December 1945. The bombs have stopped falling, but Tokyo is still smoldering.
My grandfather always dreamed of publishing the story of his unforgettable week there—just months after Japan’s surrender—when two twenty-something GIs from Guam, armed with nothing but a seven-day pass and cases of black-market cigarettes, landed in the enemy capital they’d helped burn.
What follows is the most extraordinary week of the Pacific War: treasure hunts on the ashes of the Ginza, back-alley deals, dinner with the enemy, and friendships no one back home would ever believe.
Written in raw 1945 enlisted-man slang on pages that sat forgotten for nearly eight decades, Two GIs in Tokyo isn’t just a war memoir. It’s a firsthand account of two American soldiers exploring and mingling freely in post-surrender Tokyo, revealing how the lines between conquerors and conquered blurred in a city still reeling—and showing a side of victory, humanity, and connection history rarely captures.
Eighty years later, that dream is finally real: I’ve published his memoir in his honor, so the world can walk those streets with Mel and Bob one more time.
