In one of the night battle in early August 1943, I sighted a bold enemy boat of small size was heading directly toward my destroyer of a larger type. Having no time to exchange gunfires as ships came so close to each other, my destroyer had to directly hit the enemy boat, slicing in two. To my great surprise this boat happened to be the P.T. boat which was under your command. I take this opportunity to pay my profound respect to your daring and courageous action in this battle and also to congratulate you upon your miraculous escape under such circumstances.
I come to know from Time magazine that you are going to run for the next election of Senators.
I am firmly convinced that a person who practice tolerance to the former enemy like you, if elected to the high office in your country, would no doubt contribute not early to the promotion of genuine friendship between Japan and the United States but also to the establishment of the universal peace.
In my country the election is being held at present for the Diet members. I do wish the best of your success in the coming election in your country.
With personal regards,
Sincerely yours,
(signed)
Kohei Hanami
Former Commander of the Destroyer “AMAGIRI”
Kohei Hanami
166 Kofune, Ubado-mura
Yamagun, Fukushima-ken
Japan
Dear Commander:
I hope you will excuse my delay in replying to your very kind and generous letter of September 15. I was involved at the time in a most intensive political campaign and I have recently been attempting to get settled in my new task.
Your letter was most helpful and we released it to the press with very beneficial results and I think it helped build good will between our two countries. I am taking the liberty of forwarding to you an autographed picture and an article which appeared in the Reader’s Digest, August 1944, written by John Hersey describing the incidents that occurred after the Amagiri sunk us, which you might find of interest. It is my great hope to have an opportunity to visit Japan again and if so, I will look forward to having a chance to talk with you. I think it most important that the relations between Japan and the United States remain firm and strong for our own mutual security, I intend to work as Senator toward that end. I would be very glad to hear from you on any occasion when you might have thoughts that might be of interest.
With many thanks again for your courtesies and best wishes for your future success.
Cordially,
John F. Kennedy
APPENDIX C:
JFK’S 1957 NARRATIVE ON PT 109
One day in 1957, Kennedy’s thoughts went back to the Solomon Islands, and to the native men who saved his life.
He jotted down his memories of the rescue, as best as he could remember, on sheaves of yellow lined paper now on file at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. In the notes, one of the exceedingly few written accounts of the defining event of his life, the PT 109 incident, in Kennedy’s own voice, he simplifies events somewhat and condenses Eroni Kumana and Biuku Gasa into a single figure:
I do not remember his name.
I never knew it, but I will always remember him.
In August 1943 the P.T. boat I commanded had been rammed and cut in two while attacking [sic] a Japanese destroyer. A week later, the survivors, and some were badly hurt, were living on the thin edge of existence on a narrow reef drinking rain water—eating a few odd coconuts—freezing at night—and wondering how it would all end.
About the 7th day we saw a native off the shore in a small canoe. He came in somewhat fearfully to the beach. He spoke no English. We carved out a message about our approximate position on a green coconut and repeated the name of our base—Rendova—Rendova—and pointed east. We watched him disappear with all of our hopes overloading his small canoe. A day later a large canoe arrived with several natives who built a shelter—made a fire—gave us food. I rode with them between some islands to where a New Zealander “coast watcher” [Kennedy did not learn Reg Evans’s name until 1961, and still considered him a New Zealander, based on the Hersey article] who was living in the jungle had his camp. He told me that our friend had come by and told him of our troubles, and then had left the same evening to row many miles to our home base.
He arrived there at Kolombangara a day later and a P.T. boat came to pick us up. He came with them and rode back with us. He shook hands with each of us when we got off the boat and then disappeared—back in to the jungles and islands of the Solomons.
We came from powerful United States. He came from a jungle home in the islands. We had had all the advantages of modern civilization. In our eyes he was strange and backward. Yet in our hour of need he alone saved us. He never had seen us before, he has never seen us since. Indeed perhaps he has forgotten about us, but we remember him. Yes, we will always remember him.
