LETTERS FROM TINIAN 1945

About the Book

This is a love story that began in the shadow of the Enola Gay in 1945 on Tinian Island in the Western Pacific during WWII, and culminated in Jacksonville, FL over 60 years later.. The core of the manuscript is the actual letters written by a nurse on that island, during the war and from Japan after the war. These letters were stored in an attic for many years and almost forgotten. The rest of the story is part truth and part fiction of the happenings that surrounded the production of the manuscript Seventeen hundred air miles southeast of Japan, Tinian is one of the western Pacific Mariania Islands taken from Japan. by the U. S. Marines in 1944. In July 1945 the complement of five U. S. Army general hospitals was shipped to Tinian to work at five hospitals being built there on the south east coast to take care of the casualties from the scheduled November invasion of Japan. The author was a 24 year old nurse with the 308th General Hospital arriving at that time. On the west side of the island was West Field, a B-29 Base flying nightly bombing missions to Japan. On the northern tip of the island was the 509th Composite Group in a carefully guarded compound, OFF LIMITS and TOP SECRET. They were busy, but not flying missions. The Enola Gay was there. It was the B-29 that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima This is NOT a WAR STORY. However the author was a witness to history, the final days of World War II and the events that brought an end to the war. POST SCRIPT Here are two last minute additions I would like added where indicated if possible. 1. Poem by Goethe Place this after the 21 October 1945 letter (Page 119) and before “JAPAN” page 2. Letter from President Harry Truman. Place this letter on a page following the picture of the “Welcome Home” boat (page 199) and before PART II page Thank you POEM When the bright sunlight simmers Across the sea so blue When the clear fountain in the Moonlight glimmers I think of you. I am with you wherever you are Roaming And you are near1 The sun goes down and soon the Stars are coming How I wish that you were really here. GOETHE

About the Author

Pauline D. Webb was born in Massachusetts and started her formal education in a one room school house in first grade, there being no kindergarten then. She graduated with honors from Bethlehem Central High School in Delmar,NY followed by nurses training at Samaritan Hospital, Troy, NY with studies at Cornell Medical Center in medicine and pediatrics. After receiving her RN she joined the Army Nurse Corps in 1944. She spent most of her life in the nursing profession, hanging up her cap and retiring her license at age 72.. She is a widow now living in Jacksonville, FL This is her first manuscript