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thedrifter
12-22-08, 06:56 AM
Soldier, grandson, a mission of reconciliation
Postcards found on the bodies of Japanese soldiers provide surviving relatives with closure years later

By DENNIS YUSKO, Staff writer
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First published: Monday, December 22, 2008

TROY — Fletcher Wilson helped his grandfather settle some issues from World War II while making two Japanese families he's never met very happy.

The 17-year-old Troy High School senior shares a special relationship with his mother's father, Howard Layne, a Navy veteran who lives in southern California.

For decades, Layne refused to talk about his experiences in the 35-day battle of Iwo Jima that claimed 6,821 American lives in February and March 1945. Then he started opening up about to his grandson, who loves military history.

Two years ago, inspired by Clint Eastwood's movie "Letters from Iwo Jima," Layne and Wilson decided to return postcards that Layne had removed them from the bodies of two Japanese fighters in a cave on the rugged Pacific island.

The cards contained pictures of the Japanese men and of a religious shrine.

Wilson turned over the personal items to officials at the Hiroshima Museum. The Association of Iwo-Jima Japan recently delivered them to the surprised families of the Japanese warriors.

"Both of the families were very glad and shed tears to receive the unexpected relics," Kiyoshi Endo, president of the Iwo-Jima association, wrote Layne and Wilson on Sept. 10. "We truly hope that this opportunity will contribute to the tie of the peace and friendship between the U.S. and Japan."

The experience reconciled the World War II sailor with his past, and gave his grandson a lesson in warfare and diplomacy.

"I was kind of awed," Wilson said in a recent interview in the Troy home of his mother, Linda Layne. "It was really just fascinating. I had never really seen anything Japanese before."

Layne was a young ensign in 1945 when he shipped out to practice beach landings in flat-bottomed Higgins boats. He convoyed to Iwo Jima from Pearl Harbor.

Now 85, Layne recalled in a phone interview how he lost his roommate, a Marine officer, within 10 minutes of the first assault on Iwo Jima. The U.S. had attacked to gain a foothold for airfields in Japan's backyard. Layne's job was to provide supplies from a ship to troops on the beach.

Most Japanese fought to the death and defended tenaciously from underground tunnels, bunkers and caves. Of 22,000 Japanese fighters on the island, more than 20,000 died.

"The beach was covered with dead bodies," Layne said.

The epic battle ended with American Marines and a sailor raising the American flag atop 546-foot Mount Suribachi.

"I was right below that when they put it up," Layne said.

The photograph of that moment by Joe Rosenthal became an iconic image of the war.

Layne said he picked up the photos of the Japaense out of curiosity but he later had misgivings.

"I always felt like that was kind of an intrusion on their privacy," he said.

After the war, Layne married his wife Elizabeth. finished college and went into the construction business. He hid the postcards in his San Fernando home,

Living 3,000 miles apart didn't stop Wilson and Layne from staying in touch. Wilson's interest in military history and war movies sparked their discussions about Iwo Jima.

"It took maybe that long for my dad to feel good about it," said Linda Layne, an anthropology professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

One day several years ago, Fletcher Layne invited his grandson into his garage workshop in California to show him some old weapons, a defused grenade and the postcards.

In 2006, Wilson went to Japan as a student ambassador, and he brought the postcards with him. Historians in Japan determined the items belonged to Katsu Kato and Seiji Ueno, seaman with Japan's Navy.

Wilson said he was honored to reconnect a family with a missing piece of themselves. He also gained a new appreciation of his grandfather.

"I love him.," the teenager said. "He's done everything, grew up in the Depression, fought in World War II, raised three kids. He's an amazing man."

Dennis Yusko can be reached at 454-5353 or by e-mail at dyusko@timesunion.com.

Ellie