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Page 1
The guns had stopped. The ships in the harbor sat still. Wayne Wilberg, a young Marine far from home, drove his truck through a quiet that felt strange after so many loud and terrible days.
From your journal · prints on the back pages
“I participated in the battle of Iwo Jima and Okinawa and the occupation of Japan.”
Page 2
Then — at the edge of the trees — something moved. A child. Then another. Then so many more that Wayne stopped the truck and could only stare. They came out of the mountains like swarms of ants.
From your journal · prints on the back pages
“they came out of the mountains like swarms of ants”
Page 3
Wayne learned what had happened. The children's parents had been killed in the fighting. The children had been sent up into the hills to hide from the war. They had been there so long, with nothing to eat, that many of them did not make it back down.
From your journal · prints on the back pages
“Their parents were shot and killed. The kids were sent to the hills to get away from the fighting. They eventually were starved out. Many of them ended up dieing.”
Page 4
The army, the Red Cross, and soldiers like Wayne began setting up camps. They brought food and blankets. They called out to the children: "Come down. Come down. You are safe now."
Bridge text — written to connect the story; no single journal line behind this page
Page 5
One afternoon Wayne's group was out when they found a boy of twelve — alone, standing very still, watching them from the shadow of a tree. He did not run. He was too hungry to run.
From your journal · prints on the back pages
“One time my group picked up a 12-year boy and took him back to the base with us.”
Page 6
Wayne reached into his pocket and held out a candy bar. The boy took it. Then — in about two bites — it was gone. "We gave him a candy bar and he gobbled it up," Wayne would say later, and he never forgot the look on that boy's face.
From your journal · prints on the back pages
“We gave him a candy bar and he gobbled it up.”
Page 7
The soldiers made the boy a bed and snuck him inside after dark. They knew they were breaking the rules. "If they found out we had him," Wayne said quietly, "we would have been court-martialed." But nobody said go back.
From your journal · prints on the back pages
“We made him a bed and snuck him in. If they found out we had him we would have been court marshaled.”
Page 8
For several days, Wayne's group took care of the boy. They could not speak his language. He could not speak theirs. But they began to understand each other — in the way you understand someone when you share a meal and a roof and keep each other warm.
From your journal · prints on the back pages
“We took care of him for a few days.”
Page 9
Then the soldiers found him a job. They set him by the telephone and told him — with waving hands and pointing fingers — that when it rang, he should run outside and shout until someone came. He could not speak any English. But he could listen. And he could run.
From your journal · prints on the back pages
“We had him set by the phone and listen for it to ring. If it would ring he was to quickly run outside and yell to us that the phone was ringing. He couldn't speak any English.”
Page 10
BRING! went the telephone. And out flew the boy — bare feet slapping the ground — yelling at the top of his lungs. "Telle! Telle! Telle!" he shouted, until someone came running to answer it.
From your journal · prints on the back pages
“He would run out and yell, "telle, telle, telle" until someone would go answer it.”
Page 11
Later, the soldiers were able to make arrangements for the boy. He would be cared for. He would be safe. He was no longer lost up in the mountains. He was found.
From your journal · prints on the back pages
“Later we were able to make arrangements for him.”
Page 12
The day Wayne's unit shipped home from the war, the boy was standing on the docks, waving goodbye. Not hiding in the mountains. Not hungry. Not silent. Just waving — and waving — until the ship was gone.
From your journal · prints on the back pages
“The day we shipped home from the war, he was standing on the docks waving goodbye to us.”
From the sourceAdapted from sourceBridge text
Deepen this story
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Behind the story
The journal lines shown under each page above also print in the back of the book — one card per page, paired with its illustration, updated automatically as your story changes. You'll see them laid out in the preview.
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Where this story came from
This note prints on the last page of every book in this collection, so a reader can trace it to its source — set once for the whole series. It shows in the 3D preview and the printed PDF.
This book was drawn from the journals, kept 1944-2013.