An Okinawan Affair
by
Herb Blanchard
An Okinawan Affair
by Herb Blanchard
Copyright 2011 Herb Blanchard
BOOK DESCRIPTION
AN OKINAWAN AFFAIR was written partly as a memoir and partly to tell about the people of Okinawa and what had happened on the island before repatriation back to Japan. And about the Americans who were stationed there in the military or chose to live on the island as civilians.
Most of the characters are profiles of real people or composites of several people the author knew on the island. Many of the incidents portrayed are based on actual occurrences that the author was involved in, or had direct knowledge of or recollection of them.
DEDICATION
AN OKINAWAN AFFAIR is dedicated to all the people, Americans and Okinawan, living and dead, that I knew and loved,. They contributed to the writing of the book whether they know it or not. Remember me or not.
I thank each and every one of them.
GLOSSARY
(A list of Japanese, Okinawan, English & corrupted words & names in all three languages used by the GIs on Okinawa during the 1960's and 1970's.)
"A" Sign - placed by military health inspectors. GIs and Military civilian employees were only allowed to patronize establishments with an "A" sign.
akabu - red, such as red hair. A women's period
aka-chan - child, baby
APA - transport ships for movement of Army & Marine Corp. troops
Asahi - a Japanese beer
aspirin - liquid, came sealed in one dose glass containers that you snapped open and drank
ATCO - air transport coordinator
arigato - thank you
arigato goziemashita - feminine thank you
AWOL - absent-without-leave. Slang for a small bag like a gym bag to carry a change of clothes & shaving gear in.
benjo - toilet
bento -box lunch
biru - beer
butterfly - person who goes from lover to lover
BX - Base Exchange,(Navy & Air Force) also PX - -Post Exchange(ARMY)
C/C & kori mizu - Canadian Club whiskey and ice water
cha or ocha - green tea
Cherry-boy - Slang for a GI new to the Island, or a young male virgin.
chinbun - knowledge
COMCBPAC - Commander Construction Battalions Pacific
CONUS - continental US
denwa - telephone
domo arigato gozaimasu - formal thank you
domo - thanks
dozo - please
futon - Japanese bed.
Giagonji - area of Naha City with no "A" signs establishments. 'OFF LIMITS' to all Americans, military and civilian
gohon - rice
gomen - sorry
gomen nasai - excuse me, I'm sorry
green beanies - green berets, Army Special Forces. The Seabees and green berets worked together closely in Vietnam
habu - Okinawan poisonous snakes. Very aggressive and deadly
hai - yes, agree
haiji - left
hashi - chopsticks
hayaku - hurry up
hazukashii - embarrassed, ashamed
honto - true, for sure
iie - no
Kanji - Japanese written characters
kawaii - cute, pretty
kohi - coffee
koko desu - it is here
koko - stop here
konbanwa - good evening
konnichi wa - good day
kori - ice; kori mizu - ice water
MCAF - Marine Corp Air Facility
MCB - Mobile Construction Battalion. The main organization of deployment for Seabee units.
maguro --tuna for sashimi
migi - right
mike boats - landing craft with a ramp in front to off load troops or vehicles
mizu - water
NAF - Naval Air Facility
nan desu ka - what is it
neh - you agree?
nekkyo - insane, crazy
nemaki - sleeping robe or kimono
nesan - elder sister, girl, young woman
niisan - elder brother, boy, young man
Noumanoui - Area of Naha City set aside for "A" sign bars and restaurants
oba-san - grandmother
obi - kimono sash
ohayo gozaimasu - good morning
oji-san - uncle
oki - large, big
oku-san - wife
Orion - Okinawan beer
oyu - hot water
round eyes - Caucasian Used by GIs in reference to white women
ryokan - Japanese inn
San Miguel - Beer from the Philippines
Sapporo - Japanese beer
sashimi - raw fish
sayonara - good-bye
sei - sex
seiai sexual love
six-pac - a 6 passenger, 4 door pickup
skivvie house - whorehouse
soba - noodle soup
suck-a-hachi - GI slang for fellatio & oral sex
sukoshi - small, little
sukoshi chinbun - not smart, not much knowledge
sushi - rice & fish combination
TAD - Temporary Duty Assignment
takusan - a lot, large amount
tatami - woven straw mats about 3' x6' (a 6, 8 or 12 tatami room.)
tomodachi - friend
ville - the bar area of Noumanoui or small villages near any military base
wakarimasu ka - do you understand?
Wakarauai - I don't understand
wakaru - I understand
yakamesa - fried rice
yakasoba - fried noodles
YFU - Navy utility boat with a low flat deck and loading ramp on front
yukata - informal, everyday wear kimono
ONE
He had just stuffed several barely readable, blue mimeograph copies of his orders into his new brown leather AWOL bag. The orders read: "EON3 BRADFORD NMN BURGESS IS TO REPORT TO THE TREASURE ISLAND RECEIVING STATION NO LATER THAN 2400 HOURS ON 03 JANUARY 1964 FOR AIR TRANSPORTATION TO NAF NAHA, OKINAWA FOR SHORE DUTY." It was already the second day of the new year in 1964 and Equipment Operator, (N for heavy) Bradford (No Middle Name) Burgess was on his way to the Treasure Island Naval transit station sitting in the middle of San Francisco Bay to await a plane ride to the Japanese island of Okinawa. There he could stay for up to three years enjoying the soft tropical breezes and company of the island's easy going people.
