"Our first day in Japan" by F.E. (Jim) DeVine


September 23, 1945:
'Morning. When we landed at Sasebo, it was a gray, cloudy morning. 
The only one to greet us at the pier was a Jap captain.  He was 
scared as hell.  Some guys actually pointed their K-bars at his gut. 
When I saw the hills coming down to the shoreline, I thought "How 
were we to get ashore durung the invasion?" There was no surrender 
ceremony that we saw. Interestingly, no women were to be seen.  We 
were told that they were in the hills because the savage Marines 
were coming and they would be raped.  Within a short time, they 
appeared slowly, but all seemed to be pregnant.  When they saw that
we were all gentlemen and scholars, the pillows and cushions 
disappeared from their kimonos. Being in Japan was probably the most 
interesting 3 months of my teen years.  

END
F.E. (Jim) DeVine