INDEX
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Note: Page numbers in italics indicate photos
Aaron Ward, USS (DD-483), 35, 39
Abe, Shinzo, 276
Aichi D3A2 “Val” (Japanese dive bombers), 35
air superiority, U.S., over Japanese forces, 57–59
“Akatombo” (folk song), 249–250
Akihito, Emperor, 276
Alamo, San Antonio, Texas, 224
Albert, Raymond (PT 109 survivor), 47, 48, 92, 96, 111, 138, 141, 176, 200–201
Allied Intelligence Bureau, 126–127, 128
Amagiri (Japanese destroyer), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 91
collision and crash into PT 109, 93–103, 104, 105, 108, 172
JFK’s meeting with veteran of, 222
JFK’s search for captain of, 212, 215–216, 218–220, 241–242
PT 162 and proximity to, 229–230
reunion of PT 109 veterans and former crew members of, 272
Robert Kennedy’s meeting with captain of, 254
scroll given to JFK by veterans of, 236–237
widow of captain Hanami, 276–277, 277
Andruss, Frank J., Sr., 189
Annals of Internal Medicine, 14
Arashi (Japanese destroyer), 2, 91, 155
Arlington National Cemetery, 269, 273
Armstrong, Harry, 165
Arundel Island, 113, 120
Arvad, Inga, 18, 186, 195
Asquith, Raymond, 16
Associated Press, 162, 200
Astaire, Fred, 196
Atlanta Constitution, 233
Augustine’s Restaurant, Belleville, Illinois, 224
Aust, Harry, 165
Australian Coastwatchers, 125, 126–127
Axelrod, Alan, 206
B-25 bombers, 63–64, 77
Ballard, Robert, 264, 268
Bambanga Island, 138
Barrett, William, Jr., 43
Bartels, Elmer, 217
Battle, William C., 50–51, 71, 131
Battleship Cove, Fall River, Massachusetts, 235
Bay of Pigs invasion, Cuba, 237, 239, 256
Beatty, Warren, 240
Beauchamp, Cari, 26
Beebe, Lucius Morris, 199
Bell, David, 255
A Bell for Adano (Hersey), 199
Berndtson, Arthur Henry, 73–74, 86–87, 134, 167, 188
Bia, Jonathan, 158
Billingsley, Sherman, 196, 198
Blackett Strait, 1, 3, 62, 64, 73, 74, 76, 80, 130, 142
Blackett Strait, Battle of, 72, 81–106, 125, 132, 155, 180
Blair, Joan and Clay, 50, 61, 114, 135
Blumenthal, Ralph, 198
Boston Globe, 195
Bougainville Island, 181–182, 187, 188
Brannan, Joseph, 53
Brantingham, Henry “Hank,” 73, 74, 80, 81–82, 83, 84, 85, 162, 165, 173
Breton, U.S.S., 194
Broder, David, 228
Bronze Star, 274
Buchan, John, 16
Bulkeley, John D., 25–26, 26, 29–31, 73, 235, 273
Bulkley, Robert J., 42, 44, 104
Burke, Arleigh, 69, 73, 82, 104
Campbell, Joseph, 204
Cannon, Frances Ann, 199
Carter, Jimmy, 264
Castro, Fidel, 258
Cecil, Lord David, 16
Chamberlain, Neville, 20
Channon, Sir Henry, 20
Choiseul Island, 181, 187, 188–189
Christiansen, Glen, 60–61, 182, 184, 190–191
Churchill, John, 14–15
Churchill, Winston, 14–15, 20
Cluster, Alvin, 30–31, 54, 57, 60, 165, 168, 171, 179, 180, 181, 191–192, 193, 194
Coastwatchers, 125–130, 127, 134, 138–139, 143–144, 149, 153–154, 158, 159, 163, 202
Collier’s magazine, 184
Constitution, USS, 11
Cookman, George E., 74, 87, 138
Corry, USS (destroyer), 274
Cuba, Bay of Pigs invasion, 237, 239, 256
Cuban Missile Crisis, 259
Cull, Nicholas J., 240–241
D-Day invasion (Normandy Beach), 274
Daihatsus (cargo trucks), 57
De Jong, Joy van Zyll, 22
DeWilde, Waldo, 165
Diem, Ngo Dinh, 258
Dietrich, Marlene, 19
Doi, Kazuto, 7, 101
Donahue, Richard, 2, 225, 226–227
Donovan, Robert J., 21, 237, 239, 240
Drawdy, Leon, 64, 176, 182
Drewitch, Edmund, 176, 182, 271
Dugan, Andrew, 261–262
