Page 56 - WashingtonSyCip_Bio_Excerpt_2nd_Edition

Part One

“A Japanese general was shot down in New Guinea, and Imperial Headquarters in
Tokyo was worried whether the captain in charge of the codebook had destroyed it.
The codebook was supposed to be in the hands of at least a captain, and first thing
this officer was expected to do when in danger of being captured was to destroy the
codebook. He swore he did, but he did not, so this codebook was captured, and it
helped a lot. That’s why our security was so tight.”

And then, on August 15, 1945—what would be known as “V-J Day”—the war in the
Pacific was over. The tens of thousands of Allied men and women who had fought in
the China-Burma-India theater could now expect to go home—but not just yet. Wash
and his unit remained in Calcutta, awaiting transport. They had no more work to
do; they were debriefed, then told to forget everything they had learned. A week after
those instructions were given, an article came out in the local newspaper breaking the
story of the codebreaking operation, and the secret was out. Now the only thing left
to do was to take a ship home.

The long way home

Wash asked if he could be taken from India to Manila, the obvious and shorter
route. But when his ship came, it took him back to New York—the long way, passing
through the Red Sea, the Suez Canal, the Mediterranean, and the Atlantic. “Because
the war had ended, the transport was fully loaded. Everyone was anxious to get home.
And it was a small ship. Even chow time was by shift. But by the time we were on the
Atlantic Ocean everyone was sick in bed, and so many people were vomiting. I was all
right. I wasn’t seasick, so I didn’t have to wait in line for my chow. Spam. Powdered
eggs. Horrible.”

Back in the States, and impressed by his wartime work, the military asked Wash to
stay on for officer school. But that meant signing up for a fresh tour of duty, and
Wash had had enough of the military life, and was eager to rejoin his family in
Manila. Wash took his discharge. In New York, he went shopping for gifts, having
saved some money from his soldier’s pay. At the Abercrombie and Fitch store, he
bought his father some golf balls, and here he had an interesting experience.

“The sales clerk was trying to cheat the store,” he says. After Wash gave him the
money, the sales clerk wrote out an invoice, and together with Wash’s money sent it
through the pneumatic tubes to the cashier. When the change and the invoice came

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