12 September 1945

438^th AAA AW BN

APO 513 % Postmaster, N.Y.

12 September, 1945

Nancy

Wilma, darling –

It’s about two years ago that you were back at Holyoke and were coming weekends or on the holidays and I was seeing you each and every opportunity I could. I hardly knew you then and I left not long afterwards. And that will never cease to be a source of wonder for me – that I knew you so little before I left and yet feel so much a part of you now. Our letters to each other really served to bring us together and hold us together. No doubt there’s a lot about each other that we don’t know – but I know enough of your qualities already to know why I love you and to realize that my love is strong and sincere. I do love you in a way I never realized was possible and it’s very very satisfying, darling.

Gee – I’ve just been trying to get Frank Morse on the phone. I spoke to a Captain instead who told me Frank had just gone to bed – after having played poker all night. It’s now 0930. I didn’t disturb him and I’ll call tomorrow. But I did find out that the hospital is no longer operational, that they move out of Chalms on the 20th of this month and have a so-called readiness date for overseas movement on 8 October. Dammit – everybody seems to be moving out except us. Of course – Frank won’t be able to be discharged. According to the latest – Majors must have 100 points – and Frank hasn’t got that. Captains need 85 – so I’m safe with 90. One thing – when I do get home – I ought to be discharged shortly afterwards. I never had a specialist’s rating and they can’t possibly find me essential now. We are now down to 100 in officer’s points and we expect to lose several very soon – but no one knows for sure.

No mail yesterday and another dull, rainy day. I spent part of it reading Louis Bromfield’s “Wild is the River” – quite interesting, but not as well written as some others of his – although I haven’t yet finished it. In the evening – I went along to a U.S.O. show – something I do rarely. Although I miss an occasionally good show – on the whole, I miss some terrible ones, and in case you don’t know, sweetheart – there is absolutely nothing in this world as terrible as a bad U.S. O. show. The one last night was good. It lasted only an hour, but was fast and clever. We had a coke and donuts at the Red Cross and then back to quarters. I read in bed until 2315 – another habit I hadn’t exercised for along time. There’s nothing much on the docket for today except to wait for mail. I may go to a French movie tonite – but I’m not sure. I am sure of one thing though – it won’t make any difference what I do once I get home – as long as I’m with you, dear. The thought alone is wonderful but I just have to continue to be patient – just a little while longer I hope.

Have to stop now, sweetheart. Hope to hear from you today. Love to the folks – and all my sincerest love and devotion is yours, dear –

Greg

* TIDBIT *

about German Reparations to the Allies

The Guardian (UK) published an article called "Making Germany Pay" on 12 September 1945. Here is that article.

The United Nations are busy making out a bill to present to Germany for payment on account of reparations. Reparations may be put into two main categories - namely, those in kind and those in currency. After the last war reparations were fixed in terms of currency - that is to say, a certain sum of money was agreed upon as the amount Germany had to pay over a period of years.

This method of exacting compensation worked only for so long as other countries were prepared to lend money to Germany. It broke down for reasons which were as much concerned with the amount of the indemnity as with the methods of paying it. But ever since the idea of reparations in currency has been rather discredited. The Germans themselves, in their treatment of occupied countries during the war, have not been deterred by the so-called transfer difficulties with which their propaganda made much play after 1918.

There was a sweet simplicity about their solution. They took such assets - machinery and the people to work it - as they required from occupied countries and shipped them back to Germany. This is a method which is now in great favour among certain of the United Nations, but clearly if it is applied to the removal of capital assets it ensures that in the long run no other reparations can be paid.

The various United Nations approach the problem from different points of view according to the nature of their own economies. An interesting account of how the problem of reparations appears in a different guise to the Russians, the Americans, and ourselves is contained in the latest numbers of the Bulletin of "the Oxford Institute of Statistics".

The author, Mr. F. A. Barchardt points out that the production of goods and services by the paying country is a problem akin to the one which all countries had to face during the war. It consists essentially in producing a given quantity of goods and services which were not available for the current consumption of the population, but were expended in the war effort. After the war, in the guise of reparations, these goods and services - the consumption of the items being obviously changed - have to be transferred abroad. It is this problem of transfer, whether it be in kind or in currency, which is the crux of the matter.

Reparations as "Dumping"
If the receiving country is in a state of full employment the Government can sell the goods and use the proceeds for the public benefit - for example, the reduction of taxes or the provision of better social services. However, if the receiving country has resources which are unemployed then the reparations will be resented as being a substitute for goods which might be produced at home and thus create employment. The point made in the bulletin is that a country like Soviet Russia, which has a fully planned economy, may "easily plan to order those goods and services on reparation account which fit in with the over-all plan of the economy ... The opposite would seem to be true for the United States."

If the American economy tends to become under-employed not only will export surpluses be regarded as an essential prop to domestic employment but also "reparation goods imported into the country will be felt as annoying competition by the industries having unemployed capacities and lead to agitation for protection again 'reparation dumping'".

The position of Britain is somewhat in between the other two. There is a greater likelihood of over-employment here than there is in the United States, while the degree of national planning, though likely to increase, will be less than that of Russia. It is nevertheless hard to imagine the sort of things which Britain can receive from Germany without certain sections of industry in this country regarding such receipts as a threat to themselves.

The difficulties in the way of designing a uniform economic policy in their treatment of Germany which will suit the three great Powers are obvious. But if present tendencies persist so that the capital equipment of Germany is reduced to a very low level the future chances of extracting reparations in kind or in currency are exceedingly remote.

11 September 1945

438^th AAA AW BN

APO 513 % Postmaster, N.Y.

