NopoSan
The Life and Times of a Well Seasoned Nut.
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FUJI MUSUMAY
DAUGHTER OF THE MOUNTAIN
TAKEN IN PHOTO SCHOOL DENVER
COLORADO 1951
No, I'm not standing on a box. At the time I was 6
feet 3 inches tall and weighed a clean 205 pounds.
This is Kiyoko Yashida. I met her at a USO dance
and after our first meeting we did quite a bit of
exploring in Tokyo together.
Kiyoko taught me to read, write and speak Japanese.
Because of my size Kiyoko viewed me with a certain
amount of caution.
Although we were good friends, and had great fun
together our relationship never went beyong just
being friends.
There may be some among you who say, "None of this
really happened." This was clipped from the base
newspaper. If you look at the bottom line you'll find the
photographer who took this picture was none other than
myself.
Here I'm ready to take a
picture with a K-20 Arial
Roll Film Camera.
We were at the Fuji View
Hotel on a three day pass,
although the place was
called "The Fuji View
Hotel", Mt. Fuji was
nowhere to be seen..
Just a few years before, this was the entrance to the
Mitsobishi Aircraft Fighter Plant.
There wasn't much left of it after we got through
bombing it. The site was "Off Limits" for most but I had
a crash pass. This little card broke most barriers as I
explain in my book.
FOR MORE PICTURES OF JAPAN, KOREA &
MANCHURIA PLEASE GO TO;
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/
FeodosiaVisit/Photos/
When I was on Okinawa, most of the roads were still
packed dirt. It was the only place on earth we'd say,
where you could stand knee deep in mud and have dust
blow into your eye. This picture above is how they
controlled the dust. Antiquated but effective.
Many people don't know this, but the Kamakura DiButsu is hollow. The priests would climb up
inside it and speak to the gathered crowd, probably scaring the blazes out of them.
That's me in the Right hand side of the Left hand picture. I spent the day in Kamakura and it was a
fascinating place to visit. Western tourism hadn't effected it yet and it was still pretty much the way
the Japanese people intended it to be.
These are the fishing boats used in Tokyo Bay. In the
background is the Kana Gawa Bridge. Come January 1
all Japanese debts came due. If you couldn't pay and
couldn'r renegotiate.
You were supposed to do the honorable thing and jump
off the bridge. The body would then float down the Kana
Gawa and out into Tokyo Bay where it would rest until
the water warmed in May or June. Then it would float to
the surface and become our problem.
On the first May Day over there. I wound up out on one
of these boats holding up one end of a sign that said in
Japanese, "Yankee Go Home".
This is the base we were on. At the time it was shared with the Tokyo International Airport.
This picture might just as well have been in full color as the steel works across the river belched
smoke and soot all over us 24/7. The Photo Lab where we hung our hats is off to the right out of this
picture.
This is looking down the main street of our base. You can just see the corner of our baracks just
under the three smoke stacks.
The chow hall was just to the Left of the main road. The movie theater is just past the control tower.
Although I write Light Humor most of the time, this book does contain some limited violence. After
all, I did serve as a Photographer and on many occasions I was called on to photograph some pretty
nasty stuff. In any military, people get killed. Part of my job was to photograph the bodies.
Most people are familiar with the Holleywood version of death showing the dying person merely
going to sleep. This is an unrealistic view to say the least. I'll spare you the details and having to look
at the pictures.
I'd be happy if I could just forget having seen them.  Even after all these years, they still haunt my
nights.
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On Halloween, we dressed this guy up as Pancho Villa.
We even gave him a wooden machine gun and pistol.
The Japanese Police were not amused.       
Even though the Photo Lab is in the back ground we had
to talk fast. They were dead serious about hauling him
off to the Japanese Jail House. In the end, it was a great
Halloween.
This is the Base Photo Lab where we worked. You can
see the picture of the camera on the sign. Shortly after I
left Japan, this base was given back to the Japanese.
Above are my two little buddies. When I pointed the
camera at them The one on the Left grabbed his
brother's head and turned it toward me for the picture.
Later, I made a nice 20 X 24' print and took it to their
parents on Okinawa.
After the war, most Okinawans lived in poverty. The
lady to the Left made her living salvaginf exoended
bullets and shell casings out of the soft earth of this
newly plowed road.
NopoSan means Mr. Giant in Japanese Ledgend.
NopoSan was a friendly giant who loved children.
This was a fairly accurate discription of what I must have looked like to the Japanese people who
saw me during the time I was there. To them I was a giant. The story details the many funny
situations my fellow men at arms and I found ourselves in as we muddled through our military
obligations.
Here's my crass pass. With it most obsticals to our entry
crumbled. It was a very powerful tool of our trade and
often got us into a world of trouble. Fortunately, we
survived, in some cases not by much.
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