†“Demonstrations take planning and people. You can always be sure the plans were framed in red and the spectators sprinkled liberally with dye-hard communist stooges†“Demonstrations & rallies are usually fantastically well organized. And as often as not they can be unbelievably orderly†and “But orderly or violent you can always be sure there is a professional communist keeping the ‘sheep’ in line or arousing them to maximum fury.†In September 1951 Holtz writes from Sapporro “…life in the Armed Services has been a miserable one because of one bad experience after another…Kurume was one of the most pleasant and enjoyable assignments I ever held. The 45th was without doubt the most bitter and least enjoyable. I gave up so much for so little…â€. Holtz was in California’s Camp Stoneman in November 1951: “…with all the hundreds of officers here not particularly anxious to go overseas and with several actually fighting the assignment I was amazed to find that someone eager to return is sidetracked so abruptly…â€. He was back in Japan by December and then wrote a lengthy entry entitled “The Korean Story†starting with “Combat precautions make it mandatory that no diaries or personal papers be kept where they may fall into enemy hands†and he spends the next seven pages describing his experiences in the Korean War. Holtz wrote in part: “…Things had not gone well at all with Trubota’s unit prior to August 1951. After my arrival working results proved very satisfactory…Three other officers has also joined up in the interim between leaving Sapporo and going to Korea…When oriented in Tokyo they were told that the 45th Detachment would remain in Sapporo and they had already alerted their families to start to prepare to join them overseas…I had to fight Trubota in order to be able to fight the enemy. In one occasion I was reprimanded for going to a forward observation post and not being personally available to answer the telephone at my CP…†and the section finishes with a photograph of the USS Marine Lynx the ship that brought him home. The diary continues with his being stationed at Maryland’s Fort Meade. There are photographs of the mansion he occupied in Kyushu Japanese women at the beach his fellow soldiers after a bowling tournament etc. There are “Samples of United Nations propaganda leaflets dropped on North Korean positions early in the Korean conflict†that show Truman and MacArthur a December 7 1950 letter signed by the mayor of Kurume City Japan. The condition is fine to very fine. unknown books