Home, Boys, Home, with a Sigh from Gene! (92)

     Gene and Maj. (?) Nigg went from Kyoto to Osaka before returning to Nagoya.

October 29, 1945  Went to I Corp Surg. at Osaka.  Left for home at 1, arrived at 7 P.M. in dark.

Osaka

Map modified from zonu.com showing Nagoya, Gifu, Kyoto and Osaka

29 Oct. '45
Beloved,
     Well, we got back and that's about all.  Oh what a tiresome ride!  But to go in order.  We had breakfast at 7:30 and went down to the offices at 8 and talked for about an hour.  There at 6th Army they say everyone eligible is to be sent home.  It is pitiful how messed up and ignorant of conditions Headquarters is at present.  They had been told this building [in Nagoya] was not suitable for a general hospital!  We put them straight in that and a few other things.  But they said we were under I Corps at Osaka, so we went down there (about 20 miles - mostly cement roads) and arrived at 10:30.  There we got the old run around and double talk.  The Surgeon there says we are attached to the 25th Division so we'd have to see them!  But it looks like Nigg can send the eligible ones out.  To do the work here [Nagoya] they will send in officers from a general hospital on account of the old 92nd is going on and on!  They may close others, but ours - never! [The higher-ups changed their minds -again- and the 92nd Evacuation Hospital was inactivated February 28, 1946.] Isn't that a crack [up]?  What do they need with an evacuation hospital?  Oh well, it will work out and I'm not bothering my head about it.  When my time comes, I'll get out, or else!

One of the many bridges in Osaka

     Well, we went over to the officers' hotel to eat and they wouldn't let us in because we weren't in khaki uniforms with ties!  So we went over to the casual officers' place.  It was the best deal for casual officers I've seen - Jap waitresses, white table cloths, silver, etc.  Good food, too!
     Then I went out and took a roll of Kodachrome.  It was chilly on the way back but we had blankets.  We went for 50 miles again without seeing a GI vehicle, though we passed some Jap trucks and hordes of people.  It was not quite dark when we finished the poor road and the gas was getting low.  After another 15 miles we turned into the road where we could expect to meet some GI cars.  We went a mile and ran out of gas.  We opened up some rations, I put on my wool undershirt and while I was doing that a jeep came by, stopped and we got gas!  We gave them some C rations and came on home.  We drove around Nagoya a while [getting lost, not sight seeing!], coming back to the edge of town once, and finally found our way to the hospital.  Nothing had happened here.  Everyone dropped around to the room to see what we had found out.

     Their trip and Maj. (?) Nigg got things moving.  The next entry in Gene's letter home shows the result.

30 Oct. '45
     Yea verily, this is a glum evening.  Practically all the gang left this evening.  [Maj. Arnold]Neimeyer and [?] Jensen volunteered to stay a few days.  Otherwise, [Capt.? John] Yount and [Capt.? Max] Vinicor and I are alone.  But I'm mighty glad the others got away and as it now appears, safely.  You see, the 25th Div.  and the Nagoya base are trying to set up their organization and there are so few medical officers immediately available - i.e. on the face of it.  Actually, there are 2 general hospitals sitting in the bay with a low priority for unloading.  All that is necessary is for the Div. Surgeon to whistle for 'em and they could be here.  So the soldiers won't be neglected.  Well, the 25th Div. general says he has permission from the 6th Army to hold all officers and men for a while, but he sent no direct order to us, so Nigg went ahead on 6th Army orders and sent everybody out.  Then Nigg and I went to see the Surgeon and said they were gone.  He fumed a bit but then said that what was done was done, and then started to do the sensible thing - plan to get the general hospital in soon.  Apparently this outfit will move in and take over and we will store out stuff and be attached to them.  That will suit me fine.  If Nigg gets away as he should I'll be CO of a paper work hospital - do the administrative work with the help of the non-coms (who know the ropes) and that is all!  So it should work out O.K.  But it makes me sad to see the old gang go.
     All my love, Eugene

Letter from Kyoto (cont.) (91)

     Gene continues his letter to Beth about the conditions in Kyoto.

