Reply #20: My Dad was in Medical School, graduated in '43, and was with the units [View All]

[SharonAnn]

stationed in Hawaii preparing for the invasion of Japan. They were expecting a D-Day type assault and were training heavily for it. As an M.D., he was practicing battlefield care and mobile medical unit practices. After the bombs and the surrender he was sent to Japan and served with the Occupation Forces for more than a year.

He never bought anything from Japan, either.

He died in September and I'm going through all the items in the estate, cataloguing furniture, china, etc. so that my siblings and I can decide what to do with all of it. I've saved everything I could the last few years as he began to lose his cognitive facilities. In an old cigar box I found his childhood marbles and the bag for them his mother made along with his WWII dogtags and Catholic medal that he wore with them. It said "I'm Catholic - Call a Priest". For some reason that really hit me.

Sorry, I'm too emotional to continue with this right now.

His Medical School class picture shows nearly all the class in military uniforms.