Interview of Mary C. Burnham on her service in the U.S. Army Medical Specialist Corps during WWII Interviewer: …1983, here in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. My name is [Jean Pryor 00:07]. I am the national person, National Chairman of the Oral History Committee for the Women’s Overseas Service League. Tonight I am interviewing Mary C. Burnham in her apartment overlooking Lake Michigan. Mary was a dietician in the Army Medical Specialist Corps in World War II. She was also, is also national past President and presently – presently President of the Milwaukee unit. Since coming into WOSL in 1961, Mary has been President of the unit 3 times, was Area Director for 7 years, was National Vice President, and finally National President for 2 years. [inaudible 00:48] go ahead. Mary C. Burnham: Uh, I was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1907 [laughter] and grew up there attending Milwaukee-Downer Seminary and 2 years at Milwaukee-Downer College. Uh, I then transferred to the University of Wisconsin in Madison where I obtained a Bachelor of Science in Home Economics Degree. Interviewer: Go ahead. Mary C. Burnham: This was followed a by 9-month dietetic internship at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, uh, after which I came back to Chicago where I was Dietician at the Illinois Central Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, for the next 12 years. Interviewer: Wow. Mary C. Burnham: This was during The Depression, of course, and I was lucky to have an assignment where I could get transportation on the trains and, um, a room and, um, a reasonably adequate salary. Interviewer: [2:26] Where did you live, Mary, when you were… Mary C. Burnham: In the hospital. Interviewer: In the hospital. Mary C. Burnham: Mm-hm. Interviewer: [2:30] What kind of money did you make there? Mary C. Burnham: Uh, I think it was $125 a month but I had my room in the hospital and, uh, meals. All meals. Interviewer: [2:41] And what year would that have been? Mary C. Burnham: Well, that was 1931; 1931 until 1942. Interviewer: Mm-hm. Mary C. Burnham: Actually 11 years. Uh, at that time, uh, well, it’s after Pearl Harbor, of course, and at that time, there was a good deal of talk about, um, dieticians being taken into the military, and I guess I was getting sick of Chicago. [laughter] Interviewer: [inaudible 3:25] Mary C. Burnham: [laughter] Uh, and was, and of my job there, and was anxious to get going, so I applied for, uh, the military. In 10 days, I received a, uh, telegram to report to Camp Hulen, Palacios, Texas. [laughter] Interviewer: Actually never even heard of that place. [laughter] Mary C. Burnham: [laughter] Uh, you never heard of it. Neither have the people of the Illinois Central Railroad when I [laughter] [wanted 4:03] a ticket [laughter]. Uh, anyway, uh, after a short vacation, I reported to Fort, Camp Hulen, which had been a National Guard training camp right on the Gulf of Mexico. Uh, it was, uh, now an anti-aircraft training center. We had planes flying up and spotting [laughter], uh, targets here and there in the sky and, uh, was quite fairly interesting for our first assignment. There were 2 other dieticians, but we did a little drilling here and there. [laughter] Interviewer: [5:03] You did learn some of the military etiquette then? Mary C. Burnham: Yes. They had an awful hard time trying to decide what to have, what uniforms we should wear. Uh, perhaps I should say that, uh, for the first few months we were there, I was there, that, uh, we were not considered military; we were civilian. But in March of 1943, uh, we were taken in to the… Interviewer: Sworn in. Mary C. Burnham: …sworn into the military. Um. And then, what kind of uniform should they, should we wear? The men never knew whether to salute us, and we never knew whether to salute back. [laughter] And, uh. [laughter] But… Interviewer: [5:56] What did they come up with? Mary C. Burnham: Uh, well, we finally had the same uniforms that the nurses were wearing. And, uh, I was there at Camp Hulen for about a year when, um, I had orders to head for overseas. Uh, after a vacation at home, we uh, I went by train in my new uniform, fairly new uniform, uh, to Camp Stoneman, Camp Stoneman California. Near San Francisco. Here we spent, uh, almost a month, I think, training, climbing up the… Interviewer: [inaudible 6:59] Mary C. Burnham: [laughter] Rope. [laughter] Interviewer: [7:01] Really? Mary C. Burnham: Up and down the rope ladder, yeah, which we might have to do on… Interviewer: Boarding. Mary C. Burnham: …boarding or, uh, in an emergency. And, uh, we were supposed to not tell anybody where we were. Interviewer: [7:18] You were gonna be in enemy waters too, weren’t you? Mary C. Burnham: Yeah. Interviewer: The possibility of… Mary C. Burnham: Yes indeed. Interviewer: …torpedoes. Mary C. Burnham: Uh, so, finally the day came when we were to set out. Uh, we were told not to tell anyone when we were leaving or what we were going to do, but by golly [laughter], they had us parade from Camp Stoneman down to the ship. [laughter] Right through town. Interviewer: Right through town. [laughter] Mary C. Burnham: Uh, we got on, onto the, um, oh, what was the name of that ship. It was an old President liner that had been taken out of mothballs [laughter] and, uh, we got on that at Fort Mason in San Francisco and headed out under the Golden Gate Bridge. We were not told where we were going. We had no idea. Uh. We did not see a sign of land for 21 days. We finally were told that we had crossed the equator, but they didn’t say when [laughter] or just where. [laughter] Interviewer: [inaudible 8:40] Mary C. Burnham: Um, we got a little farther along and were told that we, uh, the rumor went around that we had had to detour some miles to the south because a ship had been torpedoed ahead of us, which we found out later on was true. Uh, finally after 21 days, about 5:00 in the afternoon, we landed, uh, I mean we came into the harbor of Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides islands. Uh, it was about 5:00 in the afternoon just before the [submarine 9:26] was closed for the day. [laughter] Uh. We spent that night on the ship. There was an aircraft carrier nearby that was showing movies on the deck. We kinda watched that for a little. [laughter] Incidentally, I might say that all the way over [coughing] we had not been allowed to have any light on-deck at night on the ship. Um. No cigarettes! And in those days, a few of us were occasionally smoking a cigarette. [coughing] Interviewer: I think a lot of, a lot of us were smoking… Mary C. Burnham: Yeah. Interviewer: …when we were in service. Mary C. Burnham: Right. Anyway, the next day we landed and were assigned. Uh, I might say, by the way, that we were transient. A group of transient dieticians and physiotherapists, and when we got to Santo, we were assigned to various posts on Santo on, and, uh, New Caledonia, New Zealand, and, uh, I guess that was about all. But I, I remained on Espiritu Santo with the 25th Evac Hospital. We were, uh, the hospital was in the middle of a coconut grove [laughter]. Uh, it was a series of barracks. Um. There were about, uh, 14 or 16 of us in a barrack, something like that. [coughing] I was the only dietician. They hadn’t had a dietician before. Um. They had the food service running pretty well. Of course, we were getting military quartermaster foods primarily. Our equipment was rather, uh, not too modern shall we say. We had a field range for the main cooking; 1 field range. We had a 2-burner, uh, gasoline plate, uh, for our special diet items that had to be cooked. Uh. Interviewer: [12:18] How many were you, about how many were you serving? Mary C. Burnham: We had about, almost 1000 patients. Interviewer: [inaudible 12:24] Mary C. Burnham: So um, there was a bakery on the island. There were, uh, there was another army hospital, uh, [inaudible 12:38] hospital. We were an evac hospital but operating more or less like a general hospital because of the difficulty of transferring patients. Uh, we got some food from Australia, particularly lamb, and somehow or other, most of the men didn’t care much for lamb. Uh, we got a whole shipload one time, that is, the island did, the Quartermaster, and they didn’t have the freezer space to hold it, so they double-issued it, and so we had lamb, lamb, lamb. Uh. I had one officer who swore that he wouldn’t touch lamb. He could tell it when it was anywhere around, and he wouldn’t eat it. Um. One day we ground it up, added chopped bacon, onions, and some seasoning and served it as hamburgers. And that officer came back and wanted some of that hamburger meat for a picnic. [laughter] I didn’t tell him. I don’t remember. I think we gave him some of the meat. Anyway, another day we lost a patient. We couldn’t find him anyplace. The nurses couldn’t find him anyplace. Uh, finally he was discovered up in a coconut palm with a coconut in his hands, drinking green coconut milk. He was a Samoan, uh, scout who had been assigned to our forces, and he had an ulcer and should not have been drinking green coconut milk. Interviewer: [14:51] Is that, does that, that had kind of an alcoholic effect? Mary C. Burnham: Uh, well, it just isn’t, it’s not bland enough really for an ulcer patient. Actually, he was used to drinking it, so