Vignette 11

Nagasaki (II)

      Since Chicago days, I had become very familiar with father's taste in music: essentially classical Western symphonies and operas with occasional lighter Strauss waltzes. So it was quite surprising to hear twanging fiddles and resonant clapping with loud calls of American Country Western music pouring out of father's sedate study during our early weeks in Nagasaki! It was even stranger that mother was in the study with father, nodding to this country western music and demonstrating dance steps.

 

Usually buried behind books regarding military jurisprudence and Japanese language studies, father was attentively following mother's direction. "Right to your partner, round you go; left hand now and don’t be slow ..." Father and mother were practicing American square dancing for their next party with the Nagasaki American officers!

 

American Square Dance was introduced to Japan in 1946 by the Nagasaki US Military Government Education Officer, Dr. Winfield Niblo, a Social Science and Physical Education PhD from Columbia University before joining the US army as an artillery officer. Assigned to Nagasaki as Provincial Education Officer, he decided that the democratization of Japan would be eased by introducing American country square dancing into the Japanese schools' physical fitness classes.

 

American baseball, introduced in the 1860’s, was revived under SC MacArthur who was overseeing the rewriting of the Japanese Constitution, as well as, implementing new laws regarding far reaching social-economic-political policies such as land reform, voting rights, birth control, education and gender equality including co-education. The United States of America intended to revamp Japan in its own image. The  Americans stated "We won. You lost. What's good for us, is good for you!"

 

In the case of establishing co-education for the Japanese, Dr. Niblo believed that the Japanese strict gender barriers could be lowered by the American tradition of square dancing. In the traditional Japanese "odori" dancing during community Obon festivals, the dancers line up in a single file, execute steps and hand movement in unison, moving in an orderly circle accompanied by rhythmic shamisen strumming, a solo voice chant and drums. Niblo observed that American square dancing also had rhythm, music, a solo voice and communal precision that was similar to Bon dancing. But square dancing required couples to not only face each other, but also to touch and move as partners, which elevates the position of women as equals.

 

In the autumn of 1946, Niblo first introduced this dance at a social gathering of Nagasaki PE instructors. As expected, the initial reaction of the Japanese PE teachers was reluctance. But their courtesy and subservience to their American masters compelled them to follow Dr. Niblo's direction. Niblo put on a Virginia Reel record and demonstrated the steps.  Quickly, the teachers found the steps and music to be much fun and not too foreign in rhythm to their own folk dancing. Additionally, this communal dancing could be enjoyed in doors, not limited to just the summer Obon season. In a few months, the "Niblo Dance" became a Nagasaki craze which spread from almost 50,000 dancers in 1947 to throughout Kyushu and all of Japan. When the god-like Emperor's younger brother, Prince Mikasa and his wife adopted this dance, the Niblo Dance became firmly established in Japan.

 

It was a  psychological and sociological transformation. Niblo wrote in his Square Dance textbook for the Japanese Education Office,  "Dancing people are happy people, and America is happy that this bit of American culture can bring a portion of happiness to Japan". “Niblo Dancing” still thrives today in Japan, legacy of America’s “happiness” project. I read that by 1956 there were about 1 million pairs of happy square dancing feet in Japan and Japan holds an Annual Square Dance Convention.

 

I was a happy spectator to parents' practice lessons. Mother was nimble on her feet and learned to love to dance not only square dancing from Winfield Niblo, but all the popular Western dances such as the Rumba, Fox Trot, Waltz and even Polka! Father's record collection began to sprout a popular library such as "Virginia Reel", "Green Eyes", "Beer Barrel Polka", "Besame Mucho". But despite dance lessons and mother's coaching, father couldn't quite get the rhythm with his 2 left feet no matter how assiduously he tackled this homework.

 

Father fared better with the Tanko Bushi, the Japanese coal miners' dance which father learned to perform at all male parties with his Japanese hosts.  One summer evening, father took the family to a floating restaurant where father had previously been a guest. We sat at tatami tables, dining on Japanese delicacies of which I wasn't too fond except for the deep fried tempura. I shook my head over the raw sashimi delicately poised on my plate and greedily accepted the crunchy tempura assortment. Father chuckled that tempura was actually a European dish, a Portuguese Lenten meatless recipe which the Portuguese Jesuit missionaries brought to Nagasaki in the 1560's called "tempora" meaning "time period" of the Christian holy abstemious days of Friday and the 40 days before Easter. 

 

After our dinner,  Japanese folk dancing followed.  The restaurant owner had recognized father from father’s previous visit and came over to chat with father who was now, after a year in Japan, adequately conversant in Japanese. When the strains of the Tanko Bushi started, the manager proceeded to drag father up to do the Tanko Bushi with the other merry, sake sodden Japanese diners. Following much public cajoling, "Dien"-sama could not continue to refuse without prolonging a public scene. I shall always remember father's embarrassed but earnest expression while pretending to shovel and carry coal in time with the line of Japanese men. Father was admittedly much better at solo than partner dancing when no toes of his partner were in jeopardy. I went home giddily practicing the Tanko Bushi and giggling over father's self-conscious dance performance.

