Yokohama Navy Exchange was where?

Just found this thread and am reading through.....

So - I didn't read thru all the thread, but I go thru quite a few and scanned some.... I too found this by accident. I was looking around for ideas on a 60th Birthday present for my sister and our best friends.... and ended up here. :) My Father was in the US Navy and my Mother was Japanese from the Kyushu area. We lived in Japan from 1975 - 1980. We lived in Area II. I've enjoyed reading through the conversations and hope to visit this site to check things out - I'm really not very good hitting social media sites and such. But I will make an effort here. Hope everyone that has been posting is doing great and their loved ones too!!!!

In late 1979 or early 1980 I was on one of my weekend trips to Tokyo from Okinawa, and was sitting in a booth with a young lady in the English Pub (or London Pub). There were very few people in the pub, and this portly American came over and asked if he could join us, and we invited him to sit with us. He was a real nice guy, and very interesting, and the three of us visited for about an hour. He said his name was Meat Loaf.

Wally

Hi Eric,
No didn�ft know the Langs. I was pretty young in Kamakura. What I remember was my father�fs connection with coworkers at MSTS (later MSC). I was also a playmate of Conrad Silver. I believe his father was a sales type for the Boeing Company in Japan. We lived a block behind the Daibutsu in Hase, Kamakura. My favorite food from Kamakura to this day is Hato Sabure (the pidgeon cookies!!!).

Robert Lang was a commercial photographer for American scholastic books and magazines. He took me on several photo trips, including one when Japan was still raising silk worms and making silk.

Lang was in Kamakura when the Pacific War broke out and was imprisoned by the Japanese Army. The Army guards found he could repair shoes so he was well treated...

He and wife Tokuko lived at 660 Hase in Kamakura. He and Tokuko raised rabbits in their tiny back yard.

In one of his last letters to my mom and dad, he criticized the South Viet regime, especially "Madam Nu, a heartless, corrupt offspring of a corrupt family." This was in October, 1963. "Most of the money America sends goes into the pockets of the Nu family."

Pity more of us didn't listen to his warnings...

Eric, In the early 60's I attended Harris Kindergarten. It was a transition time (even as a tike) as I went from a Japanese school off base to an American school on base. The gray Navy school bus would pick us up in the parking lot for the Daibutsu. A story my mother told me, that I couldn't quite wrap my head around was that a tsunami washed all the way up to the Daibutsu. In 3/11/11, I was in Tokyo for the big one. Now I can visualize it. Regarding the Vietnam War; my Boy Scout Troop (48) used to visit & sing Christmas Carols at the 106th General Hospital at the Kishine Barracks where, among other things, they had a Burn Unit. It was a sobering experience to this day much less a kid.

Hi everyone....it is amazing how this thread dies down for a while, and comes to life again......welcome to Donna and Kent and others who have come onboard lately.

I am probably the oldest person here, and along with Kaoru, not a native -born American, but living in the States since 1948. I am European by birth, and was brought to Tokyo as an infant by my violinist/father and mother in 1939 to escape Nazi persecution in Germany. We joined my father's sisters who had come to Japan earlier. There was a small community of foreigners living in Tokyo, including Leo Sirota, a renowned pianist who helped us get in, thereby saving our lives. (Sirota's daughter, Beate Sirota Gordon, later was hired while still very young by Gen MacArthur to write a section of the new Japanese constitution relating to rights for Japanese women).

My connection with Yokohama came in 1945, when WW2 had ended and the U.S. Occupation began. My Mom, who by then was widowed, moved us from Karuizawa (a beautiful but bitterly cold mountain town in Nagano, where many foreigners relocated after the U.S. entered the war) to the Bluff, where she worked for several years for the American Red Cross women, who were housed in an estate called Berrick Hall. I attended St Joseph's College...a boy's school which accepted girls at that time as St Maur's had not yet re-opened. I was ages 7 to 10......

Kaoru, and others able to read Japanese.....you might be interested in a book that just came out in Japan last year. It is by Kuniko Takagawa, and the translation of her book title is "Outsiders' Pacific War: The Unknown Stories Of Foreigners in Wartime Karuizawa". It recounts some interesting stories about that period, including mention of my family's experience at that time.

Best regards to everyone.....

Steffi

Hello Steffi-san and everyone,

Thank you for many postings.

Today's highest temperature in Yokohama is about 45 degrees and sunny places are warm. I haven't been to NYC in winter yet but think it's cold.

My hobby is music, I listen to classical, opera and British rock every day. My audio room has relatively large speakers. I enjoy my favorite music at a volume that my neighbors won't complain about. When dad's friends returned to the US, they gave us so many LP records, but unfortunately they aren't at home anymore...

The number of new Covid, Omicron patients is increasing in Japan as well, and now taking a third shot of medical personnel.
Everyone, vaccinate if possible.

Live a long and healthy life.

Hi Steffi,
One of the great things about this board is hearing from old friends again. This sounds like a great book. Hopefully it will be translated into English.

Hi Dave-san, good to hear from you. I hope you and your family are well.

Right now there is no prospect of the book being translated into English, according to Kuniko, which is unfortunate. But she and another friend have gradually been sending me select sections which they have kindly translated for me, which is lovely. I have belatedly come to appreciate my mother, who somehow was able to provide for us in spite of extensive wartime shortages of food and supplies. I did not fully appreciate that at the time, as I was so little, and as we all tend to take our parents and what they do for us for granted.

There are also several books in English that were written in recent years by people who were living in Japan at the time, who also then emigrated to the States.

