Some Central Texans recalling V-J Day 65 years later have no memories of jubilation at the war’s end in the streets of Waco or even on ships in the Pacific. More stunning for some had been the news of the atomic bomb dropped on two Japanese cities days earlier, sealing victory and hastening Japan’s surrender.

On Aug. 15, 1945, thousands gathered in New York City’s Times Square to celebrate V-J Day.
US Army photo

The largest armed conflict in history was over, promising a beloved brother would return safely to his Waco home and a young attorney would continue his trip to Okinawa to help in postwar governance there.

The United States celebrates V-J Day as Aug. 14, 1945, the day Japan accepted the demands of allied forces for an unconditional surrender in World War II, even though Japan didn’t formally surrender until Sept. 2, 1945.

It is celebrated in some parts of the world on Aug. 15 because of the International Date Line and the time difference. Germany had surrendered in May.

“. . . my dad and mother were very excited and talking about the war is over, the war is over, and the boys are coming home.”

Jo Koehne’s father, Joe Sansom, delivered the afternoon Waco Times-Herald in Mart and followed the war closely through radio news broadcasts. He had a map on the wall and liked to stick pins in it to track U.S. troop advancement through Europe as the war progressed.

“I remember I came home that (V-J) day and my dad and mother were very excited and talking about the war is over, the war is over, and the boys are coming home,” said Koehne, 81, who still lives in Mart.

Koehne was in her teens and attending 4-C Business College in Waco in 1945. She rode the bus that came from Groesbeck, through Mart and on to Waco, which would let her off near Central Motor Co. at North 10th Street and Austin Avenue.

After she graduated from 4-C, she went to work at the auto dealership.

One of the newspapers her father delivered on Aug. 10, 1945, had a story about Mart native Buck Gibson being one of only 317 survivors among a crew of 1,196 on board the U.S.S. Indianapolis when it was sunk by a Japanese submarine on July 30, 1945.

About 300 men went down with the ship. The remaining 880 floated in the oil-covered Pacific for four days and faced deadly shark attacks, sun exposure and dehydration before a much smaller group was rescued.

Koehne dated Gibson for a time after he returned to Mart. She said Gibson frequently had visions that sharks were after him or he would start talking to an imaginary person that he perceived was floating next to him in the water.

Gibson got a job at General Tire and later moved to a farm near Hubbard.

He died recently, she said.

“They may still be using Texas Criminal Law in Okinawa, for all I know.”

Tom Moore Jr. had served a stint in the Merchant Marines, been to law school and was an Army lieutenant in military government. He was on an old Russian fishing ship and on his way to a redeployment depot in Honolulu when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945.

Moore said he likely was at the depot awaiting orders on V-J Day but said he doesn’t remember any wild celebrations when news of the surrender broke.

Moore, an attorney, had orders from the headquarters of Gen. Douglas MacArthur that he go to Okinawa, Japan, to help residents set up a court system and other areas of government.

Moore chuckles that the Okinawa form of justice in those days bore a striking resemblance to the Texas legal system because he was trained in Texas law and that is what he helped instill there.

“They may still be using Texas Criminal Law in Okinawa, for all I know,” said Moore, who at age 92 is still practicing law in Waco after 67 years.

Moore said he felt a “great sense of relief” that the war was ending because the ship carrying the military government detachment that preceded his group was hit by a kamikaze suicide pilot, who flew his plane into the ship and killed everyone on board.

Moore was discharged from the Army in December 1946.

He is a former McLennan County district attorney and state representative.

“When we got the word, everybody thought that they were going to turn the boat around and take us back home. But they said we still had some more work to do.”

Tomas Ballesteros, who turns 92 next week, was an orphan who grew up working “behind the mule” with his grandfather on a farm near Rosebud.

He did not attend school, he said, working on the farm until he was drafted into the Army. He said he was “one of MacArthur’s boys in the South Pacific,” and, like Moore, he was on a ship when news of the atomic devastation at Hiroshima reached him and his shipmates. Ballesteros’ ship was headed for Manila, Philippines, on V-J Day.

“They notified us about it and that was about it,” Ballesteros said. “When we got the word, everybody thought that they were going to turn the boat around and take us back home. But they said we still had some more work to do.”

Ballesteros stayed in the Philippines six months and was discharged in 1946.

He returned home and went back to farming for a while. But his grandfather had returned to Mexico and he was alone, he said. Soon, he heard about jobs for veterans in the Temple area.

He took a Civil Service job preparing meals for patients at the veterans’ hospital in Temple in 1946. He worked there 16 years before moving to other Civil Service jobs at Fort Hood, where he retired in 1977.

At Fort Hood, he drove a truck, a forklift, operated a sewing machine and repaired furniture, he said.

“I was just very happy that the war was over and my brother would be coming home.”

Alma Davis, 81, and her parents followed the war closely in Waco because her older brother, John Henry Campbell, was in the Army.

She grew up in Riesel, where her father worked on the Cooper farm and her mother picked cotton for a while. Later, they moved to Waco. She attended segregated A.J. Moore High School before she left and took a job as a cook at a cafe on LaSalle Avenue.

“I have always been a cook. That is what I did,” she said.

Davis remembers people talking about Japan surrendering and a buzz of excitement in the restaurant where she was working on V-J Day.

“I was just very happy that the war was over and my brother would be coming home,” Davis said. “I don’t remember any parties or celebrating or anything like that, but we surely had a nice time when my brother finally made it home. We were all just so glad to see him home safe and sound.”

She retired as a cook after working at the Freeman Center for a number of years.

twitherspoon@wacotrib.com

757-5737

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