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Thursday, May 6, 1943

May 6, 1943

JFK wrote a letter to his lifelong friend Lemoyne Billings. He described a sobering incident that occurred to him during the first day of his arrival in the Solomon Islands. His troop transport ship was attacked by Japanese warplanes and the captain of the ship was killed in the raid. One of the Japanese pilots was shot down and rather than surrending, took out his pistol while floating next to the ship and starting firing at the sailors watching him from the deck. As Kennedy recounts,

That slowed me a bit, the thought of him sitting in the water – battling an entire ship… It brought home very strongly how long it’s going to take to finish the war.

The Japanese pilot was killed by a sailor on deck who shot him in the head.

[23,91]

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1943

January

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March

628

April

1425

May

1561030

June

3

July

151919232427293031

August

11812

September

11526

October

125788910181830

November

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December

15

1944

January

7823

February

51223

March

8

June

13

August

112131617

September

2341014

December

2627

1945

February

7920

March

116

April

28

August

67

October

2

November

11

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