13 - After the War

The story would not be complete without mention of the honey wagons. Now in Japan the johns’ were not like ours. They are on an outside wall and do not flush away into a sewer but a holding tank. They have wagons that come by and remove the waste into these wagons. They can be detected quite a ways down wind thus the name honey wagon. They take the stuff to a central point and convert it into manure for the fields. We were cautioned never to eat raw fruits or vegetables. Cook, as there a numerous bugs to pick up this way. Round worms, tape worms etc. My wife still does not understand why I do not care to eat raw vegetables to this day and she is always trying to get me to eat raw zucchini and other half cooked vegetables. But if you have ever had to be de wormed you would understand. All of the water had to be treated or was not fit to drink including the ice cubes. Natives drink it all the time visitors get sick right away. If you have ever been to Mexico you can attest to this fact.

In Japan they are a very clean people and they have communal baths everywhere. They look like big swimming pools heated with concrete steps all around the edges. There are numerous spigots with fresh water. This is so you can undress get wet, soap up and rinse off before getting into the heated pool. Also the baths are co-ed the whole family goes in at once. This kind of shocked the G.I.’s at first and caused a few problems. It took some getting used to.

The climate is about like Seattle with Mt Fuji sticking up. It seemed cold to us after being in the tropics so long. It took me about a year back in the States to get used to our climate again.

When we arrived in Japan September 8^th 1945 the peace treaty was being signed on the Battleship Mo. We were the first troops to arrive by ship. The 1^st Cav came by plane to take over till the rest of the troop’s could get there. We didn’t know if it was a trick or for real. So we came prepared for anything. Our fears were unfounded. When they quit they really did. All the troops put down their arms and as far as we could find out they just went home. We went by truck from Yokahama to the Atsugi Airfield and set up camp. We took over guard duty and made sure that things ran smoothly. All the civilians did real good but the government did hide all the money, gold, etc that they could. I think the Army was able to find it all and put a guard on it. The army took over the banks, police, you name it. Then the U.S Government took over and made a democracy for the people. They made the women equal gave them the vote and started to industry out on the road to peace and rebuilding factories.

Now we were told don’t drink untreated water. Don’t eat raw vegetables and fruits. Purify the water, peel and cook everything. The reason for this is that people can live in a country eat the food drink the water no problem But to a newcomer its poison. The Jap’s didn’t have flush toilets. The stuff was collected by a wagon on a regular basis. Then put in the fields to make the crops grow. These wagons were horse drawn and went up and down the alleys doing their collection. They were known as honey wagons and if you got on the windward side you would know why.

Now the Japanese people are a very clean people. They have community baths. That is where the whole family goes and takes a bath. It is inside a building with a concrete apron and water spigots. This is where you soap up. After soaping up water from the spigot is used to wash off. Then when you are clean and all the soap is washed off into the big pool everyone goes to finish up. Where the American’s ran into trouble was the troops had never used a co ed bath and they were shocked that the girls and boys were not separated. Also the first thing they did was soaping then jump into the pool with all the soap still on. It contaminated the whole pool.

It did not take the Jap’s long to get beer halls and stores open to sell stuff to the troop’s and to relieve them of whatever money they had to spend. The exchange rate was 15 yen to the dollar and the G.I.’s had a lot to spend. Now none of the fellows liked to wash clothes so they all got wash women and women to make their beds. The Japanese women liked to do this as it gave them money to put food on the table and buy clothes for the family. Now the women in Japan have always waited on their men hand and foot so the GI’s really took to this culture that is why so many guys brought home Jap wives. There was always some place to go and Japan had trains to get there. We called them tounerville trolleys. People piled in bag and baggage with animals and the trains left about every fifteen or twenty minutes going everyplace. We could always have a Jap to interpret and show us how to get where ever we wanted to go. So most of us had no language problem, as there were lots of them that could speak English for a price.

About the old letter… After I got home in December 1945 I had a little time to spend on leave. In January I reported back to Camp Louis Obispo California. I got a letter dated in January so I didn’t think too much about it as it was mailed about January 14^th (my birthday). It was from my sister Louise and I read it. I said to myself "she has flipped" she writing me things that I had heard and learned about at Christmas time! Later I took a good look at he date and it was over a year old.