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Danton Burroughs
From Tarzana, California
Memories from the
Danton Burroughs
Family Album 
Major E. R. Jack Burroughs
. . . AND NOW. . . IN THE VERY WORDS OF MR. BURROUGHS. . .
Excerpts from the Wartime Letters of 
the Oldest Correspondent in the WWII Pacific Theatre

Edgar Rice Burroughs
1298 Kapiolani Boulevard
Honolulu  T H
1942

Collated by Bill Hillman


The letters are to daughter Joan Burroughs unless otherwise stated

January 10, 1942
As far as I can gather, I, at least, shall be here for the duration, as they are making no provisions for the evacuation of able bodied men.  If Hulbert enlists here, he also may be here for the duration.
The work that I am doing here is inconsequential in the extreme. There already are two other alleged humorists writing for the same page of the paper.  One of us would be one too many.  Furthermore, writing against an editor and a military censor leaves one practically nothing to say, with an excellent chance that that will be deleted.
The civilian morale here has been fine, but I look for it to crack one of these days if some of the restrictions placed upon civilian life are not lessened.  Coop people up in their homes from 6 P.M. to 6 A.M. daily, day in and day out, week in and week out, with the assurance that it will probably be for the duration is going to play hell with morale. The civilians here have responded splendidly in the emergency, and they can't understand why they shouldn't now be trusted as much as Londoners are trusted over there. 
This tennis has helped to bring our weights down.  This morning, Hulbert weighed 174 and I 175. 
We are well and far from downhearted.  We find a great deal to laugh about.  Wish something would happen.  Had four earthquake shocks at 4:45 the other morning, and they helped a little.  Perhaps the Japs will come back and break the monotony.  They'll get a wonderful reception this time if they do.
January 28, 1942
We feel terribly isolated here, in addition to feeling like rats in a trap! . . .  And I doubt very much that I could get home, even if I tried to; which I am not. I don't want to leave as long as Hulbert is here.
I have quit writing my silly column and am going to work with Jack Halliday and others on a radio program for KGMB, which they hope will prove good enough for the network; so you may hear the sweet strains of my voice some day when you tune in on CBS. As this will require much of my time, I cannot conduct a column too. It has been sort of fun; but bucking a newspaper editor, a military censor, and, apparently, the WCTU and the Epworth League, and probably the PTA and the advertisers has rather cramped my well known style. Even a little "damn" was cut out of one story I told - and the damn was the whole point of the story.
I hope that Jack does not enlist and is not drafted. Under present circumstances he should not serve. I know that he will be anxious to, but he should not. With Hulbert it was different: he has no wife and he isn't going to have a baby - I hope. He makes a swell looking soldier, and he'll make a swell soldier. You would be very proud of him.
Thanks for the Mainland prices. There is not much difference between these and the tops set here by the military governor.  Without the military governor, some of these highbinders here would rob us right and left.  In many ways martial law is an improvement on that furnished by politicians.
Went all through Hickam Field and Wheeler Field and saw many interesting things.  It was a highly instructive and reassuring trip.  The morale is high. ... The highest hope of officers and men is that the Japs will come back. 
Yesterday, Headquarters phoned me that authorization for a flight in a Flying Fortress had been obtained for me. . . . hoping my Fortress spots a Jap sub. Wouldn't that be a thrill?
A Pathe Newsreel man dropped in to see me yesterday.  He told me that he and Hulbert are working on a motion picture of army life, Hulbert having been loaned to him by the Air Force. . . .he is considered the top photographer of HAF. 
Tomorrow I go to the pistol range to try to qualify with a .45 Colt for a permit to carry a gun - necessary for all members of the new BMTC.
March 9, 1942
[Letter to Jim Pierce] I think Hollywood gives one a wrong slant on human nature.  There are a lot of damn swell people there, but there are also more heels to the square inch than any other place I have ever been.

