ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
ISSUES & ANALYSIS
August 14, 2005
NEWSWATCH
Also in this section:
Editorials and Commentary
INSIDE: University City man’s dad helped break the news to the world of Japan’s
surrender in WWII. Page B5.
Dad broke news of Japan’s surrender
University City man treasures father’s letter detailing his worldwide scoop as an
Armed Forces Radio broadcaster on Guam.
By HARRY LEVINS
Post-Dispatch Senior Writer
An architect in University City has a family stake in Sunday’s 60th anniversary
of V-J Day, the day Japan threw in the towel to end World War II.
In the home office of the architect, Peter Green, sit six thick ring-bound
notebooks- They’re filled with the wartime letters of his father, Marine Pfc.
Benjamin Green.
And in a letter written from Guam on Aug. 14, 1945, the elder Green tells his
family that he scooped the world on getting out the big news of Japan’s
surrender.
Ben Green died in 1976 at age 68. In looking back, his son said last week, “My
father told lots of stories from the war. But the stories he told were the funny
stories. The only way I found about this story was by reading the letters.”
The letter about the surrender scoop is typed entirely in upper-case letters,
with lots of ellipses Stead of periods. In those days, that was the style for radio
scripts — and the senior Green was writing his letter from WXLI, the Armed
Forces Radio station on Guam.
As a civilian in Chicago, Green had produced and directed radio dramas. As a
Marine on Guam, he was, in effect, the assistant manager of the radio station.
And in mid-August 1945, everybody at the station was on pins and needles.
The United States had dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6 and a
second on Nagasaki three days later. Now, the world was waiting for Japan to
call it quits.
On the afternoon of Aug. 14, Green dispatched one of his reporters—an Army
soldier known as Kani Evans— to the nearby headquarters of Adm. Chester
Nimitz, the Navy’s commander-in-chief Pacific, or CincPac.
In the letter home, Green wrote that Evans “had just given me a story about a B-
29 attack, and I was preparing to put it on the air when the phone rang again. It
was Kani out of breath with the Domei flash.”
Domei was the Japanese national news agency. Its dispatches got careful
scrutiny at CincPac headquarters. The one that excited Evans was apparently
the dispatch quoted later in the Post-Dispatch: “An imperial message accepting
the Potsdam proclamation will be forthcoming soon.”
At a meeting the previous month in Potsdam, Germany, the leaders of the
United States, Britain and the Soviet Union had called on the Japanese to
surrender or face ruin.
In Guam, Green instantly grasped the import of the Domei dispatch. His letter
continues:
“We slapped it on the air and then at 4 p.m., two minutes later, took short wave
from San Francisco pointing out to our listeners that San Francisco didn’t have
the story they had just heard over WXLI.”
The younger Green explained that the “short wave from San Francisco”
referred to a short¬wave radio network that linked Armed Forces Radio outlets.
He was uncertain about the reference to “our listeners.”
But he’s positive that his father was the first journalist anywhere to get out the
word that Japan was giving up. Sixty years ago, his father felt the same way.
In the letter, he says the Associated Press did, too:
“AP credited the Guam radio with making a flash announcement here, which
you may have read or heard repeated in the States. That was us!”
The younger Green has finished a book built around his father’s letters. It’s
titled “Dad’s War with the United States Marines,” and it will be published later
this month by the Seaboard Press as a 282-page, $19.95 paperback.
The title salutes Ben Green’s record as a Sgt. Bilko of his times — a quick-
thinking, fast-talking wheeler-dealer. In fact, on Guam, he talked himself out of
an infantry security unit and into the cushier job at the radio station.
In the book, Peter Green says that several hours passed be¬tween his father’s
flash and the word that older Americans still recall —CBS reporter Webley
Edwards’ broadcast from CincPac headquarters.
At 6 p.m. on Aug. 14, President Harry S Truman made a terse announcement
that Japan was quitting. But somehow, word of the surrender — or least rumors
to that effect — got to St. Louis in the early hours of Aug. 14.
That evening, the Post-Dispatch put out an extra edition. The extra reported
that on Hill, the old Ruggieri’s Restaurant had closed as usual at I am. Tuesday
—and had re-opened later, when word came in. The story says, “Early
celebrators were served with drinks on the house.”
