NorwichDad
10-Year Member
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2010
- Messages
- 1,351
I recently bumped into the daughter of our neighbor Rudy Pinto who passed away a couple of years ago. I used to speak of him on this forum often. Rudy had served in the Marines in World War Two. When my son started to talk of wanting to serve our country I had him speak with Rudy. Rudy had always tried to give him advice and talked to him about doing the right things. As my son went to various Army schools he always would send Rudy postcards. Rudy would walk around the neighborhood proudly showing them to everyone.
At Okinawa in June 1945 a mortar put him in the hospital. When he returned to his group he found that his closest buddies did not survive the battle. He was sent with his group to Nagasaki in September 1945 after the Japanese surrender. It was a horrible desolate place he said. The atomic bomb had completely destroyed part of the city. All of Japan was facing starvation then. Rudy saw two Marines teasing a young Japanese teenager, Yoshio Yoshitomi. He went over and helped the boy. Rudy then shared his own food with the boy for the remainder of his time in Nagasaki. When Rudy left to go home, he gave Yoshitomi his home address. They wrote each other often. Rudy said his wife in the 1940s would put a 10 or 20 dollar bill in the letters. A pretty good sum in those days he said. The letters between them were of two old friends catching up on family and life events. The never saw each other again face to face. Rudy always talked about his Japanese friend.
Rudy's daughter just told me that after his death they got a translater and wrote a letter to Yoshio Yoshitomi explaining that Rudy had died. They got back a letter from his family saying that Yoshitomi had also died around the same time. His family told her that Yoshitomi had also always talked to everyone about Rudy and their friendship. It was decided Rudy's and Yoshitomi's grandson's will now write to each other as their grandfathers had for over 65 years.
At Okinawa in June 1945 a mortar put him in the hospital. When he returned to his group he found that his closest buddies did not survive the battle. He was sent with his group to Nagasaki in September 1945 after the Japanese surrender. It was a horrible desolate place he said. The atomic bomb had completely destroyed part of the city. All of Japan was facing starvation then. Rudy saw two Marines teasing a young Japanese teenager, Yoshio Yoshitomi. He went over and helped the boy. Rudy then shared his own food with the boy for the remainder of his time in Nagasaki. When Rudy left to go home, he gave Yoshitomi his home address. They wrote each other often. Rudy said his wife in the 1940s would put a 10 or 20 dollar bill in the letters. A pretty good sum in those days he said. The letters between them were of two old friends catching up on family and life events. The never saw each other again face to face. Rudy always talked about his Japanese friend.
Rudy's daughter just told me that after his death they got a translater and wrote a letter to Yoshio Yoshitomi explaining that Rudy had died. They got back a letter from his family saying that Yoshitomi had also died around the same time. His family told her that Yoshitomi had also always talked to everyone about Rudy and their friendship. It was decided Rudy's and Yoshitomi's grandson's will now write to each other as their grandfathers had for over 65 years.
