What I remember most about being in Japan and going to YoHi was the
adventure of it all. While living in Kita Kamakura I had to catch the train
every morning to Yokohama then transfer to a bus to school. Each evening
the same routine in reverse. After moving to Yokosuka Base we all rode the
school bus every day from Yokosuka to Yokohama and back. In the small village
we lived in we were the only american family and only one or two people in
the village spoke english. Our neighbors were the Kozu family (the wife was
the sister of our landlady who taught Officers from England Japanese) The
sister's father was General Nagumo the Military Dictator of Manchuria during
the Japanese occupation. The Kozu family was very nice to us and always tried
to help us in any way possible. They had two children, a girl 14 and a boy
10. The girl 'Akiko',was one of the two people in the village that spoke
english, so she was our only link to the community. Akiko was always bringing
my mother gifts, such as dolls or fans or other objects of art that we felt
were priceless. We of course gave them gifts being careful not to return
a gift of greater value (in thier eyes) than the one received. Because of
the value they placed on our 'American Goods "this was often very difficult.
On Christmas we gave to each member of the family what we thought were approriate
gifts. For the father a bottle of whiskey, for the mother a box of chocolates,
for the daughter scented soap and for the son 'Hikotaro' a foil wrapped giant
solid chocolate Santa Claus.Well.....they swapped gifts to get what they
wanted...mom took the whiskey, dad the chocolate santa,the girl the box of
chocolates and poor Hikotaro was stuck with the soap. Such was life in Japan,
always a surprise !
.
My greatest adventure in Japan was a trip with the Judo
Club I belonged to, into a village for a Judo Match and then afterwards to
the village public bath. It was one giant room, women on one side and men
the other. You put your clothes in a basket on the floor and then went naked
to the area to soap and rinse prior to getting in the hot bath. Needless
to say it was very difficult to be relaxed when you knew fifty or so Japanese
people were looking at your naked body with great curosity because none of
them had ever seen an American before! In addition at 16 years of age I was
embarassed beyond words to be in a room with naked women and children ! It
soon passed, as when I followed the proper custom of washing before bathing
I was accepted and they stopped looking at me. I was then a 'tomadachi' (friend)
or at least a tolerated foreign devil.
HOUSING JAPANESE STYLE
Living in a small village in Japan was indeed very different than almost anything I had ever done in my life. Our house was located at the top of a large hill overlooking Kita Kamakura. The road or lane leading to the house was steep, muddy most of the time and exactly as wide as a honey bucket cart. The best way to get from the village at the bottom of the hill to the house on the top, was by jeep. My father bought a used hardtop jeep just to go up the hill. He would park our car at the bottom, we would load up the jeep with groceries and ourselves and make the journey up the hill, down the narrow lanes and finally into our yard.
The house itself was a typical Japanese home, all wood, two stories and a lot of shoji sliding doors. My father had installed sliding screens all around the house so we could catch the breeze and keep the critters out. In the living room we had a space heater for warmth. The rest of the house was unheated except for a hibachi in the dining room and a small gas stove in the kitchen. Upstairs were the bedrooms and an american style bathroom. Downstairs consisted of the kitchen, maids room, benjo, hot tub, dining room and living room. The halls and kitchen and baths had wood floors, while all of the other rooms had tatami floors. We never wore our shoes in the house and usually wore geta in the yard.
Our yard was very, very large and surrounded by large (8 foot) hedges. There were a lot of plantings but fortunately for me, no grass. We had a gardener that came in every week and kept up all the plants and manicured the yard. I think it cost about a dollar a week. Also the trash man would come around once a week and buy our trash. Since most of our food was from a can purchased at the commissary our trash was a great source of metal for lighters and other assorted goods made of tin or light metal.
It was the best of times for our family, we were together! Long separations
were very normal for Navy families and so we cherished every moment that
we could spend together! Because of the charm of the house and our wonderful
neighbors and the village.....we almost hated to move to base housing. My
mother maintained contact with some of our Japanese neighbors for over 20
years after we returned to the states.
SCHOOL MEMORIES
Even in Japan, one had to be cool in school. This often meant being very
inventive in ones dress (shirts, pants, shoes etc.). For the most part we
were all stuck with what we brought with us or what was in the PX. However
teenagers are very clever if it means a new look. At YoHi in 1952 through
1954 boys in order to be cool had to have the SHOES! The SHOES consisted
of one pair of U.S. Navy, standard issue, black dress shoes to which the
following had to be done! Take them to the beach and have 3 half soles
added to them, build up the heels and then add taps to the heel and toe!
After all this was done we would polish them to a high spit shine and then
strut our stuff in the halls of YoHi. We must have sounded like a herd
of bull elephants, going down the tile hallways of YoHi... clunk-a-de-clunky,
clank-clank-clank, bang-it-ty bang, bang, bang!!! You can imagine the sound
when there were a bunch of us walking at the same time!!!! BUT WE WERE COOL!