As the day wore on, spirits rose higher and higher. The Post-Dispatch
pinpointed Olive Street between Eighth and Ninth streets as “the center of
downtown merrymaking.” A photo from that block shows a snowstorm of paper
falling from office windows.
But on Guam, Ben Green was too tuckered to party. After all, he was 37—no
youngster. And he’d been keyed up for days, waiting for news of the surrender.
“I’m dead tired,” he writes in the letter, “even though I managed seven hours’
sleep last night. I need 24.”
The letter was written around midnight and addressed to his wife as she visited
relatives in Massachusetts. As it winds to an end, Green writes:
“I’ve been to CincPac forty times today and now I give up. I can’t keep my eyes
open?’
He tells his wife — Alice Herlihy Green, a Chicagoan who died in 1982—“I love
you. The war’s over. You’re an angel. And there won’t be any more worry for
you. Soon, I’ll be home to do it all. But there won’t be any worry, so we’ll just
laugh and play like other kids. You’re a doll.
“Ben.”
Information on Green’s book is available on the Web site at www.dadswar net.
“AP credited the Guam radio with making a flash announcement here,
which you may have read or heard repeated in the States. That was us!"
ISSUES & ANALYSIS
August 14, 2005
NEWSWATCH
Also in this section:
Editorials and Commentary
INSIDE: University City man’s dad helped break the news to the world of Japan’s
surrender in WWII. Page B5.
Dad broke news of Japan’s surrender
University City man treasures father’s letter detailing his worldwide scoop as an
Armed Forces Radio broadcaster on Guam.
By HARRY LEVINS
Post-Dispatch Senior Writer
An architect in University City has a family stake in Sunday’s 60th anniversary
of V-J Day, the day Japan threw in the towel to end World War II.
In the home office of the architect, Peter Green, sit six thick ring-bound
notebooks- They’re filled with the wartime letters of his father, Marine Pfc.
Benjamin Green.
And in a letter written from Guam on Aug. 14, 1945, the elder Green tells his
family that he scooped the world on getting out the big news of Japan’s
surrender.
Ben Green died in 1976 at age 68. In looking back, his son said last week, “My
father told lots of stories from the war. But the stories he told were the funny
stories. The only way I found about this story was by reading the letters.”
The letter about the surrender scoop is typed entirely in upper-case letters,
with lots of ellipses Stead of periods. In those days, that was the style for radio
scripts — and the senior Green was writing his letter from WXLI, the Armed
Forces Radio station on Guam.
As a civilian in Chicago, Green had produced and directed radio dramas. As a
Marine on Guam, he was, in effect, the assistant manager of the radio station.
And in mid-August 1945, everybody at the station was on pins and needles.
The United States had dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6 and a
second on Nagasaki three days later. Now, the world was waiting for Japan to
call it quits.
On the afternoon of Aug. 14, Green dispatched one of his reporters—an Army
soldier known as Kani Evans— to the nearby headquarters of Adm. Chester
Nimitz, the Navy’s commander-in-chief Pacific, or CincPac.
In the letter home, Green wrote that Evans “had just given me a story about a B-
29 attack, and I was preparing to put it on the air when the phone rang again. It
was Kani out of breath with the Domei flash.”
Domei was the Japanese national news agency. Its dispatches got careful
scrutiny at CincPac headquarters. The one that excited Evans was apparently
the dispatch quoted later in the Post-Dispatch: “An imperial message accepting
the Potsdam proclamation will be forthcoming soon.”
At a meeting the previous month in Potsdam, Germany, the leaders of the
United States, Britain and the Soviet Union had called on the Japanese to
surrender or face ruin.
In Guam, Green instantly grasped the import of the Domei dispatch. His letter
continues:
“We slapped it on the air and then at 4 p.m., two minutes later, took short wave
from San Francisco pointing out to our listeners that San Francisco didn’t have
the story they had just heard over WXLI.”
The younger Green explained that the “short wave from San Francisco”
referred to a short¬wave radio network that linked Armed Forces Radio outlets.
He was uncertain about the reference to “our listeners.”
But he’s positive that his father was the first journalist anywhere to get out the
word that Japan was giving up. Sixty years ago, his father felt the same way.
In the letter, he says the Associated Press did, too:
“AP credited the Guam radio with making a flash announcement here, which
you may have read or heard repeated in the States. That was us!”