11 September, 1945

Nancy

My dearest sweetheart –

This month is slipping by very rapidly and not a heluva lot has happened yet. We lose one more officer tomorrow morning. He has 101 points – by virtue of one-each per papoose – male, and he’s a happy man. We decided to make him happier last nite – and on the spur of the moment, we had a binge. We hadn’t had one in some time – and it’s a long long time since we had one like the one last nite. The only reason the chandeliers didn’t come down is because we don’t have chandeliers. When the girls who came in to clean – saw the living room this a.m. – I think they felt like quitting.

I don’t really believe any of us really drank so much, dear. But there’s no use denying that everyone is keyed up – under more tension than usual – and a little alcohol merely serves as an outlet. At least that’s my interpretation for some of the wildness.

With officers down to 101 leaving – we’re really going to feel the pressure any day now. We have one officer with 100, two with 99, two with 98, one with 97, one 96, and 4 with 95. If all those go in the next two weeks or so – I’ll soon end up as battalion commander, if I don’t watch out. I sure wish I could be writing you that I was leaving any day. But it’ll come, sure as shooting.

Well, again no mail from you – but the whole battalion is short on mail, so I can’t blame it on Montreal. I’m anxious to hear more about that. Do you realize that I left you last way up in the styx of Rutland, Vt.?

Say – who does that kind Hellfont think he is, anyway – or have I already registered my indignation in another letter? He is persistent – and unfair, too, considering the fact that I’m not around; it’s not very soldierly of him – to say the least, darling – but I’m so glad your principles haven’t changed. It’s certainly comforting.

Boy that was a piece of gossip in re Dr. Alperte and his wife and newborn. If the story being passed around is not true – then it’s a nasty piece of business. On the other hand, if it is true – it’s not very nice either. I can’t understand why – if they did get into trouble like that – they didn’t marry earlier. Dr. Freedman is a pretty well-known pediatrician in town and I can imagine how things hummed.

Gosh, darling, it’s already 1000 and I have to speak to the battalion at 1015 – so I’d better take off. But not before I remind you yet again that you’re the dearest thing in the world to me, sweetheart, and that I love you with all the sincerity of which I am capable. Always remember that, dear. And now, so long and love to the folks.

All my everlasting love, darling

Greg.

* TIDBIT *

about Harry Stimson's Memorandum to Truman
about Letting the Soviet Union in on Atomic Bomb Secrets


"The only deadly sin I know is cynicism."
Henry L. Stimson

Henry Lewis Stimson (21 September 1867 – 20 October 1950) was an American statesman, who served as Secretary of War, Governor-General of the Philippines, and Secretary of State. He was a conservative Republican, and a leading lawyer in New York City. He is best known as the civilian Secretary of War during World War II, chosen for his aggressive stance against Nazi Germany, with responsibility for the Army and Air Force. He managed the drafting and training of 12 million soldiers and airmen, the purchase and transportation to battlefields of 30% of the nation's industrial output, and the building and decision to use the atomic bomb. He communicated his thoughts on the political aspects of the U.S. keeping the secrets of the bomb from the Soviet Union after V-J Day in the following letter and memorandum.

Memorandum on the Effects of Atomic Bomb
From: Henry Stimson, Secretary of War
To: Harry S Truman, President of the United States of America
Date: 11 September 1945

Mr. Stimson, who did not enjoy a good relationship with President Harry S. Truman, retired from office on his 78th birthday, 21 September 1945, just 10 days after dating this Letter and Memorandum. Click here to read the above-letter along with the entire Memorandum. Here are some excerpts from the Memorandum:

... To put the matter concisely, I consider the problem of our satisfactory relations with Russia as not merely connected with but as virtually dominated by the problem of the atomic bomb. Except for the problem of the control of the bomb, those relations, while vitally important, might not be immediately pressing. The establishment of relations of mutual confidence between her and us could afford to wait the slow progress of time. But with the discovery of the bomb they became immediately emergent. Those relations may be perhaps irretrievably embittered by the way in which we approach the solution of the bomb with Russia. For if we fail to approach them now and merely continue to negotiate with them, having this weapon rather ostentatiously on our hip, their suspicions and their distrust of our purposes and motives will increase. It will inspire them to greater efforts in an all-out effort to solve the problem. If the solution is achieved in that spirit, it is much less likely that we will ever get the kind of covenant we may desperately need in the future. This risk, is, I believe, greater than the other, inasmuch as our objective must be to get the best kind of international bargain we can - one that has some chance of being kept and saving civilization not for five or for twenty years, but forever.

The chief lesson I have learned in a long life is that the only way you can make a man trustworthy is to trust him; and the surest way to make him untrustworthy is to distrust him and show your distrust.

If the atomic bomb were merely another though more devastating military weapon to be assimilated into our pattern of international relations, it would be one thing. We could then follow the old custom of secrecy and nationalistic military superiority relying on international caution to prescribe the future use of the weapon as we did with gas. But I think the bomb instead constitutes merely a first step in a new control by man over the forces of nature too revolutionary and dangerous tofit into the old concepts. I think it really caps the climax of the age between man's growing technical power for destructiveness and his psychological power of self-control and group control-his moral power. If so, our method of approach to the Russians is a question of the most vital importance in the evolution of human progress.

