A ROOM OF OUR OWN

...Spots that only months ago were Japanese-held jungles are transformed into little cities with light, water, sanitation, etc...

...He gave me the first news of Dewey's and Bricker's nomination...

...Every place I go I never cease marveling at what American machinery and brains have accomplished...

...I am convinced that the most difficult problem for most men in service is NOT the dangers and the hardships...

...I am very glad to have made turned soldiers...

...Where we are so far away and pursuing our various tasks it shows how easily we can get completely out of touch with even so important a matter as the nomination of a candidate for President...

...So at night this perfect tropical moon flooded down through the giant trees, stretching their plumes toward the dark sky...

...There are times when I get pretty restive about seeing you and the kids and for at least a sample of the peace and quiet (".'" remarks 1BL) as I remember it at 2131 Van Hise and the farm...

...But Russia will be looking to Europe in the years immediately ahead...

...Was deeply grieved over the news that Hank Williams was killed in action in Normandy...

...At a certain spot the ridge of our perimeter rises precipitously to two or three hundred feet, and at the top of this ridge one can look almost straight down for some 300 feet...

...While I was there, there was a full moon...

...It registers in their thinking and in their emotions, and these experiences will go with them to their graves...

...Where I am writing now, for example, is a screened-in tent with floor, electric light, and showers near by...

...I am spending a day here and expect to move further north tomorrow...

...This ridge still remains the front line in that region, and there is a sizable number of the enemy to the east and to the south, but that defeat last Spring took-the heart out of the enemy...

...I hope and believe that their deep and pent-up emotions can be channelized for constructive work in the future—a determination to build America into a finer and better land...

...Here one feels the surging upswing that comes only with the vitality of youth...

...Speaking of learning from experience, one thing I have learned so far as Army life is concerned, and that is not to fret...

...It is true that we have been, shall we say, "un-thrifty" in our dealings with other nations during this war and before...

...So with us, I think that any beneficial results we may get from this war and all that it represents will come to us from the Pacific...

...The mountains are higher, and the space between the foot of the mountains and the sea is not so wide, which is the reason, I guess, why the nights are really cool...

...The oriental peoples are just about as full of sentiment as we are—underneath—and I think our altruism appeals to them in a very direct way...

...I had a beautiful trip over here in the best airplane I've ever been in—a big four-motored job with comfortable leather seats...

...I got up into the forward areas, and it is rugged terrain in which to battle, but it does not compare, in my opinion, with New Guinea for difficulties in mountains, gullies, heat, etc...

...I finished my business up there and en route back got an excellent view of some of the Japanese territory still in enemy hands...

...After staying there two days, I proceeded northwards to that region where fighting is still going on, though of course on nothing like the scale of last Spring...

...I am thus one of the rare few who is not regretful that he is not at some other assignment...

...Feeding off from their slopes is a ribbon of coastal land spotted with swamps, ridges, and rivers...

...I had dinner last night with the commander of a division stationed here...

...What is going on there can be summed up by saying we are holding a perimeter wherein we have our needed airfields, and a base, and then letting the mosquitoes, the swamps, and the climate, and the lack of supplies, work for us...

...It has now become, of course, a rear area, and is as civilized as such a spot can be made...

...Every one of the places I went were spots on which, during the past 18 months, I have stuck pins in the military maps, and have followed our progress step by step in order to supply the military background for the information of the press...

...It was a grand idea to use Father's words to deal with today's problems...

...What can we expect of these boys...

...He is the Chinese liaison officer here, is a graduate of West Point, and went to the University of Wisconsin for a year or so...

...It is hot and I have difficulty in being able to wear any glasses because of the sweat...

...Again, it was a fine idea, and pregnant with force...

...It is especially worthwhile at this time—just as with Col...

...The Republican Convention ANOTHER lap this morning...

...The June 26 issue of The Progressive was in my mail...

...I will get a chance to see some of my old cronies at a previous station...

...One of the original gang that came over with us in September, 1942, was stationed there, and he took a day off and we covered this particular island thoroughly...

...It was a beautiful sight coming into this spot this morning, clear as crystal, with fairly good-sized mountains standing out against the sky...

...MacArthur will accept them only when they are absolutely essential to the objective...

...The duck was something...

...Putting Nature To Work LIKE most of the islands in the South Pacific, it has a ridge running up its center like a back-bone...

...What struck me as interesting was that an event like that could have passed so completely out of my thinking...

...Up that slope a few months ago, a Japanese regiment fought its way to the summit, and when the attack had been repulsed, the gully was piled with hundreds of Japanese dead...

...Believe it or not, but when I was stuck for two days last week waiting for air travel, I just "settled down, got myself a couple of good books, and read and ate and slept as if I were on a vacation...

...Wang...

...It is the same elemental force we both felt so extraordinarily in Russia...

...I hope I can keep that quality when I come to apply it to civil* ian life...

