Tokyo Tourist

February 3 [1953]

Japan

Godzilla vs. The Diet Building, ca. 1953

Hi Honey,

I have been thinking of you all day and could think of no better time to write.

We are still in port. I think we will be pulling out Monday. Before I go any further, I want to tell you I went over earlier in the evening and had a few with the boys, so any mistakes I make can be blamed on that.

I went to Tokyo Sunday and, of all things, visited an art gallery. Of course, we did other things. We went to the "Diet" building. The "Diet" is the same thing as our Congress.

We went to the government library and it was beautiful. Also, we saw a Japanese opera. It was pretty good, I guess, but I didn't understand it. Then we wound up the day by doing the more "bawdy" spots in town.

I'm a "hell" of a guy, going off hunting with your uncle and not coming back, but I'm not like that in real life, only in dreams.

[Editor's note: Norma enjoyed recounting the details of her dreams, although she wasn't one for interpreting the symbolism in them, or other practices that are common with dream interpretation. It was almost as if she believed they were missives from something outside herself.]

The weather here is still pretty nice, a lot better than last year.

Don't let your hair be cut too short. I think real short hair makes a girl look "boyish." I like women who are all female.

If you don't know what to do with that second week's vacation you have coming, you can take it when I come home. I know we can find something to do. I still don't know when I'll get home. Probably the last of August.

Our bachelors' club hasn't picked up many members yet, but we're still struggling along. HA 

Speaking of dancing, I learned how to rumba a couple of nights ago. A little, that is. I can't dance much, but I like to try.

[Editor's note: That's news to me. I never saw him on a dance floor in my entire life. Must have been "dutch courage."]

Well, honey, I may as well sign off as I said before, I'm a little under the weather. 

Answer soon.

All my love, 

Jim 

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Sweet Thing

December 13, 1952

Lost at sea

Hi Norma,

From left: Danny Kaye, Vera Ellen, Bing Crosby,
"White Christmas," ca. 1954

It will be at least a week before I can mail this, but I was thinking about you and decided to write anyway.

We are two days out of Honolulu, going to Yokosuka, Japan. We are supposed to arrive there the 22nd of December.

I probably told you already, but they worked the hell out of us in Pearl Harbor and on the inspection there, we got a "Good." I don't know just how good that is.

We haven't had any trouble with our catapults and arresting gear for about two weeks now. Maybe we won't have any more. I hope so. 

Did I tell you, I saw Vera Ellen (the actress) in a night spot in Honolulu? Not exactly Honolulu, a town called Pearl City, just outside Honolulu. 

I suppose she went there to avoid the crowds. A drunk swab (sailor) kept going over to her table and telling her how beautiful she was, also how he would like to take her out. At first, she was getting a kick out of him, but finally she got tired of it. Then the bouncer tossed the swab out. She was with some big, good-looking guy I've never seen or heard of. In fact, I didn't even learn his name. It might have been her body guard. 

[Editor's note: Curious phrasing in the paragraph above and it makes me wonder if Jim was the drunken swab making a play for Vera Ellen or if he was drinking with the "swab." If there was no interaction between Jim and Vera Ellen, how would he be in a position to learn her companion's name?]

It looks like we will be in Japan for Christmas. Oh well, as I said before, it beats Korea.

"Oh," I almost forgot, we haven't had any pile-ups since you started writing again. I think you bring good luck.

I heard on the radio about that guy, Delmore, dying. That's tough. I used to like to hear them sing.

From now on Norm, when I tell you something that concerns me, you believe me, not something that someone else tells you, O.K.?

It seems some people are trying to take care of me. Every time I go out with a girl a few times, someone is getting me married. Even my mother (the dear, old soul) gave me a mother to son talk on the subject of matrimony while I was home. HA  She thinks I should marry before I get out of the service or immediately after. HA  I'm not the marrying type. I'll take that back. Every guy wants to get married some time, but I'm in no hurry. I'm only twenty-two, so I've got lots of time left. I can't see those guys who marry at 18 to 20. They spend time taking care of a wife and kids that should be spent out looking around the country, getting a practical education. 

I didn't even finish high school, but I think I know as much as a college graduate who hasn't been out of the States.

And when I've seen enough and been around enough, so that I can make a good living for a woman and make her an interesting as well as good husband, then I'll get married. You may not agree with me, but that's the way I look at it.

And another thing, if a tourist went to Japan, he would go see things like the shrines in Tokyo, or the abbeys in Yokohama, or the remains of the atom bomb in Nagasaki. Those things don't interest me. I like to be with the people in the middle class, people like myself who work for a living. I like to sit and sip sake with them and talk. Of course, we have trouble understanding each other, but we manage. That way I learn their habits and customs and ways of doing things that are simpler than the way I previously did the thing. That, to me, is an education that surpasses anything a college could offer.

"Boy," I got all wound up here and can't seem to stop. Hope you don't mind.

Glad to hear you are taking piano lessons now. You can play for me. I really love to hear a piano.

That damn shorthand confuses me. I guess that's one thing I can't learn traveling around.

And Merry Christmas to you, honey. I hope yours is better than mine.

The election suited me O.K. That's the way I voted.  [Editor's note: Eisenhower defeated Stevenson in the presidential race.]

I'm losing some weight, but not much as yet, but I will this winter.

Your bowling is improving, keep at it, it is good exercise, if nothing else.

Well, "beautiful," I've "yapped" long enough for a while. Sometimes I get in a mood that I could write all night and this is one of them.

But I've got to sign off. So, answer soon, "sweet thing." 

Love, 

Jim

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