Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (Aviation Classics) by Ted W Lawson

Author:Ted W Lawson [Ted W Lawson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biographies & Memoirs, Leaders & Notable People, Military, World War II, History, Americas, United States, Asia, Japan, Aviation, Historical, Military & Wars, Branches, Air Force, Professionals & Academics, Military & Spies
ISBN: 1574885081
Amazon: B005CWHKNQ
Publisher: Potomac Books Inc.
Published: 2003-04-29T00:00:00+00:00

We made quite a party, Mr. and Mrs. Fitzgerald, their children, their No. 1 boy and young Dr. C——were with Doc, McClure, Davenport, Clever and myself. Dr. C——had decided to go on to Chungking to offer his services to the Chinese Army as a doctor. He asked us if we would recommend him to our “important friends” and seemed humbly grateful when we told him that of course we would. I asked him about his young wife. He said that when the Japanese came she could go to her people in the hills.

It was just a month since the Tokyo raid.

We crossed the pontoon bridge which the Japanese plane had bombed and entered a trackless, wildly beautiful land. There were paths now and then, sometimes none. We went along all that day. Clever’s coolies spilled him out of his chair, but none of his bandaged cuts reopened when he hit the ground. I kept my fingers crossed.

Late that night we got to S——. We were carried into a kind of patio of what must have been a tea house, then McClure and I went to the Fitzgeralds’ house. Doc came there and redressed my leg.

We had dinner, and then, while Mrs. Fitzgerald was looking out for the children, Mr. Fitzgerald sat down to talk to us.

“I’m worried,” he said. “Not about myself. If they come in on us in a hurry, I could get to the woods and hide out. But I can’t very well take Mrs. Fitzgerald and the children.

“The servant problem is peculiar,” he went on. “When there is a threat of a Japanese attack, the servants demand more money and they keep raising their demands as the Japanese get closer, until they won’t work for love nor money. Mrs. Fitzgerald and the children need them very much.”

McClure and I suggested that he send his wife and the children along with us when we left in the morning.

Mr. Fitzgerald thought it over for a while, then made up his mind. “No, I think not,” he said. “We’ll take a chance on getting out on time. The Japs have never been in here. I don’t think the village has any military value, even though it’s on a river. I guess we’ll get along all right. See you in Chungking, maybe.”

It was tough that night, trying to sleep. When I finally did doze off I was promptly awakened by the sound of a gong in the street and the voice of a Chinese calling out something I couldn’t understand.

Mrs. Fitzgerald came in early the next morning with a breakfast of English muffins and tea.

“Did the noise wake you up last night?” Mrs. Fitzgerald asked, cheerfully.

I said it did and asked what it was.

She laughed. “Oh, it was just our town crier. He was telling the people to leave the village because the Japanese are getting closer.”

I said I hoped she’d leave with the children, and with us.

“Heavens, no! When you’ve lived here as long as we have, you realize that there is always time.

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