VISIT TO TOKIO

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26199, 9 July 1946, Page 2

VISIT TO TOKIO

SOLDIER'S IMPRESSIONS AMENITIES FOR TROOPS Impressions of Tokio, gained on a short leave in the Japanese capital, are given in a letter to his parents by a Dunedin sergeant now serving with the occupation force. Originally stationed at Kure, he began his journey to the capital from a railway junction called Ogori, a few miles distant. “The scenery tends to become monotonous after a time,” he wrote. " Unfortunately it was raining on the trip up, which prevented us from seeing Fujiyama properly, as the top part was obscured by cloud.” Tokio was a huge city, and the portion, amounting to about half of it, which had been destroyed during the war, consisted mostly of wooden dwellings. The area known as New Tokio was practically intact. It had some huge, modern buildings that showed out in marked contrast with the older area. The building housing the Diet—the Japanese Parliament—was the most imposing of all.

“We stayed at an Australian camp at Ebisu, about 30 minutes’ journey from Tokio by train,” he added. “ The whole railway system around Tokio is electric, and there are trains by the dozen. The railways seem to have suffered little as a result of the war, although the service has deteriorated considerably, and the trains are always packed." The New Zealanders rode free at all times, in special carriages allocated to the Allied Forces. An underground system was also in operation.

Rickshaws were now an uncommon sight, he said, and the prices the operators demanded were high. Beer was plentiful in Tokio. It was served in the Japanese bars in the afternoons, and in the cabarets at night. The Americans maintained two good clubs, the Red Cross Club and the Ernie Pyle Club, the latter named in honour of the American war correspondent who had been killed on Okinawa. Both served free coffee, doughnuts, and soft drinks. They employed dozens of Japanese girls, all wearing kimonos and looking very bright. “It has been raining particularly hard recently,” he concluded, “ and it would seem that another wet season, of which there are three here in a year, has started.”