Q: Hello, I am Cody Gantz and I am working with Stephanie Wohler. Alright, please state your name.

Mr. Seely: Alright, my name is Chesley Kent Seely.


Q: How old were you when the war started in 1941?

Mr. Seely: Well, let me get out my little time line. I need my time line and I will tell you. At the time that the war started, and I will assume that you meant December of 1941, I was 16 years old.


Q: At what time did you enter the war?

Mr. Seely: Well, I went into the Marine Corps in July of 1943. In between that my father had entered the service and they called him back into the service. He had been in WWI and he was again in WWII. He had been called back, and I lived a year on a military camp up in Washington state, which was a seacoast artillery post. And he served up there for a period of time before he was sent over seas. And I was with him for one year after the war had started.


Q: Were you drafted into the war?

Mr. Seely: No, no because I enlisted one day before I was drafted.


Q: Where did you enlist?

Mr. Seely: I enlisted in the Marine Corps because for some reason I didnt want to be in the army. And of course I was always kidded about getting in the Marine Corps because the typical phrase is well, the Army has mules, and the Navy has the Marine Corps.


Q: Where were you trained?

Mr. Seely: At the San Diego Marine Corps Base in California.


Q: Was it a boot camp?

Mr. Seely: It was a boot camp for the Marine Corps.


Q: So what did you do at the boot camp?

Mr. Seely: Oh, everything thats bad. How can I explain this? Basically we learned how to stand tall, take orders, and run (and run and run). We did a lot of that [running]. Of course we learned a lot about a variety of weapons. The primary weapon was the M1- rifle that we used at that time. In the Marine Corps that [the rifle] is something that is very dear to you. They give it to you the first day that you are there, and you get it before you get your clothing. You have to sleep with it [the rifle], eat with it, and everything else.


Q: How long did you train for?

Mr. Seely: Boot camp at that time, as I recall, was three months long.


Q: Where you excited or nervous to go?

Mr. Seely: No, from December the seventh when we heard the war was on, or when Pearl Harbor was attacked, we knew we were going to have to go. It didnt bother us really except at that time I didnt even know what Pearl Harbor was. I said, well, whats that? I just kind of shrugged it off as though it was nothing worth keeping. Some island out in the Pacific didnt affect me. That was about it. But I was never afraid of anything, my attitude I guess, was one of its just a job to do and primarily I wanted to get in there, get it over with, and get back. On the other hand there was a lot of anticipation being a young person not much older that you are. I just wondered what am I going to do, what am I going to see? There was a little excitement to it. But I never had any idea in my head that we would ever be defeated or anything. We had to do it, and there were risks involved.


Q: Were you able to finish you education?

Mr. Seely: No, I was 16 years old when December seventh came around. I wouldnt have been drafted until I was 18 years old. In the mean time, I entered college, and I had a half a year of college before I became 18 years old. It turned out that at the time they allowed us to finish a school year, so I was able to complete my freshman year of college before I went into the Marine Corp.


Q: When Pearl Harbor was attacked did you notice a change in Americas nationalism?

Mr. Seely: Well, as an after thought yes. And I have learned many times since that every time the US is attacked by a another country for whatever reason, that it never defeats them [the people the US] its always one of spirit. It really brings the country together. Its just like 9-11, that situation down there brought the country together in a way where we were unified and determined.


Q: Do you remember how people felt before America entered the war? Was it controversial to enter the war?

Mr. Seely: As far as I was personally concerned, at that time I knew there was a conflict over in Europe. But there was little more to it than that. I dont know if we had really any knowledge of what the Japanese were doing, or at least I didnt. It was of no consequence to me and thats their problem and not mine. Thats kind of a bad answer, but thats the way it was.

Q: Once you entered the war, where were you stationed?

Mr. Seely: Well, when I got into the Marine CorpsÖ I went through boot camp and sea school, and at the completion it left me about March of 1944. At that time I was then transferred from San Diego to the Marine Barracks of Pearl Harbor. We were left there with the idea that we were just replacements for the people that had been killed aboard ships.


Q: In the attack of Pearl Harbor?

