Michael Yellin started his voyage from Montclair during the big snowstorm of Feb. 26. A day later, one of his flights was delayed by the tsunami feared in Hawaii, where his plane was going to take a fuel stop. But by last Wednesday, March 3, he had finally reached his destination -- the tiny Japanese island of Iwo Jima -- along with his WWII veteran father Jerry, his brother Robert and his nephew Simon.
Jerry Yellin, 86, hadn't been back to Iwo Jima since 1945. He has penned a self-published memoir, "Of War and Weddings," about his reconciliation with the Japanese people after his son Robert married a Japanese woman.
"It was such a unique experience," says Mike Yellin, who had been planning the trip for months because Iwo Jima is only open to visitors one day a year. "You can't just get up and go to Iwo Jima the way you can go to Aruba." He added that it's almost impossible to imagine the Battle of Iwo Jima without visiting it and seeing how small and exposed it is. Just walking through the sand was hard, he said: imagine doing it with a heavy backpack on, while being shot at by enemies in underground bunkers.
Yellin wrote this postcard to us:
The trip, the first time he had been back to the island since the war, was emotional and difficult for my father. He cried as his feet touched the ground and again when he stood on top of Mount Suribachi, where he recited the names of his of comrades in the 78th Fighter Squadron who died during the war. He told us that when he was on Iwo Jima all he could think about was home and when he finally came home all he could think about was Iwo Jima. He recited his experiences there, of the mass graves, of the piles of dead bodies, of the stench of death, of living in fox holes, experiences that haunted him and affected his life until this very day. He was treated with great respect and honor by the generals and admirals who also were there to commemorate the battle. The commander of Anderson Air Force Base (on Guam), a one-star general, was thrilled to meet a living P-51 pilot, especially one who had fought the battle of Iwo Jima. He was treated like a star by the civilians who were on the tour--crowding around him and wanting to hear about his experiences during the war. The memories of war are etched on his brain and he recited with detail to the gratitude of his audience. At the end of the day we were exhausted but my father seemed content. It seemed to me that a circle had been closed -- that maybe the return to the island had filled a void in his life he harbored since 1945.
Read more about Jerry Yellin's return to Iwo Jima on CNN.com. Or watch one of three videos he made during the emotional voyage.
Do you have a story about an amazing adventure far from Baristaville? We're always looking for digital postcards from Baristavillians in exotic locales.
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Comments (9)
Nothing more powerful than this: "... about his reconciliation with the Japanese people after his son Robert married a Japanese woman."
I imagine on Iwo Jima he thought of the family he might have. And to return with his son-- I can't even imagine what he must feel.
Then to have the son marry a Japanese woman?
This just adds to the legend that is the Greatest Generation.
Just yesterday I was talking to an 83 year old vet of WWII, Korea and Vietnam.
I stood there small, thanking him for allowing me to only be worried about whether or not Roc would write something bad about me.
What a beautiful story. It prompted me to purchase Mr. Yellin's book along with another one he wrote called The Black Canteen.
Wow, read that CNN link. Kind of puts things in perspective. Thank you, Michael & Jerry.
My da and several uncles fought in WWII. In my da's case, he was on a sub chaser in the Royal Navy in the north Atlantic.
I remember sitting around listening to their stories after they'd had a few, for they'd never answer any direct questions and would always dismiss enquiries. I remember being in awe of what they did and asking myself if I could have done it. I still don't know.
But I'm awfully glad that they did, and this is a wonderful story that Michael and Jerry have to tell.
Simply a great story. Many thanks!
Cro - my dad was exactly the same as your dad and uncles. He just died this past December and it was only in his last month that he started telling me all about his war stories and his time in Japan and the Philipines. I'm hoping Mr. Yellin's books will help me fill in some of the blanks as to what my father went throught but was never able to talk about.
Since Yellin was a pilot, those curious about his experiences might turn to Samuel Hynes' 'Flights of Passage," his remembrance as a Marine aviator in the Pacific during WWII. Hynes later became an English professor at Princeton; his book often turns on on "Recommended" lists, as much for his elegant prose as for his evocation of aerial warfare.
And Ronald Spector's "Eagle Against The Sun" is a very good, well well-regarded by other historians, look at the war overall in the Pacific. Max Hastings' "Retribution" is much better, however, on the sheer fierceness of land combat there, and the desperation butchery borne of abandonment by Japanese forces. How a country which later revolutionized so many industries could find itself committed to such hopeless strategies as failed battleship attacks and half-starved island garrisons will always baffle me.
The sobriquet of "the greatest generation," however, becomes a bit harder to take altogether seriously when ome reads in detail about the conduct of Allied forces both in the last two years of WWII and during the Occupation. There is a large, very angry literature about the failures of the victors to treat the defeated "fairly" in victory, although MacArthur's regency in Japan is generally seen as a prominent exception.
And my own experience is that, once you expressed some interest in their experiences, it was actually often hard to get many WWII vets to shut up about them. One Fred Zangrando, the very pro-HUAC head of the town's Catholic War Vets when I was growing up, for example, would gladly pull up his pants leg to show you the shrapnel there he'd gotten one night serving as a bombardier over Hamburg at the mere mention of a B-17.
(One prominent exception to this. however, was the father of John "Hansi" Witt. Whenever we played "soldier" with Hansi, he, like most of us, used his father's borrowed WWII vintage equipment. Yet his father's helmet was "field gray" in color, not OD, and was shaped like a coal scuttle, and sported the oddest-looking (to us back then) regimental crest. I don't quite think your musings can top that one, croiagusanam.)
I can understand how emotional this experience must have been for Jerry Yellin and his family. My dad fought in World War II but wasn't one to talk about it that much. But several years ago, when I went to Hawaii and took the trip to Pearl Harbor, I was overcome with emotion at the thought of the war my father, my uncle, and several of my Dad's close friends had fought. The experience was so moving. My depth of emotion surprised me.
Thank you, Jerry and Michael Yellin, for sharing this lovely story with us.
That is a nice story and can't wait to read his memoirs. There is another great story from a hero from Verona Patrick Caruso that i had the pleasure of meeting and having a few lengthy talks with. Patricg passed away about a year and half ago. It's an incredible story that resulted in a book he wrote called Nightmare on Iwo. Its is definitly worth reading his amazing story. Here is a newspaper article about him. These are great men who selflessly fought for their country and their stories should be read and passed on.
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20051217/COMMUNITY/512170346?Title=Veteran-recalls-his-nightmare-on-Iwo-Jima