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406376 F/Lt W.M. Wilson
Group 679 RAAF Pacific
Friday 26th Oct 45.
My Own Beloved,
Tomorrow we leave Tokyo my sweet & I must say I'm very glad of it. We're only going as far as Kamaya, right in the south of Japan then the next day will go to Lasag, stopping at Okinawa on the way & then the following day we hope to get to Lahnan. Gosh it will be good to get back there & get some mail darling. That's the big thing about getting away from here — oh I do want a letter or two from my wife so badly beloved & in just a few days I'll have some. It's such a good thought.
This trip has been good that it's let us see a bit of Japan & get some idea of how the surrender is going & also get an idea of how the people here [?] it all. This place we've been staying at has been great for getting different ?? from the ?? & then last night we spoke for a long time with a Jap who was very good on his English & we get this idea. All most interesting.
Yesterday I got a few back copies of the "Nippon Times" & I think I'll post them home from Laboun. There's lots of interesting
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reading in them & perhaps we can peruse them at leisure together later on. I'd rather post them than carry them as I don't want to have too much to take with me on the trip home.
This afternoon we had quite a good trip to Yokahama — it's about fifteen or twenty miles south of Tokyo but really the two cities run into each other. The damage is truly amazing. All the way it's just one great ?? of burnt ?? land — one can't say burnt out buildings as there aren't any shells left — every thing is flat on the ground, just a litter of rusting iron. Here & there of course there are parts that escaped but they are very few. The outstanding thing I thought was the number of office safes there are just standing in the open. They're all that's left of hudnreds of buildings & offices & factories — they're rusty & all broken open, but they still stand there as a reminder that once that place was a building. I didn't realise before that a city had so many safes before. The thing is that all of these buildings were just wood & iron. The tale that Tokya would burn well was very true.
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While at Yokahama we found an American officers
