Yokohama Navy Exchange was where?

Okay, you have to explain: who were the "donut dollies". Are you referring to the fine,smart ladies who my Mom worked for, the American Red Cross women? Just wondering.

Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday - a Merry Christmas, and a very happy and healthy New Year!

I was three years in Yokohama. I had no car and took taxicabs maybe twice a day. Thats what, over 2000 Yokohama taxi cab rides. Does this make me an expert ? There is a whole book here. Relax, I'm not going to bore you, but will share this with you.
When I first arrived I was shy about taking a taxi because of the language barrier and my inability to communicate where I wanted to go. When I got my first apartment I had little choice. I had to take the leap.
So I bought a Japanese english dictionary which oddly I still have and use. So..I flagged down a cab and looked up the word ''straight''..zooommm down Honmuku-dori and boom through the Yammato tunnel as i frantically looked up the word for "right "I said the word.. migi..and wow..he truned right..it works ! how strange that you could use a strange word and have the meaning understood. Then ''here''and he stopped..amazing ! So these were the first words i learned in Japanese, and it worked beautifully if not a little strained. From there I refined my requests to the cab drivers so that I didn't have to keep them guessing.
Some of the cabs had a self-opening door which could catch you by suprise.
Some of the cabs has plus interiors with flowers and decorations, others were very basic.
I don't think i had the same driver twice, there must have been thousands of them.
I had some cookies once and gave a couple to the driver to see what he would do. The perplexed expression was priceless..maybe he thought I was not going to pay him.
For a hundred yen..28cents you could get almost anyplace. Bargan.
Oh and i will correct Wally..they were not
"ex"-Kamikaze..it seems that most all had a death wish. They didn't have to prove their valor to me.
Oh and no women drivers..all men.

There were three kinds of taxi cabs parked in front of the PX complex during my era. They were 60 yen, 70 yen and 80 yen cabs. The 60 yen cabs were tiny Renaults with the meter initiating at 60 yen. The next size up were Datsuns. A little bigger inside, with the fee starting at 70 yen.
The nice cabs were Toyopets (Toyota sedans) that charged 80 yen.
In about 1960, a Japanese car called Prince came on the market ( I think it merged with Toyota at some point) and it did duty as a small stylish Limo.
My dad told the story of charcoal powered cabs that worked the streets when he first arrived. They were gone by the time I needed a ride.

How do you power a cab with charcoal ?
A small steam boiler ?
Oh and I have been asked, did I use rickshaws. I only saw one rickshaw, parked on a side stree, probably for a geisha, but never even had the chance to take one.
Now in New York City they have these pedal cabs.

Steffi,
During World War II, the Red Cross recruited young ladies to serve donuts and coffee to G.I.'s stateside and in overseas locations. The G.I.'s began referring to them as Donut Dollies, and this name stuck with them during the Korean and Vietnam wars. They were at the 106th Hospital in Yokohama when I was there, and they did more than hand out donuts and coffee, they organized activities for the wounded soldiers and counseled them about their personal problems. I was a Field Director for the Red Cross in Vietnam and knew many of the Donut Dollies, and they would chopper out to some of the most remote and dangerous parts of Vietnam just to try to make life a little better for the G.I. By the time I got over there, three of them had been killed. They were angels, and the term Donut Dolly is not derogatory, it is a term of endearment by the G.I.'s, and the girls wore it with pride. They did it for very little pay, there are no big retirement checks, and they get very little recognition for the contributions they made over there. I love every one of them!

Here is an item from my recent copy of the American Legion Magazine, which is appropriate to our discussion of Yokohama taxi drivers.
"A taxi driver and a minister arrived in heaven at the same time. The taxi driver was given a palatial suite, and the minister was given a small room.
"I don't get it," the minister said. "All he did was drive a cab. I was in the ministry for decades."
"Up here we go by results," said St. Peter. "While you preached, people slept. While he drove, people prayed."

To all of my good friends at japan-Guide.com
I wish to all of you a truly belssed Christmas.

" To Face unafraid, the plans that we made,
walking in a winter wonderland"

Thanks, Wally, for the explanation.

For those others like me who hadn't heard of the donut dollies before, he's a little video I found -

http://www.videomaker.com/video/watch/contest-winners/2005/10/best-doc...

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! HOPE YOU'RE HAVING A GREAT DAY!

I remember the ceiling on the trains I took were rather low. I'm 6 feet & had little clearance.

Went to Shinjuku with a date to see "The Graduate" (1968). I barely fit in the seat & I'm average build.

Had a hot dog at a park. It was made of fish and had a very thick skin. Ewe!

At Bayside Courts-2 to a room, bathroom down the hall & a communal kitchen on a different floor. Our laundry was done by a mama-san who charged 5000 yen a month. That also included cleaning the room. What a deal!

First time I went to Tokyo my reaction was that it was NYC on steroids. Can't read anything. Can't communicate with anyone.

Trains stopped running at midnight & a few times got to the station late so spent the night in a hotel & returned to Yokohama in the morning.

Joe
I didn't stay at Bayside very long, maybe 2 weeks. the veterinary detachment[food inpectors], had a long room with a squad housed in that one room. There was no talk of communial kitchen. Laundry was sent out.
The ''Vets '' were in the 2nd building on the right on the second floor. I think there were MPs down the hall not sure. It was pretty stark.
When my wife and I were out of town we invited one of the guys to use our apartment
I think they appreciated having the privacy.
Privacy seemed to me to be in very short supply. there were very few times thatI was able to relax alone. Once when my wife was away with her assistant. I walked to sankien garden where i had found a trail in the bamboo forrest, from there I could scramble into the brush and lay down in a small clearing and relax with just the birds and warm breezes. It was like heaven.
Once we caught that ''last train from Tokyo'' there was a drunk Japanese man on the train and was threatening us. We got off the train in Kawasaki and took a cab. Was about the only bad scene we had.
Joe do you remember the dispatcher at the motor pool ? I don't remember her name but she was the go-to-girl to get whatever you needed, from rides to apartments to advise. What a gem !

