<Begin Segment 24>

SS: Did you ever have any heroes?

HW: Oh, I don't know.

SS: Were there ever any of them that you admired at this point?

HW: Yeah, I think so. Yeah, a lot of 'em, really. Lot of 'em. Also, at the hotel, I had 250 war correspondents and the rest were colonels, and lieutenant colonels, and majors, and the two generals that didn't wanna go. And I had 50 WAC officers, 'cause they were accorded better lodgings than the equivalent rank men were.

SS: Do you have good memories of these years? Seems as if you speak of them fondly.

HW: Well, yeah, I do. Because not only interesting, but it was a memory that really fits in with wanting to understand other people's, other groups', way of life. And I should understand the way of life of the Japanese more than the others that went with me, but still, there was a lot to be learned. Interesting things, like, as an example, in the restroom we had a nice middle-aged lady attendant in the restroom, and the guys didn't like it. She wasn't bothersome, she did a nice job, kept the place clean. She'd been doing it all her life practically. And finally had to force her out because the colonels were after me to get rid of her. And well, the Japanese kind of understood that. But it took us a month to find a man, a Japanese man that would come in and do that job.

<End Segment 24> - Copyright © 1996 Densho. All Rights Reserved.