Another blog post, another baking adventure. Think baked goods and geography don’t go together? Do I have a story to tell….
The baking bug hit again after Monday’s QGIS training at Athens Public Health. This time it was a remake of a personal favorite I’ve been tweaking over the last year – Caramel/Chocolate Cake with a fluffy Sour/Butter Cream Icing. I’ll share a little secret…I don’t eat the stuff. Sure, I taste it to make sure I’m on the right path but it’s my personal favorite because of the responses it gets. Tuesday was delivery day. My neighbor, David, was again on my list of recipients. I presented his wedge and was quite promptly invited to a bit of brandy and asked to sit on his porch for a spell to talk and visit with him. How could I refuse such a lovely man?
We moved from brandy to rum as storms rolled into the neighborhood. It was around that time that David began once again telling me stories of his time in the Navy during WWII. I’m fascinated, particularly because he was stationed in the Pacific. He shares a very different perspective of the war and I’ve been fortunate enough to hear a few stories about WWII from both American and German veterans/civilians. He never saw the actual war, for which he is grateful. From his position, he witnessed other islands under attack in the distance. He wished he understood more about what happened in these areas. I understood exactly what he meant by that based on some of my personal experiences. Being centered in an event does not usually provide a good understanding of what is going on. One has to often piece this together later. That’s when I got my laptop.
Gilbert Island Group in Pacific Ocean with Abemama near the center of island chain at the Equator.
I narrowed down his location to the Gilbert Islands with his help. He suspected it was at the top of the island chain, an island we eventually found called Abemama. However, it was really at the center of the chain near the equator. He was excited to see the maps. He said that the island had inhabitants that were friendly and that “the women were quite beautiful in their grass skirts”. He would swim alone in the shallow lagoon during days off until one day when he spotted a shark. He never swam out alone after that.
I read a small paragraph found on the Wikipedia page to see if he recognized anything:
“During World War II, the Japanese stationed a small garrison on the island. On 21 November 1943, the American submarine USS Nautilus landed a company of 78 U.S. Marine Corps Amphibious Reconnaissance Scouts with Australian Army Lt George Hand formerly of the Ocean Island Defence Force acting as an interpreter to seize the island. They defeated the Japanese garrison with fire support from Nautilus. On the morning of 25 November, a native reported to the Marines that the remaining Japanese committed suicide.”
Yes! He remembered this! He arrived on the island shortly after this event, however, he ended by saying, “yes, they told us the Japanese commited suicide…”.
View of Tinian island circa 1945 from north to south. North Airfield is shown.
We were on a roll. He then excitedly mentioned “Tinian and Saipan” and asked if I would look for them. “I believe I saw the first B-29 take off for Japan with the atomic bomb”, he said. I again pulled up Wikipedia as a starting point and found pictures to show him. He said he was near the North Airfield and there was a “restricted area” nearby. We discovered that this restricted area was called the Atomic Bomb Pits (Figure 3 in the next link) after finding a document on the Missouri University of Science and Technology website called The Use of the Tinian Island During World War II. I read part of the document to him and showed him more maps. He was able to point out where he was staying and which runway he believes he was looking at on 6 August 1945 when the bomber left for Japan.
He was just happy to hear more of the story. To piece it together. To confirm some things he thought was happening. He still wonders what happened during some of the attacks on neighboring islands. He was concerned about the treatment of both his fellow soilders as well as the Japanese. Perhaps we will look more up when I make my next delivery in the not so distant future. Maybe we talk more this weekend during his Chicken Mull dinner that he has invited me and a few others to.
“Carol, how is it that you’ve lived in Florida and Georgia and never had Chicken Mull or Collard Greens Salad?!” …I know. I know.
Additional Fun Fact: I mapped this area of the World last year to help with a friend’s incredibly awesome Kickstarter project. You can learn more here.
Pacific Islands showing Abemama in the Gilbert Islands (A) and Tinian in the Northern Mariana Islands (B). (Google Maps)
