a5139ec8-b682-4acb-b1fd-bd7b9538e7d0

Sheeks, Robert_WAPA-246_WAPA 4170_OralHist_Video.mp4

Robert Bruce Sheeks was born April 8, 1922 in Shanghai, China. His father, George Lamar Sheeks, was a businessman with the Ford Motor Company so Bob and his brother grew up in Shanghai, attending the American School there. He left Shanghai at age 13, attended high school and college in the U.S. Bob stated that he still thinks of Shanghai as his second home. His mother is buried there. Bob and his family returned to the U.S. and lived in southern California, then Washington state. He graduated from high school in Spokane, Washington. Bob stated that he had always wanted to join the Marine Corps as he had been much impressed by the 4th Marines in Shanghai, the Chinese Marines, which he described as a famous battalion, so he joined the Marine Reserve in Spokane. However he received a scholarship and received a conditional release from the Marines to attend Harvard University. Bob made an interesting comment that he stayed in the same room that Franklin D. Roosevelt had occupied while he attended Harvard. When the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred, Bob was interviewed almost immediately because he had Chinese and some Japanese language background and the Marines were looking for men who could go into language services. Bob spent some time in the Navy Language School in California and then in Boulder, Colorado for intelligence training and Japanese language training and was subsequently commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant. He went to San Diego for basic training at Camp Pendleton and subsequently was shipped out to the Pacific. Bob spoke briefly about the invasion of Manchuria and had seen photographs of atrocities committed there, stating that the Japanese did all kinds of things to terrify the Chinese to keep them from resisting. He described Japan at the time as a militaristic country based on the code of Bushido and their cultural roots based on Samurai traditions going back to the Edo period. He lamented that the Japanese officials, at the time of this interview in 1994, refuted the history connected to atrocities committed during the invasion of Manchuria and the Japanese Minister denied the “rape of Nanking.” But he added that the younger generation of Japanese seem to be of a different mentality; i.e., far less arrogant and far less convinced that they’re a superior chosen people. Major Sheeks was with the 2nd Marine Division, Division Headquarters and first sent to New Zealand then immediately transferred to New Caledonia, Admiral Halsey’s headquarters. His first job was to interrogate prisoners from Guadalcanal and also prisoners who were from ships the Navy had sunk. He related a story of learning, through interrogating one prisoner from a submarine, that it was the largest submarine that had existed up until that time. It had a 180 man crew, a waterproof airplane hangar on the deck, and was a big I-class submarine. After garnering this information, Bob said an Admiral from Pearl Harbor flew out to direct the rest of the interrogation learned this submarine had shelled the Santa Barbara oil storage area in California. And by learning what their route was the Admiral was able to locate the sister ship, intercepted it, and sank it somewhere out in the Pacific. On Tarawa, Major Sheeks’ job was to “catch some Japanese and find out what’s going on.” He described crawling in under the pier searching for Japanese soldiers, all the while under fire, and finding many wounded and dying American soldiers under the pier. In the end, the group was only able to find a few prisoners and some who were not fully military. They did get useful information, but mostly about Japanese constructed defenses including triangulation, cross fire, bunkers, concrete, and coconut logs connected by huge steel staples. Major Sheeks helped produce two volumes on defense installations of the Japanese in the Pacific Islands that were published at CINCPAC. From Tarawa he went to Hawaii to work at Pearl and prepare leaflets to drop at Saipan. He showed the interviewer several of these leaflets that were written with Japanese and Chinese characters containing information for people on how to surrender. The leaflets were dropped by artillery spotting planes and soldiers and civilians came in almost immediately. The leaflets were produced by the Honolulu Advertiser who never charged for the printing and produced thousands of these leaflets. He was also involved in the preparation of a “patrol card,” and a guide to Saipan including Japanese and Korean language phrases and Chamorro phrases for soldiers to use for translation. Major Sheeks stated that the greatest problem for the Japanese left on Saipan was the water supply and said that water was used as a way of establishing the fact that Americans had some concern for those Japanese soldiers who were surrendering. It was used as a tool along with cigarettes and chocolate. He described the Japanese phrases he used, such as “come out,” “you won’t be harmed,” “raise your hands,” and stated that there were many civilians and refugees among them so he did not like referring to the people as “prisoners.” In all, Bob stated that he brought in perhaps 30 real prisoners but there were thousands of refugees. He also stated that it was a total shock that so many people were hiding on the atoll that had escaped detection. The number was approximately 7,000 even though the Americans had marched shoulder to shoulder from one end of the island to the other. They did not find the Japanese soldiers who had been hiding in caves on the island. Major Sheeks and the interviewer touched briefly on the decision to drop the bomb on Nagasaki and Hiroshima; an article regarding suicides written by Bob Sherrod for Time Magazine; and briefly discussed Langdon Warner who played an important role in Washington, D.C. defending Kyoto as a cultural center. Bob also knew Guy Gabaldon and described him as a very active individual, a scout and sniper. Guy had an unusual background that included Japanese language and was described as “a little package of dynamite.” Although Bob didn’t witness Guy bringing in the incredible number of prisoners, he had knowledge of it and clarified that there were some military, paramilitary and lots of civilians included in that group of people Guy brought in. After the war, Major Sheeks remained on Saipan for some time and helped reconstitute the fishing fleet there. They used parts from damaged ships, got carpenters from among the prisoners, and got the boats afloat. He also worked with the Civil Affairs there on farming operations. He stated that he lived in Singapore, Malaysia, and the Island of Borneo. He spent time in Indonesia and the Philippines after the war.

U.S. National Park Service, War in the Pacific National Historical Park

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War in the Pacific National Historical Park, Code: WAPA

Guam , Guam
War in the Pacific National Historical Park, Guam , Guam
Latitude: 13.3905000686646, Longitude: 144.654006958008

ICMS (Interior Collection Managment System) : WAPA-00246
NPS Museum Number Catalog : WAPA 4170

War in the Pacific Oral Histories

2025/03/07

T. Stell Newman Visitor Center, Collections room, Safe and Shelf SLF D-01

Public Can View

Rose Manibusan, Jennifer Craig

Organization: American Memorial Park
Role: Chief Interpretation
Address: Micro Beach Road, Garapan, Mp 96950
Email: wapa_interpretation@nps.gov

Friday, April 4, 2025 4:58:21 PM

Friday, April 4, 2025 4:58:21 PM

Sheeks, Robert_WAPA-246_WAPA 4170_OralHist_Video.mp4

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3363.6 MB

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