In Their Own Words

Lt. William Sharpless Jackson

U.S. Army

WWII

Counter Intelligence

 Leyte Gulf, Phillipines, Ryu Kyus, Okinawa

Arriving at Leyte and Okinawa

Immediately after graduating from college in 1942, William Sharpless Jackson was drafted into the U.S. Army.  Landing in Hawaii, he jumped at an opportunity to join Military Intelligence, keeping an eye out for suspicious behavior in the Japanese community on the island. These orders didn’t last long. With war tensions building, he received new orders: report aboard a troop ship heading for the invasion of Leyte.

His story of what it was like to land on a contested beach and head for cover under machine gun fire, aerial bombings and Kamikaze attacks at Leyte are in vivid contrast to his Easter Sunday landing in Okinawa - a “casual stroll” at first.  But the stroll lasted only a few days until the full fury of the Japanese military was unleashed. 

In Their Own Words briefly describes a specific historical story told during an APHA interview that is used as short stories for the media.