Lot 1082
NAGASAKI BOMBING SURVEY OFFICER'S LETTER GROUP
Superb-content letter grouping between C. RALPH FLETCHER and his wife, VIRGINIA FLETCHER consisting of over 210 war-date A.L.S.'s, T.L.S's, Vmail and other correspondence (24 T.L.S.'s, 68 A.L.S.'s, 19 Vmail from Virginia, with 19 T.L.S.'s, 73 A.L.S.'s, and 5 Vmail from Ralph). Fletcher entered the Army Air Corps in April, 1942 as an intelligence officer, serving in the 94th Bombing Group (Heavy), which raided Axis Europe from RAF bases. After organizing bomb raids for several years, Fletcher was given two unique assignments: first, a posting to allied Russia, and second, to lead a section of the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey in Nagasaki.
Fletcher begins his Russia assignment in April 1944, in secret (April 1, 1944): "...This is the last letter addressed 'somewhere in England'...all I can say is that I am one of five selected for the job... you may not hear from me for a long time...but do not worry please...don't guess where I am or what I am doing. So many lives depend on it... Fletcher's next letter (April 19, 1944) gives an amazingly detailed description of his travels through Casablanca, Algiers, Tunis, and Cairo en route to Russia. Fletcher's Russia letters have superb content: (June 9, 1944) "...During the occupation of Russian territory the Germans forced the Russians to work for them. If they so much as stopped to light a cigarette they were beaten. A Russian guard showed his scars. The guard said that the Germans came in one day morning and handcuffed his brother and sister of 13 together and marched them off. He has seen neither since...One morning in a nearby city of 300,000 the Germans ordered all the Jews into the public square. In single file they marched 5000 out on the main road out of the city. On the far side of a defile were two machine-gunners. Five thousand were mowed down in cold blood...If the Germans are buried nearby no one will ever know. The Russians never leave a mound or any marker of the Nyemitz (The Enemy...)" (June 29, 1944) "...I know of some [Russians] who have died at their post during bombing because no one could get the guards to relieve them...I was told by a Russian Officer that the code of the ground forces is never to be taken prisoner. Either kill the enemy or be killed..." (Sept. 23, 1944) "...I had an opportunity to fly to Moscow...around the Kremlin and through Red Square, past Lenin's tomb and past the execution block erected by Ivan the Terrible...the Park of Rest and Culture is one almost entirely devoted to a German Trophy exhibit..."
Fletcher's return from Russia brought with it an interview to join the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey team in Nagasaki. (Aug. 12, 1945): "...Now that we have the world's best laboratory for testing atom bombs, I'm all for getting in as many 'experimental' examples as we can...I would imagine disintegration would be most painless. We shall see..." (Oct. 4, 1945, Tokyo): "...We passed through the outskirts of Yokohama...the former sites of wooden & paper houses...quite different from the destruction in Europe...Here the earth is clean except twisted sheet metal...the air in Yokohama was sickeningly sweet...it may still be the smell of death..." (Oct. 5, 1945): "...We are going to Nagasaki...we are all aware that our reports will be of the utmost significance...our report will be read and re-read, quoted and requoted by atomic scientists... much of it I cannot discuss. But it is known that there was no fire except from buildings which fell into charcoal burners. 20,000 were killed, 20,000 missing, 20,000 injured. As far as I can figure... the atomic bomb has been terribly overrated..." (Oct. 1, 1945, Tachikawa) ...Went to a geisha house (turned prostitute because of the lack of business)...they first thing they wanted to know was the English for 'too big' and 'take it easy'... the Americans are too big and take too long..." (Oct. 18, 1945, Nagasaki): "...We flew over Kobe and Hiroshima... the devastation there was worse than here... we talked to one man who had seen the bomb fall...the streets of course are filthy and revolting to the sight and the smell... in my wandering about the ruins I came across the remains of two Japs by the wayside. One skull was clean and white, while the other still bore the remains of a head of black hair. The bodies were unidentifiable...today I talked to a Jap who had a bad burn on the right side of his face. He was within a mile of the bomb when it went off..."
Overall an excellent representation of the period's history, and highly suitable for museums and universities. The Fletchers' letters span from 1944-1945, and cover topics from war, to politics, to the New Deal, to the death of Roosevelt and life at home.
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