In November 1999 SeniorNet's Bookies traveled to Chicago to meet with Studs Terkel, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "The Good War." (The preceding link connects to the accounts of SeniorNetters, many of them war Veterans, who participated in the discussion of Studs' book.)



Studs had recorded the oral histories of many of those who had lived through World War II: soldiers, civilians, Germans, Japanese, ordinary and famous people who related their memories of the war years. One of those interviewed for the book was Combat Journalist Herman Kogan. His widow, Marilew Kogan, shared with SeniorNet the photographs which her husband had acquired on the job, reporting the eighty-two day campaign of the 6th Marine Division to take Okinawa.


Click on all photos for a larger view. Click the Back button in your browser to return.
Herman Kogan's comments from the reverse of the photos will appear in quotation marks.
The following photographs are now part of the Veterans' History Project at the Library of Congress.





Herman Kogan
Marine Combat Correspondent
6th Division, 22nd Marines, 1st Battalion


"In 1943 I wound up in the Marine Corps. I had tried to join the service in 1942. Because I was a newspaperman, I was considered essential for the war effort and was exempt. I showed up at the draft board one night. Here were all these people trying to get deferred. 'You're 3-A, you're exempt.' I said, 'I want to be 1-A. I want to join the Marines.' Within weeks, I was on my way to Parris Island."

"It was right after Guadalcanal and Marines were getting slaughtered all over the place. I wanted to fight Hitler. I was almost thirty years old. Everyone else was seventeen, eighteen. Though I knew I'd eventually be a marine combat corresponent, I went through the ten weeks, long marches, drills, the whole thing."

"I was assigned to the 22nd Regiment of the Sixth Marine Division at Guadalcanal. I was with a rifle company. We landed in Okinawa on April Fools' Day, 1945."
From an interview in Studs Terkel's The "Good" War
"Marianas, Guam ~ Conference of Public Information personnel at CPAC July 27, 1945"
Back row: De Chant, Biggerstaff, Tuckman, James, Knowles, Thurston, Engel, Terrell, Dedker, O'Donnell, Parsons, Stowe, Deutsch, Purcell, Edwards, Fink, McVarish, Chaptel, V. Johnson, Price and E. Johnson. Fourth row: Littin, Moriarity, Myers-Summers, Myers, Dashiell, Foreman and Fanning Third Row: D. Johnson, Theeringer, Dube, Hamilton, Holton, Roberts, Petit, Chapman, Meagher, Breard and Childress. Second row: Prendergast; Liapes, McCready, Hoolihan, Evans, Clark, Weir, Doyle, Callahan, and Sandberg. First Row: Zschau, Lund, Stanley, Young, Ross, Kogan, Boian, Land and Hagenah.




left: "Shepherd addresses 22nd inf. and congratulates them"
center: "Col. Merlin Schneider, 22nd Infantry Commander, says goodbye to men."
right: "Col. H. Roberts, New 22nd Commander, later killed by sniper"

left: "Gen. Shepherd, (hand on hip) - at 2nd OP"
center: "At First Btn Observation Post -
Man Pointing is Gen. Clement, ADC- Man at extreme right is Major Earl Cook, my Btn. Commander, wonderful guy"
right:"STRIKE! STRIKE HARD! STRIKE FAST!" (6th Marines insignia)
Sixth Marine Division, activated in Sept. 1944,
comprised of:
- Fourth Raider Battalion, experienced in jungle warfare

- 22 Marines Infantry - smart, young aggressive, (took Guam!)

- 29th Marines - young, experienced newcomers

- 15th Marines, an artillery outfit

- 6th Tank Battalion

- 6th Engineers, Pioneer and Service Troops

- 6th Medical Battalion
All under command of General Lem Shepherd.




left: "Okinawa"
center: "That's Kogan on the right."
right: "Communion - Father Gene Kelly - Don't they look so young?"


center: "Flushing out Japs"*
right: "Flushing a dugout"
* Pejorative commonly used for the enemy during the war.
left: "Marching through Taira"
right: "Council Meeting, City Council of Taira - The bald head is the mayor - and the John at the extreme right is a guy named Kogan. I really don't feel as bad as I look though!"
Assignment: Okinawa
400 miles from Hirohito's Empire
"Cross the island, seal off the neck of isthmus connecting mountainous north with densely populated and agricultural south."

"These marines were prepared for the worst - 100,000 well-trained Japanese troops and Kamikaze pilots - but not the eerie, silent reception they received as they made their way north. The Japanese were holed up in womb-shaped tombs, easily converted into machine gun positions, but in a matter of hours, the Fourth took the prized Yontan Airfield."

"A spearhead drove north to Taira, cutting Motobu off from the rest of Okinawa. "By April 3 the Twenty-second and Fourth Marines had swung up a long slope and tumbled hills that led to the East China Sea." Uncommon Valor



Map of the Island

Page 2 - click here!
Mobotu, Sugar Loaf, Naha...