Am looking forward with keen interest to the success of your venture in Nogales. When I was there 45 years ago, we didn't have no friends south of the Rio Grande.  I suppose the old place has changed. As I recall it, it was then an aggregation of saloons separated by an International Boundary line.
You are not such a very long way from where I once chased Apaches and, fortunately, did not catch up with them.   It was on the Gila near Duncan.   I helped load a trainload of Mexican cattle at Nogalews for Sweetzer & Burroughs of Yale, Idaho. Lew Sweetzer had gone down into Mexico and bought an entire brand. What they delivered at Nogales were about the size of jackrabbits; but by that time Lew was up in Montana, and Harry had to accept what was delivered.
He [Hully] is now a Private First Class, and should be addressed Pfc Hulbert Burroughs!  He was, and is, immensely popular at the hotel. 
I am quite busy. As Public Relations Officer of BMTC, the guard regiment composed of some 1200 Caucasian citizens, I write publicity for the local papers. I have a BMTC sergeant photographer detailed to take pictures for me. I have also been detailed to drill all regimental recruits - a job I like. I instruct them two afternoons a week and on Sunday morning on this side of the Island, and this morning my C.C. phoned me and said that Kailua had asked that I come over there and drill them Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Kailua is on the Windward side of Oahu. However, I can't do that if I have to use my own car, on account of gasoline rationing; but the C.C. said he would try to get me a squad car - I suppose he meant a police squad car - to drive me over and back.
I like it here; and beside that, I want to be near Hulbert. There is just enough excitement to keep one keyed up.
If you give up your home in the Valley, I don't see why Emma doesn't take it; as I understand that she finds the Bellagio place much too large and consequently an unnecessary burden.
Some day I hope to build me a shack on the tract at Tarzana. At present my plans consist of a tennis court and not much else. I try to play several sets a day here.
A story could be written around our hotel. There are defense workers, G-Men, Army and Navy officers and their wives, school teachers, business, bankers, and what-have-you.
April 15, 1942
The object of my present affections - BMTC - is commencing to take splendid shape. I cannot write you the details, as those contain many military secrets.   But I can give you a laugh: I am now a major. I have been for more than a week, but the inmates of the Niumalu Hotel only learned of it yesterday evening, with the result that they threw an impromptu party for me. 
Hulbert has taken pictures of me, and I of him in our uniforms. . . . You can just see my correspondents brassard (green with a red C).
We have had our typhoid and small pox immunization. . . . I guess the only other shots I am likely to get during my few remaining years on this interesting planet may be administered by Adolph's little yellow brothers.   I'll have some of the same for them - if I'm not too damned scared. They say that everyone is scared in a blitz - soldiers and all. I just hope I don't run and hide under a sofa.
May 1, 1942
I landed here just two years before - on May 1st 1940.  I expected to be here only a few months.  Our lives and the lives of the rest of the 150,000,000 have been completely changed.  Mine, certainly, has been radically changed; and it finds me happy and contented, in good physical condition, and still with three of the finest children any man ever had.
Major Steer, the regular army officer detailed assist in the training of the BMTC, took me on a reconnaissance tour of xxxxxxx ridge. . . We drove in his command car up a military road to about 1600 feet elevation and then hiked down over a steep and rough terrain of lava rock, cacti, high lantana, and slippery wet grass, much of the time. I fell three times and learned that my bones are no more brittle now than they were a hundred years ago, I fell once across a rock with all my weight on my lower leg. and nothing broke.  Steer fell twice and nearly made it a third time on the edge of a four foot excavation. Then yesterday the entire regiment hiked up and down.  They didn't all get to the top.  I stopped at about 1400 feet because the spikes of my golf shoes had made about a dozen sore spots on each foot.  They weren't intended for walking on lava rock. There's life in the old carcass yet.
I am Plans & Training Officer for the regiment.  I have a staff of three BMTC officers - a captain, a 1st Lieut., and a 2nd Lieut.  I plan all regimental exercises and drills.  We are in charge of the target range and responsible for the instruction of all recruits.  This work takes up all of  my time. I try to get in a little tennis every day to keep me physically fit, but many days I have to miss.  I enjoy it all immensely.  I feel that I am doing something, however minor it may be, in the war effort that the nation is putting forth.
May 20, 1942
Cecile Burnside is the wife of a submarine commander.  She hasn't seen him since October or November.  She has had a couple of cables from him filed at "Sansorigine".  The first one had everybody in the hotel searching atlases to locate Sansorigine. . . . Finally, some one realized that it was French for "without origin".  The location of his sub is, of course, a military secret.
One meets many interesting people at this "Crossroads of the Pacific".  They make me feel like a life-long shut-in. Many of the people at the hotel are as familiar with the Orient or Germany or France as you are with Van Nuys.  Now that I might travel, I can't get off this little island; and , if I could, there is no place to go.
I wonder what life will be like after the war is over.  A city lighted at night will be a strange sight to me, as will the freedom of the streets after dark.  I feel that I shall always be gasolene and rubber conscious when I drive.  I shall wonder if tomorrow I shall have butter or bacon.  If I can buy nails or thumb tacks or rubber bands.  If I can go about without running into barbed wire or sentries.  If I can mention the weather or the name of a ship.  After nearly six months of this life I have become so accustomed to it that any other will seem strange and unreal.   I hope that I live to see it.
June 12, 1942
A few outstanding thrills come to each of us during a lifetime. An hour ago I experienced one of my greatest. It was when I ran into Hulbert on the Niumalu Hotel grounds and saw that he was wearing an officer's overseas cap and the gold bars of a 2nd Lieutenant. I damn near cried. . . . He has achieved what nearly all or my life I wanted to achieve. It is just as though I had won a commission in the army. Only more so. I am prouder and happier than I ever could have been had it been I.
Hulbert says that every one at the post is terrifically elated over the Midway victory. Hulbert tried to get permission to go along on a bomber, but was refused.
You say you get lonesome for Jim. The navy wife I play tennis with hasn't seen her husband since last October or November, nor has she had one letter from him. Just a few cables. He commands a sub.
He [Hully] used to be something of a pacifist. That was a long time ago. Now he would like to go out and shoot Japs before breakfast every morning. I rather hope that when the war is over he stays in the army. I think it would be fine for him. . . . It would be an excellent career for him in which he could enjoy and develop his civilian profession without financial worries (unless he gets married).
We had some tense days here until our boys knocked 'em for a loop at Midway. We thought they were headed for Hawaii, as they may have been. The BMTC stood guard every night. I got off easy on account of my exalted rank.
June 24, 1942
[Letter from Jack and Jane] I like the name, which proves that I am not an orthodox grandparent. Not even running true to form as a relative, all of whom are usually disgusted with any name selected by parents.  John Ralston Burroughs will make a swell monacker for publicity purposes.  Did you read Selznik's article in a recent Satevepost?  He attributed my success largely to my name.  On the other hand, Michael Arlen stated that no first class writer had three names.  I never have had any confidence in starving Armenians since we had one cooking for us.
I saw a new Tarzan picture advertised in this morning's paper.  I think it is called Tarzan Finds a Treasure, or something. I got down to the first show at 9:30 A.M. and found a line over a block long on one side of the street and the sidewalk on the other side jammed with people waiting.  Several policemen were on duty regulating the wild-eyed crowd.  So I didn't see the picture.
July 18, 1942
If you don't get anything but weeds, exercise, and fresh air out of your Victory Garden, you will still be ahead of the game.  Then you can go to the market and buy radishes for half what they cost you to raise them, but with nothing like the fun and excitement.  You will doubtless recall some of my futile efforts to make Tarzana Ranch self-supporting. Then there were the Angora goats we inherited from General Otis, that required two full-time guardians with Winchesters and dogs to protect them from mountain lions. And after all that and more, they left all their expensive Angora fleece on the sage brush and chaparral in the hills.  And the pure bred Guernsey cows which gave birth to nothing but bull calves - worth about $2.   But we got exercise, fresh air, fun, and excitement.
If you take out War Risk Insurance, as you should, you don't stand to lose if your house is bombed. And I should not be at all surprised if the West Coast got it before the war is over. The Japs have taken about everything they've gone after except Midway, and Yamamoto has boasted that he will invade America and make peace in the White House.
You will enjoy the dude ranch. Especially the riding. That will be fun. When I was down in that part of the country forty-five years ago there was a lot of country to ride in, and I presume there still is.  I don't know what else it could be good for.
I still give all my time to BMTC. The five battalions and the recruits drill three times a week at different locations comprising an area of some fifteen square miles, not to mention rifle ranges ten miles apart. I am supposed to cover all of this. In between times I have enough paper work to keep me fairly busy. I also have to study manuals to brush up on a lot of stuff I hadn't given a thought for twenty-four years, as well as to learn the modern training methods.

