MY MEMORIES Page 4

1955 - Japan

General

I lived in Japan from February 1952 through September 1954. I went first by airplane and my wife who was teaching school came by ship after school was out. I was pretty familiar with the area by the time she arrived. I had rented a house and had the 1955 Chevrolet shipped over there by the time she arrived. I worked right downtown in the Meiji Building, just across from the Imperial Palace.

Teahouse

In Tokyo there was a very interesting teahouse I often took visitors to. It was five floors high with a full balcony on the second through the fifth floors and the center was open. They had a sound system next to none, at least thirty speakers of all sizes. They played only classical music. They published a monthly schedule of what was to be played. Many of the patrons would have the scheduled on their tables. This was a one of a kind place.

Honolulu Stopover

Flying from the States to Japan the first time my airplane was grounded for mechanical reasons at Hickham Air Force Base, Honolulu, Hawaii. We were told to go the Military Air Command (MAC) terminal and reschedule our flight. When I got there the line was very long. So I just walked around Hickham airbase sightseeing. When I came back there was no line and I told the clerk I needed to reschedule and really was not in any hurry. He said come back in two-three days. One Sunday I took the city bus from Hickham to Honolulu. The bus route was through Peal Harbor. I was the only one on the bus, and a native Hawaiian bus driver took me on a private one-hour tour of Pearl Harbor pointing out all the things he and his family witnessed on Dec 7th. Another day while riding the bus through Pearl harbor I saw a Japanese submarine coming in the channel. All the sailors were lined up on the deck, the rising sun flying in the breeze. Not a sight I had expected, even knowing the war was over.

Tokyo Building Boom

While I was living in Tokyo they were completing a high rise building in the downtown area every week. One of the high-rise buildings was shown on the front page of the newspaper each week. The buildings were built on soft ground and were constructed to float just like a boat. This greatly reduced damage by the earthquakes. When I first saw the picture of the building the steel framework was going up, and the front door was about twenty-five to thirty feet above the sidewalk. Each week as they added more construction material, and of course more weight, the door came closer to the sidewalk. When the building was completed the front door was less than a tenth of an inch from the sidewalk. What an engineering wonder, and probable done with a slide rule and an abacas.

Note To Cabby

When Pat was pregnant with John, her maid wrote a note in Japanese for her to carry. The note said she was having a baby and to take her to United States Military Hospital in Tokyo. She never had to use the note. She saved the note in the Family Scrapbooks (click on note for larger view)

Chased By A Cop

When working down town in Tokyo, several of us took our lunch hour and explored different restaurants around the city. For the ones that were too far to walk to one or both ways, we took a taxi. One day we came out of one restaurant that was near a no-pickup zone. However a taxi stopped and picked us up anyway, and took off and drove like a kamikaze pilot. I looked back and saw a policeman on a bicycle chasing us. After a half-mile, the cabby got caught in traffic and the policeman caught up to us. He slammed his bicycle against the taxi, and pulled out his pistol and pointed it at the cabbie, which really got his attention. It took the policeman about a minute or so before he caught his breath and could talk to the cabbie. As I remember, this was a very hot July or August day, and the policeman was red in the face and really sweating. The cabbie had to meet the cop at the police station in an hour, and said he was going to be fined for picking up a fair in the no pickup zone. We chipped in and gave the cabby what he needed for his fine. After all, this was cheap entertainment for us!

1957 - Trip to South East Asia

General

While I was working in Japan a friend of a friend had won a free trip for himself and his wife from Tokyo to Bangkok by winning the football pool sponsored by the Stars and Stripes military newspaper. Major Hoyt Brown, who won, was not able to take his wife, and got permission to sell the ticket to someone else. My friend Harold Davis was first in line, and I was second in line. Harold decided not to go so I bought the ticket and went with Major Brown. After we got to Bangkok, we decided we would like to go on to New Delhi. I left Tokyo Feb 28 1957 and returned March 14 1957.

