by Jack Hackley
Toward the end of the Korean War, the First Cavalry Division pulled out of Korea and moved to Japan. The 7th and 8th Regiments were stationed in the northern island of Hokkaido. The 5th Cavalry regiment was stationed at Sendai, the city hit hardest by the earthquake and tsunami.
Japan is 80% mountains, which are uninhabitable. The other 20% is flat land which consists of their cities and rice paddies. There are no farms as we have. The farmers live in the towns and go to their plot of land to work during the day. Consequently, there was no wasted land in the towns. Houses were small, constructed out of bamboo, and heated by a recess in the floor where hot coals were placed instead of a stove or furnace. They might have a four foot wide yard, which was always planted in a turnip-type crop. A city the size of Odessa or Shelbina would contain a couple hundred thousand people.
When a G.I. went overseas back then it was illegal to possess greenbacks. All soldiers were issued a script form of money. Even quarters, dimes, and nickels were paper script. Around Army bases, the Japanese merchants quickly accepted script if the G.I. did not have yen. In the Army, we were paid cash the first day of each month. Three days later, we were all broke.
One of our favorite tricks was to get in a Jeep, head out to a community on the outskirts of the base not frequented by G.I.’s, and try to buy some Nippon beer with a five cent piece of script by convincing the merchant it was a five dollar piece and worth 1,800 yen. We sometimes even got the merchant to give us our change in yen. Someone asked me if I didn’t feel guilty for tricking that Japanese merchant out of a Nippon beer. I replied, “If I had any guilt, I lost it a few years ago when a dealer convinced my wife to pay $24,000 for a Honda Accord.”
Jack can be reached at PO Box 40, Oak Grove, MO 64075 or jackremembers@aol.com
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