Honolulu Record, August 19, 1948, vol. 1 no. 2, p. 5
Julian Napuunoa, Hawaiian longshoreman who is one of the four ILWU members now touring Europe, wrote in a joint letter to ILWU President Harry Bridges the conditions as he saw them in Italy. Napuunoa stopped over in Rome where he said, "the reception was just as splendid and friendly" as other places he had visited. He visited a small port of Civitavacchia not far from Rome where the American delegation was greeted by posters on the walls saying, "Welcome American Longshoremen," Long Live the ILWU-CIO.
The letter said that the town itself "is a mass of ruble. First the Allied forces bombed the hell out of the place and then the master race dynamited the port before they left."
On the day the Americans arrived in Rome they were "guests of the longshoremen, were dined, shown the principle sights and taken to the opera that night." Then from Rome they travelled to Naples by bus. "... We came by bus, driving through some of the most beautiful and fertile country that we will ever witness.
But the workers look far from prosperous.
Along the way we came through many towns and villages that had suffered terribly from the war. "If the people in America could only see this with their own eyes, they would think hard and long before starting on another adventure of murder and destruction. "But to get back to more pleasant things.
Our trip is developing into a virtual tour of triumph. . . . Here we are, two common longshoremen, an ordinary San Francisco checker and an obscure Oakland warehouseman, welcomed as representatives of the American working class.
One has to go through this experience personally to appreciate its great significance. "And peace is what the people that we have met on this tour are demanding. Not once have we heard anyone who wants to go to war again. And we have spoken to all sorts of people in hotels, in restaurants, on streetcars, the underground in Paris.
"These are just a few of the impressions and experiences that we had so far."