Dungan, Ralph, 255
Dutton, Fred, 259
Eden, Anthony, 20
Eisenhower, Dwight D., 244, 261
Electric Boat Company (Elco), Bayonne, NJ, 41, 181
Elizabeth, Princess (Elizabeth II), 19–20
Erickson, Leif, 162–163, 165, 180
Espiritu Santu, 38, 194
Eta, Joseph, 158
Evans, Arthur Reginald (Coastwatcher), 125, 126, 127, 128, 130, 134, 138–139, 148, 149, 153–154, 158, 159, 163, 180–181, 202, 269, 270, 271
Fay, Paul “Red,” 60, 133, 177, 184, 271
Feldman, Myer, 255
Feldt, Eric, 129
Fenn, Dan, 209, 257
Ferguson Passage, 74, 80, 87, 89, 91, 92, 123, 134, 135, 140, 141–142, 148
Fitzgerald, John “Honey Fitz,” 34
floatplanes, Japanese, 54, 62, 89, 93, 164
Florida Island, 36
For Whom the Bell Tolls (Hemingway), 198
Ford, Gerald, 264
Forrestal, James V., 192
Fortune magazine, 28
43rd Infantry Division, U.S., 67, 156
Fubuki (Japanese destroyer), 5
Galvin, John, 209, 210
Gardiner, John, 216, 219, 220
Gasa, Biuku (scout), 138–139, 143–153, 145, 156–157, 160–161, 164, 165, 169, 171, 172–173, 204, 241, 265–268, 269
Gegeo, David Welchman, 129–130
Gershwin, Ira, 52–53
GHQ (General Headquarters, Japan), 214, 216
Gizo Island, 64, 83, 105, 113, 121, 135, 138, 181, 268
Goebbels, Joseph, 18
Goering, Hermann, 18
Gomu Island, 153, 159
Goodemote, Harold, 165
Grant, Hoyt, 233, 235
Great Lakes Carbon Corporation, 252
Grove, Brandon, 246, 248
Guadalcanal
April 7, 1943 attack off, 36, 37–39
Coastwatching base on, 126, 128
Henderson Airfield, 40, 126
Guadalcanal, Battle of, 36, 128–129
Guthrie, Ted, 38
Hagerty, James, 244
Hagikaze (Japanese destroyer), 2, 91, 155
Halle, Kay, 15
Halsey, William E. “Bull,” 46, 57, 59, 66, 129, 155, 181
Hamill, Pete, 196
Hamilton, Nigel, 16
Hamilton, Stuart, 74
Hanami, Kohei (Amagiri captain), 1–9
and collision of PT 109, 93, 97, 100, 101, 102, 103
and JFK’s assassination, 262, 264
JFK’s search for, 212, 215–216, 218–220, 241–242
letters between JFK and, 221–222, 315–317
Robert Kennedy’s meeting with, 254
Hanami, Kohei (widow of), 276–277, 277
Hara, Tameichi, 4–5, 7
Harllee, John, 30, 31, 33–34
Harris, Charles Albert “Bucky” (PT 109 survivor), 70, 78
and Battle of Blackett Strait, 85, 86, 93, 96, 99–100
on Jack Paar show, 271
joins crew of PT 109, 46–47, 48
lost at sea, 109–110, 111–112
rescue of, 174, 176
survival efforts, 136, 141
Hayes, Oliver, 63
Hearst News Service, 206
Hellmann, John, 204, 261
Hemingway, Ernest, 117, 198
Henderson Airfield, Guadalcanal, 40, 126
Hersey, John, PT 109 article by, 197, 199–202, 203, 204–205, 210, 224, 227–228, 231
Hewlett, Frank, 162–163, 165, 174, 180
Hill, Clint, 257
Hill, George, 156–157
Hirohito, Emperor, 39, 243, 276
Hitchcock, Alfred, 196
Hitler, Adolf, 18
Hitu, Stephen, 158
Hollywood, California, 27
Hoover, J. Edgar, 18, 196
Hosaka, Hiroshi, 101
Hosono, Gunji, 213–216, 218–219, 236–237, 242, 243–244
Hosono, Haruko, 236–237
Huckins Yacht Corporation, 33
Huffman, George B., 22
Humphrey, Hubert, 226, 228, 229
Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, 11, 21, 33, 174
Igolo, Koete, 158
Ijuin, Matsuji, 8
Ikeda, Hayato, 236
Iles, Johnny, 50, 177
Iron Bottom Sound, 36, 40
Jamieson, Dan, 165
Japan
Caroline Kennedy as U.S. Ambassador to, 254, 276–277, 277
JFK’s mission in Tokyo, 213–218
PT 109 veterans tour of, 272
response to JFK’s assassination, 262, 264
Robert Kennedy’s trip to, 242–254, 246