Mr. Seely: Yes, in Pearl Harbor. So if a ship came into Pearl Harbor and needed replacements in their Marine detachment, then we could be assigned to that particular ship. Which brings up kind of a lengthy story, and I dont know whether I should dwell on it or not. As an afterthought (after the war) it has kind of bothered me some because one thing that we did while we were there was guard duty around the dry docks while we were waiting assignment. We had this duty of guarding the docks and that was a very fascinating thing to me. I liked to watch what they were doing, it was interestingÖ to see a ship without a bow, a whole bow missing, and the ship was still afloat. And by the time that ship got there they would have a new bow built for it. And they would run it into a dry dock and cut off the ragged edges and put this knew bow on. I watched a lot of that. It was a fascinating thing. Often times I saw that while on duty around the dry docks, and after when I was off duty, not having a lot to do, I would go back there just to watch it again. It was particularly fun. They would pump the water out of the dry docks because there were always a lot of fish in there, and about the time where the water level got down to three feet or so, the guys would guys would get in there and they would start going around with their spears and try to spear the fish.


Q: To eat?

Mr. Seely: Oh yeah, they would take them home. They were all civilian residents of Hawaii there. Every now and then you would see a shark. There were a lot of hammerhead sharks around there. When someone saw a shark, boy, they would yell out shark and they would all gang up on the shark. They would go in with their spears and eventually they would get the shark. Most of these sharks that got in there were like 4 or 5 feet long. But they were dangerous, as sharks can be at about any size. The point that I am getting at is that I was out in the dry docks one day and when I returned from the dry docks, I saw most of the men that were in my sea school platoon loaded up on a bus and just right then pulling away from the barracks. And my reaction was one of disappointment because I wanted to be assigned with them. But they were gone, about 30 out of the 40 from the platoon left at that time. To make a long story short, which transpired over several months after that, the USS Indianapolis, which was a cruiser went to the states and picked up the atom bomb. They came back from the states around San Francisco and brought the bomb out to Tinian where it was loaded aboard the B-24, the Enola Gay, and dropped over Hiroshima. Well after that had been done, the Indianapolis sailed from Tinian down to Guam. By this time I had been transferred, and on that assignment I went from Pearl Harbor down to Guam because I had become a bodyguard for Admiral Nimitz. When he moved his head quarters there [to Guam] we went with him. At any rate, when the Indianapolis got down to Guam, I was able to see some of those guys and talk to them, and find out what they had done. But then near the end of the war, the Indianapolis that was to sail down from Guam to the Philippines About 500 miles out of Guam they took 2 torpedoes in the bow and that cruise ship went down in about 15 minutes. And all of my old friends were killed except for one, and that was a guy by the name of Max Hughes from Oregon. He was a little older that the rest of us, but he was a tough guy and he survived on the water, without food or water for 5 days before they picked him up. I was able to see him in the hospital when they pulled him in off the water. The only reason I tell this story is because I was just within minutes of being apart of that crew. Had I been back from the dry docks maybe five minutes earlier I would have been one of those guys on that bus and I would have been out there, I could have been in the bottom of the drink. So I have told myself all my life either Somebodys taking care of me, or its real dumb luck that I survived. But there were a few of us out of that crew that remained back or were not assigned for various reasons, and we were all assigned to a Marine Detachment (the Marine detachment for Admiral Nimitzs staff). Fifteen of us had the personal responsibility of taking care of Admiral Nimitz who at the time was the commander in chief of the Navy in the Pacific Theater. Anyhow, thats what I did. It was a spit and polish job.


Q: What did you call yourself?

Mr. Seely: At that time I was a private first class and thats all it was. In fact, that whole group had a similar background as mine. We were all freshmen in college; we had all finished our freshman year in college when we were called in.


Q: So you were living on Guam?

Mr. Seely: We were living of Guam.


Q: What was your daily life on Guam?

Mr. Seely: We had a detachment, 60 men that took care of the flag officers, took care of in terms of protection and guard duty. Fifteen out of the 60 that had the personal responsibility for Admiral Nimitz, and I was one of those fifteen. So we would have duty with him 24 hours a day: in his office, in his home, while he was walking, while riding in a car, or wherever. At least one of these people would be with him all the time. Thats what we did. I had a Thomson sub-machine gun and a 45-pistol on me all the time, and a M1-rifle. That was the armament that we had, and thats what we did. Like I say it was a spit and polish job even for down in a wartime area. We would press our own clothing and all of that and it had to be knife-edge sharp. Just a little sidelight on that, when we went to our guard post either the Admirals home, of his office, or wherever. We would walk stiff legged to get out there. We would waddle up a stairway to get on the truck, and when we got off the truck in order so that we didnt bend the trousers at the knee, we would just flip our legs and just flip off the truck to the ground and land flatfooted. Whatever, thats the kind of duty it was.


