IN YOKOHAMA

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 31 August 1945, Page 5

IN YOKOHAMA

11TH AIRBORNE DIVISION JAPS DISPLAY LITTLE INTEREST New York, Aug. 30. While the Japanese troops guarded the highway a battalion ol the 11th Airborne Division occupied Yokohama, the sixth city of Japan this afternoon, says the correspondent of the Associated Press of America at Yokohama. The move was accomplished so unspectacularly thaV even Japanese citizens exhibited little interest as a convoy of 40 trucks containing 750 men rumbled 15 miles from Atsugi airstrip to posts along the seaside road of Yokohama’s main drive bordering the port. The Americans found the white stone United Slates Consulate building undamaged by raids. It was in charge of a Swiss caretaker who told corresI pondents that damage and casualties 'inflicted by Super-Fortresses was equal ( to the 1923 earthquake. Japanese citizens, perhaps, are still I dazed. They are inscrutable in their j leaction to the Americans. Only little children smiled. The Japanese went j about their business unconcernedly. casting no more than a casual glance at | the conquerors. The American Broadcasting Comi pany’s correspondent says the heart of j Yokohama is smashed and the desolation is beyond description. It was j burned to rubbish. A Super-Fortress I airman who participated in the raids ion Yokohama whistled in disbelief j when he saw' what he and other airS men had done. ! The correspondent adds that most of Yokohama’s business houses are closed and at*least half the city is nothing but rubble and sheet metal, which the natives are using to build crude shelters. A resident’s sole comment on the bombing was: “It is terrible. We | couldn't stand much more.” i The Japanese seemed more bewilder. led and curious than angry. All the ! women have adopted baggy trousers jin place of the kimonos. All the men | are in uniform. Many said they were sick of the war and frightened out of their wits by American airpower.