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#121 Monday 29 January 6:30 pm Darling, I've just written a note to Muz (from whom I received a letter tonight) and one to the Mrs. Cash who sent the materials recently (don't know whether I mentioned it, but they'll go into the small collection of teaching materials for girls’ handicraft classes which we hope to start soon); I have also to write a note to M and F and Grandfather, to neither of whom I've mailed the last typed letter yet, and to Aunt Lucy (Hadfield) and Aunt Ben (Johnston) and a couple of others. Tonight I think I'll get them out of the way as soon as possible and save yours till last. 8:30 pm There - that's a lot of letter writing for me, but it's done. I wrote M and F 3 pages tonight instead of the usual sketchy note. Muz's letter was rather newsy. I didn't know that Bob Johnston, my father's brother, had died last fall (Ben is his widow - Benita). He seemed like a perfect physical specimen, always exercising, and such a dimwit that I blandly supposed he’d live to a ripe old age just to plague his family. But I should have stopped to think; he was a neurotic if I ever saw one, and in complete ignorance of the fact; he probably died of nervous exhaustion and [pg 2] never knew what killed him. I feel a little sorry for Aunt Ben - mother never liked her and understandably (incompatible personalities) but I certainly preferred her to him when I had occasion to visit them out of fondness for Alice. During my college days I had something of a crush on the latter, went up there (Taneytown) several times; seeing her later I wondered why, but continued to have an uncritical liking for her, just because (I suppose) we were small children together at one time and because there was something sweet in her nature. She is of somewhat the same Westchester Republican pattern as Kay and [J?] - I hope she did better in her choice of a man - but I’d like to see her again sometime and have you meet her. I was glad to hear that she’d married (She's between Jean's and Doug's ages, I think) because I was afraid that having to stay at home helping support her petulantly demanding father would make an old maid (by disposition) out of her. Muz says Doug says Wendy is adorable. But I guess you've heard that before. She also said, “I wish Albert would hurry back (from N.Y.) as Mama is so nervous about the doors being locked at night and thinks no one can do it but Albert.” 'Scuse, honey - just got to hear the news on the radio tonight. I seldom do, but the Russian [pg 3] advance is getting too exciting to miss. Ten minutes later In various sectors, 109, 123, and 130 miles from Berlin. Yes, I would like to see the Russians get all the way there first. They will know so much better what to do with the Germans than we will. I don't mean in being merciless, but in pulling no punches, wasting no time in fumbling. None of the guilty - none of the leaders, that is, economic, political, or military - will escape. I do not trust us to administer justice there. Actually, I suppose, Great Britain and France as well as the US will probably share with Russia in the administration of conquered Germany, but Russia will doubtless bring her weight to bear in the trials of Germany's leaders, and will have more weight to bring if she get to Berlin first. I do not want to see the German people crushed, but I do want to see several thousand German leaders exterminated. I'm not so sure about the case of Japan, what I’d do but at any rate I'm not, and I'm glad I'm not, in a position to have anything to say about justice for either country. Certainly there are injustices on all sides, and what seems to me important is whether in the end the small man is given a chance to flourish both economically and culturally - you can't separate the two. I'm glad I'm here and doing what I am. These so-called brutish Okinawans, even, they are human beings. As plodding as they are, they produce, many of [pg 4] them, offspring who rival American children in their intelligence. The older they are the more blunted they seem, and with good reason. I shall never forget my parallel experience interviewing on the Lower East Side several years ago - all the children I saw up to say 15 or 16, laughing and brighteyed, showed every possibility for normal development into mature and intelligent personalities. After that age they slacked off, showed the blunting effects of their environment. It is the same with all peoples everywhere. Haven't got to your two latest letters (135-6) both of which I very much want to answer, but I need some sleep and maybe I'll have time for a line in the morning. Darling, when I think of you all malice in me melts away. Not all anger, for there are many things these days worth being angry about. But all that little, vain, superfluity of egoistic anger which is so easily aroused and so readily excused as an honest grievance. I love you, and nothing in the world means more to me than that. Tuesday 30th 7:30am ‘Morrow, Sweetie! The winds been blowing hard all night and anyone would [pg 5] think we were in for a typhoon if it weren't out of season. No one could tell by the way it is approaching, either, that February is the driest month of the year here. This morning being both damp and (relatively) chilly, I put on an undershirt and my long greens, the only pair I haven't had abbreviated. Did I tell you - lighting a cigarette reminds me - that I swapped my lighter for a smaller Ronson like the one I first had for about five years? One of the enlisted men with a new one saw mine and said he wished he’d been able to get one with a wind shield on it. I said if my initials hadn't been on mine, I’d offer to swap because I seldom used the wind thing and liked the mechanical operation of the smaller lighter better. He said he didn't care about the initials - could take them off; so we swapped and I have what I think is the best model of the best lighter made. There are better ones for places like out here as far as lighting's concerned, but they have to be filled too often and aren't made to last very long. [pg 6] Honey, you should have seen the school kids getting their inoculations yesterday - it was a circus. I'm on duty again in a couple of days and I'll write more about it then - my last typed letter was rather dull but there are a number of things to write about this time. In a few minutes I have to go help supervise the rounding up for inoculation of all the non-school children between 6 mos. and 16 years in the Korean camps. Please, Bob, don't wait for me to come home before having some X-rays taken - I'm a little concerned about those pains of yours. Just think, darling - if you’re afraid the doctor may find something, perhaps it may amount to nothing at all now, just something to be kept under occasional observation - whereas if you let it go it may become serious. It seems to me there's half a chance it may be appendicitis, which is nothing at all if you look out for it but which as you know can be quite serious if it catches you unprepared. Don't worry about it, honey, but promise me to ask the doctor about it and make arrangements to have him look at you next time there's a reoccurrence or take X-rays. Please, darling. Give me an answer on it. If you should have to have an operation such [pg 7] as for appendicitis or an ovarian cist the doctor could arrange to have Wendy taken care of for you. Perhaps the whole thing could be done under Navy auspices. It would be hard on you for a month or so, but if it's something recurrent it may catch up with you before I get home anyhow, and the older Wendy is the more it'll throw you out of stride. Don't take any chances. Your last two letters are so good. Just don't have time to answer them now but perhaps I can at noon. Give Wendy a big, warm, long hug for me - and that goes for you double. I love you darling Warren