... My idea of an approach to the Soviets would be a direct proposal after discussion with the British that we would be prepared in effect to enter an arrangement with the Russians, the general purpose of which would be to control and limit the use of the atomic bomb as an instrument of war and so far as possible to direct and encourage the development of atomic power for peaceful and humanitarian purposes. Such an approach might more specifically lead to the proposal that we would stop work on the further improvement in, or manufacture of, the bomb as a military weapon, provided the Russians and the British would agree to do likewise. It might also provide that we would be willing to impound what bombs we now have in the United States provided the Russians and the British would agree with us that in no event will they or we use a bomb as an instrument of war unless all three Governments agree to that use. We might also consider including in the arrangement a covenant with the U.K. and the Soviets providing for the exchange of benefits of future development whereby atomic energy may be applied on a mutually satisfactory basis for commercial or humanitarian purposes.

... I emphasize perhaps beyond all other considerations the importance of taking this action with Russia as a proposal of the United States - backed by Great Britain but peculiarly the proposal of the United States. Action of any international group of nations, including many small nations who have not demonstrated their potential power or responsibility in this war would not, in my opinion, be taken seriously by the Soviets. The loose debates which would surround such proposal, if put before a conference of nations, would provoke but scant favor from the Soviets. As I say, I think this is the most important point in the program.

10 September 1945

438^th AAA AW BN

APO 513 % Postmaster, N.Y.

10 September, 1945

Nancy

Dearest darling Wilma –

Say do you know that I already have about 65 days accrued leave coming to me? An officer gets 2½ days a month or 30 days per year and may accrue his leave up to a total of 120 days. The first year in the Army I accrued only 10 days; the second year – 22 days, and last year 30 days. What does it mean? Not a heck of a lot except that we get paid for that good time when we get discharged. It’s funny how all these things keep coming up about this stage of the game. Everything hinges on the subject of discharge – but what better subject could we talk about these days and nights.

Gee yesterday was a long, long day, dear. It was Sunday, cloudy. The courts were wet so we couldn’t play tennis. We sat around in the p.m. and then someone suggested shooting crap. That’s something we’ve never done – and I – never in my life. Well – I watched for an hour or so and then the disease got me. I had 700 odd francs in my wallet; I mean – it made an odd figure - and I decided I’d lose that. Actually I ended up winning 1000 francs – and now I still have an odd figure – dammit. But that is one dangerous game – and not for me. They started out light and kept raising the stakes. The dental officer ended up by losing $900.00 (dollars!) – yes that’s right – nine hundred. That’s what he owes and can’t pay yet. I don’t know how much he had in his wallet. And I know darn well he can’t afford it.

Well – at 1900 we went to the movies – George Raft in “Johnny Angel”. I thought it stank. And then back to quarters; read Time awhile and then to bed. Today it’s raining and another quiet day. Thursday I have court again and tomorrow I have to speak to the whole battalion. Guess the subject – yup – V.D. Boy are these boys going wild! And we used to have such an excellent record, too. I’ll be damned if I’m going to worry about it, though. I’ve done my duty in 3 years and if they want to foul up at this stage of the game – let them.

But why am I talking about things like that, sweetheart, when I should be writing only about us? I really can’t overdo telling you I love you, can I dear? I know the answer. Because if you want to hear it as often as I do – it means you always like it – and so do I. Funny how it never gets monotonous. I love you more than anything in the world, darling – and I’ll never get tired of telling you. And I thrill at the thought that we can count on our seeing and being with each other in only a matter of months – at the worst. There was a time, you remember, when it was years. And then it will be weeks – days – hours – well, you finish it, sweetheart.

I might as well stop here and dwell upon the last thought, dear. Just continue to be patient – and I’ll be back. For now, so long – and love to the folks.

All my sincerest love for always.

Greg

* TIDBIT *

about "People: Notions in Motion"

From Time Magazine (Volume XLVI, Number 11), published on 10 September 1945 comes this "PEOPLE" column.

Queen Helen, handsome mother of Rumania's King Mihai, heard that she was to be reimbursed for a personal war loss, suffered when U.S. bombers raided Brasov. En route to her from one of the raiders (Colonel Marshall R. Gray, now in Seattle) was a pair of nylons, to replace those she had torn while making royal tracks out of the city.

Princess Elizabeth of England was unofficially engaged to two foreign princes — according to rumors in each prince's country. Within eleven days Buckingham Palace denied that she was about to marry either 41-year-old Prince Regent Charles of Belgium, or 24-year-old Prince Philip of Greece.

Gabriel Pascal, British movie producer, went to Egypt to film Caesar and Cleopatra, found the Sphinx unphotogenic, imported a British-made model, left it behind after the shooting—inscribed: "With the compliments of [Cinemagnate] J. Arthur Rank."

Princess Gladys de Polignac of France's famed champagne family, Pommery (she married into it; her American mother married Le Petit Parisien's publisher), arrived in the U.S. on a Red Cross hunt for dental supplies, posed with a cluster of store teeth that was something new in costume jewelry. Item on her shopping list: four million false teeth.

Eleanor Roosevelt's future suddenly became a matter of speculation. Vassar College listed her name among some 200 submitted as possible successors next year to retiring President Henry Noble MacCracken. New York State's Republican Committee noted that her column had been "concerning itself more and more" with state and city politics, wondered aloud if she was going to run for Senator. From Hyde Park came a reminder that she had often sworn she would never run for public office. On the Vassar matter she made no comment.

Frances Perkins signed up for a temporary teaching job: two months of "management training" at Radcliffe College next winter.

Judy Garland, back in Hollywood after a long honeymoon, shared a secret with the world: she is going to have a baby next spring.

Out of the Past
Pastor Martin Niemöller, still weak from seven years of concentration-camp life, renewed an old fight (begun in 1934), to exclude Nazi-collaborating clergymen from the church, suffered two heart attacks at the German Protestant conference at Treysa.

Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb, bringing back memories of baseball's better days, battled it out at Manhattan's Polo Grounds. The plump Sultan of Swat masterminded his Eastern team to victory over the plump Nonpareil's Westerners in Esquire's annual Ail-American Boys' Game.

Gracie Hall Roosevelt, Eleanor's late brother, who once proved — to his own satisfaction — that a man could eat on $1.75 a week, left a $278,264 estate but owed more than $37,000 of it. A tax appraisal showed that his Manhattan creditors included the Hotel St. Regis ($101), Monte Carlo nightclub ($46), suburban Arrowhead Inn ($347).

Playing It Safe
Risë Stevens, Metropolitan Opera mezzo-soprano now slumming in Hollywood (Going My Way, Time to Love), had her voice insured for $1 million by Lloyd's. Premium: $10,000 a year.

Max Schmeling, who had been seized with an idea for "re-educating the youth of Germany," was told by the British Control Commission to save his strength. The one-time fighter and wartime Nazi propaganda stooge has an interest in a book-publishing firm; the commission refused the firm a publishing license.

Mme. Suzy, veteran Parisian milliner, brought her first batch of Paris hats to Manhattan since 1941, kept them temporarily under wraps, but did her best to describe them for reporters: "Hats, just hats . . . not large or heavy, but, on the other hand, not small. . . ."

Matters of Moment
The Rt. Hon. Alfred Duff Cooper, impeccable British Ambassador to France, gave a peccant Riviera innkeeper a nice demonstration of the retort diplomatic. The Ambassador, his Lady, and a motoring party of six friends lunched at the inn, got a bill for 16,000 francs (about $320). The Ambassador wrote his name on the bill, tucked it in an envelope addressed to the regional authority on price control, and called the headwaiter. "Would you be so kind as to send this," he murmured, arose, and departed.

Mohandas K. Gandhi introduced a new marital oath at the wedding of two friends, urged it on all his followers: no begetting of offspring till India wins freedom.

Colonel James Stewart got a movie star's welcome in Manhattan when he returned from two years' Air Forces service overseas. At 37, he still looked boyish, but his hair was greying. "I don't care what color it gets," he said, "as long as it stays in." He planned to go right back to cinemacting—in "anything except a war picture." Asked whether he preferred British or American girls, Jimmy looked pained. Said he: "I don't consider myself qualified to say."

Raymond B. Fosdick, president of the Rockefeller Foundation, issued a hurry-up appeal to the world to unite for self-protection against the atomic bomb. Writing in the New York Times Magazine, he observed that "brotherhood ... has suddenly become a condition of survival," guessed that if the late Wendell Willkie were titling his best-seller today he would make it: One World or NONE.

09 September 1945

438^th AAA AW BN

APO 513 % Postmaster, N.Y.

9 September, 1945

Nancy

My dearest sweetheart –

It’s Sunday morning and I shouldn’t be busy, but I am. The boys just love to drift in with all sorts of complaints and at all hours. If we were in the States and the boys were getting their weekends off for going home – there wouldn’t be one man on sick-call. But that’s the Army and you just can’t change it.

Yesterday a.m. I went to Services and enjoyed it very much. In the p.m. we did absolutely nothing – and that includes evening, too. There wasn’t even a decent movie to visit and somehow or other we couldn’t manage to whip up a Bridge game. In all – it was a very very dull Saturday evening. Today is dark and murky. If it clears up – I may be able to play some tennis. If not – I don’t know what I’ll do. It really doesn’t matter, either, darling. Like everyone else – I’m just marking time and wondering when my time will come. There’s a new scheme, a new plan, a new recommendation by a Congressman – every time you turn on the radio. If they’d all shut up and just let the Army alone – we’d get home in better time. I wish I could give you a definite date, sweetheart, but we or I just haven’t got any. They say all will be out of here by the first of the year except the 400,000 occupation troops and 300,000 service troops. I can’t for the life of me see how I’ll be a part of those 700,000 soldiers and so I should be among those out of here by the first of the year. So let’s put January as the deadline – and anything short of that – just plain gravy, dear. I’d love nothing better than to be able to write you that letter which tells you to stop writing – I’m on my way. I’ll get as much a kick out of it as you, I’m sure.

I got two letters from you yesterday and a letter from Sgt. Freeman. [See post for 01 September 1945.] He’s still in the hospital in Penn. – and I can’t help but admire his spirit. Not once has he bitched or complained – and yet I know pretty well how he must feel.

One of your letters was rather old – 22 August. You mentioned Sylvia B. – and Phil and the problem of the proper up-bringing of Sylvia. I’m not sure I understand the entire problem – but Florence used to allude to Sylvia in a very trying tone – occasionally. I gather that it isn’t a perfect set-up – and I’m sorry, because this is an important and impressionable age.

Your other letter was written in Rutland, Vt. and I enjoyed that a lot. You were certainly in good spirits – despite car trouble – and I do hope that was the last of it you had. The big kick I got was because I knew the Hotel you were referring to. I never stayed there – but I waited for a fellow one day in the lobby. I was in Rutland and all thru the Green and Berkshire Mountains one summer a long way back. It was before I started interning and a friend of mine – he was doing research in Biology at Mass. State – and I took a couple of weeks and toured New England and part of New York (Saratoga Springs.) It’s lovely country – but then, you know.

But aside from all that – I love you darling and I’m just filling in words and time – until I can hold you in my arms and tell you how much a part of me you’ve become. It’s unbelievable almost – considering how much of my life I’ve lived alone – more or less independent of others. And now I’m always thinking in terms of the two of us – and frankly, I like that so very much better. Just let me get back – that’s all I ask.