This note is for Steffi who, if I remember correctly, attended St. Joseph College in Yokohama briefly. Were you in the same class as Charlie Houghton? He and I had lunch at the World Bank in DC recently. My sempai said he had St. Maur's girls in his class. If you do know him and want to get in touch, I can help. Meanwhile, I wrote a review in the Washington Post that appeared this morning (on the subject of Hokusai). Here is the link:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/book-world-art-and-a...

Honmokujin
Now you've gone and done it...
Raised one of my favorite topics..
I have a modest collection of Hokusais' including the Great Wave, which I know is a
modern repro. My favorite however is The houseboat at Ushibori in Hatachi Province.
And for years I thought the old man was dumping a honey bucket...my error..
The one I would dearly love would be The Inns at Enoshima in Sagami.
I am very confused as to originals/prints
copys of prints..later copys/struck after original blocks ect...I read a book and fel asleep trying...
Just as an exercise in futility..how much would a true original of the Great Wave command ? I know, prices are tacky, not that I'm in the market mind you..but its fun to guess. ne ?
I've got a bunch of other stuff that I can't get anyone here to look at. any suggestions ?

Kunio - thank you so much for thinking about me, but I don't believe I know Charlie Houghton. He may have been there after I had already gone to live in the US in early 1948. Perhaps he knows Tom Haar, who was there in later years. I have happily connected with several other people, which has been very exciting.

Also, congratulations on your new article - sounds like an interesting book.

I just read another terrific book that I recommend to everyone - it is self-published and available on Amazon books online: ''Eddoko: growing up a foreigner in Wartime Japan'' by Isaac Shapiro. His life in many ways parallels mine, though he is older than I am and we did not know each other - however, it is very likely that his parents and my father, all of whom were musicians in Tokyo at the same time, very probably did know each other and may even have worked together. It is a small world, even after many years.

Tom Haar was my housemate while we were in San Francisco. He remains a very close friend of mine. Ike Shapiro was our neighbor in Honmoku. He became a very successful lawyer in New York as you probably know. He also headed the Isamu Noguchi museum. He was hired partly because he and Noguchi were both students at St. Joseph College at one time. At our recent meeting, Charlie Houghton told me fascinating stories about Yokohama before and during the war. I did not know that the HXlms (real estate moguls in Yokohama) supported the Nazis and were not able to return to Japan until they became American citizens.. [Name redacted since I have no proof at this point]. He has a lot of such fascinating stories.

I don't remember the lady at the motor pool. Time has shortened my memory. lol
Do you remember the chain driven Honda car that sold new for $2000?

It was right next to the movie house. We had a bowling alley, PX and a cafeteria also there. Behind the Navy Exchange was the teen club. It was very close to the school, near the ball field.

Joe..No I don't remember the Honds chain driven cars.
I do remember playing frisbee in front of my apt bldg in Medori Gaoka. From down the street came a Mazda with a rotary engine quie,t smooth, fast and cool looking. At that very monent I knew that the Japanese auto makers were going to come on to the US car scene with a bang. They did..as we know.
The Japanese made a Datsun called a "Fair Lady" which was a very stylish sports job. It struggled to take off. Then they realized why, the name was wrong for the US "guy" car market. They renamed it the
240 ZX and the rest you know. The 1st Honda "Civic" was tiny tiny..but who cared.

At Center Pier, we would stand back and watch the new cars come screaming down the road and onto ships, hundreds at a time, they must have closed downtown to let this
car train through. Some took the corners on two wheels.

Someone missed a chance. IF someone had worked out a "lease" program for cars by servicemen, I might have been tempted. One reason I didn'tget a car is not knowing if I could sell it when I left. That would have solved that. I almost considered a motorcycle but this left side business spooked me.

The motor pool dispatcher was this almost
"black market" way to get things done. She seemed to know everything and everyone. I think some guys would arrange "guides" for the weekends. Pretty up and up. [I think]
The ladies were college students looking to poilsh there conversational english skills and have dates. The guys would get the company, see the sights, and pay the tab.
Maybe a lonely hearts club ? I met one of the ladies once while waiting at Bayside.
Her english was surprisingly good. And she was poised, confident nicely dressed, and very sweet. I think she took a shine to me..until she saw my ring..oh well..

I had a Datsun 260Z. Cool car. It was the poor man's Corvette. Since it was a two-seater, we would put the kids in the hatchback. They loved lying on the luggage floor and looking out through the glass door, but talk about dangerous. Young people are ignorant, they shouldn't be allowed to vote.

Happy New Year!

Wishing all of ny good friends a very
HAPPY NEW YEAR !!

It seems as if Tom Haar and you know everyone. I unfortunately was too young when I lived in Japan to maintain relationships later on, but I have reconnected a bit lately, which has been very important for me.

Who is Charlie Houghton and what was his relationship to Japan? (Regarding the real estate moguls - did the editors here "dedact" the names? I wasn't sure what happened there.)

As for Noguchi, I have known about his amazing work in so many mediums but have not made it to his museum in L.I. City. Offshoots of is designs of furniture and much else seem to be everywhere, but his originals are superb. He was truly a citizen of the world and his art reflects an amalgam of many creative ideas.

As for Ike, I think he was also involved with the Japan Society here in NYC. He also knows Tom Haar, who was the one who first mentioned him to me. I believe he still lives here in NY.