Maybe I'm making a big mistake. He thought as he dropped his AWOL bag on the floor next to the front door and started back through the living room.
Brad didn't hear her come up behind him, but the acrid smell of wool hot from an iron and a whisper of her scent floating gently past his nose sent a shiver up the middle of his back.
"I'm going to miss you, Brad." She spoke softly.
He knew she didn't want one of her three children or her husband, Brad’s half brother, to hear. They had been communicating in soft undertones meant only for each other during most of his 30 day leave.
"I feel very close to you." Sally went on in her soft voice. "Closer than I've felt to anyone for a long time. It made it very easy for me to talk to you during the last few days."
"Maybe I shouldn't go, Sally. I could give these orders away and stay with the Battalion at Port Hueneme (Waa-nee-me)."
He turned to face his sister-in-law. Sally was a tall brunette who at that moment was looking extremely vulnerable, yet very seductive in her shapeless chenille robe.
She carefully laid Brad’s freshly pressed Navy dress jumper across the back of an overstuffed living room chair before stepping cl
oser to him.
"You have been trying to get those orders for over a year, Brad. You should go. I'll be fine."
She was 32, (6 years older than Brad’s 26), and stood three inches taller. During the past few months they exchanged letters, each more intimate than the last. And with each letter, Brad felt the years separating them diminishing. Sally became younger and more vulnerable.
Her heavy winter robe was pulled tight emphasizing Sally's full breasts and hips. Brad drew a deep, shaky breath as he looked down the length of her fully covered body and remembered what she had looked like the day before when she had stepped out of her bath and stood watching him for several seconds before taking the heavy, warm bath towel Brad held out to her. His hands had shook slightly as he allowed his gaze to travel down the length of her statuesque form before coming back up to her full, pendulous, breasts.
"You had better get dressed." She spoke softly, a little bit breathlessly as if she was also remembering those intimate moments while moving a step closer to him.
Without actually touching each other, Brad’s mind let him feel the physical sensation of her bare body pressing against him. He wanted to take her in his arms for one last time. A dark thought was passing through his mind. She’s about to end whatever might have/could have, been between us.
Sally raised her right arm and laid the back of her hand on his right cheek, slowly stroking it.
"Bob will be ready to go in a minute."
With half a smile she added, "You know how your brother hates to be kept waiting."
She tried to laugh, but it faded into the soft smile she had bestowed on him so many times during the last few days before she hurriedly turned away as tears slipped from the corners of her pretty brown eyes.
As she walked away she spoke in her scolding voice, and Brad knew she had been reading his eyes. She used that tone whenever she had made up her mind to get her way. "Go, Brad. Get on the airplane and go."
She turned away pulling her robe tighter under her crossed arms. Brad also felt the same sudden chill that Sally felt.
When she started up the stairs, towards the bedroom she shared with his half brother, the soft movement of her hips under the robe brought a renewed stirring of Brad’s unfulfilled desire for her.
At that moment he didn't realize it but a chapter of his life had just closed. A chapter he would never be able to reopen or go back to. Nor did he know a fresh new chapter was about to start. A chapter which would bring him a love like none he ever imagined could exist. But there would also be sorrow, and that too is part of life.
TWO
The journey into Brad Burgess’ new life started on January 5, 1964 when with over 200 other GIs and dependents he was jammed into the cabin of a government chartered Pan Am DC8. From the ramp of Travis Air Force Base they were bound for the island of Okinawa with intermediate stops across the Pacific.
At Honolulu International, their first stop, the passengers were given a short break which Brad took advantage of to limber up his cramped leg muscles. He walked around the terminal before climbing the stairs to the observation deck on the terminal's roof. He watched the DC8 being refueled and the members of a fresh flight crew establishing themselves on the flight deck. Several new passengers were standing around at the gate waiting to board the aircraft. Amongst them was a young, possibly military dependent wife with a two year old boy and a very young baby.
Brad felt his good luck had run out when the young mother holding her almost new baby, dropped into the seat next to him. Quietly and gently she spoke to and guide her fair haired son onto the aisle seat next to her. Brad had staked a claim on these seats coming out of CONUS when they were empty so he wasn't particularly happy about having to share them with a couple of screaming dependent brats.
Within minutes the flight crew had the DC8 roaring down the runway and another leg of Brad’s journey started as they chased the late afternoon sun across the Pacific Ocean.
The DC8 was still climbing out and had started a turn away from Diamond Head as Brad watched the tropical green of Oahu slip from the restricted view of the aircraft window to be replaced by the ever changing color flow of the Pacific's greens and blues. He heard the soft chime of a stewardess call button and felt the young mother stirring in her seat next to him. Ignoring her, he was deliberately trying to avoid any connection to her and the inherent problems of traveling with small children. His gut told him that they were about to encroach further into his tiny sphere of space.