And for now, I’ll have to close, sweetheart. I hope all is well with you at home. Love to the folks and Grammy B.

And all my deepest love to you –

Greg

* TIDBIT *

about Grace Murray Hopper and the First Computer Bug


Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper

Grace Murray Hopper was born in New York City on 9 December 1906. She graduated with a BA in Mathematics from Vassar College in 1928, followed by an MA in Math and Physics from Yale University in 1930 and a PhD in Math from Yale in 1934. From Citizendium comes this:

Grace was a pioneering computer scientist and a Rear Admiral in the United States Navy. In the technical area, she is best known for the development of COBOL and other programming languages. While working for UNIVAC, she is credited with leading the development of the first English-like programming language, FLOW-MATIC. It was not the first programming language, but the first not using essentially mathematical notation, such as ALGOL or FORTRAN. IBM had put the FORTRAN scientific language in the public domain, and it became a de facto standard. Business programming, however, was quite another matter. FLOW-MATIC was UNIVAC-proprietary; IBM had its own approach that became snarled in legal matters, and there was a third competitor from the U.S. Air Force. The COBOL project began with the intention of creating an open standard.

Perhaps her best-known contribution to computing was the invention of the compiler, the intermediate program that translates English language instructions into the language of the target computer. She did this, she said, because she was lazy and hoped that “the programmer may return to being a mathematician.” Her work embodied or foreshadowed enormous numbers of developments that are now the bones of digital computing: subroutines, formula translation, relative addressing, the linking loader, code optimization, and even symbolic manipulation of the kind embodied in Mathematica and Maple.

Personally, she was admired as a leader, and mentor of creative thinking from high school to the Navy high command. She surrounded herself with reminders about thinking unconventionally. On her office wall was a clock that ran counterclockwise. In the Navy, she was known as "Grand Lady of Software," "Amazing Grace" and "Grandma Cobol". When computer speeds broke into the microsecond range, she commanded her staff to "bring her a microsecond." Puzzled, she eventually explained she wanted to see one, and sent them off to cut pieces of wire that were the length that light traveled in one microsecond; she gave these out at her presentations. She climaxed that part of the presentation by having a strong member of her staff stumble onto the stage, carrying a large, heavy reel of wire: the distance light traveled in a millisecond.

Grace began working on computers by chance, at the Bureau of Ordnance Computation Project at Harvard. One of the crucial spurs to growth in computers came from the attempt to understand the flight path of artillery shells. The mathematics of such computations is complex, requiring the services of a machine called the Harvard Mark I, which some have called the first fully functional digital computing device. The Mark I contained not just 500 miles of electrical wire, but a whopping 750,000 parts, all of which Grace Hopper used to crank out ballistic tables for the Navy's weaponry. Leaving active duty after the war's end, Dr. Hopper was a member of the Harvard University faculty and, from 1949, was employed in private industry.

On 9 September 1945 Grace carefully documented the first "Official Bug" while working on the Harvard Mark II relay-based computer. This is what was written:

Moth found trapped between points at Relay # 70, Panel F, of the Mark II Aiken Relay Calculator while it was being tested at Harvard University, 9 September 1945. The operators affixed the moth to the computer log, with the entry: "First actual case of bug being found". They put out the word that they had "debugged" the machine, thus introducing the term "debugging a computer program".

In 1988, the log, with the moth still taped by the entry, was placed in the Naval Surface Warfare Center Computer Museum at Dahlgren, Virginia.

First Computer "Bug"

It's an oft-repeated tale, but according to Computerworld, "it's got more bugs in it than Relay 70 probably ever had."

For one thing, Harvard's Mark II came online in summer of 1947, two years after the date attributed to this story. For another thing, you don't use a line like "First actual case of bug being found" if the term bug isn't already in common use. The comment doesn't make sense in that context, except as an example of engineer humour. And although Grace Hopper often talked about the moth in the relay, she did not make the discovery or the log entry.

The core facts of the story are true - including the date of 9 September and time of 15:45 hours - but that's not how this meaning of the word bug appeared in the dictionary. Inventors and engineers had been talking about bugs for more than a century before the moth in the relay incident. Even Thomas Edison used the word. Here's an extract of a letter he wrote in 1878 to Theodore Puskas, as cited in The Yale Book of Quotations (2006):

'Bugs' - as such little faults and difficulties are called - show themselves and months of intense watching, study and labour are requisite before commercial success or failure is certainly reached.

Word nerds trace the word bug to an old term for a monster - it's a word that has survived in obscure terms like bugaboo and bugbear and in a mangled form in the word boogeyman. Like gremlins in machinery, system bugs are malicious. Anyone who spends time trying to get all the faults out of a system knows how it feels: after a few hours of debugging, any problems that remain are hellspawn, mocking attempts to get rid of them with a devilish glee.

And that's the real origin of the term "bug." But we think the tale of the moth in the relay is worth retelling anyway.

As for Computerworld's opinion, they seem to have missed two points.

First, it was said in Grace's story that Harvard's Mark II was being tested in 1945. That it did not come "online" until 1947 may be very likely and does not, as Computerworld suggests, make the tale a tall one.

Second, Computerworld contends that "bug" was a term used long before Grace used it. So what? Chances are Grace and her staff had used it before with relation to other faults and difficulties. And although one of her operators affixed the moth to the page claiming it was the first computer "bug" to be found, she may have been the one to first say that "debugging" had been accomplished. No doubt, the humor in the double entendre missed neither her nor her staff. "Engineer humor" indeed!

