Biographical information

Dear Family and Friends,

I don't know if you recall that we ran into a snag when deciding what to put on Al's gravestone:  he was generally dismissive of awards but took pride in having earned the CIB with Star.  The Combat Infantry Badge signifies having fought in battle on the ground, and the Star signifies two CIB's, two wars.  Due to the fire at the Army's Record Center in St. Louis during the 70's, his complete DD 214 (summary of military record) doesn't exist, and we were unable to prove his having earned more than one CIB (the star).  Arlington won't put anything on a gravestone unless it's supported by official record.  They will, however, correct and replace gravestones.

So I wrote to the Army in September, submitting photos, affidavits, letters of rec, etc., and asking them to correct the record.

Yesterday, 6 months after my request (and a couple of months after they requested his death cert and my appointment as Administrator of his estate, I received an 8 1/2" by 11" envelope.  Nine pages of "Adjudication."  It made me cry -- it's an exquisite piece of work.  It goes through his entire career, assignment by assignment, and it identifies many instances where he was awarded honors that don't show on his record.  Including the 2nd CIB (the STAR!) and including a 2nd Bronze Star.  It ends by calling him "this American hero" and directs that his official records be corrected.

Copies will be available for those who'd like to have one!
love,
c

Wounded in Korea

Before the firestorm

The only photo in pre-holocaust Japan.

Holocaust: noun - the destruction or slaughter on a mass scale caused by fire or nuclear storm

Somewhere between Tokyo and Hiroshima; outside Kyoto. There she stands overlooking the bay -the breeze and warm air coming off the land mixing with the smells of the ocean.

What could she know of the horrors looming? What could she know of the incineration; the sins of the generation - the sins of her government?

What inflection of fate was about to turn life upside down? It was coming; it was coming and it would take over.

On a cold day in March 09 - the long run ended - at Arlington National

This was the end of the road for Alfred Wetmore; the scrappy kid from Lynn. He fought for life right to the end; his health failing; feisty and annoyed by the prognosis by prognosis. He at once submitted to his fate; "I'm ready to go" he said in Jan 09 - and he did.

It was impossible to avert an emotional moment; despite the stout who ventured through this solemn day.

Adrienne Maya

The youngest child of the Wetmore Family in New Jersey. The family couldn't hold together; the turbulent sixties and the froth that topped off the compressive fifties; the search for freedom and a world without any limitations beckoned the season Army seargant.

Off she went into the heaving empire; now resides in Boston - somehow.

Would American life yield in her direction?

Hello Japan, I found one of your lost daughters. She was whisked away by a saergant major years ago. She made her home in America.

What do you think of this lost daughter of Kyoto?

From the hospital to Bennihanna

There were no life magazine reporters - there was one local paper that knocked on the door in the early fifties but nothing came of it.

The American century and the American Dream; post war Japan. I turn the key to the engine; the engine is designed by engineers from Kyoto

It was a cover story; Truman sanctioned this - I will find the letter

I don't know why this photo isn't right up there with Edgar Steichen's kiss in Manhattan; just a sleeper of course.

The American Century

The scrappy kid from Lynn

Life Magazine would've been proud. Harry Luce would have been amazed.

Mother in law

My mother in law

Look at that photo again; that is a Life Magazine special; we should serve that up to the New Yorker - I mean really - we are on roll - I know it.

We can pull the files on Hiroshima - and get this narrative down.  I mean that's a real story - a story waiting to break.  

Start with the drafts my friend; start with laying out the story.

Here's you lead:

The phone rings on Sunday nights - very regularly - at 9 pm.  I know who it is - and many times I pick it up - partially as duty of a mature son in law - and the other by curiosity.  I can get her to laugh; she is quick to respond to some teasing.  

That teasing; as brief as it is; speaks across an ocean of unfathomable solicitude.  From John Hersey to Oppenheimer - the rise of a thousand horrific images - the incomprehensible; the Sunday night - the day of atonement - and then the giggle coming off an 82 year old Japanese woman still pushing through her native accents and linguistic inflections.  

Not your typical mother in law salutations I guess; and we move on.  

Yuriko - Maya - etc.  Born in the old city of _____ Japan.  Born into peasantry - born into chance and hardships in a feudal politicsphere - embarking on empire expansion.  Fate, destiny, pre destination, risk, and mind boggling karma.  

The Hersey book is on the shelf; I read it once and cannot bring myself in my older years to go back to it.  It would set me off.  Iris Chang, RIP - she went off.  

Looking into that chapter of history with the voice of my mother in law 11 digits away - I would be hard pressed to focus on the task at hand.  

In 1948 - the scene around - 

I remember reading that had forsaken bombing Kyoto; one of the Harvard educated military brass - steered the uneducated away from that; even though the passions were there - the will and the US having suffered so many casualties wanted to put an end to these foreign wars.  

It as spared; and so was she.  It was fate that a soldier about to become a sargeant major - wounded in battle - and flung into the theater as a young kid from Lynn was about to deal with this.