| P-MAN
VIII Update #18 For a day that started out as a bust, today turned out to be pretty productive. Bena was supposed to call us last night. He didn't. Joe called him at home early this morning, and learned that Bena has gone off to Ngaremlengui - and didn't take his cell phone with him. About the time we were contemplating this latest missed contact with Bena, Tangie called to say that the Governor of Peleliu had left a letter at his office down the street from our hotel, authorizing us to complete our investigations of the Waters Avenger site on Peleliu, plus several other things that we'd proposed to do on Peleliu. This is a great relief, since we want to be sure that everything we do on Peleliu has the Governor's blessing. Here's a copy of the Governor's letter to us, authorizing our proposed work on Peleliu. Then Jon Vogt, the environmental consultant who works with the Corps of Engineers, called to say he had set up a meeting between us and an elderly Japanese man who lived here during the war and worked for fisheries. His daughter had agreed to join us and to translate for him.
Dr. Kurata graciously received us at his house. He has many war-time recollections of the areas on Babeldaob in which we're interested. He was able to tell us the meaning of some of the things on the map that Vernice Stefano of the PALARIS office lent to us, and he says he has a number of other (better) maps, which he will try to find to show us. He and his daughter have agreed to come with us to Ngatpang and Aimeliik on Sunday, to possibly point out some of the locations that we've been unable to figure out from tribunal transcripts. This could turn out to be a breakthrough in interpreting some of the testimony that includes names of things and places that we've been unable to reconcile with present-day maps. Tonight at 7:00, Pat did his annual presentation on the BentProp effort at Sam's. It was attended by more than 40 people, all of whom had to brave the annual Pat-presentation rainstorm to get there. As usual, he gave an informative and entertaining talk that held the group's attention and generated some excellent questions and observations.
Tomorrow we're planning to make a day trip back to Peleliu to finish our investigation there. - Reid |
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