Bernard's Souvenirs
About the 23rd day on Saipan, I captured a Jap nurse that had been wounded... I took her battle flag.
A Young Marine's Collection
Bernard Carol Elissagaray, a teenager from Tracy, California, joined the Marine Corps on 29 September 1943 – a day after his seventeenth birthday. He was assigned to Company A, First Battalion, 24th Marines in April of 1944, and fought as a rifleman in the battle of Saipan.
Like many Marines, PFC Elissagaray had a keen eye for souvenirs. A consummate collector of documents, he stuffed anything of interest into his pack. Once he hit the shore of Saipan, Bernard added to his collection by picking up reams of Japanese paperwork. Everything from currency and war bonds to letters and seemingly random scraps wound up in his pockets.
Whatever personal importance Bernard once ascribed to most of these documents has long since been lost. He likely never knew the contents of any of the letters or documents he collected. Thanks to a pair of translators (Hisashi at Axis History Forums, and Thomas Prall) the identities of some documents – and the existence of the civilian Kadekaru family and a young sailor named Wada Shozo – are now known.
Some of the items had a deeper meaning to Bernard – they were not just interesting papers but trophies. He had a battle flag taken from a wounded Japanese nurse. He cut patches from Japanese uniforms. And he brought home a handful of pictures. One depicts a young man in a Japanese uniform, surrounded by family. He and Bernard may have met, briefly and violently, in combat on Saipan.
Bernard was grievously wounded on 24 July 1944. A bullet hit his right leg at groin level, ending his combat career. He was honorably discharged in November 1945 and went on to a fascinating career traveling the globe as a merchant sailor. He continued collecting papers and maps, creating an impressive series of scrapbooks detailing his adventures.
Bernard died on 30 July 1992. His scrapbooks were acquired from a dealer in 2007 and are currently in the author’s collection.
Currency, Bonds, And Printed Documents
Front line troops were under orders to hand over any captured material, especially printed documents, to intelligence personnel for evaluation. Items of no military value were to be returned to the new owners. Naturally, when souvenirs started disappearing – the fault of light-fingered rear-echelon troops – the combat Marines stopped turning over their prizes. This in turn hindered intelligence operations, and officers cracked down on the thieves in an effort to regain the trust of the souvenir hunters.
If Bernard bothered to show this paperwork to his Bn-2, it was quickly returned. Many of the documents here are civilian financial records, money, and war bonds. A number of them can be traced to a post office that doubled as a bank, while others bear family names. It’s likely that Bernard found many of these documents together – perhaps in a house or in the post office itself. He also picked up an American-produced Japanese-language surrender leaflet and, interestingly enough, a map of the Solomon Islands.
嘉手苅蒲真
The Kadekaru Family
Hisashi noticed a unique family name that appears on many of Bernard’s captured papers. “嘉手苅蒲真 – Kadekaru – is a very rare family name, almost exclusively in Okinawa,” he said. From the paperwork, we can get a glimpse of a civilian family living on Saipan. Mr. Kadekaru and his wife, Kaya, headed a family of four; a rice ration book lists dependents between the ages of eight and twenty-three. They were long-time residents of the Mariana Islands; in 1928, Mr. Kadekaru obtained a license to operate a barber shop from the Saipan branch of the South Pacific Mandate. And they did their banking, including loans and savings accounts, at the post office.
Unfortunately, the fate of the Kadekaru family is not known. Their house and shop must have been along the line of Able Company’s advance – perhaps in Charan Kanoa or the little village of Chacha – and Bernard may have snatched the family’s financial records from the abandoned residence.
嘉手苅蒲真
Wada Shozo
Bernard also appropriated a large number of letters and postcards. Again, one particular name stands out: 和田勝三 – Wada Shozo. The collection includes letters to Wada from friends and family, and others written by Wada but not mailed.
Wada, according to Hisashi, belonged to the Imperial Navy and was a novice communications man, possibly a telegraph operator. He was trained at one of the Yokosuka naval schools in Kanagawa Prefecture; several of the letters written by friends and family mention plans to visit him there. Several of Wada’s unsent replies mention being too busy for visits. “I guess he was hastily sent from Yokosuka to Japan,” opined Hisashi, “and was told to deceive where he really was.” Some of the postcards also depict locations in the Osagawara (Bonin) Islands, rather than Saipan.
Many of the letters are “censor-safe” with messages like “Thank you for your letter. We are proud of you serving for the nation. All us fine at home.”
Thomas Prall notes that Wada was most likely stationed with the 55th Naval Guard Force (第五十五警備隊) on “Radio Mountain” (無線電信山). This might have been part of a communications complex the Americans dubbed “Radar Hill.” Bernard and A/1/24 overran this area in early July, 1944.
This was fascinating thank you. Bernard was my uncle (by marriage, he was married to my Aunt Arlene) and he and my father spoke of their wartime experiences often.
Thank you,
Holly Johnson Fox