From Jack Lynch

From a ship at anchor in Hiro Wan, Japan,

Oct. 22, 1945

When we pulled up to the dock, Hiroshima didn’t look so bad because there were a few houses left standing here and there, but after we walked a couple of blocks, there was just nothing but ruins. Not a living thing left standing, just junk. Over the whole place there was the odor of burnt flesh, about as bad a smell as you could possibly imagine. My stomach isn’t that weak (but) I sure didn’t feel like eating and I don’t think there was anybody there that did. I could still smell that burnt flesh long after I got back to my ship.

There were a lot of small Jap kids running around all over the place and almost all of them were badly burned. Very few of them had any Mother or Father. Almost all of the people in town were burnt and it’s a wonder they even lived. If I looked as horrible as some of them, I would rather be dead.

Their town was sure dead even if they were not. The few buildings that are left standing are demolished in the inside, with only the walls left standing. It would be just like an atomic bomb blowing up on Fifth and Broadway (in his home town of Los Angeles, Calif.) and no buildings left until you got out to Hollywood or south to Florence. It’s kind of hard to imagine but that’s how Hiroshima looked.

No matter how hard we try to not feel sorry for the Japs, it’s almost impossible. Even if they did start the war, these kids and people at Hiroshima are sure paying through the nose for something they had nothing to do with.

It’s too bad everyone couldn’t see what is left of this town. There sure as hell wouldn’t be another war.

(Jack Lynch was 20 when he wrote this letter. Several years later, Lynch died from the radiation exposure he suffered at Hiroshima).