Readers Remember

I’m camping out in a beautiful part of southern France near Arles. But I’m not a happy camper, nor are any of my hundreds of thousands of fellow campers.

It’s the summer of 1945 and, although we have just defeated Hitler, we are not going home. We are all waiting to board ships to take us to the invasion of Japan.

On the afternoon of Aug. 7, many of us are watching a USO troupe. In one corner of the crowd they are passing out the Army newspaper, Stars and Stripes. The big headline says an atom bomb was dropped on Japan. What does this mean, we ask each other? The paper says it is a huge bomb, but how big is that? A week later, as our ship is taking us to the Pacific, we find out. The ship gets the word that the Japanese have surrendered, and the ship turns around to take us to Newport News, Va.

MARVIN MILLER

Oxnard

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It’s summer, and a cool offshore breeze makes Laguna Beach comfortable. I pass Gene’s food market, now a church, and see my town’s most famous resident running down Pacific Coast Highway, escorted by police: O.J. Simpson, carrying the Olympic torch.

There are no tears in my eyes, no lump in my throat. Is it “history in the making” or just another media event? Fifteen years later, the jury is still out.

ED YOUNG

From the Internet

What do you recall most about the 20th century? In 200 words or less, send us your memories, comments or eyewitness accounts. We will publish as many as we can on this page until the end of the year. Write to Century, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053, or e-mail century@latimes.com. We regret we cannot acknowledge individual submissions. Letters may be edited for space.