The Reason

Today Dad finally sent me some of the articles about Grandpa's wartime efforts, as well as some decade old correspondence between Dad and a guy named Bill in Saipan. I immediately googled Bill's name and found someone listed under the same name working in the federal courts here. I called the clerk's office before even thinking of what I would say, but that didn't stop me from blabbing the whole story as soon as Bill picked up the phone. Fortunately, I'd reached the correct Bill and we talked for half an hour about his work photographing the World War II memorabilia that had been kept in a shed at the American War Memorial before it was transferred to the National Park Archives in Guam years ago. Bill was very interested in my search for Grandpa, and gave me the names of a few people he recommended that I follow up with, including Yoshi Gabaldon, the son of the heroic Marine Guy Gabaldon, who I was surprised to learn still lives in Saipan!

I feel like I'm on such a steep learning curve here. I've read a lot about World War II, but really only focusing on the war in Europe (even The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, which was like a million pages). I just finished reading Hiroshima, and I'm currently just over halfway through Volume II of Ian Toll's recently published trilogy on the war in the pacific, The Conquering Tide, which covers the years 1942-44. Hoping I will finish reading it just in time for the publication of Volume III. I contacted Toll when I started reading the book, to tell him about my impending move to Saipan and a little about Grandpa. He responded politely, but did not seem interested in including Grandpa's story in his book (albeit I'm sure it was already in the final editing stages at the time). There is definitely a part of me that wants Grandpa's story to be told and preserved somehow, but that is not really my reason for doing all of this.

What is my reason? I've really avoided answering that question my summarizing my journey as "finding Grandpa," but of course I won't find him, here or anywhere else. He's been gone over twenty years now. I want to learn more about him though, to really try to understand what he did here and why this place was so important to him that he returned several times. There is also a part of me that has always dreamed of finding "Toughie" or one of Grandpa's other Japanese "friends" who he was never able to find. The odds of that happening are extremely slim, however, considering that those guys would be pretty old by now, if they're even still alive. Ten years before his death, Grandpa told a reporter, 

"What brings on this syndrome to look back? Sizing up my life . . . I think I'm going to find one of those 16 (Japanese prisoners). I really do."

And I will readily admit that one of my reasons is simply the adventure inherent in this investigation, following Grandpa to the other side of the world and trying to find footprints he left decades ago. I know that I get that sense of adventure, and love of exploration and discovery from him, so it is only fitting that he becomes my adventure. Grandpa felt that he was "a part of Tinian," so there must be a part of him there, waiting to be discovered. And I want to discover whatever I can, because our time together was far too brief - he died suddenly, shortly after my thirteenth birthday - but I loved him dearly.

Me and Grandpa (1980)

"I decided to go back to Tinian to identify with the fascinating time I spent on the island. It was a very important part of my life and (the memory) had been fading. I wanted to get back and be a part of it, and it (to) be a part of me again."

- Sam Weintraub, on why he returned to the Marianas decades after the war, Mid-South Magazine, August 1983.