<Begin Segment 23>

MU: What was your reaction when you saw Japan -- oh, let me ask you this -- where did you land when you went to Japan for occupation work?

HW: In Yokohama.

MU: In Yokohama? And how did you get from Yokohama to Tokyo?

HW: By convoy.

MU: By convoy. Well, then, you could see the after effects of the war from the convoy?

HW: Well, the convoy traveled in middle of night, but then we...

MU: Oh, it did?

HW: From the docks where you could see Yokohama all the way up to the foothills -- nothing, everything is just down. There wasn't a thing left except in docks. And I think there was a hotel left standing there and the other buildings were flat. And I think that -- later on I saw the (Kawasaki) area and that was, 'course, flattened, too, 'cause that was a industrial...

MU: Did you see people, Japanese people?

HW: Uh, very few in Yokohama because there was no, no place to stay. Those that survived, you couldn't live there.

MU: Could you describe the clothing that they had on?

HW: Basically Japanese-y, you know, clothing. I think they were -- I saw a few people around wearing what they had were military uniforms, you know. Probably the only clothing they had. I think if you go out into the countryside, you'll see people with the clothing that they didn't lose because of devastation. Yeah, I went to visit my father's hometown, Odawara. An uncle lived there who took care of me a while, while I was a kid visiting Japan. Went, from my memory I was trying to find the house and I got up on the seawall there and was looking, and I could see a whole bunch of houses taken down from the ocean all the way up to the end of the city. And there was another row -- those were firebreaks that they had -- destroyed all the houses so that if there is a fire that they wouldn't drop the whole city. 'Course, my uncle's house was one of those that were taken down. It was not destroyed by war, but it sure was a result of war, yeah.

MU: Now, when you visited with him, what was the feeling? Did they welcome you? What...

HW: The family that I met -- members of the near family that I met -- were very, very nice. Very, very polite. I had an aunt married to a Japan -- one of Japan's most famous artists, Tsuji Hisashi. He was a artist that studied in Europe and then Siberia, and had a well, well-recognized art studio, where the emperor of Japan would come to buy art and things like that. He was glad the war was over. He was fortunate that his sons, three sons -- one went into the military but the others did not have to get into the military, and they were very happy that they didn't have to fight in the war, and visited with them.

MU: Were they suffering for food or medicine?

HW: Yes, in Japan, yes. Suffering very much. We were ordered not to go to the marketplace and buy any food, period.

MU: Why?

HW: Well, primarily because of the shortage. But, secondarily they said, "You don't know what's in 'em so you might, you might catch something if you buy the stuff." Well, that was the threat. But, it's good enough, yeah.

MU: At that time I think they were using night soil to fertilize the vegetables?

HW: Well, they'd been using that for centuries, because in a Japanese lavatory -- it's in the corner of a house somewhere, always -- and then there's a trap door under the house, and this big honey pot sits in there. That's where you go. When that honey pot fills up, they take it out, take it out into the rice paddy and bury it. And let it stew there for three months, six months. Then they start ladling it out for fertilizer.

MU: For use?

HW: Yeah. Lot of drunk GIs have -- walking along the pathways and fallen off the path and into these honey pots. [Laughs]

MU: Oh, really? [Laughs]

HW: It's a fact. That's how they took care of it, you know.

MU: Yeah.

HW: In the cities, it was a little diff-, different. It kinda ran in the gutters right on the street.

MU: Yeah.

<End Segment 23> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.