Bonnie
Wiley was
born in Portland, Oregon. After high school
she joined the Yakima Daily Republic.
Later she worked at the Portland Oregonian
and the Seattle Times.
During
the Second World War Wiley joined the Association
Press in California and in January 1945 was sent to report on the
Pacific War. This included the fighting
in the Philippines and Okinawa.
After the war Wiley returned
to the Portland Oregonian
before joining the Washington Morning Herald.
Later she taught journalism at Washington University and the University
of Hawaii.
(1)
Bonnie Wiley, Associated Press report (7th July, 1945)
This is a tour of the Okinawa battlefield after the guns have fallen
silent-a battlefield where many valorous young Americans fell but
carried with them into eternity an even greater number of Japanese.
The jeep bumps along -
moving slowly through the dust clouds to keep from running down Okinawans
- past the ruined and deserted villages into the rubble heap of what
was once Naha, the capital of Okinawa.
Then up the hill to Shuri
Castle, where the Japanese had their headquarters until the shells
and bombs pulverized the walls, five feet thick.
There was Chocolate Drop Hill, where the wreckage of 15 American tanks
stopped by Japanese shells are mute monuments to the valor of the
men who fell in the battle to conquer it.
It is peaceful now on Conical
Hill, where the Americans fought up and were driven back and finally
went up to stay.
Not far away is a cemetery
where many of those who fought on Conical Hill lie buried. Helmeted
soldiers are painting white crosses.
In the center of one cemetery
was a low picket fence around the grave of Lieut. Gen. Simon Bolivar
Buckner, Jr., commander of the U.S. Tenth Army, who fell just as final
victory was in view.
The sporadic fire of Japanese
snipers from distant Hill 89 reminds the visitor that men still are
falling although the campaign has long since ended.
Available from Amazon Books
(order below)