Grace Hopper remained active in industry and education until her death on 1 January 1992. A Burke-class destroyer of the U.S. Navy, USS Hopper (DDG-70) is named in her honor. This was the first ship since World War II, and only the second in Naval history, to be named for a woman from the Navy’s own ranks.

08 September 1945

V-MAIL

438^th AAA AW BN

APO 513 % Postmaster, N.Y.

8 September, 1945

Nancy

My darling fiancée –

It is now 0930 and I’m supposed to be in Court at 1000 – therefore, this. The case today involves theft of mailed packages – by a mail clerk – a very serious offense as far as I’m concerned.

Last night I went to the circus in town – first time in about 10 years or more. It was pretty good – a one ring affair under a tent, but the peanuts, popcorn and hot dogs were missing. And there were no lions or tigers – shucks –

And no mail for 3 days now – I see no reason why, either. Probably a batch today. Each radio report discussing discharge seems better. I don’t see how I can miss being home before year’s end. Oh boy! Right now let me tell you that I love you deeply and sincerely and I always shall. A happy new year to you, the folks and all the family – sweetheart.

And

All my everlasting love

Greg

* TIDBIT *

about MacArthur and the Japanese Occupation

From the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) web site called American Experience comes this page titled "MacArthur and the Japanese Occupation (1945-1951)"

On the morning of 8 September 1945, General Douglas MacArthur made his way by automobile toward the American Embassy in the heart of Tokyo. One American observer described it as a city "completely flat with destruction," where even "the rubble did not look like much." As he presided over a ceremony at the Embassy -- his home for the next five and a half years -- MacArthur ordered General Eichelberger to

have our country's flag unfurled, and in Tokyo's sun let it wave in its full glory as a symbol of hope for the oppressed and as a harbinger of victory for the right.

General Douglas MacArthur, Maj. Gen. Wm. C. Chase, Admiral Wm. F. Halsey and Lt. Gen. R. L. Eichelberger
salute the American flag at its official raising
in the American Embassy grounds in Tokyo
on 8 September 1945

This moment was not broadcast throughout the world as the surrender ceremony aboard the U.S.S. Missouri had been six days earlier. Yet in hindsight, it was just as symbolic of the occupation period to follow: optimistic, thoroughly American, and unmistakably MacArthur.

With the United States troops in Tokyo, the Occupation became an accepted fact to the Japanese people. There were no hostile or subversive moments, only a curious interest on the part of all classes of Japanese as new units moved through the streets of Yokohama and Tokyo. The Japanese press in general maintained an attitude which was almost that of a host.

Although the occupation was nominally an allied enterprise -- MacArthur's title was Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, or SCAP -- it was very much an American show, and there was no doubt who was in charge. As historian Michael Schaller has noted,

From its inception, the occupation became synonymous with its supreme commander. Although few Americans could name the man in charge of the German occupation (General Lucius Clay and, later, John J. McCloy) most could readily identify the top man in Tokyo.

In fact, most of the basic principles and policies for the occupation were drawn up by planners in Washington in the last two years of the war (and are contained in a document known as SWNCC 228). While the impression that MacArthur was behind everything that happened in Japan far exceeds the reality, he deserves a great deal of credit for what most people agree was a highly successful occupation. Initiating some policies and skillfully implementing many others, MacArthur helped a defeated and destroyed nation transform itself with remarkable speed.

Students of the occupation period are stunned by how readily the Japanese remade their country along an American model. Although this is often ascribed to the particular Japanese talent for adapting foreign concepts for their own use, many of the changes wrought during the occupation had roots in pre-war Japanese reform movements. Still, MacArthur's prestige was such that his support could make or break almost any single cause. Among those encouraged by MacArthur and his staff were democratic elections ("This is democracy!" he exclaimed after the elections of 1947); basic civil liberties, including steps toward equality for women; the unionization of labor, despite his banning of a General Strike in January, 1947; land reform, which sought to "eliminate the feudal system of land tenure and remove obstacles to the redistribution of land"; and the Japanese Constitution itself, particularly Article 9 outlawing war and guarding against re-militarization. Even with all of these accomplishments, MacArthur's greatest disappointment may have been his failure to convert the Japanese masses to Christianity, despite his conviction that "true democracy can exist only on a spiritual foundation," and will "endure when it rests firmly on the Christian conception of the individual and society."

Appropriately, MacArthur established his General Headquarters, or GHQ, in the Dai Ichi Insurance Building in central Tokyo, the higher floors of which overlooked the Imperial Palace. MacArthur's steadfast resolution to protect Emperor Hirohito -- "through him it will be possible to maintain a completely orderly government" -- probably ranks as the single most important decision of the occupation. Considering how well things went, MacArthur's decision seems vindicated; yet many historians argue that once the occupation had begun to run smoothly, MacArthur should have allowed the Emperor to abdicate the throne, thereby acknowledging his and the country's responsibility for the war. As historian John Dower says,

From the Japanese perspective, you have a man who becomes America's symbol of democracy, who is totally sanitized by the Americans and by MacArthur, in particular.... I think that that poisoned the thinking about responsibility in general, in Japan, to the present day.

Nonetheless, it is remarkable that a man best known as one of the greatest soldiers in American history may have made his greatest contribution during a time of peace. Significantly, MacArthur biographer D. Clayton James once wrote that he decided to undertake his three volume study "with the conviction that a century hence MacArthur will be most appreciated for his role as an administrator, rather than as a warrior."

07 September 1945

438^th AAA AW BN

APO 513 % Postmaster, N.Y.

