"The Little One", Earthquakes and Dorothy. ( Part 10)

I’m sure if you asked most people about Japan they would think of it as one complete land mass. Of course it isn’t. It’s made up of thousands of tiny Islands. But there are four main ones.

Hokkaido in the north, then the large Island of Honshu where Tokyo and most of the major cities are situated. Then Shikoku and further south Kyushu.

I was based in Kure which is at the southern end of Honshu.

Kure was not a healthy place for Europeans. The climate is one of extremes. Very cold in the winter and hot and wet in the summer.  When the monsoon arrives in June it rains pretty much every day till the end of July.

We all suffered from Prickly Heat and some, less fortunate, got Tropical Ringworm. If that wasn’t bad enough we had an outbreak of dysentery. This was unfortunate as we only had chemical toilets. You can imagine the smell…horrendous!

And then of course there were the mosquitoes! They were everywhere during the summer and every few seconds you would be slapping some part of your body to try to keep them at bay. We had regular injections for Typhus and Cholera, not forgetting the shots for Typhoid and Tetanus. Like I said, Kure was not a healthy place for Europeans!

A couple of weeks before Christmas 1946, someone, probably the 1st Lieutenant, decided the ships company should give a party to the children of the Japanese who worked on HMS Commonwealth. The rest room next to the canteen was decorated with balloons and streamers. Each of us volunteers had to look after and be responsible for one of the kids. I had a little girl in a beautiful blue Kimono (photo at the top of the page). It wasn’t easy. She had no idea what was going on. She couldn’t speak English and I of course couldn’t speak Japanese. At first she was all serious and nervous. Then she saw the jelly and ice cream!

I’ve never seen a kids face light up so quickly. She ate everything and laughed for two hours solid. I called her “Chiaie” which is Japanese for little one.  That was a great afternoon, but within a week things took a turn for the worse.

On 21st December 1946 a tremendous earthquake struck southern Japan followed by a number of Tsunamis. It came early in the morning while it was still dark and we were all still in bed.

The rickety old building we were in started to sway like a leaf in a storm. We were on the first floor of the building and many chaps decided to run for the stairs and get outside. I don’t know why but I just stayed were I was on my bunk and gripped the sides hard. My bunk was near a window and I could see that the whole town of Kure was on fire. It seemed to last forever but was probably only a few minutes. When daylight came the enormity of what had happened became apparent.

Devastation like I’d never seen before and haven’t since. Over 2000 people lost their lives that day and more than 60,000 square miles were underwater due to the following Tsunamis. 40,000 homes and buildings were destroyed. Our building wasn’t a traditional construction. It was mainly wood and corrugated iron. Being as flimsy as it was it tended to sway from side to side rather than fall down. If it was made of bricks and mortar I strongly believe that it would have collapsed and maybe I wouldn’t be here today.

The next few months were spent getting the camp back together. We had the man power and by the end of February, HMS Commonwealth was getting back to normal.

It was at this time that we had a very nice and well needed boost of morale.  A group of WVS ladies (Woman’s Voluntary Service) arrived to give us some female company. Up until then the only females we saw were Japanese. The volunteers would be in the canteen and recreation areas and would sit and chat to us and play table tennis. Their quarters were in the Officers Mess which was out on a neighbouring Island. They would come in each day by ferry and spend time with us during our breaks.

Sybil was the leader of the group, then there was Jane and Helen and my personal favourite Dorothy, or Dot as she liked to be called. She was a great girl. Never stopped smiling and laughing and was the best tonic a young lad away from home could have had. They would arrange boat trips for us and we would all go out together. Dot and I would often go hiking way up in the mountains. We became best mates and enjoyed some great days together.

Unfortunately (A while after I had left Japan) I learnt from an ex-marine that Dot had fallen seriously ill and was taken to Sydney. She never recovered and died there.

Kure wasn’t a healthy place for Europeans. It certainly wasn’t for lovely Dorothy.