"Nice
to get your letter yesterday. No, it is
not heresy to think of flying to Washington, but it is heresy if you do
it. However, even if you do we may
welcome you anyway....
"The
most interesting event which has transpired to-day was the sudden transfer of
Bob Durden to the Marianas (SP?) where he will be an interpreter in the War
Crimes Commission. I knew the job was
open and suppose I could have had it, but it seemed at the time that I should
like to stay here in Washington for just a few weeks more. However, they didn't ask Bob. He arrived here for his first day's work this
morning and had just been issued his dictionaries, a desk, etc., when Hindmarsh
called him up and told him that he was leaving tomorrow to arrive in the
Marianas on the fifteenth of March, all the way by air. He was pretty happy about it although just
slightly surprised."
--Letter
from John Howes, Washington, D.C., to my father, Bloomington, Kans., Thursday,
February 28, 1946. John Howes was a
fellow student with my father in the Navy Japanese language program. Howes had already completed the program and
been stationed to Washington, D.C., where my father was also scheduled to move
to once he completed language training.
