Misawa AB Japan 1959 – 1961

The flight to Japan was long and tiring. We took the polar route flying up to Alaska then over to Japan. Somehow that was better and shorter than going directly from California straight west. We had to stop in Alaska for refueling. Didn’t get to see anything of Alaska as we had to remain in the terminal area.

Arrival in Japan was a cultural shock of course but I soon became interested in Japanese culture. They were, and are, a fascinating people. The town of Misawa at the time was a small rural community. Very few paved roads. Lots of bars catering to the military. One of the first warnings I got was to be careful in the bars and picking up girls. Disregarding the dangers of venereal disease, a big problem was that some of the “women” were really males. You could not tell the difference just by looking at them. A lot of guys didn’t discover that until they ran their hand underneath a dress and received a bit of a shock. Then they were usually beaten up or mugged. Of course I never frequented those establishments what with being a clean living lad and all.

One of my first trips off base was to attend a combined welcome/sayonara party for me and some others from the office who were getting ready to rotate back to the States. The party was held off base at a restaurant owned by one of the food vendors that did business with the Air Force. We were sitting on tatami mats on the floor at small tables and were served by young ladies in kimonos. Since I didn’t speak any Japanese, one of the guys explained to me what was going on. At one point, one of the servers said something to me and the guy sitting next to me. I asked him what she wanted and he said she wanted to know if we wanted an egg with our rice. They definitely lost me when she cracked a raw egg into his bowl. I’ve never been a fan of raw eggs. The most outstanding memory of the event was drinking cold Nippon beer and warm Sake (made from fermented rice). It tasted really, really good and sneaks up on you after a while. Of course, by then it’s too late. That combination resulted in a bad hangover the next day.

As a food inspector, I worked in a warehouse inspecting food delivered from local vendors and rail shipments. I got to be friendly with the Japanese workers. I was considerably taller than them and we joked around together. I would pitch in when unloading boxcars and had some fun with them. We would have to stack 50 pound sacks and the stacks would get higher than the workers heads. I admit to showing off by lifting sacks to the tops of a six or seven foot pile. There was a lot of horseplay that happened among the workers and I joined in. One day I was wrestling around with someone and got him into a headlock. All at once he stopped moving around and said “Are you ready?” I thought “oh shit!” because I knew what was coming. The next thing I knew I was flat on my back and he was standing over me laughing. That “little” dude put me down like it was nothing. I learned later that he was a judo master. I’m glad we were friends else it would have meant a hospital stay for me.

At one point in my tour, I had to take a trip south to Fukushima by train to attend a training conference. The trip included an over night on the train. I must have had the luxury ticket because I was in a small compartment by myself. It had facing seats that would seat probably three people. The staff came around at night and adjusted the seats into a bed. I think I had all of the them watching because they wanted to see how the ‘giant’ was going to fit into that small of a space. The only way I could halfway fit was to lay on a diagonal and even that was cramped. Needless to say, there was a lot of laughs by all including me. One of the other customs was that people changed from their clothes into a kimono provided by the train. Picture a 6’6″ body trying to wear something designed for someone 5’6″. Not a pretty sight. I think it didn’t even come down to my knees but luckily they were made big enough so I could at least wrap it around me. I don’t remember what the conference was about but the train trip was a hoot.

I played my first round of golf at Misawa. I don’t remember what I shot but I was hooked. I didn’t play a lot in Japan but it’s stayed with me until this day.