Ortonville-A piece of yellowed tape bearing the name of a Japanese soldier is still attached to the sheath of the polished dress sword.
The illegible faded letters of the former enemy are unknown to village resident and Army World War II veteran Dane Guisbert’yet the memories of the late summer of 1945 when the weapon was recovered remain.
‘General MacArthur said us soldiers were allowed to send home a few weapons that were recovered after the war. Most of the weapons were put on a ship and taken out in the ocean and dumped overboard,? said Guisbert, 81.
‘I mailed home two Japanese guns and this sword’there were a lot of weapons to choose from.?
Guisbert’s World War II memorabilia symbolizes the end of four years of war, and his stories from the South Pacific theater reflect a personal account of Army life.
Guisbert, a native of Cass City, was drafted in the Army about a month after graduation from high school in 1944. After basic training at Camp Hood, Texas, he was shipped west to Fort Ord, Calif.
‘We shipped out heading west toward the South Pacific in December 1944,? said Guisbert. ‘We bypassed the Hawaiian Islands and past New Guinea to Leyte in the Philippine Islands’our ship was pretty fast and we sailed alone without escort. They told us we could outrun a submarine.?
In January 1945, Guisbert was assigned to the 11th Airborne Division and walked patrols in the northern sections of Manila in the northern area of the Philippines.
‘The Marines had the island pretty much under control,? said Guisbert. ‘There were just a few pockets of ‘Japs? in the mountains. It was somewhere on those hills that I was hit by shrapnel from a ‘Jap? mortar’it hit me just below my knee. I was never really scared. You’re just so busy’you just keep moving, then you get pinned down and the shooting really starts.?
In the spring of 1945, in preparation for the American invasion of the Japanese mainland, Guisbert volunteered for paratrooper training at the U.S. base now well established in the Philippines.
‘The first jump was not so bad, you just didn’t know what to expect,? he said. ‘They start you out at about 1,200 to 1,000 feet above the ground’ultimately you jumped at about 700 feet above the ground. There was no need to wear an auxiliary parachute’it wouldn’t do you any good. You’re on the ground real fast. The idea was, in a combat landing, just get on the ground as fast as possible? less opportunity to get shot.?
The need for Guisbert to jump into combat ended in the late summer.
On Aug. 6, 1945, the nuclear weapon ‘Little Boy? was dropped on the city of Hiroshima, Japan, followed on Aug. 9 by the detonation of the ‘Fat Man? nuclear bomb over Nagasaki. The Japanese surrendered on Aug. 15. Just two weeks later, Guisbert, along with about 800 troops? part of the 188th battalion? flew into Okinawa then on to Atsugi, on the Japanese mainland. They were the first American soldiers to occupy the country after the war had ended.
‘We ended up at a military base in Sendai, Japan in September 1945,? said Guisbert. ‘Our mission was to go out in the countryside and recover all the weapons we could from the citizens of Japan. The local residents would turn their backs on you. It seemed funny, but it was a sign of respect, we were told. We could see places where bombs had exploded and damage that had occurred to buildings. Much of the area was burned out, since many of the buildings were made from pine and paper.?
Guisbert remained in Japan until March 1946, when he returned home and married Elizabeth (Butler) in Cass City. He reenlisted in the Army three months later, and returned to Japan until his discharge in June 1947. The Army awarded Guisbert a Purple Heart and Bronze Star for his service to the country. Guisbert returned to Michigan, where he worked for Fisher Body Coldwater Plant in Flint until his retirement in 1988.