August 5, 1942
I had lunch and spent all afternoon yesterday with officers of an Anti Aircraft artillery regiment.  Gave a talk to twenty-five or thirty officers at an officers' school after lunch relative to possible co-ordination of BMTC and AA units in event of an emergency.  The idea was theirs, not mine.  I felt that the BMTC had been highly honored. I met the commanding AA general and innumerable other officers, and was taken to some very interesting and one very secret place.  Met two negro AA majors.  I saw no distinction shown between white and black.  White officers told me that these men were tops.  Two of the interesting places I was taken were officers quarters where highballs were served. Very interesting!
Sunday, I was guest speaker at a dinner given by the Schofield Barracks Quarterbacks Club at the Chun Hoon residence.  General Green and I drove over together in his car.  The club is composed of officers and enlisted men interested in athletics.  It is run much along the lines of civilian service clubs, with a lot of hooey and joshing.  Although there were gnerals, colonels, and what not present, there was no deference to rank.  A sergeant was mc, and he kidded brass hats and non-coms quite impartially.  Fortified by numerous highballs, I got through my speech without being thrown out on my ear.
Saturday, I am to spend the day with a Lieutenant Colonel and his Tank Group.  I shall probably be a hospital case before night.  From what I hear, the sensations are much like those experienced by a die in a dice box.  However, I am looking forward to the experience.
September 11, 1942
Hully is a lucky boy to get this wonderful assignment.  I wish that I night tell you something about it.  Chuck said that it is so important that they had to send their best man. . . .  Fortunately for Hulbert, his assignments often throw him into immediate contact with the brass hats.
It was cute of Mike to buy Victory Stamps.  I don't know where he gets that trait.  Certainly not from the Burroughs side. . . . I had a sweet letter from Joanne.  She has probably received my reply by this time.  I am delighted that she liked the little lei.  I thought it was cute.
About once a month I go to my doctor for a sort of check up.  I went this morning.  I have been suffering from insomnia. Can't seem to sleep more than eight to ten hours a night.  Last night I slept only eleven hours, with the result that the dining room was closed when I awoke.  Had to go down town for breakfast.  The doctor says he is afraid that I shall live not being able to find anything wrong with me. I told him that I was worried because I felt so well. I have no business to feel so well at my age.  I think he agreed with me.
Yesterday, I resigned from the BUTC.  I have been contemplating it for months.  I found it increasingly impossible to work efficiently under my immediate superior.  The regimental commander said that he didn't blame me for feeling the way I do, but that he wouldn't accept my resignation. . . .  Since February I have worked continuously and conscientiously for BMTC. I have given it a lot of thought and study and worked long hours.  Now, I feel like a schoolboy at the beginning of long vacation.  I think I shall try writing a story. 
He [Captain Phil Bird]  takes me all sorts of places to see all sorts of things.  With him, I have inspected many anti-aircraft batteries, had the intricate details of their aiming and firing explained to me, have fired one, have lunched with colonels, majors, and captains.  I have been shown all over the great Naval Air Base at Keneohe, inspected a PBY, spent a forenoon on Ford Island (in Pearl Harbor), been entertained by the officers of a tank company and invited to drive one whenever I wished.  I have been out by day and at night to watch anti-aircraft firing at a target towed by a plane.  I have had a series of most interesting experiences. . . . Why he wants to drag an antiquity around with him, I wouldn't know.  Perhaps because we both like to laugh. 

