This page is an archive of messages from our BOM veteran members that were previously
posted among the current messages on our Around the Table
page. Such messages are
moved here in order to save them for
future reference when they are no longer current.
The messages are posted in alphabetical
order by the originator’s name. Names
included to date:
Fox, Edgar
Showers, Mac
Latest post: 5 Feb 2012
FOX,
EDGAR (Pvt., 6th MarDefBn, Midway)
§
IF THE JAPANESE
HAD WON (Posted Oct 2011)
Ed. note:
Midway Marine Ed Fox,
long a dedicated volunteer in a local elementary school, always does a special
program for the students on Veterans Day to help them understand what it’s all
about. Here, Ed describes his current
program, a truly creative and effective way to help the kids grasp what the
U.S. victory in the Pacific really meant.
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11 October 2011
From: SFC
Edgar R. Fox, USA-Ret
Missouri
BOM vet, Pvt., 6th Marine Defense Battalion, Midway
This November, the week of the Veterans
Day celebrations, I have been asked to speak of some of my experiences in
WW2. With approval of the teacher and
administration, I remove the American Flag from the room and anything else that
could refer to the United States of America.
With some arrangement with the school
cafeteria cooks, I ask for a fish and rice lunch, or as near as possible
to the required menu, to be served the afternoon before my lecture. I provide chopsticks for the students to
use. All they know is that I am the speaker for the next two and a half
hours.
When they enter the classroom, little is
in view except that American items have been removed. When I walk in and am introduced, the show begins as I turn
on the overhead projector with a Japanese WW2 flag and the Japanese national
anthem playing.
I have a large Japanese WW2 flag
projected on the screen. The students
are required to stand, face the flag and listen to the Japanese national anthem
used during WW2. I ask them to bow to the flag then be seated.
I greet them in Japanese, ask them how
they feel today, then point to one student and ask him his name, all done in
Japanese. He is asked to stand and bow
to me (no one has ever refused.) You
should see the expressions on their faces.
I greet the student by name, thank
him and the others for participating in my little real-time show as to what it
might be like in this classroom and others across the country if we had failed
to stop the Japanese back in 1942. You
should see the smiles of relief and the expressions of understanding of what I
was attempting. I ask for questions and
they never stop. Often we work
right though recess, or until we are told that the bus driver is
impatient.
The most impressive portion of the
lecture is at the ending: no applause or cheering; they all stand and in unison
and bow without being asked, then they bust forth with applause
I believe in doing my part explaining why
so many died so our children could be free—a promise I made for all the men of
the BOM that could not return.
I encourage all our BOM or other veterans
go where the action is, in our schools.
You'll add years to your life span.
Semper Fi.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SHOWERS,
D. M. (“MAC”)(Ens., analyst, Combat Intel Unit, Pearl Harbor)
§
JAPANESE RADIO
TRANSMISSION FORMAT (Posted Oct 2011)
Ed. note:
the following from
Hypo vet Mac Showers responds to a member’s inquiry as to exactly how Japanese
radiomen sent their encoded JN-25 message over the air: using familiar Morse
numerals, or the katakana equivalents.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11 October 2011
From: RADM D.
M. “Mac” Showers, USN-Ret
Virginia
BOM vet, Combat Intel. Unit, Pearl Harbor
I was neither a cryptologist nor a linguist, but I handled
hundreds (or thousands) of Japanese messages in all forms, but mostly as
translator worksheets printed by the IBM printers. These had the JN-25
five-digit code groups in a column down the left side, and the translator would
write in the code group meaning opposite each code group. From all these
observations I never saw anything but five-digit code groups. Thus, my
conclusion is that all JN-25 messages were transmitted only as five-digit [ numeric
] groups.
The intercept operators were trained to copy these numbers using
the Japanese telegraphic code. When katakana was used, as I
remember, each character was represented by a separate five-digit code group in
the JN-25 dictionary. For example, Honolulu would be “HoNoRuRu,” which
would use four code groups transmitted as five-digit numbers. The JN-25
messages did infrequently use kana spelling for a non-Japanese name, and
they would always come out that way on the worksheets. When we typed up
the messages for our cross-reference files, we would always convert these names
to the English equivalent.
If you want another reference to check, look at The
Codebreakers by David Kahn.
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§
NEW BOOK ON
JOSEPH ROCHEFORT (Posted Oct 2011)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8 October 2011
From: RADM D.
M. “Mac” Showers, USN-Ret
Virginia
BOM vet, analyst, Combat Intel. Unit, Pearl Harbor
Elliot Carlson's book [ Joe Rochefort’s War ]
hit the streets on 15 October. This book should be required reading by
every Roundtable member as well as by anyone with an interest in the BOM.
It adds a fascinating chapter to the Midway story that's never been told or
written before. It also demonstrates that if Admiral King and his minions
had had their way (which would have been perfectly logical), they could have
brought about defeat at Midway.
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