Front-row seat to history

While he wasn’t in on decision making, he had a front-row seat to developments of all kinds. One of his biggest tasks was putting together documents related to the planned invasion of mainland Japan.

“The weirdest for me was typing up the invasion of Japan,” Mercer said.

“I was typing, and I came across the 96th Seabee Construction Battalion. That was my brother Harold’s unit. I knew where he was supposed to go before he did.”

Mercer sent a letter to his parents telling them Harold was headed for

Luzon in the Philippines. Miraculously, the letter made it past the censors.

The plans for the Japan invasion were massive.

“Every warehouse at Pearl Harbor, Guam and Saipan was full of materials to be sent when the invasion started,” Mercer said.

“They were anticipating all kinds of retaliation. The Japanese had used Kamikaze planes and there were reports they had thousands of boats ready to do the same thing. They were estimating up to 500,000 Americans would be killed in the invasion.”

Ultimately it never happened.

“We had the invasion plans ready for Japan,

but we got the word to slow down, they’re going to try to knock them out with air power,” Mercer said. “We didn’t know the air power was the atomic bomb.”

Mercer returned home to Mustang in 1946. His brother Harold did, too. He went into the insurance business and raised three daughters. Today he has multiple grandchildren and greatgrandchildren.

He returned to Hawaii one time since the war. Those days are often on his mind.

“Getting to be around all of those admirals, and the whole situation, it was just one big interesting part of my life,” Mercer said. “I’m grateful for the opportunity.”