Scene from downtown Kyoto

Kyoto

     After we came to Otsu, we came out on a good wide cement road that turned west up some nice hills, with an electric car line along it.  We made good time along it to Kyoto.  Kyoto wasn't touched (Phil Moore of the B-29's said MacArthur gave orders to leave it for his headquarters!)  About the only sizable town that wasn't.  It is quite a large town - nice buildings, department stores, office buildings, etc.  There certainly are a lot of people here and some army.
    We got to the Surgeon's office in time to talk to one man and to learn a few things.  We know the Col. at this building so it was suggested we throw ourselves on his hospitality.  They were eating when we came - a dandy dining room.  This outfit is the HQ for what was a medical regiment.  They have separate ambulance companies, clearing companies, etc.  There are only a dozen officers here.  The Col. (Draper) is the CO and the only medical officer - he has to hold sick call for his men!  We had a fair supper in a nice warm room.  It was chilly in the jeep!  Williamson [a doctor who joined the 92nd Evac. fairly late in the war] gave me a new pair of woolen gloves at Baguio that he'd brought from Alaska.  They were a comfort.
     At dinner I met a Rev. Burns, a priest who has been in Japan 16 years.  He was isolated but not interned.  He was going this evening to pay his respects to Miss ?, an 82 (?) year old lady whose birthday it was.  I read about her in the paper on the ship.  She came to Japan 50 or more years ago.  She is the only American the Japs didn't have under some kind of control during the war.  This priest is elderly, nice looking and very pleasant.  He told me about how apprehensive the Japs were before the occupation.  He said a policeman told his (the priest's) cook that we'd take a bunch of women, put needles thru their palms and sew them together in a long line, then take them to the ocean and tow them out with a boat until they drowned!  But since she [the cook] had been with him for 10 years, she didn't believe it.  She went to market the other day and on the streetcar overheard 2 Jap soldiers talking.  One said he had been gone for 4 years and the other, 5 years.  They told each other it had been mighty bad.  The one said "And for what?  Look how it is since the Americans came.  It would have been better to have given up long ago!"  Another conversation she overheard was between some women.  One said that the Americans put them to shame.  That the Jap people were once polite, but now the GI soldiers were teaching them politeness.  She said that on streetcars or trains a Yank (standing himself) would take a young Jap man by the shoulder and make him get up and give his seat to an old Jap man or woman.  Such reports are most gratifying, aren't they?  This priest, when war broke out, had just finished building a TB sanitarium for poor Jap people with money collected in the States.  An order of Jap Sisters were then permitted to take over and run it.
     Tomorrow we will see some men and then try to find a better road home!  Apparently our officers will be able to go.  The EM's [enlisted men] haven't been held up.  The 25th Div. seems to be holding its officers but we aren't under them now.  This Lt. Col. Bumgarten says the 92nd will not be de-activated - that it will be given men from general hospitals.  But the field hospitals well be merged and some de-activated.  So I don't know - maybe I'll be
CO and maybe not.  I hope not!
[Gene now adds some more information about Nagoya]
     Back to Nagoya - all our stuff was unloaded and brought up last night [the night before the trip to Kyoto].  I found my footlocker about 8:30, uncrated and opened it.  Everything was fine.  Gosh but I have a lot of stuff in it!  I declare I'm going to throw plenty away before I come home!  In our room we have a large cabinet with shelves and some drawers and sliding panel doors.  But hanging up things will be a problem.  We don't like to drive nails in the good plaster walls.

Building where the 92nd Evacuation Hospital was set up
in Nagoya

     I took more careful; note of the building.  It is a T shape, 5 stories in front and 6 along the [back] part, with a large auditorium on the 6th floor and a solarium on the roof.  The outside is of smooth white brick facing, but above the ground floor it has been painted over with black and dark red, which is wearing off and streaking.
     Last night I had a poncho and a double blanket under me and 2 over me (one doubled).  I had a pair of heavy socks and a cotton T shirt but about 4 A.M. I got chilly and stayed that way.  This morning I found my duffle bag and got out my air mattress and pajamas.  The room we have here for tonight [in Kyoto] has steam heat.  In our room this morning it was down to 60°.  In about 2 weeks we should have steam heat in our rooms so it will be comfortable.  They don't have hot water in this place so we are ahead of them on that score.
     One remarkable thing about the countryside here is that most of the houses out in the country have electric lights but they certainly don't seem to have any appliances!
    

On the Road to Kyoto (90)

     Gene is always ready to take advantage of spur-of-the-moment rides, as we see in this post.

October 28, 1945  [Herb] Nigg [an administrative officer ? who had joined the 92nd Evac in Owi] and I (and Lt. Griffith of the 32nd Field Hosp.) went to Kyoto by way of Gifu [about 125 miles].  Left 11 A.M. arrived 4:30 P.M.  What a road!  Stayed with 135 Med. Grp.

