Another day of sorting and throwing things away, and another unexpected find–four tiny bills, measuring about 3-1/2″ x 1-3/4″.
They read: “De Japansche Regeering, EEN CENT.” They were in a small brown envelope sent to my mother from Australia. The envelope has red logos at the top left for the Salvation Army, Australia Comforts Fund, and YMCA. It has a large stamp indicating it had been passed by Censor 86B. I can’t make out a date.
An online search quickly identified these as WWII Japanese invasion or occupation currency, apparently from Indonesia.
There are a number of letters from the sender, W.C. DeRenne, among the things my mother kept from that period. In one, written from a base in England, he says something like, “One D-Day is enough for this soldier.” I read it yesterday, and that might be a little off from the actual wording, but the sentiment was clear. I don’t know anything more about DeRenne or if he survived the war. Perhaps if I organize these letters, I’ll piece together some of those basics.
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I have a possible lead on the DeRenne name. It’s rather unusual one and immediately called “Coop” DeRenne to my mind, a former baseball player and coach, published author on the science of hitting baseballs, and a professor of kinesiology at UH.
The family biography page identifies Coop’s father, also a baseball player, as Alfred. Alfred was also a baseball player and fought in WWII. His father-in-law, Wilbur Cooper, was his manager before the war.
Perhaps “W.C. DeRenne” is a member of the family who bears both Wilbur Cooper’s initials and Alfred and Coop’s surname? Or some variation of that?
Clicked to suggest the UH connection of Coop DeRenne and see ohiaforest’s thorough note.
Ian check out this WWII archive being constantly updated… very interesting w/ some cool finds:
http://www.rtwwii.com/archive
Also… I’m now following this person on Twitter who has a very interesting twitter feed:
https://twitter.com/RealTimeWWII
Yes I am a Derenne 🙂
This may help if you have not found anything out yet. http://www.fold3.com/image/287486583/ It shows the Rang & Organization of this W.C. DeRenne