it probably didn’t hurt him [laughter], but the staff didn’t think it was a very good idea [laughter]. Um. I, let’s see. We had, Bob Hope came to visit us one time, and that was interesting. We took picket boat rides around on off-duty hours to the other islands [inaudible 15:41] in the group. We on, uh, the 14th of July, which was, um, what’s the French holiday [laughter]? Uh. Interviewer: Bastille Day? Mary C. Burnham: Bastille Day. We went to a party given by some of the French, uh, planters on the island. Interviewer: [16:05] This area was French then. Mary C. Burnham: It was a French and British condominium. A double government. But there were a number of French people and, um, we joined a number of French, uh, Navy men who were in port at the time for the holiday and had a very nice evening. Um, uh, let’s see now. What else. Interviewer: [16:40] Did ever any of the big military wigs ever come there? Mary C. Burnham: Uh, no, I don’t remember ever seeing any [out 16:46] there. Um. We had, oh, one thing, um, on, at the time that the landing was made in Normandy, one of the officer, we happened to be having dinner at the Transportation Officers’ Mess and one of the men had a radio, and he got the report on the radio that they had made a landing at, on Normandy Beach. We happened to have joining us at dinner that night, uh, there, a Frenchman who was a surveyor from, uh, New Caledonia who, uh, was up on the island doing some work up there. He came with us and we went back and listened to the report which of course didn’t say anything ‘cept they had made a landing, and uh, I have never seen anyone so emotionally taut as he was. He stood there [inaudible 18:08] his hands, fists clasped [laughter 18:19] and just hoping to hear something more than just that the landing had been made. But, um. Well, I think that’s about all about Espiritu Santo. Interviewer: [18:26] Where did you go from there now? How long were you at Espiritu? Mary C. Burnham: Uh, one other thing I might mention that was kind of [laughter]. One night, day I had a call from a young man who was a naval officer. Uh, his aunt was a very good friend of my mother’s, and he was in dock and he asked me to dinner. So we went out for dinner (he had a jeep) and had a nice visit and pretty soon, uh, we headed back to the post. To the camp. And, uh, here was the shore patrol waiting at the gate. He had just appropriated the jeep [laughter]. He had been late getting started because they had had orders to sail that night, uh, that early morning, and so he had had a late start and so he had just taken the jeep [laughter]. Far as I know, that was the end of it [laughter], and he was returned to the ship and the jeep was returned and that was it [laughter]. Um, well, uh, one Saturday I received orders that I was to leave on Monday for Guadalcanal for transportation to Fiji to join a unit going to India. [laughter] I hurried up and packed. The head nurse was a little unhappy with me. She thought I had asked for a transfer [laughter], which I hadn’t. Um, but anyway. I had, I was all ready to leave on Monday and was no sooner airborne than they got a change of orders. Instead of going to Guadalcanal, I was supposed to go the opposite direction to New Caledonia [laughter]. Uh, unfortunately I was already airborne. Uh, I spent 4 days up in Guadalcanal just sorta looking around. Interviewer: [20:55] What was the state of the war in Guadalcanal at that point? Mary C. Burnham: Uh, well, it had pretty well gone on beyond Guadalcanal. While I was there, a, uh, group of ships came in, all different kinds of military ships. It was quite an imposing sight. Uh, actually, I didn’t get to see a great deal of the island. But anyway, in 3 or 4 days we boarded a plane, flew right back over Espiritu Santo, right down to New Caledonia. We spent 2 weeks there, uh, and finally boarded a Liberty ship to go to Fiji. We had, uh, they had never carried women on their ship before and my, that crew was raised, roused up, so they said. And they were delighted ‘cause they said the food was better [laughter]. Interviewer: [22:06] This was another, uh, mixture of, of specialists? Mary C. Burnham: Yes. Mm-hm. And, uh, yeah, it was the same, all of the, let’s see. I think there may have been some nurses in this group too as well as the dieticians and dieticians and physiotherapists. But, um, on that Liberty ship, uh, the water was pretty rough in spots, and some of the gals didn’t feel too well. Uh, I sat with 2 nurses, um, in the mess hall, and lo and behold, they were both from Milwaukee [laughter]. Interviewer: [22:59] Did they know each other? Mary C. Burnham: Oh yes. They knew each other very