Viewing page 82 of 307

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

[[blank page]]

[[end page]]
[[start page]]

passes that allowed us to go almost anywhere. Our photo lab was well stocked with five inch aerial film, 16mm gun camera film, and many boxes of photographic paper that would spoil before we could possibly use it all. Captain Blanc, our photo officer, told us that we could use it to take pictures of anything we wanted in addition to our official jobs. We had the only 16mm movie developing machine in the Pacific Theater. It had been used to process all of the gun camera films for Army, Navy, and Marine fighter pilots during the war. We had all of those films on file and I got to view many of them and made a few prints for my album. With the war over, the gun cameras and film were no longer needed.

Our barracks had been a cavalry rifle factory so there was a large supply of rifle stocks. We cut a notch in one to attach a gun camera and, using an alignment aiming scope that fit in place of the film cartridge, we devised an accurate aluminum viewfinder which we mounted on top. Since the camera operated on 24 VDC, the telephone unit on the base rigged us up a battery pack complete with leather carrying case and shoulder strap, connecting cord, and a spring toggle trigger switch. We were almost out of sheet film for our Speed Graphic press cameras so I put a stop block on the paper cutter at four inches and cut up lots of aerial film into 4x5 sheet film in the dark. Now we were ready to take stills and movies.

Our weekends were usually free so we could check a Jeep out of the motor pool. A Jeep seats four so when we had five going we built up the back seat level with the fenders and sat two on the fenders and one in the middle. Driving a left hand steering wheel vehicle on left driving lane roads is a bummer. We solved the problem - the passenger on the right front did the looking to pass. All of us were interested in documenting the Japanese people and their lifestyle. Everywhere we went we became ambassadors of good will and we made many friends. Children seemed to be attracted to us like flies and wherever we went we were surrounded by lots of kids. The adults made great character studies and I made lots of those interesting portraits for my service album.

Most of our workplaces on the base had houseboys to do odd jobs for us and to keep the places clean. Our lab houseboy was named Tomoharu Isii. All names have a meaning: Tomo means friend and haru means deep well. He wanted us to call him Tomo and he would address us with deep respect using last names preceded by "Mr.". Tomo was seventeen and spoke and wrote fairly good English. I was twenty and murdered the Japanese language and could write none of it. Tomo had many friends who would occasionally visit him at the photo lab so we all were acquainted. What is the chance that you would meet a Kamikazi pilot face to face? One of Tomo's friends was a twenty year old Kamikazi pilot! Didn't they all commit suicide by crashing their cheaply made planes into ships? This one was a fascinating person, handsome and stockily built. We talked several times and he told me that he had volunteered

^[[8.]]