Late Summer of 1941 and My War with Japan

About the Book

I am writing this story as an autobiography.  I made six hours of tapes some 15 years ago.  It is a story of a 20-year-old boy living it 55 years ago with all the history and excitement of World War II.  Because it is an autobiography of long ago there is always the possibility of an error in memory.  As one famous Union general said of his autobiography when he was told that something he said didn’t really happen that way, “It’s my memoirs and that’s the way I remember it.”  Also a famous author said of a book he wrote, “I wrote it as fiction mainly because it can be more true as fiction than as history.”  What one knows as a fact doesn’t have to be proved, but can be included as the author believes they are true.

I am writing this story because I feel I had a wonderful opportunity to live through a unique experience during World War II – land combat, being bombed, strafed from the air, bombarded from the sea, experiencing an invasion from the sea, repelling a sea invasion, and finally being captured by the enemy and brutalized both mentally and physically.  I was also privileged to see the enemy military as it lived, worked, and fought from the civilian aspect of war-time Japan, to the final closing, and being within 30 miles of Nagasaki and the bomb itself.  

I was also privileged to see the war end and to move out of Japan, returning happily home to a grateful nation and a happy family.

My intent is to impart to those who read this book that it was a terrible ordeal for me and my friends and comrades, and there was an extreme loss of life.

For myself, because I survived, I want to have my readers realize I thought I was embarking on a great adventure when I left San Francisco.  When the end of the great war came, I felt I had been part of a fantastic undertaking and was privileged beyond my wildest dreams to have been part of the history of World War II and American history itself.

I am not a writer; I am not an author; I am a survivor. Let my story begin.

About the Author

Weldon C. Hamilton fought in the battle of Bataan, was taken prisoner on April 9, 1942 and made the infamous Death March where over 10,000 men died. He was held in the Philippines for over two years, first in Camp O’Donnell, where over 25,000 men died in less than two months. Two years later he was taken to Japan on one of the notorious “Hell Ships”, and was 30 miles from Nagasaki where he witnessed the Atomic Bomb. He retired from the Air Force as a Chief Warrant Officer CWO-4 in 1969. His decorations include The Presidential Unit Citation with two oak leaf clusters and the Bronze Star.