Q: Did you ever have any conversations with Admiral Nimitz?

Mr. Seely: Very little, but he was very good to us. One thing that he did everyday was he swam quite often and we would go down to the beach with him. He would always wave for us to come in with him swimming, but of course we couldnt do that. If there were two of us with him, then one of us would stand guard and the other might go in, but that was not often. He loved to swim. He exercised all the time. He got up in the morning and he walked, and we had to be with him every inch of the way walking, 10 to the rear and two to the left kind of thing. At noon, after lunch he would walk. In the evenings before he went to bed he would walk, and we would have to be with him. To give an example, one night he was out walking around a banana tree in front of his home, and his house was build up on a cliff, which was 20 miles from the harbor of Guam, but you could seeÖ they had a big set of pedestal-mounted binoculars and the admiral or anyone could view the harbor with those binoculars. And they were huge, and you could recognize people 20 miles away. They were binoculars that had been taken off a Japanese ship and they were mounted. But at any rate, this one night the Admiral was walking around his circular driveway, around this banana tree, with Commodore Carter, who was his fleets operations officer, was talking with the admiral. This was at a time when the fleet was steaming up and down 50 miles of the coast of Japan. The fleet was under the command of Admiral Bulhulzee, and Nimitz really liked him and had a lot of confidence in what he was doing. Commodore Carter was questioning the advisability of taking his whole fleet that close to Japans main land. They were just sort of a sitting duck for kamikaze attacks and this sort of thing. Commodore Carter made the comment, Dont you think that Admiral Bulhulzee is a little bit bold off the coast of Japan? God damnit, hes a Naval Sea Man he knows what he is doing, that was his [Nimitzs] comment. And it was the only time that I ever saw him really raise his voice, but he seemed to take exception to Commodore Carter was doing at that time. He was just as nice as could be to the peons. But apparently he was pretty tough on the staff; however, the results of his leadership paid off.


Q: Getting back to your friends in Guam. Do you remember whether they agreed with the decision to drop the Atomic Bomb?

Mr. Seely: I dont know if the subject really came up that much. At that time it wasnt a moral issue, it was just the way you win the war. I think that are attitude was one of me or them. There had actually been talk about going onto Japanese mainland and trying to take over that country, which would have been a tough (tough, tough) job. After the fact, we all felt it well. Fifty thousand people or so were killed in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it may be more than that, I dont know what the total number was. It might have been 40,000-50,000 people in each location. But I think the feeling generally was that we would have at least had to kill that many if we had gone in and killed them with guns. We didnt ever look at it as a moral decision. Its just part of the job, and fortunately we had the tools to do the job.


Q: Did you go to Japan after the war was over?

Mr. Seely: Well, after the war was over, I went back to school and got a commission in the Army. I went into the Army, and that is a whole different chapter. But yes, I did go through Japan on the way to Korea. In that process we went to a chemical-biological-radiological school in I think Iwo Jima is what they called it, which was the site of the Japanese naval academy. We took this training there before we went over to Korea. So I saw them and saw the people then. I didnt notice anyÖ the Japanese were defeated and they were just nose to the grindstone, hard working, industrious people. As a matter of fact when you meet them face to face they are delightful people to know. You know that there was no animosity between us at that time.


Q: Did you feel any tension between the Japanese and Americans?