7 September, 1945

Nancy   2130

My dearest sweetheart –

This is the closest I could get – actually – to the New Year – and I want to wish you the best, the happiest, the healthiest, the most successful year you’ve ever had, darling. And with God’s help, you’ll have it, too.

I got back from Synagogue about 45 minutes ago. I enjoyed the Services – ours were held separate from that of the civilians – chiefly because I got a kick out of the realization that there were still a few Jews left in Europe. Despite pillaging, murder, looting, extermination and what not – here – after 5706 years and more to the point – after a War started by a man whose avowed aim was to wipe out every living Jew – the Jew still survives, manages to get some clean clothes, holds his head high and remembers his Holy Days. I tell you, sweetheart, I was proud tonight; I was proud to be a Jew, part of a race that can take it – and come up with pride, resolution and faith that its God is the God of the Universe.

Services begin at 0900 tomorrow and that’s one of the reasons I’m writing you now. I’ll have to rush thru sick-call – and I’m particularly handicapped right now with the loss of my Staff Sergeant – Kirby – whom I sent to the hospital yesterday – the Grippe.

And late this p.m. I finally got mail. It’s odd to read that you were having a delay about a week or so ago. Gee – I was tickled to read that you were actually going to go to the wedding at Montreal. I got almost as much a kick out of it as you must have received. It sounds like just the thing all of you need – a change from home. You’ll be good and tired when you get back – but it’s worth it.

By the way – before I forget it, I happened to mention to one of the boys – a Hugo Richard – the other day – that you were going up to Montreal. He had been thinking of his second honeymoon and wondering what it was like up there. He asked me to ask you your impression – things to do, places to go, restricted clientele? etc. He’s an awfully nice fellow, Hugo – on the intellectual side and interested in teaching school. He has done most of his training at the U. of Chicago.

Oh – I got a letter and an announcement from Dr. Finnegan. The announcement was of his daughter’s wedding in Salem 11 August to a Lt. in the Marines; she is or maybe – was – a Lt. J.G. in the Waves and had been on the West Coast for some time. The reception was at the Tedesco Country Club in Marblehead. His letter was extremely friendly. He said he was getting tired of running around and that now with more cars on the road and more accidents – he was getting more insurance business; wouldn’t I come back soon and take over the other calls? He wants a vacation.

That’s very encouraging sweetheart – not so much for the calls I may expect to make for him – but because he still had me in mind. He was a true friend before – and apparently he hasn’t forgotten me. Gosh – darling – I just can’t wait to get home and get started. By the way – again – I only knew Grace – his daughter – from meeting her at his home from time to time. She was away a good deal. Should I send her a wedding gift? I’d like to – if it’s in good taste.

And I’ll now use this available space to tell you that I love you more than anything else in the world, dear. I prayed tonite – for you and me and our families – and I know my prayers will be answered. Be well, darling – and patient. I’ll be home soon. And so goodnite for now, sweetheart – love to the folks – and

All my love is yours for always

Greg

* TIDBIT *

about the Wedding in Montreal

The wedding that Wilma attended was the marriage of a cousin to a member of the Bronfman family of Montreal. Here is the announcement for that wedding as printed in the Canadian Jewish Review on 18 May 1945.

Mr. and Mrs. Abe Bronfman, Westmount Boulevard, announce the engagement of their daughter, Ruth, to Lieutenant Stanley Berns, U.S.N.R., son of Mr. and Mrs. James Berns of Boston, Mass. Lieutenant Berns has just returned from two years' service in the Pacific.

It was Abe's brother, Samuel, who was the driving force behind the rise of the Seagram's distillery empire. Here is a picture of Abe Bronfman's house, built by architect Robert Findley in 1931, on Westmount Boulevard in Montreal. It is no longer owned by the Bronfman family.

Back in Boston, Stanley and his brother, Robert, co-founded the Pullman Vacuum Cleaner Corp., which went on to become the world's largest manufacturer of commercial vacuum cleaners. Click here to read a previous *TIDBIT* about Stanley Berns.

It was Stanley's brother, Robert, who had suggested Wilma's name when Greg asked if he knew anyone who might be interesting to meet.

06 September 1945

6 September, 1945

1000

Good morning, dearest –

Well – unfortunately, I didn’t dream of you; I didn’t dream at all for that matter, but I feel like dreaming now – so that will make up for it. I’m almost through with sick-call, although there are still a few drifting in. I have a fairly free day today – no court – but another session tomorrow. Yesterday’s, by the way, was interesting. It involved murder – an open and shut case – and the man got life imprisonment. I don’t like sitting on a court – and on the whole, I’m glad I didn’t study law. To think that one of my votes helped send a man to prison for the rest of his natural life – is a little disconcerting to me – despite the fact that he was irretrievably guilty. I tried my darndest to reason an accidental killing out of the circumstances – but the facts just couldn’t be disproved. Accidental shooting, of course, would have changed the case to one of manslaughter – which carries a much less severe sentence.

Tomorrow night is Rosh Hashanah and we’ll be able to attend services right in town here – and at a Synagogue. Surprisingly – there is one left in Nancy – only partially damaged by the Germans. And there were supposed to have been about 5000 Jewish families here in Nancy before the war. I, personally, have run into no Jews.

But I plan to go to the Services. I remember a year ago, very vividly. We were at the Siegfried line in Germany – Rott, Germany – and our C.P. was in the woods. It had rained steadily for days and the streams were swollen. We had only about 15 Km. to travel to Kornelimünster – where services were being held at VII Corps Hq and it took us all morning. We got stuck in a stream – the Bridge had been blown out – and we had a heluva time getting out. We got to the services when it was just coming to a close and I was disgusted.

