The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-11-06
BURMA TANKS REBUILD RUINS
 OF MYITKYINA
By JACK QUINN United Press Stan Correspondent

NAyktAJAAAAg NOk bkA 0u44Aae, wv A - (UP.) - General Joseph w. Stillwell's American and Chinese troops, who blasted the last Jap anese defender out of this city more than two months ago-and incident ally blew away most of the city along with the enemy = are hard at work today, rebuilding and re- pairing some of the buildings they shelled, bombed and riddled with machine-gun fire.
 The Americans and Chinese have moved into the Myitkyina area and taken over every construction, with the exception of few buildings to which war-weary Myitkyina citizens have returned, that could possibly be used as a shelter. The sound of hamlnering and saving goes on into the night these days as troops patch walls ripped open by shellflre, lay ing floors which had been removed by digging-in Japanese and repair rofs whoich were riddled and blast ed by shel1-f1re and straf1ng planes.
 But so many totally destroyed homes and buildings remain that the sight of Mytikyina Is not so much different from what it was on August 4, the day after the last de- lending enemy had been chased in- to the business and trees beyond.
 Leaning "GravestOnes'
 returned to Mytikyina recently and made tour of the city with Captain Joseph K. Saunders of Kewanee, H., to look at whatever changes had been made since I was last through the town on August 4. The charred wreckage of buildings which had been blasted and burned still stood as they had before-be- cause the burned .tirnbers were of no use to anybody. Also remaining unchanged were SlaLs of concrete foundations, still leaning grotes- quely, the way the American bombs had left them, looking like grave stones in a cemetery for the un- mourned.
 Nobody had any use for the concrete, either. But every other stick, stone and piece of brick that could be used and could be moved had been carted away. Some of the tinbers had been moved by the Americans, to repair their build ings in and around the city. But most of the usable material = in some instances even entire houses had been moved by the Chinese to their section of the town.
 Saunders and I went down to look at the little barber shop which had stood, before shell kicked in the back door and deposited all the furnishings in the street in front, in the citys business district. The bar Der shop was one of the landmarks I remembered. But when we arrived at the place, there was no barber shop building. Besides that, the wreckage of three or four other buildings in the same block had dis appeared. Nothing remained except foundations and a few scraps of torn sheet-metal roofing. Shoulder high weeds had sprung up around what had been the building fronts, where only a little more than two months ago even grass had been kept down by hurrying Japanese feet. Burma's fertile soil and Bur- mas rain and steaming heat did that.
 Moved to Chinese Section
 I asked Major Fred Huffhine of Wynneburg, Okla, with whom I toured the city on August 1, what happened to the buildings.
 @The Chinese took them" he said. They've moved Myitkyina, lock, stock and barrel, to their part of teh city. They took down whole houses and rebuilt them in the forest just like they stood in Myit- kyina. I saw houses down there thta went through up here. I recognized them"
 One of the houses which the Chinese took over but left standing on its original site was one of the most vile-smelling houses in the whole city of Myitkyina, 8 two- story brick and wood building which had been used by the Japan ese as an aid station. As the moose of defeat frightened about the necks of the defenders of Myitkyina, mo- body bothered to carry away the wounded who died in the aid sta- ton.
 Became Post Office
 Broken medicine bottles were scattered all over the building. Their contents had spilled across the ofior. medicinal smells mingling with the odor of old bandages and the stench of rotting flesh. You could smell this house 100 yards away.
 Today the only smell is of disin- fectant. The house has been scrub bed and cleaned and sprayed re- peatedly and mosquito netting has been placed over the windows.
 This building, which on one day housed such pleasant sight for the Chinese, will continue to be a source of delight to them. It's now their post office.
 Not so pleasant for the Chinese are the reminder of the battle they fought in their part of the cana- paign for Myitkyina: the cemeteries with their almost pathetic little paper decorations, and the huge monument of stone and brick which the Chinese built near the waters of the 1rrawaddy in honor of their bat tie dead.