NEWS REPORT:

    Ed Hoffman, a USS Emmon's survivor, had been contacted in May by the Nippon Television News (the largest news network in Japan) for an interview dealing with the Emmons sinking in World War II and the discovery of the Emmon's wreck in April.  It would be for a program to be aired sometime in July of 2001.
 
    Some of the questions asked at the interview were:

     1)  Please tell us your whereabouts at the time of the kamikaze attack on USS Emmons.
     2)  How has the sinking of the USS Emmons affected your life?
     3)  Looking back on your experiences of that time, what do you think of war?
          What do you think of peace?

     The director's goal for this program was to stress to the Japanese public how imperative it is to value peace above all.  In order to get this message across, the pain of war as it was experienced on both sides must be communicated.

    The news media visited for several days flying in from their office in Tokyo to Ed's home for the interview.  Was the interview a success?  You'll have to judge for yourself if you see the program.  Shown here are the news crew as they left after a hard days interview:

    The story the team developed started with the discovery by Japanese fishermen of oil leaking to the surface off the coast of Okinawa.  This leads to the discovery by scuba divers of the wreck of the USS EMMONS.  The camera work in showing the wreck by the TV crew was exceptionally fine work.  The pictures were of excellent quality of the presentation was further enhanced by showing a picture of what the section of the ship being shown on the wreck looked like before it was damaged.  This turned out to be very informative as to what part of the ship was actually being viewed.

    The VCR tape of the program (provided by the News Team) was viewed 8-12-01 by Ed Hoffman (USS EMMONS), Al Macklin (USS ELLYSON) and Ernie Herr (USS O'Bannon).  The three old destroyer sailors were impressed by what they saw.  Ed Hoffman was a survivor of the sinking and Al Macklin was on the ship that was forced to sink the badly damaged EMMONS with five inch gunfire to keep it from drifting into Japanese controlled waters off Okinawa.  Ernie Herr from the USS O'Bannon, wrote the story of the sinking of the Emmons.  Thus, all three sailors were involved and very much interested in the development of the News Team's story.

    The Team explored the wreck of the EMMONS using underwater photos of exceptionally fine detail and color, then the camera switched to the US Navy's printed record of the ship's casualties and survivor list with the camera panning down to Ed Hoffman's name.  This provided the opportunity for the story to present Ed's life as it is today showing his home, his wife and how they live today even with a trip to church on Sunday by Ed and his wife.  Finally, a showing of Ed's and his wife's complete family with children and grandchildren.

    If by this time the viewer was wondering where all of this was going, the producer of this documentary was now providing an answer, after the commercial.

    The story now turned to a Japanese kamikaze flier, twenty four year old Masao Kanai who died
doing his best to sink the EMMONS.  Of course there were hundreds of kamikaze fliers in the air this day and one might wonder how this particular flier was selected.  The producers of this story were not without show business savvy however and appear to have picked what seemed to be the most handsome man in Japan.  An interview with the brother of this fine looking flier indicated that Masao not only had fine looks but was also a fine gentleman.

    The story progressed with an interview with a distinguishing looking lady who had exchanged some fifty or more letters with Nasao and although never meeting the flier in these wartime conditions, the conclusion could easily be drawn that this could have quite possibly been the flier's bride if he had survived the war.  A wonderful fine looking gentleman and a lovely distinguished young lady and, after seeing Ed Hoffman's family,  perhaps some thoughts into what could have been for this fine looking couple.

    The final point (and probably the main point of the story) was made that when Masao Kanai climbed into his plane as he prepared for take-off, his plane had only enough fuel for a one way trip to the combat area.  In other words, he was already dead and this was at the hands of his fellow countrymen.  Whether he had encountered the EMMONS or not, it made no difference, he would not be back.

    A war story was wonderfully done, it appeared to me.  Will the Japanese people as a whole ever view it?  Probably not, most Japanese are still not ready to face up to what they call over there The Pacific War which they would have probably won had it not been for the bomb, so many think.  Good luck to that wonderful news team, they were exceptionally well qualified for the job they did.  We enjoyed their company and hope they do more stories.

    This account was shown in Japan at 12:30 a.m.  As indicated, it appears that Japan is not yet ready for a prime time showing.