Rott to Kornelimünster, Germany

Things are better now, thank the Lord – and next year they’ll be better still. I’ll have you, we’ll be together – in Salem I hope – and we’ll have a lot to be thankful for. I’m going to pray for all that tomorrow, dear.

And now – so long for awhile. Love to the folks – and

All my sincerest love,

Greg

* TIDBIT *

about the Synagogue and Jews in Nancy, France


Jewish Synagogue in Nancy, France

The synagogue in Nancy, built in 1788, is located at 17 Boulevard Joffre. Its architect was Charles-Augustin Piroux (1749-1805). It was inaugurated on 11 June 1790. It was enlarged in 1841 and 1861. The present facade, the work of Alfred Thomas, was built in 1935. The facade is larger than the building, adding to its outside appearance.

Old Picture Inside the Jewish Synagogue in Nancy, France

The synagogue was built on swamp land and was reached by a back door, away from traffic areas. Due to urban sprawl, two centuries later the synagogue is in downtown. Next door is a building that houses several Jewish organizations, including the UEJF (Union of Jewish medical students in France).

The Jewish Synagogue in Nancy, France, midst urban sprawl

This synagogue is the second oldest synagogue still in service in France. On 11 July 1984, this synagogue was decreed and registered as an historical monument. Sometime in 2007-2008 it was surrounded by a fence of metal sheets, bars and grilles, at least 3 meters high, for reasons of security. The only French synagogue a bit older, in Luneville, was planned by the same architect and consecrated in 1786.

There has been a Jewish community in Nancy since the Middle Ages. In 1286 the Jews acquired a cemetery at nearby Laxou. In 1341, and later in 1455, several Jews settled in Nancy itself but were expelled from the Duchy in 1477. The Jews temporarily reappeared in Nancy in 1595. In 1707 and 1712 Duke Leopold authorized three Jewish bankers from Metz to settle in Nancy. In 1721 an edict authorized 70 Jewish families to remain in Lorraine, eight of them in Nancy and its surroundings. As mentioned, the synagogue was built in 1788. The 90 Jewish families in Nancy in 1789 (50 of whom were without authorization) included wealthy merchants and manufacturers. With the influx of refugees from Alsace and Moselle after 1870, the number of Jews in Nancy increased to some 4,000 by the end of the century. The Jewish people created emerging industries (spinning, weaving, shoe factories, embroidery, blast furnaces) in Nancy, and founded the department store on Rue Saint-Jean. The Jewish neighborhood was located near the synagogue at the site of the existing mall in San Sebastian.

Many of Nancy's pre-war Jewish population (about 3,800 in 1939) fled the city under the German occupation. Those who stayed were brutally persecuted. The Germans entered Nancy on 18 June 1940. On 22 June, an armistice was signed dividing France into zones. Nancy was then integrated into a reserved area dedicated to German living space. On 16-17 July of 1942, as part of "Operation Spring Wind", more than 13,000 Jewish men, women and children had been rounded up in Paris for deportation to death camps. The Germans had decided to purge northern France of Jews, and the first to be deported were those who were foreign or stateless, having fled from Poland, Lithuania, Romania, and Hungary.

A similar roundup of Jews was planned for Nancy after the great roundup in Paris. The "foreign section" of the Nancy police station learned about the impending roundup, when Vigneron was told that he and his staff had to round up all alien Jews in the town on 19 July at dawn. On 18 July, he summoned his deputy and another five policemen under his command and ordered them to forewarn all 400 Jews scheduled for deportation the next day. The policemen went from house to house; those few alien Jews who did not take the warning seriously were arrested and deported, never to return. On the morning of 19 July, nearly 350 Jews were not at home and thus survived. Vigneron saved many families with forged identity cards bearing an authentic French stamp without the added word “Jew,” with which they could reach the Unoccupied "Free" Zone.

The failure of the roundup in Nancy aroused suspicion that Vigneron had tipped off the Jewish community. He was arrested on 19 August 1942, exactly one month after the roundup, and was imprisoned in Nancy for three months. About six months later, he was arrested again, this time on charges of having issued forged papers to a French spy. Again he was imprisoned for three months, this time in Paris. After the war, Vigneron returned to the police force and his name was cleared. In 1951, the French government awarded him the citation of the Legion of Honor. “His” Jews, who returned after the war to Nancy, did not forget him, and he remained a friend and a guest of honor at all festivities of the next generation, who had not experienced the occupation. On 3 May 1982, Edward Vigneron, his assistant Pierre Marie, and three fellow officers received the Medal of Righteous Among the Nations at Yad Vashem, the world center for documentation, research, education and commemoration of the Holocaust.

In spite of their efforts, a total of 130 Jews of foreign origin were arrested and deported between 1942 and 1943, while over 400 others who had fled to the "free" zone in the south were arrested and deported after it was overrun by the Germans. Only 22 survivors returned. Among the old French Jewish families, 250 victims were deported, of whom only two survived. The majority were arrested on 2 March 1944, along with 72-year-old Chief Rabbi Haguenauer, who despite his being forewarned, refused to desert the members of his community. A street in post-war Nancy bears his name.

The synagogue, as well as other buildings belonging to the Jews, were plundered by the Nazis. The synagogue interior was destroyed, while the holy books were sold to a rag collector. Several of the art works and books in the local Musée Historique Lorrain and departmental archives were saved. After the war, the Jewish community of Nancy rapidly recovered. By 1969 it had about 3,000 members with a full range of Jewish communal institutions. Today, the Jewish community in Nancy is said to number 4,000 - about the same number living in Nancy in 1900.