<Begin Segment 19>

TI: I'm going to jump around a little bit, but earlier, you said how Japan was, when you first started, was one of your first assignments. And so this was during the latter part of occupation.

LH: Correct.

TI: And I just wanted to get your impressions of what Japan was like during this time period.

LH: You know, the Japanese are very stoic. They, they bear difficulty and despair with great fortitude and dignity. And I've seen enough of this in other countries, including our own, where I really take my hat off to the Japanese, because the housing was terrible, the firebombing, you know, we talk about the destruction of the atomic bomb in Nagasaki and Hiroshima. As horrendous as it was and the lives it took, but the actual firebombings of Tokyo and Kobe and Osaka and other, other major cities including in Europe, General LeMay was a fanatic. And if we had lost the war, he would have been number one on trial, in war crimes trial because it was up to him to win that war, and he firebombed the hell out of those cities that killed hundreds of thousands, and I'm speaking of hundreds of thousands of civilians. The Japanese, it helped a lot that Americans were friendly and good, and they were so surprised, you know, just the way we Americans, so many Americans, or most Americans felt the Japanese were animals and devils. So most Japanese there, propaganda, were saying how, how the Americans will come in here and rape the women and kill people for no reason at all, and were happily shocked to find out that 99.9 percent of us were civilized, good human beings, and we were. Gave food away to the Japanese families and to the kids, and helped in so many ways in starting orphanages and shelters. And I must say, the good heart of the American people, the American GI really is something we should all take our hats off to.

TI: So I'm curious, within, so you're there at the latter part of the occupation?

LH: Yes.

TI: Within three decades, Japan had risen to being a major power in the world, not only politically, but economically, in just a matter of a few decades.

LH: Oh, absolutely.

TI: From being just devastated. And I'm just curious, did you see those seeds being planted then? Could you imagine that this would have happened to Japan in such a short period of time?

LH: Not that quickly. I could see it happening because of their strength and their cooperativeness. They worked together so well. And we also have to keep in mind the fact that the Japanese boom, their bubble, was a bubble. If I had all the answers to any questions about the details of their economy and their finances, I would be Rubin helping out in New York today, not Rubin himself, the former Secretary of Treasury. But, you know, it burst. It was doing so well up until the late '80s and early '90s, and they lost it. And literally, it still hasn't recovered. They're doing well, they live well, but they hold onto their money. And what little I know of any economy, is that money has to move around for it to continue to rise, and they're so careful in not spending their money. I see some improvement in land prices, but minor compared to what it was.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2007 Densho. All Rights Reserved.