servicememories

1946 I was talking to a friend this afternoon and during the conversation it came up about what some of my duties were when serving with the 11th Airborne Division while stationed on the Island of Hokkaido.

I was squad leader of the I &R Platoon of the 187th Paraglider Infantry Regiment. That meant I was working for Regimental S-2 Which was Intelligence.

I sent out patrols throughout the island to check on radio stations, what power they were using, frequencies and number of employees. When a particularly good sounding patrol came up, me and my partner would take it ourselves.

One of the patrols coming up intrigued me, so I decided to take it myself. I lined up my rations for 10 days (I always took the 10 in one rations because of a better choice) hired an interpreter for the job This patrol was to check the fishing station radios on the island of Okushiri, a small island about 20 miles off the west coast of Hokkaido, leaving from the port of Esashi.

The only way to the island was a weekly fishing boat that would make the journey. My partner, interpreter and rations took the boat, and it was a real rough ride. my partner got seasick shortly after leaving the port and was no good for the rest of the trip, while my interpreter talked with the people on the boat.

Upon arrival, we discovered the boat captain had radioed ahead and said we were coming., and all the town dignitaries were there to meet us. The Mayor, Chief of Police, and the Chief Clerk of the Town office were there.

The reason for the greetings was that my partner and I were the first white persons ever to be on the island, and to them it was quite an event The only electricity in the town was a small dam and generator on the stream that run off from the island. The city hall, police station and one street light was the only power usage on the island

The Mayor informed me, due to our being first white men on the island, that they were having a banquet for us at the local geisha house. I don't remember what the foods were, except it was all seafood of some kind.

My most vivid memory of that night was watching the geisha girls singing and dancing in the rational kimonos and obis. They played the samisen, which to my non-musical ear was just some strings twanging. During the meal,each of the diners had a young, 6 to 10 years old sitting right behind us on the right side, whose sole job to keep the sake cup filled after each toast.

Example: The mayor makes a toast. Every body drinks their sake from the tiny sake cup. As soon as the cup is placed on the table the little girl leans over with a bottle of warm sake, says "Hai, dozo" and fill the sake cup in time for the next person to make a toast.. With a dozen or more people at the table, toasts go around more than once. All this time I hear "hai, dozo"

It is considered an insult if a person does not drink at each toast. I was doing fine, until I felt it was time for me to go to the benjo. I stood up from my cross legged position at the table, and the floor came up and hit me in the face, but I did make it up and did my duty. Later, on the way back to the hotel from the geisha house, about 6 blocks at the intersection of the only 2 streets (if you could call them that) hung the only street light on the island.

The mayor dared me to shoot the street light out using my M-1 rifle that I was required to carry at all times. In my condition, it took 3 shots to do the job,

About 10 o'clock the next day, the Mayor, Chief of Police, and the Chief Clerk of the Town Office came to our room carrying a wicker basket. With a little ceremony and a speech, the Mayor presented me with the basket and said it was in honor to having the first white men on the island. In the basket was 3 bottles of White Horse Scotch whiskey. He told me they had been saving that from before the war to present to the first white men to come to their island. We opened one of the bottles, got some cups and everybody had a drink or two.

As a consequence, the mayor asked as a favor if I could shoot and scare some of the ravens that were always trying to get to the squid that were laid out on the beach to dry. It was small boys jobs to keep the birds away. All around the beach area the ravens were perched on the tile roofs waiting for an opportunity to get to the squid, down to the beach to warn the boys and get them away from the area. In the second story of the hotel, I had a plain view of birds awaiting a chance. Resting my rifle on the window sill, I proceeded to kill a half dozen ravens, Mayor said that was enough as the dead birds around the shoreline would keep the others away. I did get out and inspect the small fisheries radio station, before we got the boat the next day back to the mainland.

I remember buying a bag of caramels (or what Japanese made to resemble them) and all in the store laughing because I couldn't get the cellophane off from around the candy. Seems it wasn't cellophane but rice paper and you just ate it.

Also I was introduced to octopus, carp"s eyeball and dried seaweed. A Japanese employee brought his lunch and I was amazed that he put pepper on his rice. Seems it wasn't pepper but the black eyeballs on the miniature white fish that were in the rice.

And you can't really live until you've had a cucumber sandwich. But one thing I refused was monkey. They were raised for consumption in Beppu which is the southern island in Japan.

One thing was that back before the war Kyushu was the center of Christian believers but the main shogun in Tokyo went down and beat him at war. As a result the Christians fled to the mountains and lived there until we came. At that time they came down and joined the other folks. Most already spoke English or rather English as it was spoken 100 years ago.

Takayama Naruko-san was the chaperone for the girls that attended the dances on post. She was a Christian and taught piano. Our commander, Major Turbylill's wife, was a sunday school teacher and Naruko was her assistant. Beppu had Onsen or hot springs and was a tourist city before the war. The beach was black sand and folks buried themselves in it as it was supposed to have healing powers.

By the way, Arkansas is starting a Korean War Remembrance thing and they came up from Little Rock and made a video about my service. They also copied my photo album of my service time. Reason? They said WWII and Vietnam had been given plenty of attention but that the Korean War was truly the forgotten war.