<Begin Segment 20>

MU: Well, now I'd like to talk a little bit about the Occupation period that you were there. What impressed you about Japan and Japanese people at that time?

MM: What impressed me, my impressions you're asking about? Well, I saw... my goodness, I certainly hate to be in a country that's lost a war. Between Yokohama and Tokyo for instance, you drive and there's nothing. And there's these lean-tos that they had temporarily set up to live in. I don't know. It was really, it was really devastating.

MU: Now, have you visited Japan after that?

MM: Oh yes. In fact I just got back from Kobe. You see, oh, what happened to my -- oh, here's my pin. [Indicates a pin on lapel]

MU: Oh. Oh, they have a bridge there?

MM: Huh?

MU: They have a bridge there in Kobe?

MM: Yeah, this is the Akashi bridge.

MU: Yes. Patterned after the Golden Gate.

MM: This is the longest suspension bridge, I'll have you know, and when the -- we got a tour. We had gone to this 40th anniversary celebration of the sister city relation -- Seattle and Kobe. We had a wonderful time. And we went on a boat tour. They took us on a boat tour to see the Akashi bridge and so forth. And I had a few questions to ask. And I said, "What happened when the earthquake took place?" And this engineers, whoever (he) was, (...) was living in Osaka and he said he couldn't come out until maybe two days later. And he said that the suspension bridge had widened, stretched a couple yards or so. And I said, "Well, then what happened? Did it break?" "No." Suspension bridge. And I understand it's going to open maybe about April next year. It's a beautiful piece of architecture, just beautiful. That'll connect between Kobe and Awajishima.

MU: Oh, that one?

MM: Awaji Island.

MU: Oh, I'm thinking of another one. Okay. Now, we're gonna get you back to 1946, '47 again. Now could you imagine at that time, 1947, here we are fifty years later, 1997, that Kobe, one of the most bombed out places, and the Hiroshima that you remember and the Yokohama to Tokyo area that you remember, that they would ever recover?

MM: It's amazing.

MU: Tell us about it.

MM: Well, it's amazing, really. You can't see any trace of that destruction at least. But in Kobe, of course, we were taken to the nicest places, I'm sure, but it's reconstructed in just a short period of time. You'd be surprised. Of course, there are vacant lots or vacant areas. These people can't afford to rebuild, they don't have the money, you see, the financial background, so they're using that as parking lots. So there's a couple of buildings that went up and a vacant lot. But the thing is, there are lots of homeless people yet. And I assume there are more of the elderly. What it is is, they're living in temporary quarters that look like a locker, you know, with doors and doors and doors right down the street. And I said, "Oh my goodness, what's each unit composed of?" And somebody told me -- actually I did not see it -- is maybe a living room area, bathing facility, kitchen, and a bedroom. I said... and rather shabbily constructed. This is just temporary. The roof was real thin, so there's nothing but complaints, too hot in summer and cold in winter and so forth. But when I think about it, I think about how we were accommodated in camp, they're better off than we are, don't you think?

MU: Now you're describing the facilities that were built after the Kobe earthquake.

MM: Yeah, these were for the homeless people specifically.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.