WEBVTT 00:00:09.839 --> 00:00:11.839 It's a long way from Arizona to the japanese homeland. But I have arrived 00:00:14.320 --> 00:00:19.017 just the same originating power that brings you. This broadcast is the 00:00:19.050 --> 00:00:22.637 power of radio Tokyo and Abu operated from General Macarthur's 00:00:22.670 --> 00:00:28.037 headquarters here in Yokohama. After 19 days of waiting on open our, the 00:00:28.070 --> 00:00:32.406 11th Airborne Division to which I have been assigned for the move to Japan 00:00:32.439 --> 00:00:37.006 Was alerted for a 109 take off the morning of oldest service. We left the 00:00:37.039 --> 00:00:42.807 ground at one or 4 as the 3rd plane and the flight of approximately 204. 00:00:42.840 --> 00:00:46.927 Everything went perfectly for the first half hour. Then the oil cooling 00:00:46.960 --> 00:00:52.016 system of our portside engine developed a reef for more than two hours. It 00:00:52.049 --> 00:00:56.317 was nip and tuck as to whether we would go on or have to turn back. The 00:00:56.350 --> 00:01:00.737 engine was losing about 10 gallons of all an hour and acting increasingly 00:01:00.770 --> 00:01:04.986 doubtful. By the minute it was a matter of hacking on, if possible, and 00:01:05.019 --> 00:01:08.217 that our gas load had lightened sufficiently to make it possible to get 00:01:08.250 --> 00:01:13.046 along on three engines. You can imagine our loose in the moonlight arc of 00:01:13.079 --> 00:01:17.387 the left outside propeller favored as the engine stopped and we knew our 00:01:17.420 --> 00:01:21.557 pilot had decided that we were over the house. The anger of the flight was 00:01:21.590 --> 00:01:26.206 uneventful except for the fast working imaginations of every man aboard. 00:01:26.239 --> 00:01:31.986 Well within Japan was the next stop. The triumphant climax for almost 45 00:01:32.019 --> 00:01:36.156 months of the roughest possible combat. I was leaning over the pilot's 00:01:36.189 --> 00:01:40.087 shoulder in the nose of the plane when the sun parted the clouds in the 00:01:40.120 --> 00:01:44.406 evening for a sunrise over time and I will never forget. We were just 00:01:44.439 --> 00:01:48.717 causing the Japanese solar. It looks like any one of the thousands of 00:01:48.750 --> 00:01:53.507 island coast in the pacific until we spotted the dim outline of Fujiyama, 00:01:53.540 --> 00:01:57.656 one of the most famous volcanic mountains in the world and Japan's most 00:01:57.689 --> 00:02:03.486 spectacular landmark. In a few minutes crippled engine was started for the 00:02:03.519 --> 00:02:07.447 help that it could give us the money and we began the long approach to the 00:02:07.480 --> 00:02:12.066 Asuka trip. We were still reserved plain on the flight. In spite of our 00:02:12.099 --> 00:02:17.626 trouble, the landing was person in no time at all. My privilege to be the 00:02:17.659 --> 00:02:22.606 first civilian broadcasters have touched the soil of the Japanese homeland 00:02:22.639 --> 00:02:26.297 building my gear. I began a hurried search for the nearest thing unusual 00:02:26.330 --> 00:02:30.497 communications equipped. The Army Air Corps had to be 17 radio equipped 00:02:30.530 --> 00:02:34.297 plane on the field. But it has been commandeered by Army Air Corps 00:02:34.330 --> 00:02:38.707 communications to stand by as a small transmitter for traffic control in 00:02:38.740 --> 00:02:43.096 the event of a breakdown. The only unit on the field that might have been 00:02:43.129 --> 00:02:46.416 used and there was no immediate prospect of other facilities being 00:02:46.449 --> 00:02:50.427 available. The next thing was transportation for his trip to the nearest 00:02:50.460 --> 00:02:55.027 city. In search of broadcast equipped bob chapman and music joins me in 00:02:55.060 --> 00:02:59.226 