Japan Institute of Foreign Affairs, 213
“JFK: His Life and Legacy” exhibition (Japan), 276
Johnson, Lyndon B., 226, 236, 258, 264, 273, 275
Johnston, William (PT 109 survivor)
and Battle of Blackett Strait, 93, 96, 99
on Jack Paar show, 271
lost at sea, 109, 111, 114, 117, 121
rescue of, 171, 176
support for JFK’s presidential campaign, 210
survival efforts, 136, 142, 150, 158
Jones, John Paul, 11
Kanawha, USS (oil tanker), 39
Kari, John, 129, 146, 153, 156, 164, 165, 167–168, 173
Kasolo Island (Plum Pudding Island), 115, 118, 119–141
Keenan, John, 129
Keller, Helen, 196
Kelly, Robert, 62, 69, 71, 166
Kennedy, Caroline, 223, 254, 269, 276–277, 277
Kennedy, Danny, 268
Kennedy, Edward M., 258, 267
Kennedy, Ethel, 242–254
Kennedy, Jacqueline Bouvier, 11, 15–16, 222, 240
Kennedy, John F., 11–23, 13, 260–277, 270
assassination of, 260, 262–264
in Battle of Blackett Strait, 81–106
in book about PT 109, 237, 239
first combat experience, 35–36, 37–38
Gallup polls on, 261–262
health and medical issues, 14, 184, 186, 193–194, 197, 200, 206–207, 211, 217–218, 222, 223, 258
and Hersey’s PT 109 article, 197, 199–205, 210, 224, 227–228, 231
into PT boat service, 29–30, 31, 32, 33–34
in largest mass PT boat attack, 68–80
letters between Hanami and, 221–222, 315–317
lost narrative of the sinking of PT 109, 313–314
and movie about PT 109, 239–241, 263, 272
Navy and Marine Corps Medal, 192
Navy discharge, 194, 206
popularity of, 261–262, 264
presidency, 234–259, 238
presidential campaign, 222, 224–234, 232
PT 59 command, 181–193, 183, 224, 273
in PT 109 collision, explosion, and aftermath, 95–148
PT 109 command, 40, 41–106, 49
PT 109 story and political career of, 207–212, 223, 224–226, 225, 226–228, 229, 257–258
and rescue of PT 109 survivors, 160–178, 177, 185
return from Pacific War, 195–196
Roman Catholicism, 53, 54–55, 226, 229
search for Amagiri captain, 212, 215–216, 218–220, 241–242
in Solomon Island Campaign, 53–59
in Tokyo, 213–218
U.S. House of Representatives candidacy, 207–211
U.S. Marines rescue mission, 188–190
U.S. Senate candidacy, 218–221, 223
Kennedy, John F., Jr., 265
Kennedy, Joseph P., 11, 13, 17–18, 24–30, 31, 174–175, 179–180, 199–200, 201–202, 206, 207–208, 211–212, 213, 220, 225, 226, 234–235, 239, 272
Kennedy, Joseph P., Jr., 13, 14, 24, 29, 205–206
Kennedy, Maxwell Taylor, 264–268
The Kennedy Obsession (Hellmann), 204
Kennedy, Robert F., 213, 214, 217, 220, 226, 236, 242–254, 246, 258, 259, 264, 271
Kennedy, Rose, 15, 174–175, 180, 195–196
Keresey, Richard, Jr., 42, 50, 76, 89–90, 91, 92, 104, 105, 128, 131–133, 188–189, 265
Kevu, Benjamin, 138, 153, 158, 269, 270, 271
Khrushchev, Nikita, 256
Kidoe, Edward, 158
Kimmatsu, Haruyoshi, 100–103
Kirksey, Andrew Jackson (PT 109 crewman), 70, 79, 136, 230–231, 233
and Battle of Blackett Strait, 93, 96
disappearance of, 96, 112, 171, 186
joins crew of PT 109, 47, 48
premonitions of death, 64–65, 78, 186
Kirksey, Kloye, 201, 230–231, 232, 233–234, 235, 236
Kirsey, Jack, 230, 232, 233, 234, 235–236
Klee, Barbara, 273
Klee, John, 182, 273
Koburger, Charles W., 43
Kolombangara, Battle of, 62
Kolombangara Island, 2, 3, 67, 71, 74, 80, 86, 91, 104, 113, 118, 120, 125, 128, 138, 182
Koury, Sam, 165
Kowal, Maurice, 50, 64, 176, 182, 271
Kruse, Edward H., 74
Kula Gulf, Battle of, 62, 155