Mr. Seely: No, there was no tension at all. Where we had been somewhat led to believe how vicious they are, no thats not the right word for it. Anyhow, we were afraid of the Japanese for many reasons, and one thing that they stressed to us in our training I guess was that they had certain limitations. And one of those limitations was their eyesight and so all of them had glasses kind of thing, and I dont know why they stressed that in our training but they did. But the one thing that you learned about them is that they were very tenacious people. They are very strong willed. When we got down to Guam for instance, the little island of Rota nearby, the people that survived the attacks on Guam when we went in there evacuated to Rota, this small island. For years after the war, these Japanese people were coming off of Rota and really knew very little about what was going on in the world. I think that the last man to come out of hiding from WWII was just like, I dont know, I want to say 10 or 12 years ago. So here they have been living all that time, thats he kind of people that they were. But we would see them in Guam when we were there and they would be out running around the jungle. Youd see this little flashlights going around the jungle. We knew that was them because they had these squeegee flashlights that didnt need batteries. You would just squeeze the lever and it would trigger a little generator that would light the thing. So we could see them going through the jungle at night. They were no problem to us, every now and again they would raid our commissary stores to get food or something of this kind and clothing, but that was just a little irritation that really didnt amount to anything. It was no threat. There was one occasion in which I remember where one actually got into our mess line and tried to go through the mess line. But they caught him; he had a language problem. So they caught him as a result of that. But you cant help but admire the Japanese for their tenacious [ness], I dont know how to describe it other than that, because they are very strong willed people and they had been given orders and thats what they were going to do. They would easily commit suicide to bring honor to their country, if that was necessary. The kamikaze attacks and this sort of thing, and they had similar submarines that made sacrifices.


Q: Do you remember how you felt about the relocation camps for Japanese Americans in California?

Mr. Seely: You know that hardly even entered our mind, well it didnt during that time. I guess my own feeling is that we probably did the right thing. Because we didnt know anything about them, we didnt know if they were going to be loyal to their country. As it turns out there has been some reparations, whether its enoughÖ They were compensated in some way for that imprisonment during the war. But on the other hand there were many of them that fought in the European Theater and fought bravely and made a good reputation.


Q: Were you aware of the events in the European Theater?

Mr. Seely: Well, we would have a little rag, The Stars and Stripes, which was produced by the military. In each location youd get the news and they would print it up and circulate it just as they do on a ship. You know, get the news and circulate it so everyone knows whats happening. We had some pretty good ideas of what was going on over there. We certainly knew when VE day was and VJ day. If the Japanese gave up we would have one free beer. So on this one day when they finally announced it we were out on the close order drill and the drill instructor, detail halt! Then he announced very simply, Well, the wars over. Well, I though everyone was going to break loose and head for the slop shoot is what we called it. And he just said forward march and we continued what we were doing. But we did get a free beer out of it. It was on Guam when I had my first fresh vegetables after the war. One of which had been cucumbers and that had been my long time favorite as a child.


Q: Were you aware of the execution camps in the Europe?

Mr. Seely: No, no we didnt have the vaguest notion about that. We knew a little bit about the Bataan Death March and that sort of thing, that was happening in our theater. But even then very little was known at that time, we didnt learn a lot about the Holocaust until after the war. But since then I have known several people that were on the Bataan Death March and that was a rough, cruel kind of a thing. I dont believe that our country ever got involved in anything like that. I knew one engineer. If a person had a particular talent sometimes they would use them for things, and this one person that I knew Major Geiss was his name was an engineer. He had been on the Bataan Death March and at the end of that the guy who was in charge of the camp there wanted an electric light in his tent. So they took him out [Major Geiss] because he was an electrical engineer, and he had to get a light going in the tent. I dont believe that he was ever successful. He tried to use a transformer that he knew nothing about and he never got it to work. At any rate, it kept him doing other things.


Q: Did you ever experience any combat situations?

Mr. Seely: In my case, I did not. I just counted my blessings because I survived that assignment for the Indianapolis. There was a situation that you may well know, where eight hundred and some died there. I want to say eight hundred and twenty two, but I dont recall the exact number. I did a lot of dumb things during my time on Guam. We had very little to do with our off duty time. There were a lot of remnants of the battle around our area. There was a clearing in the jungle, and there were a lot of unexploded hand grenades, mortar shells, projectiles and this sort of thing. I thought, boy Id like to have some of those as a war trophy. But I said, how could I do this with out getting blown up? Anyhow, I got the manuals on those particular things so that I knew what they were. After I learned how they were assembled and what they did, I went out with a bucket of water and some tools. There was a big rock out in the middle of this clearing. Id pick these things up and handle them gently and then I would throw them over this big rock. I hid behind it [the rock]. If it didnt explode then I would proceed to disassemble it under this bucket of water. I ended up with, oh, a half a dozen of them all different types. They were eventually confiscated from me because the Sergeant liked them better then I did. It was kind of interesting too, in that sea school platoon that we were in about three-fourths of them were all college students.


