Finding Aid for the Philip E. DeKorn Second World War correspondence and personal narrative 2020.110.w.r
Andrew Harman
Center for American War Letters Archives
2/28/2020
Leatherby Libraries
Chapman University
Orange, CA 92866
speccoll@chapman.edu
Contributing Institution:
Center for American War Letters Archives
Title: Philip E. DeKorn Second World War correspondence and personal narrative
Identifier/Call Number: 2020.110.w.r
Physical Description:
0.01 Linear Feet
(1 folder)
Date (inclusive): 1945 September 7 - 1946 February 5
Abstract: This collection contains thirty letters, original, and a personal narrative from RdM2/c Philip E. DeKorn, USN during the Second
World War. Also included is biographical information and ship history.
Language of Material:
English
.
Container: WWII 37
Container: 16
Container: 1
This collection is open for research.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Sue Haadsma-Svensson.
This collection is arranged by material type and chronology.
Radarman Second Class Philip Eugene DeKorn, United States Navy (8/4/1922 - 9/6/2019) was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan to
Joseph Peter DeKorn and Christina Catherine Blandford. He graduated from Union High School in 1940 and worked as an industrial
salesman and registered for the draft on June 30, 1942 and enlisted on August 28. He served in the Navy aboard the US destroyer
USS Uhlmann until 1946. The Uhlmann, with DeKorn, served in the Philippine Liberation and took part in strikes on Okinawa,
Formosa, Luzon, Samar, Hongkong, Hainan, and installations near Saigon and other ports. It also supported the Iwo Jima landing
and earned a position in Task Force 58 and later attacked the Japanese mainland.
He married Marianne Haadsma on January 5, 1968. DeKorn passed away two years after his wife in 2019 and is interred at Rosedale
Memorial Park in Grand Rapids.
[Item title / description; Box "n" / Folder "n"], Philip E. DeKorn Second World War correspondence and personal narrative
(2020.110.w.r), Center for American War Letters Archives, Chapman University, CA.
For the benefit of current and future researchers, please cite any additional information about sources consulted in this
collection, including permanent URLs, item or folder descriptions, and box/folder locations.
This collection contains thirty letters, original, from RdM2/c Philip E. DeKorn, USN during the Second World War. Also included
is one personal narrative of his tour of duty, which includes extra copies of two sections, a photocopy of a letter describing
Nagasaki that is not included in the originals, and his separation papers from the Navy, as well as one history of the USS
Uhlmann (DD-687) from the Office of Public Information, Navy Department, and one sheet of biographical information of DeKorn.
DeKorn was in Tokyo Bay and both his letters and personal narrative describe the sights as he saw Nagasaki after the atomic
bomb. He describes the destruction of that city and others, including Sasebo which he describes as looking like someone had
take a "mower" to the buildings. Also mentioned in the personal narrative is seeing the radar ping as the Enola Gay flew over
for its mission to deliver the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.
There are no restrictions on the use of this material except where previously copyrighted material is concerned. It is the
responsibility of the researcher to obtain all permissions.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
World War (1939-1945)
Correspondence -- World War, 1939-1945
United States. -- Navy
Atomic bomb -- Japan
Atomic bomb -- United States -- History
Nagasaki-shi (Japan) -- History -- Bombardment, 1945
World War (1939-1945) -- Pacific Area