The younger Green has finished a book built around his father’s letters. It’s
titled “Dad’s War with the United States Marines,” and it will be published later
this month by the Seaboard Press as a 282-page, $19.95 paperback.
The title salutes Ben Green’s record as a Sgt. Bilko of his times — a quick-
thinking, fast-talking wheeler-dealer. In fact, on Guam, he talked himself out of
an infantry security unit and into the cushier job at the radio station.
In the book, Peter Green says that several hours passed be¬tween his father’s
flash and the word that older Americans still recall —CBS reporter Webley
Edwards’ broadcast from CincPac headquarters.
At 6 p.m. on Aug. 14, President Harry S Truman made a terse announcement
that Japan was quitting. But somehow, word of the surrender — or least rumors
to that effect — got to St. Louis in the early hours of Aug. 14.
That evening, the Post-Dispatch put out an extra edition. The extra reported
that on Hill, the old Ruggieri’s Restaurant had closed as usual at I am. Tuesday
—and had re-opened later, when word came in. The story says, “Early
celebrators were served with drinks on the house.”
As the day wore on, spirits rose higher and higher. The Post-Dispatch
pinpointed Olive Street between Eighth and Ninth streets as “the center of
downtown merrymaking.” A photo from that block shows a snowstorm of paper
falling from office windows.
But on Guam, Ben Green was too tuckered to party. After all, he was 37—no
youngster. And he’d been keyed up for days, waiting for news of the surrender.
“I’m dead tired,” he writes in the letter, “even though I managed seven hours’
sleep last night. I need 24.”
The letter was written around midnight and addressed to his wife as she visited
relatives in Massachusetts. As it winds to an end, Green writes:
“I’ve been to CincPac forty times today and now I give up. I can’t keep my eyes
open?’
He tells his wife — Alice Herlihy Green, a Chicagoan who died in 1982—“I love
you. The war’s over. You’re an angel. And there won’t be any more worry for
you. Soon, I’ll be home to do it all. But there won’t be any worry, so we’ll just
laugh and play like other kids. You’re a doll.
“Ben.”
Information on Green’s book is available on the Web site at www.dadswar net.
“AP credited the Guam radio with making a flash announcement here,
which you may have read or heard repeated in the States. That was us!"
What they're saying about Dad's War with the United
States Marines:
"Sure to inspire the reader to thoughtful reflection given
current demands on the American military arising from
the 'war on terrorism,' Dad's War With The United States
Marines is very highly recommended to all general readers
and a welcome addition to the growing library of military
memoirs and biographies."
–James A. Cox, Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA)
"An architect in University City has a family stake in
Sunday's 60th anniversary of V-J Day, the day Japan
threw in the towel to end World War II. In the home office
of the architect, Peter Green, sit six thick ring-bound
notebooks- They're filled with the wartime letters of his
father, Marine Pfc. Benjamin Green. And in a letter
written from Guam on Aug. 14, 1945, the elder Green tells
his family that he scooped the world on getting out the big
news of Japan's surrender."
–Harry Levins, St. Louis Post Dispatch (on the 60th
anniversary of V-J Day, August 14, 2005)
“This highly recommended read places the operation of a
wartime AFRS Pacific Ocean Network outlet in the
context of the family story of Ben Green, plucked from his
senior radio advertising industry job in Chicago and going
through Marine bootcamp before becoming 'the highest
ranking private on Guam' and running WXLI.”
–David Ricquish, Chairman, Radio Heritage Foundation,
Wellington, New Zealand
This sounds wonderful. I congratulate you for persevering and
bringing this to a book form that can be shared and enjoyed.
--Peter Parsons, Author of Secret War in the Pacific, a video
documentary on the campaign of his father, Chick Parsons,
and the Special Mission Submariners of World War II and all
the men and women of the Philippine Resistance Movement
(at www.chickparsons.com).
Congratulations, Peter! On having a great dad and having a
new career as a writer.
--Catherine Rankovic, Washington University Adjunct
Professor, Essayist and Poet, Author of Fierce Consent and
Other Poems, Wingspan Press, 2005.
Stunningly awesome, Peter. I am so pleased you got this
advance press. Harry Levins is a fine journalist and historian,
not a man who takes up trifling subjects. He has paid you a
huge honor and I am happy for my friend.