well. I hadn’t known either of them, but uh, they were very close friends. Um [laughter], one of them is, now lives in Sun City, Arizona, and is a member of the Phoenix unit of WOSL. The other one has since passed away. But, uh, anyway, we arrived in Fiji and joined our unit. As a matter of fact, there were 2 units going around to India, one of which ended up in Calcutta; that was mine. The other one ended up up in Assam, up in the wilder part up, or less settled part of India. Our flight around, I mean our ship, I don’t, we didn’t fly that time, we went by troop ship. A real honest to goodness troop carrying 6000 men and 250 or something officers; something like that. Um, we went around south of Australia, stopped for 2 days in the harbor of Melbourne, were not allowed off the ship because there was another troop ship there too, and that was too many people to let loose in Melbourne. So uh, they did take us on a bus trip around town and uh, other than that, we didn’t see much in Melbourne. Uh, we went on then around Australia. Uh, as we got west of Australia, there were reports that a, uh, ship, um, had been, uh, uh, there were, uh, explosions in the water as if, uh, bombs had been let loose or something. Anyway, it was a little scary for a few minutes but nothing happened. Uh, we went on up to Bombay, uh, where we spent a couple days and went, then went by hospital train, British hospital train across India to Calcutta. Here we were met by the commanding general and the army band, and uh, a big to-do, in the [inaudible 26:01] station in Calcutta. Uh, our hospital there was, uh, in a nice, very nice part of town near the [inaudible 26:18] Lakes. Uh, we had several, about a thousand patients there too. We were supporting the engineers, uh, building the Ledo Road and the air force flying, that were flying the Hump into China. Interviewer: CBI. China-Burma-India route. Mary C. Burnham: It was, yeah. And uh, had I guess, did I say we had about a thousand patients there too. Interviewer: [inaudible 26:54] Mary C. Burnham: And uh, here we had much better equipment. We had a, uh, big stove, roasting, uh, with a, I think it was a, I can’t remember whether it was wood-burning or coal. But I think it was a wood-burning stove. Anyway, we had a big stove. We had, uh, here we had Indians working with us, whereas in the islands all our staff were GIs. We had, and to see those Indians bend over double with a broom about a yard long trying to sweep a floor, you wonder how they had any back left [laughter]. We had to, our food had to be delivered by, uh, truck to the wards. Uh, some of the wards however weren’t on a road, so the Indians would put the food on their heads and carry it over. And that was no mean trick because the food was in a large, uh, heavy, metal-lined wooden box which would hold, uh, 5, 4 or 5, uh, 5 or 6 heavy metal containers plus a lot of garam paanee, which was hot water [laughter], to keep’m hot. Keep the food hot. Uh, and they’d take off with this on their heads to carry it to the ward for the patients. Interviewer: Heaven, that must have been weighing 200 pounds. Mary C. Burnham: Oh, at least [laughter]. [I would think 29:01] Um. Interviewer: [29:11] What kind of unit was that that was there? Mary C. Burnham: It was a general hospital. Oh, it’s from – let’s see, the 2 hospitals that went over. It was a, one was a University of Maryland hospital, the one that went up to Assam, and where was our hospital from? [laughter] I can’t remember. Um, anyway, they were 2 general hospitals. Uh, we did use some Indian food in this place. Um, we had potatoes which were about the size of an egg and generally speaking, we had difficulty getting’m peeled. Usually they ended, we ended up serving potatoes in the jackets. [laughter] Interviewer: It’s better for them anyhow. Mary C. Burnham: Sure. [laughter] But uh, we uh, one thing that we missed there was milk. Interviewer: [30:42] You had no fresh milk there? Mary C. Burnham: No. Interviewer: [30:47] Did you have canned? Mary C. Burnham: Finally, finally we – let’s see. Finally, I guess we did, they did get some facilities to, to handle milk so that we did get some. Interviewer: [31:01] Do they, but they don’t milk cows, do they, over in India? Mary C. Burnham: No, I don’t think they do. Interviewer: [31:06] So this had to be brought in from someplace. Mary C. Burnham: Well, this was, uh, I really am not sure. I know we didn’t have much. We had mostly, uh, canned milk. Let’s see. There were some other things… Interviewer: [31:29] Did you miss any, miss any of our fruits or vegetables or anything like that over there? Mary C. Burnham: Oh yeah. We didn’t have much in the way