Alexandria Rodriguez

Corpus Christi (Texas) Caller-Times

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Birthdays have marked significant events in Sid Duerr's life.

On Aug. 6, 1932, a 5-year-old Duerr was hit by a vehicle on his birthday and survived what was then considered a risky surgery. And on Duerr's 18th birthday in 1945, an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. That and another bomb dropped on Nagasaki three days later led to the end of World War II in the Pacific.

A sailor, Duerr was sent out to Japan days after the bombings as part of the American occupation. From the end of the war until 1952, the Allies, led by the U.S. and Gen. Douglas MacArthur, oversaw major military, political, economic and social reforms in vanquished Japan.

Duerr, ready to graduate high school in Missouri, had been eager to join the war effort and got his father's permission to enlist in the Navy because he was underage.

"Half of my senior class went to war," said Duerr, now a retired oil field service engineer. "It was a time of survival. We were just 17."

Once enlisted, Duerr was sent to boot camp before he was stationed in California.

He later found himself aboard the USS Baltimore, a Navy heavy cruiser.

Duerr and his crewmates sailed to the naval station at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii a few years after the December 1941 attack by the Japanese Navy.

"It was just a mess," Duerr said. "Luckily, they didn't bomb our oil and fuel."

It was in Hawaii where his ship was fitted for battle while sailors did gunnery practice. Later, his fleet was sent to Japan, where sailors were told they were training for the invasion of the Japanese mainland.

"The next thing we knew, they had dropped the atomic bomb," the 90-year-old said.

Shortly after the bombings, Duerr and his fleet arrived in Yokohama, Japan. There they transferred people to surrounding islands to get them away from radioactive residue from the blasts and went on to Hiroshima to check on ships that were damaged. They found one that was split in half, claiming the lives of hundreds of Japanese.

"It was a necessary evil at the time," said Michael Duerr, 60, Sid Duerr's son. "It was a completely different time."

While he was in Hiroshima, Sid Duerr witnessed firsthand the devastation from the atomic bomb. He and other sailors and a priest visited a cathedral that was destroyed. The only thing remaining was a stack of bricks, he said. He also saw an area where many Chinese prisoners of war were killed by the Japanese.

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Duerr's memories from his time in Japan are not negative. He said sailors spent their time caring for Japanese citizens and giving them food. They even taught kids how to play baseball, he said.

He took dozens of photographs he treasures.

"I'm very proud of him and the people he served with," Michael Duerr said. "I don't know if I could have done that at 17 years old."

Although they caused a lot of destruction, Sid Duerr said the atomic bombs prevented the loss of life that would have come with the invasion for which he and his shipmates were training when the bombs were dropped.

"We saved over half a million lives," he said. "It was survival."

Dotti Duerr, Sid's wife, said he still talks about his time in the military.

"He's very proud of it. He's happy to have helped," she said.

But one of the best days of his life, she said, came when he was honored in Washington, D.C., in 2013.

Sid Duerr was taken by the Honor Flight Network to visit the National World War II Memorial.

"You'd be surprised how many young people appreciate your service," he said.

Dotti Duerr, who had brothers who served in the military, said she is amazed her husband did not suffer any lasting effects from his time around the bomb's radioactive residue.

Looking back on his time in Japan, Sid Duerr considers himself lucky.

"I was just 18 when they dropped the bomb," he said. "I'm lucky to have made it through that and come back."

Follow Alexandria Rodriguez on Twitter: @Caller_AR