Flight From New Delhi To Bangkok

Major Brown and the other military men we met in India had hitchhiked to Bangkok on a military airplane; and since they were to get there first, they were to reserve a room for me in Bangkok that night. The Indian Airways plane I took from New Delhi to Calcutta was late leaving, so the airline fed the passengers at the airport restaurant. The food made me sick on the flight. Knowing the flight would be late into Calcutta the hostesses took the information about the passengers' connecting flights and radioed it ahead to Calcutta. When we were landing I saw the Bangkok Airways airplane taking off. The people at the Bangkok Airways terminal said they would have waited for me but they were not informed of the delay by the Indian Airways airlines. Their next fight was the same time the next day. So I went to the Indian Airline counter and asked them to give me a hotel voucher. They did not know how to do that, but the traffic manager in downtown Calcutta might, and the bus was leaving to go there right now, so I got on the bus. What a ride through evening rush hour traffic to downtown Calcutta! The traffic manger was a British chap, and said he was sorry but the company did not give overnight vouchers. However, he got on the phone to several other traffic managers he knew from other airlines, and found me a seat on a flight leaving in two hours. He assigned his personal driver to me and instructed him to take me to the airport, and stay with me until I got off the ground. He took a taxicab home. When we got to the airport you would have thought the president was arriving. Thirty to forty people from both Indian and the Bangkok airlines were lined up to help me when I got out of the car. One said, "Give me your passport and I will clear you through customs." Another said, "Give me your ticket and baggage and I will check you in." After all was done I was standing around the lobby waiting for the flight. Suddenly, the people reappeared and said that the flight was grounded, and they reprocessed me to another flight leaving in a few hours later. After this was done, they reprocessed me again for another flight that had been originally full but had one no show, but was grounded at the end of the runway for repair for two hours, and was now fixed and ready to take off. They took me to the Pan American airplane in a jeep. Up, up and away, and not a moment too soon. I rode in this Pan Am airplane in a first class seat to Bangkok, excellent meal. Just after take off, the captain informed us there was a student riot going on in Bangkok; and we may not be allowed to land. But by three all was clear and we were allowed to land. I took the bus to the downtown hotel, where Major Brown was to have a room for me. When I got there I had no room reserved, but there was a Major Brown and wife in a room. The clerk said he was on the same plane he left New Delhi on. I entertained a though that he got lucky, and maybe it was time to send the girl packing let me get some sleep, but I did not. The Pam American representative called all hotels in Bangkok looking for my reservation for Major Brown's registration or me. The Pan American representative finally found me a hotel and I took a taxi to the hotel on the outskirts of Bangkok. It was daylight when I arrived. I found Major Brown the next day, and it was a different Major Brown and wife in the hotel. He and the other guys we met in India rented the presidential suit on the top floor of the new Eirawan Hotel. However, the surname of the register was for one of the other guys and I only knew their first names. They had expected me to share the cost, but I would not do that because they did not leave my name at the desk. They were not happy about it, but came around to see my point.

Hong Kong

When we landed in Hong Kong on the way to Bangkok, one of my co-workers in Japan had asked me to pick up a dress uniform he had sent to the tailor in Hong Kong for alterations. The tailor had arranged to met Major Brown and me at the airport and take us to our hotel. I needed to eat so he left me at a restaurant near the hotel. Some one from the tailor shop was sent to the restaurant to guide me to their store because Major Brown had gone to the store instead of to the hotel. This was a bright intelligence man, and we talked about the world affairs etc. But just as soon as I stepped into the tailor shop world affairs were left outside, and it was instantly all business. The tailor shop offered us their driver and car and drove us on a tour of Hong Kong and the new Territories one afternoon. They also drove us to the airport when we left. This tailor company sends their salesman all around the world several times a year, and have thousand of customers who do not live in Hong Kong. Many of their customers were active and retired military personnel. No company had ever treated me as a customer better then this company. As I recall Major Brown and I had only purchased a few token items from them.

Lost Passport

When staying in a hotel in New Delhi the hotel was required to take our passports and send them to the police station. The passports were generally returned to the hotel by the next day. Major Brown and I meet several other American service men, and together we hired a taxi to take us around New Delhi, to the Taj Mahal and Agra, the pink city, which was a several day trip. When we returned to the new Delhi hotel they could not find our passports. We had reservations to fly out the next day. The hotel paid for an extra night in the hotel, and also bought us new airplane tickets. We were flying the Indian Airways, and if the ticket is not used there are no refunds.

Star Sapphire Rings

One of the things I wanted to do while on the trip was to buy myself and Pat a star sapphire ring. The artificial sapphires were on the market, and the stars were almost perfect in all respects. I found a ring I liked for myself in the Hotel lobby jewelry store in Bangkok. It was a natural black sapphire with a very clear star, except one of the points was a bit short. It was priced fairly at $35.00 USD, so I bought it. The best ring I found for pat was in Hong Kong. It was a large clear royal blue natural sapphire with a perfect star. It was one of the best rings in the store at $700.00 USD! After looking around I found a small cloudy pale blue natural sapphire with an almost perfect very clear star for $45.00 USD, which I bought. I paid for Pat's ring by check on my Japanese bank checking account. When I left Japan the check had not cleared yet, so I left that amount in the account. While in Japan on TDY about five years later, I found that the check still had not cleared, so I took the money out and closed the account. I often wondered if I had bought the $700.00 ring if that check would not have cleared. Interesting thought. I was told that US checks often took two-three years to clear, because they were used as currency on the mainland of China.

Taiwan

I had hoped to see Taiwan, but the plane was not scheduled to stop there on the trip to Bangkok. However, it made an unscheduled short stop on the return trip to Tokyo. Before I left Hong Kong I took the few hundred dollars cash I had left and bought Japanese Yen at about 450 yen per dollar. The exchange rate in Japan was only 360 yen to the dollar. When we stopped in Teipie, Tiawan they would not allow us to leave the terminal. I found some wooden masks for Pat, but the gift shop would not take my Japanese yen, my Japanese check or my US check. I tried to beg, barrow or steal $25 USD from some of the passengers on the plane without any luck. I offered them Yen cash, or one of my checks. But had no luck. Then I mentioned to one that my wife Pat was meeting me at the Tokyo airport and she would give them $25.00 USD when we got there. I guess I wore them down and because one American lady reluctantly gave me $25.00 USD. The person I owed the money to was the first off at the airport and I was one of the last ones off. When I found Pat I started looking around the airport for the person and Pat asked who I was looking for. "Oh," she said, "I already gave them the money," She knew the story was valid because they said I had bought some masks for her. So much for a surprise gift on this trip.

USD $100 Bills

When I entered India I had to declare each $100.00 bill I had by serial number. And when leaving India I had to show those bills or give them the name of the place where I spent them. This was the only country I had ever been in that did that.

To be Continued