of fruits and vegetables. Yeah. Let’s see here. I had a 2-week vacation in Darjeeling, R&R as they say in the army. Um. Interviewer: Rest and recuperation. Mary C. Burnham: Rest and recuperation, right. Uh, and by golly it happened to come just at the time of V-E Day. Interviewer: V-E Day. Mary C. Burnham: V-E Day. Uh, there were, of course, many British in Darjeeling at the time, and they were very excited. We had, uh, we celebrated with them although we knew that we were still involved and weren’t going to get off easy right then, but, um, we had a nice day, evening, ending with singing in somebody’s room someplace, I’m not sure where [laughter]. But we, we did enjoy Darjeeling while we were up there. It is about 8000 feet above sea level in the mountains. Um. We took an, an excursion to Tiger Hill nearby from which we could see Mount Everest and, uh, visited the tea plantations. You all know Darjeeling tea. Interviewer: Mm-hm. Mary C. Burnham: And, uh, we really enjoyed the trip, the, the 2 weeks. Um. Let’s see. Interviewer: [33:53] Then did you go back to Calcutta? Mary C. Burnham: Oh yes. Yeah. Yeah, there was, we had a Christmas concert by, is it [Stokowski 34:14] that Lily Pons was touring with? I think so. Interviewer: Mm-hm. Mary C. Burnham: They came and gave a concert on the Maidan, which is a big, open park in Calcutta, and uh, then they came and joined us in the officers' club for a reception that afternoon which was very pleasant. Everybody who’d gotten Christmas cookies [laughter] brought’m over. Interviewer: [34:45] And were you responsible for that reception as a dietician? Mary C. Burnham: No. Interviewer: No. Mary C. Burnham: No, uh, I don’t remember who was actually, but I think it just sort of, uh, was normal… Interviewer: officers' club. Mary C. Burnham: …officers' club service, and plus whatever cookies people brought. [inaudible 35:07] thing. Incidentally, we got there in October and course by the time people knew where, what APO to send, uh, send packages to, a lot of people didn’t get Christmas packages until almost Easter. But, um. So – and by then it was almost time for V-J Day and we headed for home. Uh, I flew from Calcutta to Karachi, then waited a while, supposedly for a ship. No ship appeared, so I was routed on another plane, uh, by way of Abadan, Iran, Cairo, and Casablanca where we changed planes and were there about 2 days. And on another plane headed for, uh, back for the States, landing in Miami, finishing our around-the-world trip from San Francisco [laughter]. Interviewer: [36:41] And how many… Mary C. Burnham: About 2 years. Interviewer: Around the world in 3 years, right? Mary C. Burnham: Two years. Interviewer: Two years. Mary C. Burnham: Not quite 2 years. Uh, I got to Miami just before Thanksgiving and tried to call home. Uh, the, the long-distance call had to go through Chicago and the Chicago people were on strike [laughter]. Interviewer: Oh no. Mary C. Burnham: So. But that finished that tour. Interviewer: [37:11] All right. Then where? Mary C. Burnham: Well [laughter], if you wanna go everyplace I was, I’d say [laughter] you’re not gonna get away this evening [laughter]. Interviewer: [37:22] Well you were, how long were you in the States before you were ordered to go overseas again? Mary C. Burnham: Well, I was in the States from 1946 until 1950. Interviewer: Four years. Mary C. Burnham: Four years. Interviewer: And you had how many [inaudible 37:42]? Mary C. Burnham: I was in, uh, well, I was assigned first to Percy Jones General Hospital in… Interviewer: Battle Creek. Mary C. Burnham: …Battle Creek and then to San Antonio. Brooke Army Hospital in San Antonio. Um, I came home, my father was very ill and I came home in November I think it was. October or November of 1950 and, uh, he died while I was here, and uh, before I had a chance to get back down to [laughter] San Antonio, I had a message that, uh, could I go to Japan or did I have to be here to settle the estate or anything like that. And uh, I did not. My brother was here and could take care of anything. Um, so by Christmastime that year, I was on my way to Japan. Uh. Interviewer: [39:07] Where in Japan? Mary C. Burnham: Well, we landed, we went by ship this time to, uh, we went to Yokohama briefly then around, still on the ship, to Kobe where we took a train to, um, an old, a former Japanese army base, uh, near Osaka, Japan. It had been closed and was just being opened up as a, um, hospital in support of the Korean War. Um, we had to decide where we’d put this mess hall, where we’d put that one, and so on. But first, before we had anything to do with that, we arrived there late one afternoon, uh, to find a