Modified map from hhh.gavilan.edu

28 Oct. '45
Beloved,
     I was in the billiard room but it was a bit chilly there so I'm now in the lounge and it is nice and cozy.  The radio is playing.  I'm in a nice easy chair with my feet on a carpet.  No, this isn't Nagoya, it's Kyoto!  This is a former University Club and is it a dilly!  The 135th Med. Group is stationed here and we are staying the night with them.  There are large ornamental light globes and wood paneled walls - a really snazzy place, steam heat and all!  It is a long story - also a long trip!  Nigg wanted to come over to see 6th Army to see what the score is and also to find out about himself and the other officers going home.  So, since I'm apt to be the next CO [he was the highest-ranking doctor of the three in the 92nd Evac. that would be left in Japan], I wanted to come too.  We heard it was a 3 1/2 hour trip over good roads.
     We left about 11 in a jeep with a driver.  Well, we arrived about 4:30 and what a road!  Sugar, you know our difficulties in touring the USA, getting on all the wrong roads [Gene and Beth enjoyed driving around the country seeing the sights].  Well, with signs in Japanese, a map with all the towns in Jap spelling, and their highway system here.  Oy, gevalt!  We took the wrong road out of town several miles and then got to the main road.  I guess it really wasn't so difficult.  We had the large scale Army maps and would point to it and show someone and by saying the name of the town we wanted and by sign language we'd get the general direction.  The highway was cement for a ways and in fair shape.  I can see what the air force meant when they said they were running out of targets.  Golly sakes but a lot of the industrial towns and villages are burned out!
     But to continue.  We headed for Gifu, NW of Nagoya.  We took a turn off the highway because the sign said to.  About 4 miles along on a narrow, twisting road thru an almost continuous village, I knew we were going the wrong direction and finally saw a sign for Gifu pointing the way we had come.  So we went back.  But we saw the sights - bamboo groves, rice fields and raw silk places with spindles of silk that had been dyed out in the sun. 
     At Gifu we drove into town before we knew that was it.  Then we asked for Ogosi and turned back SW.  We had good roads, more or less.  Then we continued on W toward the lake.  We saw quite a range of small mountains with what appeared to be a gap.  In that town we made a false turn and looped back.  There were signs in English spelling of the towns at important turns but their directions were not always clear.  In one town we went all around Robin Hood's barn, on the proper road, however.  It was a main road, but became dirt or gravel, about wide enough for 2 jeeps to pass.  We met a fair number of Jap trucks but no army vehicles of any kind!  But the road wasn't empty!  Oh no, it was simply a stream of people for quite some distance, even in the hills!  People walking, carrying huge loads on their backs, on bicycles with huge loads or pulling great long 2-wheeled carts piled high with boxes, or bundles of brush and branches of wood or lumber - just all sorts of things!

One cart of the many from the stream of people moving down the road

     But the road - words fail me for describing a main highway!  It was just one track.  Jeeps could pass in a pinch.  It ran thru villages where houses were built close to it, between walls, up hill and down, between rice paddies with densely forested (pine and cedar) steep hills beyond.  The railroad (double track) was always near so you can take pictures, but we were in a hurry.  Quite a few houses had steep thatched roofs - thatch about afoot thick, with green moss on the north side.
     There were dozens and dozens of shrines all along the road everywhere, usually in a nice grove of pine trees, one or more toriis ... 2 or even long rows of stone lanterns, sometimes stone lions or foxes, and then the shrine proper - small wooden ones or large tile-roofed ones.  I just wanted to take pictures of each one!  They are all so interesting and picturesque.
     In the higher valleys there was timbering going on, but not even the small branches are wasted.  What loads the people were pulling - men, women and children.  In several places there were bunches of small red chili peppers drying on straw mats.  There were miles and miles of houses with straw mats right on the road, with rice or beans drying.
     They don't pound the rice in mortars here.  They do thresh it out with flails or a sort of foot peddle machine with a rotating cylinder studded with wire loops.  Then it is winnowed in the wind or in front of a hand-turned fan.  Rice is cut close to the ground and tied in small bundles.  Some is put in very open shocks.  Some is hung over racks.  Vegetables are grown on all available ground.  There were plenty of the usual fecal odors!

Preparing the rice for threshing and winnowing

     The hills aren't terraced very high along there.  There were a number of nice clean mountain streams.  The people were dressed the same as elsewhere.  Many of the women wore small white cloth head shawls [see photo above].  Some of the men had bands of cloth around their heads fastened with an odd twist.  At most places the kids waved and hollered.  At intervals there were air-warning watch towers - usually 2 long poles set in the ground like a ladder with a tubular-looking bell.  We saw no cattle, no pigs, very few dogs and cats and not many chickens.  The road was rough and was full of chuck holes in places.  It continued a rather narrow road even after we came out by the lake.  From there on, though in doubt at times, we had no trouble following it.


     To be continued.