And It has Come to War

Chapter Four

I learned a great deal about the military during that trip, I think that the most important thing was my Commanders name and rank. Lieutenant Colonel John Weckerling, he was in charge of the entire school and as there were very few officers or enlisted assigned to the school at present, I would be seeing him at least once a week. Even though I was still a civilian I learned how to stand at attention, salute, do an about face and I practiced marching when we stopped to load and unload, all to the amusement of the military men also aboard our train. When the Lieutenant wasn’t teaching me a random Sargent was, no one below that rank was allowed near me while we were aboard the train. I was still a civilian, but learning why and how things were done in the military now would mean a lot less embarrassing questions later.

Everyone was amazed that I was getting the VIP treatment, that was until they heard my story and listened to me speak. Then I was bombarded with questions, most I could answer but the rest, I simply admitted that I did not know. “I grew up in a coal mining town” I explained to one group. “There was an army detachment stationed there, it was led by Rikugun Taii, that means Captain, Eguchi Saburou but no Navy or Air Force. In Japan the family name is always first, then the given name. He was pleasant enough and found it either interesting, or amusing that a young Gaijin could maintain a complex conversation with his daughters.”

Then I had to explain that Gajin only meant ‘Outside Person’, one not Japanese not monster as they had been led to believe. It was simply their name for all foreigners, though many used it as an insult. One young Mississippi boy couldn’t understand how that was so, until I explained, first very politely “I welcome you to my home Gajin” then screwed up my face and became falsely angry. “You are nothing but a filthy Gajin and I will crush you.” That got a laugh, though I had no idea that Lieutenant Parker was in the back, paying very close attention to everything that I said, and how I said it. They were also amazed that at my landing in San Francisco less than two years ago was the first time that I had stepped foot on US soil, or that it was the first American city that I had every seen.

I found myself asked everything from everyday life, what the girls were like, did everyone really wear those thick round glasses and then someone asked me what church that I attended. That caused a pause, “I am Buddest/Shinto, like the majority of Japanese.”

But what about the Christians? That started to get involved, the more I tried to explain the more questions that came, and some were angry questions. One man said “That’s illegal, they can’t keep us from sending missionaries to their country.”

“And should Japan desire to send Shinto or Buddhist ‘missionaries’ to your town?” I replied.

“We’d run them outtt...oh, I see.”

“That is enough for now gentleman” came Lt. Parkers voice. “You can talk with her a little more after dinner, Miss Laster, please come with me.”

I could feel a hundred eyes on my back as we left that car to retreat into our own.

“Didn’t so many young men asking questions bother you” Lt. Parker ask after we settled down, facing each other.

I bit my upper lip, then blushed. “Sir, I’ve never been around that many men before, not alone sir. They were asking questions, I was just answering the ones that I knew as any Miko or Shrine Priestess would.”

He just nodded, then pulled out a notebook and started writing with his ever present fountain pen. This made me fear that my semi-military service was over before I reached my destination.

The rest of our trip was much the same, I trained as best I could in the space available, always with the help of the men around me, then I gave short lessons in Japanese to those who were interested, though I had to explain to them that I had no idea how one picked up a woman in Japan, I wasn’t bian after all. When I explained what that meant there were a lot of very red faces, bian is one of the words used to refer to lesbians you see. Eventually though all good things come to an end and the train pulled into our last station. Lt. Parker found his bag, I carried the small cloth one that now carried my unmentionables with the soiled ones in a wax paper bag and we went looking for military transport. That turned out to be a very noisy olive drab bus with the word Presidio on the front. A look from Lt. Parker and a front row seat abruptly became available, my, rank truly does have its privilege.

I now knew that our final destination was a hanger on Crissy Field, as to what was to be done with me, that I didn’t know. I wasn’t really military and something told me that I wasn’t really a civilian anymore either. I also didn’t know that I was one of the rarest of the rare, a Caucasian who not only spoke the language but to whom the Japanese culture was my native culture. Add to that I was female and you had a very, very rare bird, a one of a kind bird and I was that bird. I did know though that Lt. Parker was privately upset that I wasn’t a Christian, after all my parents had been Christian missionaries. Maybe he thought that I should have soaked it up in my mothers womb or something, still other than the tightness in his voice when I prayed he kept things to himself. Personally I knew enough about religion to know that I would never change what I was, I had no interest in bowing my head to, what I saw as, the harsh ugly Christian God.

Presidio Parkway is just beautiful, it passes right through the base in order to reach that massive brand new bridge that California christened The Golden Gate. Crissy Field is very close to the bay, once I saw the ships and smelled the water I was hooked. “I should have joined the Navy” I said to myself, though as always Lt. Parker caught those words.

“It’s too late for that now Miss Laster” he answered my words. “Your assigned to the Army for the duration, now lets get to the school.” Somehow he borrowed, commandeered or flat stole a jeep and we were off. I guess it was to late to warn him that I had only been in an automobile a few times, an open one never. I was certain every second that we were going to turn over and I would be killed, when I explained my pale complection after he stopped Parker just laughed. “Lets go, it’s never a good idea to keep your Commander waiting.”

So in I went, wearing the same dress I had put on three days ago, even washing with a rag and clean water as often as I could I knew that I smelled. This was not the way to make a good impression, at least Lieutenant Parker went in and spoke to Lieutenant Colonel John Weckerling first, all these Lieutenant this and that was beginning to confuse me. So I sat in what was basically the outer office waiting, and I waited over an hour. Still there was nothing to do, no where to go and the Sergeant typing at his desk refused to acknowledge that I even existed, even when I softly began telling him of a disastrous school trip I had been on, trying to at least get a smile from him, all in purest Japanese. This was really not going well I decided, not well at all.