enlisted mess tent, uh, on fire. Fire engines there, smoke coming out of the dining room, uh, the kitchen I mean. And uh, they were supposed to be fixing dinner for us! [laughter] Well, we, we finally got something to eat. It wasn’t a critical [laughter] situation, but it was kind of a, uh, startling thing to see smoke [laughter] when we, as we arrived there. Um. Let’s see. Interviewer: [41:14] Did you see any sign of the war in India at all? Mary C. Burnham: Not very much, no. Um. They weren’t too involved with it of course. Interviewer: [41:28] Did you get Korean patients in? Mary C. Burnham: Yes. No. Well, we got our patients from Korea, yes. Um. However, um, I stayed there a year or two and then was transferred up, oh, about a year, a little over a year, and then was transferred up to Yokohama to a station hospital up there and that, there, of course, we saw even less of [that 42:12]. Interviewer: Yeah. Mary C. Burnham: Um, one time, um. I guess, let’s see. That was after we were up north, I think, in Yokohama. We went on a picnic down along the Hooghly River and, oh, wait a minute. I’m jumping ahead. No, that’s Japan. That’s right. I’m gettin’ a little confused [laughter]. I’ve been talkin’ too much. [laughter] Interviewer: I know. You’re a world traveler at this point. Mary C. Burnham: Anyway, we went on a… That was in India. That was before [laughter]. I’m gonna backtrack a little bit. That was a picnic we had in India, and we went down the, along the Hooghly River and found a nice, secluded spot with a lot of trees and a pleasant place to sit and sat and decided to have our picnic. Pretty soon there were Indians standing up, uh, on the, sort of a bank near us just standing there watching us [laughter]. And before we were through, I think there must have been, oh, 15 or 18 Indians, all ages [laughter], up there just watching us to see what we were doing. Interviewer: Probably never seen a picnic before. Mary C. Burnham: Probably never had and probably we were far enough actually from, uh, from this area that they probably hadn’t even seen any Americans around there [laughter]. Anyway, we left, gave’m what food we had left [laughter] and went back. Well, to get back to Japan, um, let’s see. What did we do in Japan that was of interest [laughter]? Interviewer: [44:20] What kind of a hospital was it there? This is in Osaka? Mary C. Burnham: Well, Osaka was supporting the… Interviewer: Korean. Mary C. Burnham: Korean War. Uh, in Yokohama we were a station hospital. Um, we were in a building that had been a, a store, a department store. Um. Interviewer: You’re all right. Mary C. Burnham: We had little, uh, 2-bedroom [sorta 44:58] cottages with a living room and a giant bath, uh, right next to the officers' club, that we lived in. Uh, which were very comfortable. We took, uh, several trips. In fact, on one trip, another dietician who was stationed there and I went, uh, to Hong Kong, connected, then on to Bangkok, connected with an, what they called an embassy flight, which was a government flight, going to Abadan, Iran, and we took it for free [laughter] to, uh, Delhi, and uh… Interviewer: [inaudible 45:55] a military [inaudible 45:57]. Mary C. Burnham: That’s a military plane. Yeah. Uh, well, a government plane. It was run by the military. And uh, spent a day sightseeing in Delhi, which I hadn’t seen while I was there. Interviewer: This is back in India again. Mary C. Burnham: Well, this is just, yes. This is just a trip through. And we had 1 day in Delhi and then we went, um, the next day went down to Agra to see the Taj Mahal and uh, spent a, an interesting day down there. Um. Then back to the airport to catch the same Abadan, same plane returning from Abadan and taking us back to Bangkok and then back to Hong Kong and back to Japan. Uh, another, later that year with one of the Red Cross girls whom I knew, who also by the way is now a member of the WOSL. Interviewer: [47:03] What unit would that be? Mary C. Burnham: Um, she is in San Antonio. Mildred [Mench 47:10]. And she and I went to Hong Kong, but we decided we were going to Macau from Hong Kong. Do a little gambling. So we went down there for a day or two and then back by ship. You’re getting sleepy. Interviewer: Sure am. I’ve been, there’s a question I wanted to ask you a minute ago about the Taj Mahal when you were talking about having seen the Taj Mahal. [47:37] What it as lovely as you anticipated? Mary C. Burnham: Oh, it’s beautiful. Mm-hm. Yeah. Interviewer: All right. Now, go on. Mary C. Burnham: And, uh, well, let’s see. Those were the main trips actually that we took. I had planned a trip to, uh, now I’m gettin’, let’s see. I was there in Japan for 