W.W.II Pacific Theatre Letter Archive from Col. Albert Park Shaw, 1943-46, Describes Encounter with Colored Troops, Japanese surrender in Philippine, Bombing of Hiroshima

Archive of 11 letters from or to Colonel Albert Park Shaw, starting in March 1943 at Ft. Benning, GA and concluding just after the war in occupied Hokkaido. Shaw's career spanned three decades and he consistently was in active duty from W.W.II all the way through Vietnam, including being in the initial assault waves for the invasion of Kuzon in the Philippines with the 6th Infantry Division. Letters mostly sent from Shaw to his fiancé or Dad. At Luzon, Shaw writes to his fiancé about one of his friends being shot down by the Japanese" I also wrote you about Lt. Lester Brown from Pittsfield who was shot down over Jap too. He was from the same Sqdrn. (the 341st of the 304th Bomb Group). Yesterday I saw the C-54's fly over with the Jap delegation for the surrender in Manila. Don't know whether or not it was in the papers but the honor guard that met them was composed of soldiers all over 6 feet in height as a contrast to the slight Jap build." He describes an encounter with a black unit in a letter to this father, "Yes, I still am with the colored troops but have not worked with them much. They are my actual company but we work with the white infantry boys most of the time." This is a good indication of the early fits and starts of racial integration in the armed forces; Shaw is in the same company as black troops, but nevertheless they remained socially and operationally segregated. Shaw also writes on August 8, 1945, two days after the dropping of the atomic bomb, "this bomb of ours is really something... I believe it will shorten the war quite a lot. My guess is before Thanksgiving now! Shaw's final deployment in W.W.II was in the initial occupation of Hokkaido Japan, where he saw out the remainder of the war. In very good condition overall.