PDA

View Full Version : WWII Vet Seeks to Translate, Return Wartime Letters He Found in Japan



thedrifter
02-06-07, 01:07 PM
Posted: Tuesday, 06 February 2007 11:21AM

WWII Vet Seeks to Translate, Return Wartime Letters He Found in Japan
1010 WINS New York

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- More than 60 years after finding them in the black sand of Iwo Jima, a World War Two veteran from the Hudson Valley is seeking to have some Japanese letters translated and returned to Japan.

Vic Voegelin was an 18-year-old sailor aboard a Navy transport ship when he found a satchel that had survived the bombing and fighting after U.S. marines stormed the Pacific island in February 1945.

The satchel contained scores of letters written in Japanese. Voegelin kept them packed away in a suitcase until late last year, when he heard about the Clinton Eastwood-directed film "Letters From Iwo Jima.''

The 80-year-old veteran decided it was time to try and have the old letters translated and, if possible, returned to the person who wrote them or the people they were intended for.

Voegelin says he contacted Eastwood's film company in California and the Japanese embassy in New York City, but has gotten no response. He tells the Middletown Times Herald-Record that he hopes word will spread about his letters and someone will step forward to help out.

Ellie