October 31, 1942
You have probably heard all about Hulbert's exciting experiences at Guadalcanal.  Sent copies of a Honolulu paper, recounting part of them, to Jack.   The plane he was in was under anti-aircraft fire from land batteries over Buka and from thirty-eight Jap warships over Shortland harbor.  It had running fights with Zeros, two of them, with a total of about twenty-five Zeros participating.   The plane was hit with machine guns and one shell which failed to explode, but remained in the plane.   After they got back to Guadalcanal, they were bombed from the air, shelled by shore batteries, and by Jap warships all the rest of the day and all night.  The latter dropped 14" shells, among others.  They took off the next morning while the shore battery was shelling the field.  Some experience!
I am impatiently awaiting to be sent down there "somewhere".  My correspondent's credentials finally came through from the War Department. and I am now fully accredited as a United Press correspondent.  The UP bureau chief here has received cabled instructions from New York to send me out.  He is only waiting for a spot to send me and a place on a plane.  If my lifetime experience runs true to form, the war will be over when I arrive.  I always get to a fire after it is out.
Have been outfitting for the past week or so.  There were many things to get.  Fortunately, the correspondent's uniform is the same as an army officers.  Same as I wore as a BMTCer.  So I have plenty. 
Things are dull here.  I shall be glad to get away.  Playing bridge or poker in a hot, stuffy, blacked out room filled with cigarette smoke no longer charms me.  Had it not been for Cadmus or the Phoenicians, I should be bored stiff.
Just talked with the UP bureau chief on the phone.  He wants me to go out with him Monday to see Chuck Shelton and Hully, to decide the best place to send me.  It looks as though I might shove off at last.  Perhaps I can bring you back a Jap as a memento. All my life I have wanted to be a war correspondent - to really see things first hand and write about them.  After all, I am a professional writer; Not a professional soldier.
Source: The Danton Burroughs and ERB, Inc. Collection
Copyright 2003 ~ Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.


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The Dean of WWII Correspondents in the Pacific
Edgar Rice Burroughs: The War Years
INTRODUCTION & CONTENTS
ERB WWII Time Line: 1940-1942 ERB WWII Time Line: 1943-1945 Photos  40-42   Photos 43-45
1940 Letters 1940 Letter Highlights 1940 Illustrated Timeline
1941 Letters 1941 Letter Highlights 1941 Illustrated Timeline
Pearl Harbor: Eye Witness Account USS Shaw / ERB Connection ERB-Truman H. Landon Connection
1942 Letters 1942 Letter Highlights 1942 Illustrated Timeline
1943 Letters 1943 Letter Highlights 1943 Illustrated Timeline
1944 Letters 1944 Letter Highlights 1944 Illustrated Timeline
1945 Letters 1945 Letter Highlights 1945 Illustrated Timeline
ERB: War Correspondent Pre- and Post-Wartime Timelines ERB Visits WWII Australia   Text Only
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