Q: Have your views on Japanese internment shifted from what they used to be? Now that you look back on it do you think it was the right or wrong thing to do?

Mr. Seely: No I think we did the right thing. Its dreadful to think that way but I think that was the only alternative. The cost, in terms of lives, money, and everything else, to go in and take that nation would have been, in my mind, Im sure it would have been a lot worse. Because we had seen the Japanese people, how tenacious they were in the islands of the Pacific, they just hang on and hang on; they simply would not give up. They were exceedingly loyal to the cause. So the only way you could handle them was basically to kill them. And thats what we did.


Q: Before America set off the Atomic bomb in Hiroshima, did you, being in the military, understand how destructive it was?

Mr. Seely: Well we knew how destructive. In my own case, the thing that came to my mindÖ we knew very little about the development of the bomb. But I remember reading a newspaper article before I got in the military. In which it was talking about a new weapon that was being developed, and they were saying a shell the size of a rifle bullet could destroy a whole company. That was a little bit of an exaggeration at the time, but basically if you were able to make this uranium, and if you were able to get it to the point where it would blow, that would be enough. And of course I learned later on when we really had nuclear weapons all over the military, that it takes a little more than that to make it work. But nevertheless, thats the thing that came to mind when I heard of this big bomb. We really didnt know anything else.


Q: What were your feelings on kamikaze attacks? Did you think it was disgraceful? Honorable? Did they become more resistant as American forces pushed up towards the coast of Japan?

Mr. Seely: I dont know that we really thought about it much. It always amazed me, someone that would take his own life in that way. I guess maybe any of us could be driven to the point, psychologically, to do something like that. If you were supporting a cause in which that was considered necessary. But by the time all of this stuff was happening, the Japanese were in a corner. That was kind of a last-ditch effort on their part. If they could have one airplane sink a ship, boy that was a big plus. So the ratio there of course gave theses guys, just like those that rode these submarinesÖI cant even recall what they called thoseÖ but it was just a little bigger than a torpedo, and theyd guide the torpedo to the ship. And they would do it, but theyd give them some training and give them all kinds of celebrations before they went out. I dont have any feeling that this is just like nowadays, some of the stuff they are doing over in Israel and the 9-11 attack. Now theres some people that, well, I guess they believe strongly in what they are doing. Thats all you can say.


Q: In class, Cody and I were taught that part of the reason why the Americans dropped the A-bomb is that they didnt want Russia to enter the war in the Pacific Theatre. Did you know anything about that?

Mr. Seely: No. [Laughing] That would have been pretty heavy strategy for people at our level. I dont know that we even thought of Russia as a threat in the Pacific at that time.


Q: Did you say that you went to Korea after you went to Japan? What did you find there?

Mr. Seely: Well, I was lucky there also because I got there one month after they ended the Korean War. So I was there basically while they were still active on the line, moving around, and watching the enemy, and prepared to fight, but there was nothing happening. Theyre another group of people I came to really admire because of their intellect and their tenacity and stable ability to survive. Its just amazing. And theyre the best thieves in the world. I could tell you a bunch of stories about that.


Q: Can you describe the time that you first heard about Pearl Harbor? Do you remember?

Mr. Seely: I really dont remember much about it except that I was standing out in front of my home when they said Pearl Harbor had been attacked and there was some announcements on the radio about it. It was very serious announcements. But to me, I had never heard the word Pearl Harbor until that time.


Q: Did people cry?

Mr. Seely: No. No.


Q: Was it more just shock?

Mr. Seely: Yeah, mostly that. I didnt even [know]. In my own heart, I didnt even know it was a threat to the country.


Q: What did you think of FDR? What were your thoughts of the president of the United States?

Mr. Seely: I guess we all kind of admired him. He pulled us out of the Depression. He was able to make the transition from a peacetime survival kind of thing to get out of the Depression. The whole combination worked out. I think I really admired him. I dont remember ever thinking something negative about FDR.


Q: When Truman took over, was that a disappointment?

Mr. Seely: Oh gosh. Truman. We thought Truman was some guy from the sticks out here. As it proved out, he was a pretty strong leader.


Q: Did you approve of his leadership?