--Nancy Hobson, Writer, St. Louis
What a MARVELOUS history, and what an amazing father
you had! To somehow find a way to manage service to his
country while having the challenge of a family at home...how
wonderful! Good luck on the book - I will make sure to pass
the word. --Lisa Sass
We can hardly wait to read your book. It sounds absolutely
fascinating. --Chuck & Fran Childress
Peter, I'm looking forward to reading the entire book....
Congratulations!
--C. Kevin Williams,Col USA (Ret.) Former Commander and
District Engineer, St. Louis District U. S. Army Corps of
Engineers.
Good luck with your book ! I find it so very interesting. Best
wishes, Paddy Twomey. --Patrick Twomey, Cork, Ireland
This looks like a really interesting book -- your dad sure was
a special person. You write so well, Pete! I know a lot of hard
work went into this. I definitely want to buy a copy of the book
when it is published. --Kathy Houpt
Peter, Wish we had been able to spend more time at the
baseball game. You're a wonderful storyteller!
--Leslie Kaufman
Return here for more news and reviews of Dad's War with
the United States Marines.
States Marines:
"Sure to inspire the reader to thoughtful reflection given
current demands on the American military arising from
the 'war on terrorism,' Dad's War With The United States
Marines is very highly recommended to all general readers
and a welcome addition to the growing library of military
memoirs and biographies."
–James A. Cox, Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA)
"An architect in University City has a family stake in
Sunday's 60th anniversary of V-J Day, the day Japan
threw in the towel to end World War II. In the home office
of the architect, Peter Green, sit six thick ring-bound
notebooks- They're filled with the wartime letters of his
father, Marine Pfc. Benjamin Green. And in a letter
written from Guam on Aug. 14, 1945, the elder Green tells
his family that he scooped the world on getting out the big
news of Japan's surrender."
–Harry Levins, St. Louis Post Dispatch (on the 60th
anniversary of V-J Day, August 14, 2005)
“This highly recommended read places the operation of a
wartime AFRS Pacific Ocean Network outlet in the
context of the family story of Ben Green, plucked from his
senior radio advertising industry job in Chicago and going
through Marine bootcamp before becoming 'the highest
ranking private on Guam' and running WXLI.”
–David Ricquish, Chairman, Radio Heritage Foundation,
Wellington, New Zealand
This sounds wonderful. I congratulate you for persevering and
bringing this to a book form that can be shared and enjoyed.
--Peter Parsons, Author of Secret War in the Pacific, a video
documentary on the campaign of his father, Chick Parsons,
and the Special Mission Submariners of World War II and all
the men and women of the Philippine Resistance Movement
(at www.chickparsons.com).
Congratulations, Peter! On having a great dad and having a
new career as a writer.
--Catherine Rankovic, Washington University Adjunct
Professor, Essayist and Poet, Author of Fierce Consent and
Other Poems, Wingspan Press, 2005.
Stunningly awesome, Peter. I am so pleased you got this
advance press. Harry Levins is a fine journalist and historian,
not a man who takes up trifling subjects. He has paid you a
huge honor and I am happy for my friend.
--Nancy Hobson, Writer, St. Louis
What a MARVELOUS history, and what an amazing father
you had! To somehow find a way to manage service to his
country while having the challenge of a family at home...how
wonderful! Good luck on the book - I will make sure to pass
the word. --Lisa Sass
We can hardly wait to read your book. It sounds absolutely
fascinating. --Chuck & Fran Childress
Peter, I'm looking forward to reading the entire book....
Congratulations!
--C. Kevin Williams,Col USA (Ret.) Former Commander and
District Engineer, St. Louis District U. S. Army Corps of
Engineers.
Good luck with your book ! I find it so very interesting. Best
wishes, Paddy Twomey. --Patrick Twomey, Cork, Ireland
This looks like a really interesting book -- your dad sure was
a special person. You write so well, Pete! I know a lot of hard
work went into this. I definitely want to buy a copy of the book
when it is published. --Kathy Houpt
Peter, Wish we had been able to spend more time at the
baseball game. You're a wonderful storyteller!
--Leslie Kaufman
Return here for more news and reviews of Dad's War with
the United States Marines.
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