Fujiyama was a sight to behold - all I could see was the white cone above the clouds, snow capped against a blue sky, we were still many hours sailing away from Japan but the tannoy was blaring out telling us what to expect, the war had only been over a matter of months and the Japanese were having a hard time. This was brought home to us when we dropped anchor in Tokyo bay just off Yokohama. The farm boats came alongside and there were whole families aboard them, they had long fishing nets with them and they fished out anything eatable out of the water, bread, fruit, potatoes, vegetables and anything else useful which had come down the gash chute - they were obviously near starvation.
I went ashore that night to Yokohama, it was the main port for Tokyo and had a good fleet canteen, but that was about all, we had a good drink in the canteen drinking English brewed beer which was brewed on an amenities ship anchored in the bay, the Jap beer was good too though, it was bottled and very strong.
The next day we went ashore at noon on a 24 hour pass and boarded the train for Tokyo, it was a journey of about ten miles but we were able to see the damage done by American air raids, the industrial area between Yokohama and Tokyo was practically flattened and Tokyo itself had suffered a lot. The population were very cowed and several bowed to us and stepped aside as we walked through the streets, it was very embarrassing at first but we got used to it. In a street market we passed through, I bought a Minolta camera (which I still have 40 years later) for half a pound of cigarette tobacco. I had my portrait painted on a silk handkerchief for five yen (20 old pence), and I bought other trinkets and lighters for coppers to take home.
We visited the American PX or Post Exchange , this was the equivalent of our NAAFI and outside I sold 200 cigarettes on the black market for 200 yen. Inside, I bought a silk tablecloth for my mother ( 5 Yen), a silk dressing gown each with a gold wire dragon on the back for brother Joe and his new wife Daisy (9 Yen each), a silk lined Trilby hat for Dad (5 yen) and with other items I bought, I still had plenty of money left. It was wrong and illegal I know, but cigarettes were the currency of the day in Japan and it would have been foolish to change English money into Yen at four old pence to one yen when cigarettes were worth one yen each.
We visited the Ernie Pyle theatre that night and finished up with a meal of SEAC (Steak, Eggs and Chips). We slept that night in the YMCA and next morning after breakfast we went to the station for the train back to Yokohama. My experience at the station underlined the difference between victor and conquered nations. The train had about ten coaches, eight of which were for Jap civilians and the last two for troops. The first eight were soon packed and I was shocked to see guards forcing extra people into the carriages by pushing them in by their feet. Our two coaches were only half filled and the Japs never attempted to come in. However just before we pulled out with hundreds of Japs still on the platform, one of our soldiers opened our coach door and invited a Jap family in. Within seconds the crowd had charged into our coach and we were swamped, we spent a very uncomfortable half hour travelling to Yokohama, the smell was unbearable and I began to understand why the city Japs wore filter masks over their noses. We swore to keep the doors open for troops only on future journeys.
I only went to Tokyo once again after that just to look round the city, the park had piped music all day through a tannoy system, they were becoming Americanised already. I was content to just go to the Yokohama canteen the rest of my time in Tokyo Bay. We upped anchor after about five days and set off down the coast of Honshu Island which is northern Japan and went south to the most wonderful scenery I have ever seen in my life, it was a sea filled with tiny islands, each one terraced farmed so that the contours of the islands varied in colour with the crops - it was the Japanese Inland Sea.
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