...And I am sure that my determination is shared by many, many others...

...The dinner was strictly Chinese cooking and delicious...

...As you may have gathered, I was over in the South Pacific among the islands where the fighting was so intense in the Fall of 1942...

...Another vital element, I believe, that cannot be over-looked is the return of the soldiers who can tell exactly what they have experienced in various parts of the world...

...As soon as the sun has dropped into the sea, a cool rush of air comes down from the mountains...

...America has a new idea in national development, the idea that a nation does not need to conquer politically and to hold alien lands in political subjection in order to develop trade and friendly cultural relations...

...Upswing In The East 1HAD dinner last night with Maj...

...But perhaps the old principle of "bread cast upon the waters" will produce its extraordinary results for us in the Far East...

...He is generally nostalgic about his past ones, and enthusiastically hopeful about his future ones...

...It was really the first time I had seen anything that really looked like one of those "South Sea Islands" the moving pictures used to show so much...

...As with Wheeler-Bennett's Hindenburg, it gives an excellent background in historical facts for the problems that face us today...

...Those at home who have not only missed the risks of rifle and bayonet in the mud of France or the jungles of the Pacific, and perhaps more than that, have been able to go right ahead in their chosen field and prepare for life when the war is over, are fortunate to a degree which no doubt they do not appreciate in the slightest...

...However, it is the rare bird that is satisfied with his present assignment...

...I am glad to have had this trip and to have had a chance to see this area...

...It suddenly dawned on me yesterday that the Republican convention was in session...

...Worrying About The Future 1FOUND a fine batch of mail from you waiting for me...

...Too many people think that the victory must mean THEIR freedom from danger, and THEIR privilege to go on dreaming up more obligations for somebody else's sons to fulfill...

...I have got into Unfinished Business by Col...

...It takes the form in my own case of conviction that the results of all this in terms of the future domestic life of our own country—what it is able to provide in worthwhile opportunity—will in substantial measure determine whether these men who have given their lives or their youth have been justified...

...But it is only a question of time until the Japanese will play out, because in those areas like the others I have spoken of, the climate and the jungle are working for us...

...Few things would have pleased him more personally than to have those very words reprinted and especially in The Progressive...

...He lives in the Middle West and is interested in public affairs...

...Riding around the way I have up in the forward areas, plane travel is not very luxurious—hard bucket seats and generally pretty crowded...

...I am a bit sorry to be so out of touch with affairs back home as I am at the moment, but I guess I'll catch up on the news after I get back to APO 500...

...He is an able man, and his outfit has made an outstanding record...

...We had a very interesting discussion, and it all again emphasized the point I have dwelt on with you to such an extent: that nations go to war expecting a particular result, but generally wake up to find they have something far different from what they expected...

...I got back this morning very early and not much sleep last night...

...But I apprehend that these lads themselves, those who will be coming back, are deeply interested in their own country and what it is going to open up for the great mass of people, those who pay the bills in blood and treasure...

...We could, of course, clear the whole area, but that would take lives, and when it comes to casualties Gen...

...Bonsai...

...But on the whole I have been fairly lucky, at least thus far...

...This particular spot is one of the best I have seen in the Pacific area for climate and beauty...

...Many are handicapped by wounds or mental difficulties, but most simply realize that they are likely to face a wc>rld where their services may not be needed...

...But this trip, as I say, was a beauty...

...But I did get a shower, cleaned up, and got to the desk to find a big pile of accumulated material demanding attention...

...There can be no question but that everyone is affected to a material degree (at least the great mass of us) by how a given situation hits us...

...The weather was fine, and I actually slept under a blanket last night, which is unusual when one is so near the equator...

...But if not channelized that way, they will find expressions which can be very destructive...

...The mountains go up to four or five thousand feet...

...House's papers giving the actual record of diplomatic negotiations during and after World War I—to bring back what actually happened at the end of the last war...

...They are doing their job, and doing it manfully, but don't think they are enjoying it and that the consequences of it—releasing man's capacities for the destruction of others—can be escaped...

...Just melted in one's mouth...

...Perhaps I should tell you a bit about the trip before it goes stale—and even after a few days it loses its freshness...

...Every time I see or hear of another young American taken off I find it difficult to keep under control my sentiments and my determination that somehow or other these young lads shall not have died in vain...

...I note frequent comment on the "bitterness" of reuct of certain herbs they use in their cooking...

...From what I hear they are none too enthusiastic about their lot...

...it is the question of what will happen to them when the war is over and they return and try to pick up their lives as civilians...

...A Room Of Our Own By Isabel B. La Follette LATEST WORDS from Phil in the Southwest Pacific : Have just been informed that I shall soon make another trip which will of course mean another slow-up in the mail...

...The flavors are delicate and (so the Chinese gentleman next to me explained) are the prodthe trip because it gave me a bird's-eye view of many places I have covered from here, but which, until this trip, I had seen only from the map...