SHORELINES

9 a p c s hor e l i n e s.c om | 2015 Vol :2 Life in Leyte was spent trying to stay dry, eating rations left over from World War I and doing whatever limited work they could between the rains. "We were there about three months or so," Hanks says. "We left there and went to Luzon, the big island in the north. Manila was a big, modern city, even then." But it was also a damaged city, like the rest of the Philippines, that had been scarred by the battles. Hanks and the other engineers were helped clean up and rebuild the Philippines. It offered the battalion a place to stop and work instead of having to keep moving. Hanks was in Manila the day U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt died. Not long after, they were on the move again, pushing north to Lingayen Gulf to prepare to invade Japan. "We were there about a month or a month and a half when the atomic bombs went off," Hanks says. Hanks and the rest of the soldiers and Marines prepared their landing crafts as if they were still going to invade. Some estimates had the U.S. losing as many as 1 million lives with the invasion. It was only after the second atomic bomb and word that Japan was considering surrender that they knew they were no longer going to have to invade Japan. "It was a happy day on that beach," he says. Instead, Hanks and the rest made their way into Sasebo, Japan, slowly and safely. It took a whole day to maneuver into the bay because so many Japanese ships were sunk and a Japanese guide was needed to lead the Americans in. Once in Japan, Hanks and the others began destroying Japanese military equipment. The days and weeks that followed were spent traveling across Japan destroying everything from tanks and artillery to airplane factories and planes. In Okinawa, Hanks and his friends were searching a warehouse when they came upon some fine china still in crates. Hanks, a few other soldiers and Phifer, his friend from Alabama, negotiated buying all four sets, each for less than $100, and had them shipped to the U.S. Opportunity seized. That china set is in a cabinet in Hanks' Winfield home. It still gives him pleasure to look at and know something beautiful came out of those months of blood, sweat, tears, jungle rot, disease and death. "You didn't have to be shot with a bullet over there or a fragment to die. There are all kinds of disease and illness that can kill you over there," Hanks says, spoken like a man who saw his share of the latter. Above: Photo by k ariM shaMsi-Basha — Louis Hanks in his home in Winfield, recounts stories and memories from more than 60 years ago. "I SAW THIS FACE IN SHORELINES MAGAZINE. I SAID THAT'S HENRY'S SON. HE LOOKS A LOT LIKE HIM." – L O U I S H A N K S O N T H E P H O T O G R A P H T H A T L E D H I M T O R E C O N N E C T W I T H A R MY B U D D Y H E N R Y P H I F E R .

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