TURTLES
Most of the time at YoHi everyone was kind and sharing with each other. I
think we all felt that we were in the same boat and had to make the best
of everything together. There were times however when we boys challenged
each other to see who was tough and who was a wimp! To participate in this
challenge activity one had to become a TURTLE! Now a TURTLE was a blood brother
who had sworn an oath with all his other brothers to always respond to
a certain question with a certain answer, no matter where you were or who
you were with! If you failed to do this you were branded awimp! The game
was to find a brother standing next to (inorder of priority) a teacher, his
girlfriend, or any other girls! The question was Hey so-in-so are you a
turtle? The correct response was something only boys could say to each other
and not in public. And so we all became wimps at one time or another. We
thought it was great fun as no one could figure out what we were talking
about or what a TURTLE was or why we were laughing so much!
HUNTING TRIP
It seems to be a rule that once in the life of every man that has a son, a strange passion comes over them to bond with thier son. No one seems to know why or what good it does, but it does happen! So it was that one cold day in the winter of 1952/53, my father announced at the dinner table that he and I and Bob Wolinski and his father were going on a hunting trip. At first I did not think much about it, after all what could you hunt in Japan? My question was soon answered by my fathers proud proclaimation that he had checked out four rifles from the armory and we were going deer hunting. I didn't even know that they had deer in Japan. As it turns out they only have what is called 'mule deer', a much smaller than usual variety of deer. The day of the hunt dawned gray and cold and the four of us huddled in the jeep trying to be warm as we drove to the place where we were to meet our guide. Our guide seemed to know what he was doing and quickly had us hiking towards what seemed to be towering mountains. At the base of the first moutain my father admonished us all to be careful with our rifles and not to scratch them under any circumstances. He was accountable for them and did not want to have any problems when he checked them in to the armory. It only took about fifeteen minutes for us all to realize that the mountain was steeper than we had thought and the only way we were going to get up was to use the rifles as climbing sticks. After three hours of grunting, sweating, swearing and bleeding, we arrived at the top of the first ridge with our brused, mud covered rifles, cold,covered in sweat and hungry. The plan was simple, Bob and I would stay on the ridge and our fathers would go across the valley. Our guide was to go to the top of the valley and flush the deer down towards us and we would shoot them. We were told that when we were done we could go down the ridge to a hunting lodge where we would eat and sleep. Everyone went to thier assigned places and the waiting began. We waited and got colder and waited more and got even colder! We began to doubt if we could possibly last even a minute longer. We took paper from our wallets and some twigs and tried to start a fire, to no avail. We were freezing to death and afraid to go to the hunting lodge for fear of what our fathers would say. Finally after two hours, our lips blue, feet frozen and positive that we were dying, we made the decision of our lives......we were going to the lodge no matter what our fathers would do to us. We half ran, half stumbled down the ridge toward the lodge and finally arrived out of breath and giddy with joy that we were going to be warm soon! Flinging open the door and clamoring inside, we tumbled into the main room of the lodge and were immediately stunned to see our fathers sitting by the large hibachi eating and drinking with the guide. My father turned looked at us and said "we wondered when you two would get smart and come in here!". Needless to say what Bob and I thought at that moment surely would end bonding forever and put a strain on our relationship with our fathers. Time is a funny thing, it seems to heal almost anything. In our case it did, although the fact that our fathers let us do almost anything we wanted for months, helped a lot!
GOING HOME
Living in Japan and going to YoHi was in some respects like living in a comfort cocoon. We had our school, our friends, our parents and that is about all! All else was very loose and temporary. When the time came for anyone to go home, they simply disappeared and life in the cocoon continued on. We made friends fast, and lost them fast. One thing you absolutely had to be was flexible! One evening after dinner my father said to me would you like to graduate from your old school in Fresno? I knew that his tour of duty might be up before graduation, so I said yes. Normally when you went home you had about two weeks notice, so that you could pack and prepare to leave (Not to mention going away parties). The day following my father said to me, you are flying home the day after tomorrow! Well I about dropped my teeth! I couldn't say no and I couldn't even say that I didn't want to go because I had already said that I wanted to graduate at home!
The next day was a frantic one, checking out of classes, getting a transcript of my records and saying goodbye to everyone. That evening I said goodbye to friends on the Base and my girlfriend. The next afternoon my mother and I were on the train to Tokyo and the airfield. After a tearful goodbye from mom I settled down to wait for check-in time. What a check-in it was! I was first in line and the first question was, let me see your passport. To which I responded what passport? Now the fun began, a frantic phone call to home and a maid that didn't speak English, trying to explain to her to tell mama san to bring the pass-a-port-a-ru to the airport-a-ru!!! Mom came, with passport and more tears and then I was off!
Hello Wake Island, I didn't know you were so small and barren! Just a stop for fuel and then on to Hawaii! More fuel and then 24 hours after it began the flight was over in San Francisco. On to the Greyhound bus and then 5 hours later, home with my grandmother and blessed sleep.....24 hours of sleep!
O.K. here I am, 17 years old, no parents, no classmates, no girlfriend! The cocoon is broken!
Fear not, all is well after all. The next day I moved in with my God parents and their two girls, 17 and 10 and things were looking up. One more day and I was back in school, seeing old classmates and telling them what Japan was like!
The circle is complete and I am not alone anymore, I am HOME !!!!
HONTO NE`