the hunt and it wasn't long until we had a car and we were headed for 00:02:59.259 --> 00:03:03.636 Oklahoma here. The driver didn't understand a word of english, but he did 00:03:03.669 --> 00:03:08.057 with the word Yokohoma. The road we traveled with the lab with armed 00:03:08.090 --> 00:03:13.307 Japanese soldiers. Father we wrote. The colder there stairs seem to grow. 00:03:13.340 --> 00:03:17.217 We're not wrong. And realizing that we had left every possibility of army 00:03:17.250 --> 00:03:22.247 protection on the gamble. There is no one that shot at us Might be able to 00:03:22.280 --> 00:03:26.096 find a radio transmitter that could be used to tell the United States that 00:03:26.129 --> 00:03:29.886 the 11th Airborne Division had landed and the official occupation of 00:03:29.919 --> 00:03:35.946 design the gun, fortunately there were no incidents. The wrong way. Who 00:03:35.979 --> 00:03:40.406 was that? Several fans that are Japanese driver was always equally accused. 00:03:40.439 --> 00:03:44.006 So we finally arrived in Yokohama, undoubtedly the first humanity 00:03:44.039 --> 00:03:47.906 occupation reports at the end of the city. It took a lot of densities and 00:03:47.939 --> 00:03:52.177 frequent references to our Japanese dictionary before we managed to locate 00:03:52.210 --> 00:03:57.647 the Yokohama branch of Radio Tokyo. Eventually we succeeded. Hope really 00:03:57.680 --> 00:04:01.647 hit the floor when we were politely cold. That's a typhoon of a few days 00:04:01.680 --> 00:04:06.566 before. I have destroyed all of the landline. You out a lot. Knowing that 00:04:06.599 --> 00:04:10.397 the noble transmitter on the battleship Iowa might be had just off the 00:04:10.430 --> 00:04:16.106 coast of your Suzuki. Decide for that. Next We were traveling blind And it 00:04:16.139 --> 00:04:19.666 seems like years before we met the marines of the 4th Marine Division who 00:04:19.699 --> 00:04:23.226 will have come ashore at the Yokosuka at the same time the 11th airborne 00:04:23.259 --> 00:04:27.827 landed and two. This gave us another first. The first correspondence to 00:04:27.860 --> 00:04:31.567 see both the 11th airborne landing And the establishment of the 4th 00:04:31.600 --> 00:04:35.676 marines beachhead at Yokosuka. We drew straws to see who would make the 00:04:35.709 --> 00:04:40.257 final try it with the best of the Iowa and Chaplin one. It left me alone 00:04:40.290 --> 00:04:45.337 with our Japanese driver and the long miles back to the strip. To make 00:04:45.370 --> 00:04:49.676 matters even more quickly, my chauffeur decided to try a shortcut to miss 00:04:49.709 --> 00:04:55.046 the Oklahoma. He took me through more alleyways and down more back streets 00:04:55.079 --> 00:04:59.277 and roadways than I supposed to get Japanese on. Your navy men were 00:04:59.310 --> 00:05:03.437 everywhere. All of them carried rifles, revolvers and those famous solid 00:05:03.470 --> 00:05:08.096 eyes doors. But lucky for me that isn't even trying to use them. So we got 00:05:08.129 --> 00:05:13.106 to like to do without a single mishap. Those Husky 11th Airborne closes 00:05:13.139 --> 00:05:18.317 looks mighty good to me. After being out wait on them all north. I didn't 00:05:18.350 --> 00:05:22.366 feel quite so guilty of having committed the foolhardy act. Remember the 00:05:22.399 --> 00:05:25.746 number of the correspondents who braved a Tokyo under the same 00:05:25.779 --> 00:05:31.007 circumstances. Later in the afternoon, the lure of a quick look at Tokyo 00:05:31.040 --> 00:05:36.127 Car, mel muller of NBC and I in decline. It turned out to be the most 00:05:36.160 --> 00:05:41.707 spine tingling experience of my lifetime. Our objective with Radio Tokyo 00:05:41.740 --> 00:05:46.017 Found the Japanese Imperial Hotel 