Kaoru, we also love listening to music, mostly classical, and we also play. Often we find many interesting performances on YouTube, which I look at on an Amazon Kindle Fire tablet, with earphones at night so as not to disturb neighbors. We find that tablets tend to have really good sound quality.

Best regards to you both, Dave-san and Kaoru-san.

Kaoru-san
Watched both YouTube links you provided recently. The second one, showing the streetcars that once linked parts of downtown Naka-ku brought a flood of memories. As a first grader, I rode on the streetcar from the Honmoku Sankeien stop to Makado stop. Then, when I transferred schools, to St. Joseph College on the Bluff, I took it to Chiozaki-cho stop and walked up the hill to our school.
Along the way was the familiar sites of Areas One and Two, with the view of Nile C Kinnick school, Bill Chickering theater abd the Bavy Exchange to the left. There was a small movie theater called Mugi-za, across from the streetcar terminal. I remember seeing "Gone With the Wind" there. And the tunnel that opened up towards the downtown parts of Yokohama, from Motomachi, the chin-chin bells kept ringing all the way to Yokohama Station. The streetcars gave us easy access to Chinatown, Isezaki-cho and Bashamichi. Then there was and still is the zoo on Noge hill near the station. Now, a new metropolis looms to the right, the Minato Mirai area with Landmark Tower and many new hotels.
But I can still see the familiar cream-colored streetcars with blue stripes clanging along.
A few days ago, I saw "From Up on Poppy Hill" an animation film by Goro Miyazaki, that depicts Yokohama of another era: the streetcar era after World War II. Highly recommended.

Hello Steffi and Honmokujin-san,

Yokohama is fine Sunday but here will snowing on this Thursday maybe.

I often listen to Canon and Chopin's Nocturnes, which are my favorites. Yes, I also enjoy classical music on my desktop computer or tablet. I uploaded this video to Youtube before, this is my Japanese style Tatami mat listening room, please try it "Time to say Goodbye" I took this by tablet, image and sound is not good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZYXxkMSFD0

I ordered Kuniko Takagawa's novel from Amazon yesterday. I'm looking forward to seeing it. The book was released in 2021, it is written about foreigners in Karuizawa and the life of foreigners in Japan at that time when it was militarism...

Thank you for sharing many good memories of Yokohama. Yes, I saw Hayao Miyazaki's "From Up on Poppy Hill". It's a great anime movie, I loved it.

Best,

Kaoru-san,

Thank you for posting that song....lovely music, beautifully performed!

And how nice to have a tatami room with a fine stereo system.....good for your spirit, and for peace of mind
and a reminder that there are beautiful things to enjoy, like good music, regardless of what is happening in the rest of the world!

We have no tatami room. But we take our shoes off at the door, and wear slippers in both our apartment and our house ....once you have been taught to do that as a child, you do it forever!!!!!

We also have a piano, viola, cello, and several violins left behind by my son......we used to play chamber music ( music for small ensembles of three, four or more players).....but less so now.

Best to everyone!!!

Thank you Steffi-san,

Yokohama is now midnight on Saturday.
Our friend Eric-san is now traveling to a beautiful beach in Mexico, maybe he will return to MO in about a week.

I went to Yokosuka by my car tonight. After passing Kamakura, I ran along the coastline of Zushi and Hayama and arrived at Yokosuka. The number of people was small due to the influence of Covid. Navy personnel and their families are also prohibited from going out.

Yeah, I also love stringed instruments, unfortunately I can't play them. That's why I listen to music every night in the Tatami mat room. I uploaded some of my favorite music on Youtube. They have been seen about 100,000 times in all.
I add two links to this thread. One is analog, which is an LP record. Next is "Tennessee Waltz".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMCkZoODPD8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-f4Q5PLaea8

Best wishes

Hello Honmokujin,

Thank you for your detailed posting about Yokohama.

I mistakenly wrote for this thread about the director of "From Up on Poppy Hill". This movie was produced by Goro Miyazaki, and his father is Hayao Miyazaki. Their production conpany is Studio Ghibli. Hayao directed many animations, many of which are fantastic, such as "Princess Mononoke" and "Spirited Away". Hayao's films have been seen by many people around the world.

"Grave of the Firefly" is also a work of Studio Ghibli. It's the story of a sad young boy and his sister during and shortly after the Pacific War. Japanese TV stations broadcast this works around the end of the war every year.

In the near future, another big wars may occur. We want to stop it if possible.

Best regards,

91 degrees and sunny at the Dreams Resort in Huatulco. Great place to spend a week. All inclusive, meals, beverages etc...

The Icicle sheds its first

drop of water...

can spring..

be far away...

Hey Peter san,

Thank you for your good Haiku.

Cheers,

Hello everyone, are you and family okay? I wish it.

It's been a long time since the end of World War II. Now two great nations are trying to do the wrong thing, and we will keep an eye on them and oppose them if necessary. Maybe that can have disastrous consequences.

Regards,

Thank you so much for everyone's input here.
Remember the water tower. It was more like a tank. In 1976 it was painted with 1776 to 1976 celebrating 200 years. This was at the top of a hill. If you parked your car next to the curb you could walk down the hill the opposite direction of the Navy Exchange and there was a very small cemetery and a house.
My wife and I rented a portion of that house from the Ozawa San's in 1976, 1977 and maybe part of 1978.

In 2015 we visited and the water tank is gone and the whole area is a park: Honmoku Sancho Park.
We were able to find the small cemetery and the house. The house was not occupied and had bushes overgrown around it. I felt like a ghost or in a time machine. We had not been there for 40 years and a whole life had gone by it was a sad feeling for some reason. Like we were visitors of a life we left behind.