First Person Story-Japan

I joined the U.S. Navy fresh from high school at age 17. The Korean Conflict had just begun and a navy recruiter promised I’d be assigned to Naval Intelligence if I signed up immediately. I was trained as a radio intercept operator, went to school for the Russian language and was sent to Japan to monitor adverserial nations. I arrived there in 1951, just before the military occupation officially ended, thereby qualifying me to wear the Occupation Ribbon.

My first duty station was in Yokosuka, followed by Chitose on Hokkaido Island and Kami Seya, a village among the rice fields near Yokohama. I worked in one of two tunnels equipped with the most modern communications monitoring equipment at the time. The structures were covered in reinforced concrete several feet thick. My group had evacuation priority just below women and children-because, I suppose, the navy had so much invested in our training.

It was heady stuff for a boy of seventeen, being 10,000 miles away from Auburndale, Florida, a small town in the middle of the state. I had migrated there in 1935 with my parents and younger brother during the Great Depression.

The little more than two years I was assigned to Japan provided me with a lifetime of memories, some of which I’ve included in my memoir, "The Misadventures of a Country Boy". When I arrived, the country was economically prostrate after the large companies had been shut down for their support of the war effort thereby eliminating thousands of jobs. Many breadwinners were killed in the Pacific battles leaving their families destitute. As a consequence, hundreds of young girls turned to prostitution. They were known as “skivvy girls” in military jargon.

One of my earliest memories was viewing the throng of girls soliciting in front of the navy base. These unfortunate girls, plying their trade for about $3.00 for a "short-time", were on the lowest level of the prostitution hierarchy ranging from the geisha to street-skivvy-girls. Girls working out of brothels called “skivvy houses” ranked in between.

During my stay in Japan, I visited skivvy houses where I taught English in exchange for learning Japanese. While doing so, I heard life stories from many of the girls: why they became prostitutes, how they often suffered brutal treatment by their customers, were exposed to venereal diseases, and had to fight continuously for survival in the callous world of prostitution. When they lost their youth, there was nowhere for them; the skivvy houses would dump them, they couldn't go back home to their village, Japanese men would have nothing to do with them, and since the girls rarely accumulated enough money to keep them from poverty, they usually had a miserable old age.

I left Japan in 1953, but carried the memories of that era in my head for over fifty years finally putting it to paper. My manuscript relating many experiences of that time, particularly the plight of the young girls is being reviewed by publishers at this time. Hopefully, it will be published soon.

If you're wondering, my wife of 55 years holds no uneasiness for the escapades of a teenage boy she did not know in a foreign country so many years ago. She has been invaluable in the construction of the manuscript: "Skivvy Girl: The Making and Redemption of a Japanese Prostitute.

If interested, go to my WEB site: www.earnestmercerbooks.com for a synopsis, or contact me via email: emercer2@tampabay.rr.com