The murmur of feminine voices slid across the void between our seats. Good, the stewardess is helping her and can deal with it.
Brad forced himself not to turn and look in their direction as a strange mixture of baby smell and an unknown, but what he was sure was an exotic and expensive perfume, wafted across the void and intrigued his nose.
The touch on his left forearm was gentle. Her hand was so tiny his first thought was that the two year old boy had touched him.
She spoke hesitantly in a very soft voice. "Excuse me? Could you help me, please?"
Her eyes were the deep warm blue of a cloudless mid-summer sky and they enveloped his whole being. She needed neither the honey blond hair that hung down in mild disarray across her small pert nose, nor the soft smile which was flitting across her dusty rose lips to make Brad fall in love with her. Just her eyes did that. He was completely lost, and totally in love even after he caught a glimpse of the engagement ring that had to be at least a carat and a half of diamonds backed by a yellow gold wedding band that was at least a sixteenth of an inch thick and twice as wide and studded with more, but smaller diamonds.
"Could you hold the baby for a minute while I tend to her brother? I'd like to get him fed and settled. Maybe he'll give me a break and take a nap if his belly is full."
Brad guessed that the baby in her arms was barely two months old. With previous niece and nephew experience he knew what this simple request would involve.
"Can you hang on for a second while I take off my jumper?"
"Good thinking." She laughed and while she looked towards the stewardess for reassurance the pretty lady shifted the baby on her arm.
"We'll make it. Won't we Gus?" She said to the baby.
"Gus?" Brad asked noticing at the same time the stewardess making her break towards the far aft end of the aircraft.
"Her middle name is Augusta after my grammy." With a smile she added, "and I'm afraid she's going to be stuck with it. Though she will probably hate us for it. Her brother can say Gus, but he has problems with Carole. That's her first name. He keeps coming out with some weird variation of Carl which doesn't fit at all. The poor baby is a Gus, not a Carl. And definitely not a Carlos or Carlito." Her laugh was open and fun.
This lady doesn't have many secrets. Everything is out front and spoken aloud.
"I'm Sandra Rockwell. Sandy, that's what my friends call me. My husband is stationed at Camp Kue."
Sandy instantly noticed Brad’s look of ignorance about Camp Kue.
"That's the Army hospital on Okinawa. He's not a doctor, he's an engineer. Officer-in-Charge of the plant. You know, the stuff like boilers and air conditioning."
It feels good knowing she cares enough to let me off the hook without making me out a fool. And I knew she was a dependent.
With her head tilted a just little to the left, Sandy continued to look at Brad with a slightly questioning expression on her beautiful face.
"Oh." Brad felt the heat of his embarrassment creep up his neck. “My name is Burgess. Brad Burgess.” I’m going to NAF Naha. That’s Naval Facility at Naha, Okinawa.
"Here, I'll take her." She has a great sense of humor even if she is an officer’s wife.
"Glad to meet you Brad Burgess. And thank you. I know that you and Gus will get along just fine."
Her voice had the softness of a gentle summer breeze across a meadow of soft green grass. Brad started to think that
he had a good chance to enjoy the remainder of the trip after all, with Gus and her mother for company.
A quick refueling stop and two poor souls were deplaned on the very tiny dot in the Pacific Ocean called Wake Island.
A few more quiet and extremely boring hours brought their final stop within reach. Both Gus and her brother had fallen asleep shortly after they took off from Wake Island. Several times Brad offered to take the boy to the rest room, or held Gus because he wanted to, not because Sandy asked him to do it. She was quite self sufficient and only asked for help when she really needed it. He knew that he couldn't complain and surely didn't feel imposed upon.
Gus was sound asleep in the crook of his right elbow. Her mom had taken her brother somewhere towards the aft end of the aircraft.
Brad had joined MCB 10 in November of 1962 just as 10 was returning from an 8 month tour at Camp Kinser, the Seabee base on the island of Okinawa. For over a year he had been listening to the salty Seabees of Port Hueneme tell their sea stories about the attributes of the bars and women of Okinawa. Finally, fourteen months later, and 25,000 feet over the East China Sea, he was about to get his first look of this tropical paradise.
The melodic chime made Brad glance up as the FASTEN SEAT BELT sign came on. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Sandy slip into her seat next to him, and he turned to watch her fasten her son's seat belt. Gus stirred in his arms. Brad looked down into her deep blue eyes and took a minute to enjoy her tiny face forming a trusting smile.
She looks like her mom.
Brad felt a tinge of regret as he realized that in a few minutes he was going to have to give Gus back to her mother.
The high pitched whine of hydraulic motors deep within the big jet's bowels startled him out of his reverie. The mechanical sounds brought Brad back to the confined world of the DC8’s cramped passenger cabin. He was lethargic from the long flight and for the last couple of hours with his friend Gus in his arms, he had been drowsing in a temporary suspension of time. The DC8's huge flaps were still forcing their way down into the slipstream under the wings when another hydraulic pump start up. The aircraft shuddered in protest as the main landing gears slammed into place with a series of loud clunks.