As this account is being written in June 2024, Richard “Dick” Mohrmann is 98 years old. With a birthday in July, by the time it is published in the fall of 2024, he will be 99 years old – one of the waning, living links to World War II, and part of The Greatest Generation.

He is not a Nashua native, but after living in Nashua for 55 years, and working for Sanders Associates for 25 of those years, he almost qualifies as a native. Despite his years, he still remembers where he was when he heard the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor – and he remembers where he was when the Japanese surrendered.

Mohrmann grew up on his family’s apple farm in Pennsylvania. He was there when headlines flashed across the country that Pearl Harbor had been bombed by the Japanese. The following day, when war was declared against Japan, Mohrmann was ready to put on his country’s uniform and fight. But he was too young at the time. And besides, his family needed him to help on the farm. Apples were a necessary food for the war effort.

Mohrmann entered the U.S. Army in September, 1944. He remembers, “We did 15 weeks of basic training in Georgia. They made me an infantryman, then shipped me off to the Pacific theater. We made a stop in New Guinea, Luzon, and eventually were involved in combat on an island in the Philippines. I was attached to the 33rd Infantry Division.” Mohrmann was awarded two bronze stars for his action in the Philippines.

Author’s Note: The 33rd Infantry Division was a formation of the U.S. Army National Guard between 1917 and 1968, comprised primarily of soldiers from Illinois. Originally formed for service during World War I, the division fought along the Western Front. On March 5, 1941, the division was called into federal service as the war heated up in Europe. However, the division was sent to the Pacific Theater on July 7, 1943, to fight against the Japanese. Their sleeve-patch logo is the Golden Cross, superimposed on a circular field of black. The symbol’s origin stems from an Illinois regiment’s pre-WWI practice of marking property with a yellow cross as protection from thievery, based on the belief that the color and shape were anathema to Muslims. During their time in the Pacific, the division received six Presidential Unit Citations. In the late 1960’s, the division was greatly reduced in size. Its lineage is currently carried on as the 33rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team.
When asked if he had ever been wounded in action Mohrmann replied, “I was pretty lucky. I wasn’t wounded but I saw a lot of men who were. There were times when I would be standing right next to another man who would be wounded or killed or be all shot up, and all the bullets missed me. One time, we were advancing on a point and American artillery was firing over our heads to ‘soften up’ the target before we got there. One round exploded nearby, tore the bark off a tree, sent it flying, and a piece caught me in the face. That was as close as I came to being hurt.”

Mohrmann remembered what it was like fighting on a Philippine island: “The island we were on was very rugged. No matter where we went, we were going either uphill or downhill. There were no easy marches. It was also very rocky. There was no digging a deep foxhole for cover.”

One time, Mohrmann was on a ledge and his group was told to dig in for the night. In typical Army fashion, a perimeter was formed with the majority of men protected inside. Guards were placed around the outside of the perimeter. Mohrmann and another man shared a foxhole at a guard point. Mohrmann continues: “It wasn’t much of a foxhole – maybe a foot deep. All night we peered into the darkness, ready to fire on anything that moved. Then we heard some movement – Japanese soldiers were charging up the hill yelling ‘Banzai! Banzai!’ Fortunately, they were far enough away from us that they were not a threat and they engaged another company of our guys.”

“On the day the Japanese surrendered, says Mohrmann, “we were on a ship just offshore doing some training exercises; going up and down the sides of the ship on rope ladders practicing boarding a landing craft. We were getting ready to charge the Japanese homeland. If things had continued, November 1 would have been D-Day for an invasion on Japan.”

The Instrument of Surrender was signed by Japanese representatives at a few minutes after nine o’clock on the morning of September 2, 1945 onboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. Had conventional war continued, an invasion on the Japanese homeland would have caused an estimated one million allied and eight million Japanese deaths. Japanese culture called for a fight down to the last man, woman and child – the last bullet. It was a major disgrace – a loss of face for the Japanese to surrender. But under the circumstances, there was little choice.

Mohrmann continues, “A few days after the Japanese surrender, we were on a beach landing craft headed for Japan. The boat stopped, the front doors opened, and, unlike the landing at Normandy where guys had to dodge heavy enemy fire, we just strolled across the beach standing up. The only reason we used a beach landing craft was because the bay and dock area was such a mess with sunken craft. When we got to the first town it was eerie – everyone was indoors, holed-up in their homes with the doors and windows shut tight. I guess they were afraid of us. After a while, they realized we weren’t there to hurt them.”

The 33rd Infantry Division stayed in Japan for a year as part of the occupation force. Mohrmann remembers, “The first thing we did was a search and destroy mission… we looked for anything and everything the Japanese could use to wage war again. We confiscated a lot of guns and rifles and destroyed them. We found a bunch of aircraft engines ready to be bolted into a fuselage and placed in service. Those engines found their way to the bottom of the ocean. After the search and destroy mission was over, they weren’t quite sure what to do with us. I ended up as a post office clerk for all the military people there. I got to process a lot of money orders.”

Finally, it was time to go home. Mohrmann was shipped to San Francisco, then spent 5 days on a train to New Jersey, being discharged at FT Dix in November 1946.

Mohrmann is very proud of his, and his family’s military record. He has five younger brothers who all served in the U.S. Air Force. He has a brother-in-law, and also his best friend, who survived 29 missions as a tail gunner in a B-24 during the war.

When asked if he had attended any reunions with his outfit, he replied, “No… but I have kept in touch with a few. This was all a very long time ago.”