Receive Letter from Son
Mrs. Minnie Wood has received letters from her son, Pvt. Ralph, who is with the U.S. forces "somewhere in the Pacific," from which we take the following:
- Hello Mom:
I'm feeling fine, but sure doing plenty of work and if it isn't raining, it's hot as ____. But guess that's the usual thing when you're close to the equator.
Just took a 5-minute break to go see the first two live Japs I've ever seen since coming over here. They were so scared they couldn't do any harm. They had been captured and didn't have a stitch of clothing on. Do I need to say what I could do to those Japs if the occasion arose.
I've been too busy to do much scouting around and you can understand why I wouldn't get too far away. The place looks promising for good sea shells, when I get time to go. The natives here are so polite that all of them, from the tiny tots to old men and women, salute when they see any of us, and appreciate when we give them old clothing or shoes. They can't understand English, but by sign we are able to trade clothes for Jap money which a few young natives had. They are small in stature but sturdy and strong. Some of the young girls aren't bad looking, and the small kids are cute as the dickens.
The natives go for articles of clothing, knives, combs, scissors, mirrors and fish hooks and they are very shrewd traders. They taught us a few words of their language and we taught them a few words of English. Now most of them say "hello" when they meet us, and can say "okay" and "Americans good". In their lingo ki-ki muk-muk means eat, emi-ope is cap, nona is wife, anaka-til is bay, and tadore means sleep. One day when we went out on the reef looking for shells, the entire population went with us to spear fish and look for clams. A native found one and here's the way he explained eating it. He made a motion as if killing it, then a hissing sound like a fire and then took an imaginary bite and said ki-ki muk-muk. So we understood the process quite clearly. From kids just big enough to walk to old people of both sexes, they smoke our cigarettes one after another.
I may buy a Jap rifle as a souvenir.
Say hello to all the Lowell folks for me.
This Lowell Tribune article was found in the February 21, 1946, issue (page 2, column 3):
- Ralph Wood has been discharged from the service and is back at his old job in Chicago. He spent two years in Manila
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