3 years. Interviewer: [inaudible 48:10] Mary C. Burnham: Um, in the 3 years that we were there, we managed to see quite a bit of Japan. We visited Mikimoto’s Pearl Farm and watched the girls separating the pearls and, uh, the, we also visited, uh, Hiroshima where the atom bomb had fallen and were quite relieved to see that at least the people, what we saw, did not seem to feel [laughter] too much [feeling 48:55] against us. The, uh, we visited… Interviewer: [inaudible 49:02] Mary C. Burnham: Nikko was next on our list, uh, with the big Buddha which had originally been covered with a building which had been washed away by a tidal wave and the Buddha stood there now up out in the open. Um, I don’t know just how to give [coughing] any idea of the height, but it was a tremendous figure. Very imposing. Um, we visited, oh, what’s the name of the place up north [laughter]. Interviewer: [49:52] Was this another city? Mary C. Burnham: Uh, it was actually, um, a place where there, uh, were a number of, um, temples. Oh gosh. [laughter] What was the name of it. Anyway, it was, uh, a fascinating place to see. Among other things, there were the original figures, um, uh, hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil. Interviewer: [laughter] The 3 little monkeys. Mary C. Burnham: The 3 little monkeys, right. Um, plus a number of other, of temples. Uh, this was quite a sacred place to the Japanese. Um. [laughter] Let’s see. We did manage actually to see a great deal of Japan. We enjoyed it but we were, I at least, was glad to be going home after 3 years. Interviewer: [51:09] Mary, how did you like the Japanese people? How did [inaudible 51:13]? Mary C. Burnham: Very much. Very. I liked them very much. I had 2 Japanese secretaries. Uh, we had Japanese men working with us also and uh, we also had contact with other Japanese people occasionally. One thing that was rather interesting and made you feel a little bit strange, was that the Women’s Club of Yokohama, the women from the Women’s Club of Yokohama, um, used to, um, go through some of the trash cans and they’d pick out reasonably, uh, possible items of food that could be used by the orphanage, orphans in the orphanage. Uh, things like a carton of milk that, um, that was partly full. Um, whole potatoes or whole items of food mostly. Interviewer: [52:26] Did it come [off from] [inaudible 52:27]? Mary C. Burnham: That had come from the train, come from the serving line, or even probably from the trays, too. Um. Then, uh, shortly before I came home, uh, the mess sergeant and I were invited to a, I’ve forgotten, a tea or something. Anyway, some kind of a meeting where we were, uh, thanked very profusely for the, uh, food that they had received. Interviewer: [53:09] They didn’t seem to feel any… Mary C. Burnham: They didn’t… Interviewer: …antagonism? The Japanese didn’t? Mary C. Burnham: No. They didn’t. They didn’t seem to. The ones we had, came in contact with. I think MacArthur probably was a great deal, um, to a great, great degree responsible for that. Maybe I’m over, overstressing it, but he did work a lot for the Japanese and they, they quite revered him. Interviewer: Mm-hm. [53:43] I heard one time that the [coughing] Japanese had, had been told that we were going to be cruel to them when we took over the country. Mary C. Burnham: That is true. Uh, the, especially the children and, well, other people too, were looking for our soldiers to come in and, and beat them and, as you say, be cruel to them. Uh, and of course our soldiers as a general thing did not do that sort of thing. Um. They had candy and gum for the children. Uh, they enjoyed the children and, uh, really, I think, the people to a great extent. Interviewer: [54:35] How do you think the relationship was between the GIs and the Japanese women? Were they pretty free with them? You think we have very many Japanese-American babies resulting or do you think there were more marriages? Mary C. Burnham: [laughter] That’s hard to say at this long date. [laughter] At this far time. Interviewer: Uh-huh. Mary C. Burnham: Uh. Interviewer: [55:02] Well you know all of the reputation that we’ve had though, and… Mary C. Burnham: Yes, I know. Interviewer: …like in Korea and so on. Mary C. Burnham: Yeah. I know. I don’t think there were as many, um, illegal babies, shall we say, uh, as there may have been marriages. But I wouldn’t swear to that. Interviewer: Uh-huh. Mary C. Burnham: Um. Anyway, by now, my 3 years there were about up. Uh, the government was setting, cutting down the term in Japan to 2 years, so I was ready for home. Uh. [inaudible 55:51] Uh, and flew back to the West Coast and back to duty in the United