Mr. Seely: Well I was a little bit shocked when he dumped General MacArthur. But, after I began to understand what had happened, he did the right thing. MacArthur might have had us in a very deep, other war. But MacArthur, you cant degrade him. He was a brilliant person. It isnt many people that can go from the US military and rule two nations like the Philippines and Japan. He was an outstanding individual. But thats the thing that I think made it so difficult, probably, for Truman. Here was a man that was really kind of idolized in the eyes of people. But it later became evident that MacArthur came back and gracefully accepted the, I wont say demotion, but the decision. He had lost his command and old soldiers fade away.


Q: At the end of the War, did you come home?

Mr. Seely: After the war I came home.


Q: Where did you come home to?

Mr. Seely: I was living in Salt Lake City at the time and thats where my home was. I had lived there for, what, three years there before the war.


Q: With your parents?

Mr. Seely: With my parents. I went back to school. And that brings another phase of my life, in my own child-parent relationship. Here I had been to the war and came back, and my father was these guys that always, always had jobs to do. I actually raised my dukes against my father. He just picked me up and threw me out the back door. That may sound strange but basically thats what I am. I saluted, and thats the last time I lived with my family. I dont say that with pride or anything, I just said it happenedÖ Over a very trivial sort of thing, I was trying to go someplace at the timeÖ I dont even know what I was trying to do at the time [laughing]. And at any rate, my father was big enough to where he could do that. He was a mans man, and Im glad he did [throw me out]. But there was never a moment of animosity between us. It was just my time to go. Thats the way Ive looked at it since. We still corresponded and did things together. He was helpful to me and I to him, but we separated. After that I got me teamed up with two other guys. Went to this apartment house and got an apartment. We were all students at the university there. And thats where I met Lucille [my wife].


Q: Did you feel that you or the country was altered after the war? Would you describe it as a time of happiness or more of a rebuilding?

Mr. Seely: Well for moments after the war, the fact that we had won the warÖ There were celebrations all over the country that were just wild, as youd expect. It was over. I dont know that I thought a lot about it myself except that I knew I had to get my life in order to get a job and do whatever.


Q: Did you notice a big change in America in general?

Mr. Seely: Well, financially there had been a big change because theyd gone from a depression stage, in which jobs were not available, to suddenly in the war there were more jobs than we had people to handle. Then of course, came the process of taper down after the war and reorient yourself. That took a little doing.


Q: Were you treated differently having fought and been in the war?

Mr. Seely: Yeah, in some places. Let me describe it to you this way. When I was in the Marine Corps and came back, everybody was just, oh my. Where have you been? What have you been doing? Are you excited about the whole thing? Just kind of glad to see you and interested in what you quote re doing. In contrast, when I went to Korea for eighteen months and left my wife at home. My wife, Lou, lived in Donners Grove, Illinois, where her parents were. When I came back with my commie uniform on, they looked at me and thought I was a bus driver. They didnt even know that conflict was on. Heres two different situations. They didnt seem to care a lot. Theyd never seen a uniform like that before. You were just kind of and oddity on the street.


Q: Do you have any closing thoughts on World War II?

Mr. Seely: Closing thoughtsÖ


Q: What youve learned? How you felt youve grown up?

Mr. Seely: Well, it changed me a lot in many ways. Id have to ponder that. I wouldnt even know how to describe it. I guess basically, I was just intent on trying to make a livelihood from there on out. We really didnt dwell on it much.


Q: Were you proud to serve your country?

Mr. Seely: Oh sure. There wasnt a moment in which I thought we were going to lose or anything like that. This country is an amazing country when comes to manufacturing. We went from zip to full-blown war in record time. I was trying to think just the other day. They had this report on the Pentagon. That huge structure was built in three to four months. Thats bigger than almost any building in the world. They really put that together in record time. I just say because it demonstrates what we can do as a nation if we will. If we dont get tied down with intellectual barriers someplace. There was no question in our mind that this was the right thing to do, and we did whatever we were supposed to do. I worked for a little while in a warehouse before I went in the military. That was another one of those things that had sprung up overnight, warehousing a bunch of chemical, biological, and radiological warfare equipment for the country. Wed just dish out units as they requested. All Im saying is, heres a thing that one day this building is nothing and the next day its just humming with people trying to get the work done. And we did it. A twelve million man army, or something like that?