On 7 July 1960, I flew by US Military Air Transport Service (MATS) from K14 to Tachikawa US Air Force Base in Japan. The Air Stewards were uniformed US sailors. From Tachikawa I was bussed to Tokyo and allocated a room in the Ga-jo-en Kanko Hotel, Meguro Precinct, which I shared with three US tank crewmen from 1st Cavalry Division, also on R&R from Korea. The 7-storey Ga-jo-en was comfortable, clean, functional and Japanese-staffed and I was impressed that my shared bedroom had its own mini-bathroom of toilet, sink and shower. Holy 20th Century! I was less impressed with the food served in the US owned R&R facility, however, as it was almost identical to the largely K-Ration type of fare we got in Korea.

At the back of the hotel was a beautiful Japanese Garden. On a gentle slope leading down from the Ga-jo-en, coloured lights hung from trees, little humpy backed bridges crossed tinkling brooks, oriental lanterns shone atop posts and several meandering bush, shrub and tree-lined walks led to a pagoda-roofed, but otherwise open-air restaurant, at the bottom of the slope. Here you could get fried rice, noodles, fish dishes and bottled beers, all served by enchanting girls from the adjoining Geisha House, and chat about visiting downtown Tokyo to walk along the Ginza, go up Tokyo Tower and visit Shinto Shrines. Beer and food in the open-air restaurant was quite cheap although of course the K-Rats inside the Ga-jo-en were free.

One of my roommates discovered The Sapporo Bar, not far from the Ga-jo-en. We gave it a try and I got talking to a Japanese man who introduced himself as Shizu Hanzawa. He spoke good English and claimed genuine gratitude for the Hiroshima atomic bomb on 6 August 1945 (and Nagasaki’s on the 9th) as he’d been assigned a Kami Kazi mission on 20 August 1945. He hadn’t volunteered and in fact was an Imperial Army officer who’d been ordered to flight school where they taught him “...how take off, but not how land.” Shizu said, "Thomas Ferebee save my life by two week!” Tom Ferebee, who died in 2000, was the bomb-aimer on the Enola Gay.

Shizu Hanzawa took to me, which was my very good fortune. Over a period of days we went on a series of outings by car, including a day-long trip to Lake Kofu, another which incorporated a visit to Mount Fujiama (Fuji-san, he called it) and another to Kamakura, where amongst other things I was overawed by the Giant Buddha. We usually finished off at seafood restaurants and, at one such in Tokyo, quite literally around the corner from my hotel, we had GIANT prawns, Garupa (fish) and octopus and/or squid, I’m not sure, rice, noodles and steamed vegetables. And sugar-coated snacks. I’d noticed daddy longlegs flying around and said that, in Britain, we had the same. Shizu said, “Oh, inside you have same” - the sugar coated snacks were crane flies!

The weather during my July holiday in Tokyo had been idyllic but regrettably my R&R came to an end and I was bussed to the US Forces Transit Camp at Yokohama, where I was accommodated in the US Military Transit Hotel, to await a flight back to Korea. I served in the RASC and the RAOC and experienced the Depots of both these Corps, which served me as Transit Camps, and the only thing they had in common with Yokohama was “Transit Camp”. Apart from 24-hours food service (“You want steak for breakfast? No problem, pal, how many eggs you want with it?”), no shouting, no guard or fire piquet duties, and definitely no ironing of clothing into 9” x 9” squares, the one at Yokohama even had a NIGHTCLUB! Well, after all, the numerous troops in transit were going to Hawaii, Guam, Okinawa, the Philippines, back to Korea or wherever, including home, and they deserved to live just like they were back States-side. Me, I was starry eyed. I thought it strange the Ga-jo-en’s food was so basic in comparison - but I rarely ate in, maybe I hadn’t given it a proper chance!

On 16 July I was transported back to Tachikawa Air Base and then by US MATS to K14. Back at the UN Compound I learnt I’d missed the celebrations laid on by our French Mission colleagues on Bastille Day, 14 July, but don’t think they’d had as good a party as I’d had. Knowing I’d shown Major Morgan some reluctance about bothering myself to go to Japan, I took care to thank him very much for insisting I did.