Embarrassingly Friendly
Far out in the Pacific, on the late afternoon of July 3, the U.S. destroyer Murray sighted the Japanese hospital ship Taka-sago Maru, bore down on her and ordered her to heave to. In two small boats, a party of 26 heavily armed Americans, led by the Murray's executive officer, Lieut. Commander Robert H. White, approached the dingy white two-stacker.
Back in port last week, the Murray's boarding party reported that their meeting with the enemy had, in the main, been "embarrassingly friendly."
As White climbed the ladder, the Takasago's grinning captain held...