Dec 2, 2014

Sat, Dec 2, 1944: ironical quotation

“A rather ironical quotation from the Christian Science Monitor appeared in the Denver Post last Sunday.  At least it was ironical to us.  Perhaps you also, have read it.  Anyway it went something like this: ‘Don't gripe about gasoline rationing. It would be much worse to be learning Japanese.’…
“Our radio broadcasts in Japanese still are given every day at noon, and it's encouraging to note that I can pick up a stray word now and then.  Early this week we heard a transcribed rebroadcast of the Tokyo radio's account of the second B-29 raid on that city.  Following the meaningless (to me) jumble of sounds, the instructor next to me at the table translated it as being a claim that that 150 superforts had come over and 99 shot down.  Apparently, he and the other instructor at our table are not firm believers in the veracity of Tokyo reports; for I noticed that they had been chuckling together all through the broadcast.”
-- Letter from my father, in Naval Japanese language school, Boulder, Colo., to his family, Bloomington, Kans., Saturday, December 2, 1944.

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