States following a vacation. Interviewer: [56:15] Where were you stationed then? Mary C. Burnham: Uh, after that I was stationed in Anniston, Alabama, which later was to become the headquarters of the WAC detachment. Uh. I was stationed in, uh, San Francisco, at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas, and, which post closed, um, about a year before I was to retire. Uh, my final year was spent at Fort Monmouth in New Jersey where we enjoyed going into New York for plays in the evenings. I had an apartment on the Atlantic Ocean and, uh, really quite enjoyed my final year. Um. Standing on the reviewing stand, uh, at the time of my retirement along with the, uh, Deputy Commander I believe it was; anyway, one of the higher officers of the post, uh, was really quite exciting too [laughter]. Quite fun. Interviewer: I bet it was. Mary C. Burnham: Um. Well, let’s see. Interviewer: [57:50] How many years was that, Mary? Mary C. Burnham: How many years in the army? Eighteen years on active duty, but, um, a very pleasant 18 years. Most of it was most enjoyable, and I was glad I had stayed in, uh, after the war. Interviewer: [58:14] They gave you, they gave you credit for, actually for the beginning of your time that you were not originally considered military. Mary C. Burnham: Oh yes. Uh-huh. Interviewer: [58:21] So then you ended up with 20 years. Mary C. Burnham: Yes. I had over 20 years’ service toward retirement. Interviewer: Good. [58:27] What have you done since you came home? Primarily? Mary C. Burnham: Well, I kept on with my [laughter], um, work in dietetics in, here in Milwaukee. First at the Milwaukee County Hospital then at, uh. Oh, then I decided I was sick of working for a while. I wanted a 3-month leave of absence. Um, I, which I didn’t get, but I went on a 3-month trip anyway [laughter]. Um. And this trip was really a trip around the world. We visited, uh, we started from New York and flew by way of, of, um, Frankfurt, Germany, Rome, um, to Karachi again, which had been my departing point from India in the years before. Um. In Karachi, from Karachi we flew to Lahore, visited several points in Pakistan, went up over the Khyber Pass and the Kabul Gorge to Afghanistan. Um, flew back to, flew back to, uh, [inaudible 1:00:06], India, where we were to catch a plane for, um, Srinagar in Kashmir. Unfortunately, our pilot decided that the weather reports weren’t good enough and, um, he wasn’t going to fly over the pass. He was going back to Delhi. We had no, no reservations, of course, in Delhi. We had them waiting for us up in, in Kashmir. Uh, there was nothing in [inaudible 1:00:49], the little town where we were let off, um, in the way of a place to stay for the night. Even just 18 people. So our tour leader canvassed the town and hired the only taxis in the town, which was a total of 5, and we took off up the pass, uh, into Srinagar. It turned out to be a beautiful, moonlight night and quite a pleasant ride, although we didn’t get up there ‘til about 10:00 at night. Uh, our house, we were taken to our houseboat which was to be our home for the next week and, uh, they had a dinner ready for us, waiting for us, and we enjoyed it. Interviewer: [1:01:48] What body of water was this gonna be? Mary C. Burnham: This was on, uh, Dal Lake, which is noted for its houseboat, um, houseboats for tourists and also some less elegant ones where some of the local people lived. Um. Kashmir is a beautiful valley surrounded by snow-covered mountains, some of the higher mountains in the Himalayas. We spent a week there, uh, going up into the mountains visiting, uh, [inaudible 1:02:36] factories, papier-mâché place, shop. Um. We were greeted every morning by a boat bringing fresh flowers [coughing]. And, um, just had a very delightful time. From Kashmir, we went to Udaipur and Jaipur and to Agra, to Benares, which is now known as, uh. Oh heck. What’s [inaudible 1:03:16] [laughter]. I can’t think of it. Begins with a, begins with a “v”. Anyway, it’s the sacred city on the Ganges River where everyone goes to pray and, and uh, from there we went on to Nepal, up to Darjeeling, and, uh, then home by way of Bangkok, Hong Kong, and the west coast. On returning back to the States, I took another job for about 7 years and finally retired and started doing what I wanted to do instead of working [laughter]. Interviewer: Well good. [1:04:18] So you really, you really think you’ve had a pretty good life, right? Mary C. Burnham: Yes, I really do. Interviewer: Uh-huh. Well that’s great. Mary C. Burnham: I think it’s, it’s been very good. Interviewer: Thank you, Mary. Appreciate the time. Mary C. Burnham: Oh, you’re welcome [laughter]. /ad