1st there we managed to pick up an 00:05:46.050 --> 00:05:50.567 interpreter who consented to accompany us to the Radio Tokyo office. It 00:05:50.600 --> 00:05:55.437 was agreed on the way, I would say with the car as a lookout and red would 00:05:55.470 --> 00:05:59.757 explore the inner sanction of the socio broadcasting center. We found the 00:05:59.790 --> 00:06:03.777 doorway to the building and on with two mean looking down right, our 00:06:03.810 --> 00:06:07.697 interpreters barged into the quick explanation of the business and as we 00:06:07.730 --> 00:06:13.127 started by, the guards fell in behind the follow. He didn't make it. He 00:06:13.160 --> 00:06:17.687 ran back into a rifle barrel, barring the way, not a word was said. We all 00:06:17.720 --> 00:06:24.246 managed to catch on improved hours before our guide. It was growing later 00:06:24.279 --> 00:06:28.236 , about a minute. Neither this looks forward to moving on the streets of 00:06:28.269 --> 00:06:33.406 Tokyo after dark. It would have been through a time. We have an idea. 00:06:33.439 --> 00:06:37.676 You're about to leave when the leader was good. What looks like a whole 00:06:37.709 --> 00:06:41.697 army of japanese made a ceremony is appearance at the doorway. Every 00:06:41.730 --> 00:06:46.606 healing, the outfits click. Dad passed the attention those were staying. 00:06:46.639 --> 00:06:49.527 And when the flourishes died down, mother was entered into the building, 00:06:49.560 --> 00:06:54.036 looking very much like a prisoner of war or the folly of two guys with 00:06:54.069 --> 00:06:58.556 more ambition than good sense. I'll never spend any more anxious minutes 00:06:58.589 --> 00:07:04.017 violated the 100 and I did while waiting for right to return, trying to 00:07:04.050 --> 00:07:08.147 figure out what I would do first. If anything happens, the sidewalk looks 00:07:08.180 --> 00:07:11.397 like a more advantageous battleground in the inside of the car where I 00:07:11.430 --> 00:07:16.096 couldn't see in every direction. So I tried to decide that I didn't feel 00:07:16.129 --> 00:07:20.536 any better out there than I had in the car. My blood pressure stores. 00:07:20.569 --> 00:07:23.757 Toward the briefing point. There was another flourished at the door and 00:07:23.790 --> 00:07:29.306 red came out looking very red and beef steady. Let's get out of here. I 00:07:29.339 --> 00:07:32.806 don't think either of the circle breasts when it doesn't rock some more 00:07:32.839 --> 00:07:36.596 and then we've entered the look at each other, but we're the craziest two 00:07:36.629 --> 00:07:41.697 guys in the world. I found out what we wanted to know what it's worth. The 00:07:41.730 --> 00:07:44.777 decision was what arrangements have been completed. The landline to 00:07:44.810 --> 00:07:49.356 Yokohama and that's gonna pop. That evening. We would start our statewide 00:07:49.389 --> 00:07:53.996 reports from the Customs house in Yokohama by Radio Tokyo, which would by 00:07:54.029 --> 00:07:57.806 then be in power controlled by General Macarthur's headquarters, 00:07:57.839 --> 00:08:01.387 presenting at the appointed hour. We got down to business in a way that 00:08:01.420 --> 00:08:05.486 wouldn't be used to you. Now, the same time I learned that the Yokohama 00:08:05.519 --> 00:08:10.397 Yokosuka inventor in the morning has not been in vain. Bob chaplain in 00:08:10.430 --> 00:08:15.656 Iowa completed in broadcasting a safe side report on our activities up to 00:08:15.689 --> 00:08:20.046 the time we parted at Yokosuka. How do you know what I mean? When I saw my 00:08:20.079 --> 00:08:24.587 first day in Japan was a super charged with serious, I'll tell you more in 00:08:24.620 --> 00:08:29.819 my next broadcast by a radio Tokyo from General Macarthur's headquarters.