 

Upon father's request, the American Military Government had quickly remodeled a damaged building which the previous ROC Consul Jen had astutely picked out but been unable to obtain renovation.  Above the first floor offices and 2nd floor dormitories, was an empty spacious 3rd floor that father decided to convert into a social hall where my parents could entertain. Being the only foreign consulate in Nagasaki, father directed most of his efforts toward business and pleasure with the American military officers. This warm relationship facilitated fair hearings and considerations for the Chinese nationals hauled in for petty crimes to the American Military Justice Courts over which father presided with the US judges.

 

In our lovely Nagasaki  home, father and mother often hosted dignified dinner parties followed by serious bridge games. Aperitifs, wines and after dinner liqueurs were served in the proper fashion under the exacting "tutelage" of Emily Post's Blue Book of Etiquette. One of my parents favorite guests was Capt. William Yancy, the USMG Medical Officer. He was a handsome, mustachioed young doctor in his late 20's and my dreaded wielder of needles for our inoculations. Uncle Bill, a bachelor, was an appreciative diner, connoisseur of fine wines, graceful dancer and avid bridge player.

 

25 years later when I was living in Fresno, California, I received a telephone caller who asked "Is this Ying-ying?" I couldn't imagine who would know my Chinese nickname until the voice said "This is Uncle Bill from Nagasaki. My wife and I are driving through the Valley and wondered if we can stop by." It was a delightful evening of cruising memory lane. Uncle Bill was a leading corneal implant ophthalmologist practicing in San Diego. He kept up with me on the telephone even after his divorce and retirement when he took a job with the cruise line as their medical officer and the charming “ladies’ man” dance partner. Uncle Bill's happy feet finally gave up when he passed away at the age of 91.

 

I never saw dancing in our home in Nagasaki though our Yokohama home later hosted dance parties in the elegant wood floored living room.  However, on the 3rd floor Nagasaki ROC Consulate recreation hall with the built-in bar, the hardy, polished wood floor was perfect for the wear and tear of happy, dancing feet and loud music.

 

I remember one day mother taking me to the airy 3rd floor hall under the condition that I keep this a secret just between us. I watched mother quietly confer with various staff about decorations, food, service, set up. To keep me occupied, mother told me to count out all the service pieces, glasses, cocktail and dinner napkins on a list for her. Being mother's accomplice in a secret assignment, I was eager to do so and smugly kept a buttoned lip from father, Austin and my classmates.

 

A week later, mother told me I didn't have to keep our secret any more. She said that over the last weekend, everything had gone smoothly according to plan. What had happened was that a month previously, father had started to organize a surprise birthday party for mother and invitations were sent out to their friends. But the myriad of details became too complicated for father: “How many wait staff were needed”? “Where should the cars park?” “Were hors d’ouvres to be served at a buffet or circulated by staff - in what sequence?” “Which dance music selections should be played?” etc.. To ensure the success of the event, father decided to divulge his plans to mother and ask her to please take over. Thereupon, mother made the hasty, furtive trip to the consulate a few days before the party night. On the night of mother's birthday, mother was beautifully dressed to go out, ostensibly. to a restaurant birthday dinner with father. But first, they had to drop into the consulate to check out a minor problem. Mother casually sauntered into the darkened social hall and acted appropriately surprised when the lights flipped on to reveal a large festive gathering yelling out "Surprise! Happy Birthday, Stella!" Every man was impressed with father's skillful finesse and every woman envious of mother's thoughtful husband.

 

Afterwards, mother asked father to not spring anymore such surprises on her, to which father abashedly and quickly agreed.

 

In the fall of 1948, father enrolled my brother and me in the American Military Government Officers' Children's School in the Nagasaki USMG "Camp Patton" compound (a name voted in by the US enlisted men). There were only about 7 or 8 of us who, except for me, were all little boys ranging from 5 -9 years old. The commander of the Nagasaki MG was Col Victor Delnore, a very conscientious administrator but socially aloof man. He left a good impression on the Japanese when he departed in 1949. His 6 year old son, Victor Jr. was a quiet, melancholy, dark haired boy who looked just like his Lebanese-American Jamaican born father. Little Victor was often bullied by the 9 years old Skippy Foltz, the skinny, hyperactive, tow headed son of a captain. Skippy had a BB gun which he bragged he used to target practice on the mailboxes of Japanese houses. The 2 blond haired 6 and 7 year old boys of Major Creighton were duly impressed but I was perplexed that Skippy could do this with such impunity and not be reported. 

                                                       

 

Everyday, we were picked up outside our homes by a small military van and driven to and from the one room school in Camp Patton. In the one room classroom of K - 4th graders, we were supervised at our individual assignments of the day by an American woman teacher who somehow managed to keep a modicum of classroom order among us motley children. Father mused that the one room classroom was not unlike the American early pioneers who set up one-room schoolhouses for the singular schoolmarm brave enough to venture west with the settlers. I have no recollection of studying any particular books or subject matter during that 1948-49 school year. It felt more like a babysitting cooperative than a school. Father must have noticed the lack of academic rigor in the one room school and augmented my studies with Mark Twain's "Tom Sawyer", Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland", and when father found me buried in Skippy's popular mystery thrillers, The Hardy Boys series, father swapped them out for Conan Doyle's "Sherlock Holmes" and GK Chesterton's "Father Brown".

 

I suppose father's pleasurable memory of his childhood excursions around Beiping with his father was the template for father taking me to events and sites around Nagasaki. We went to visit many places such as the run down Confucius Temple; the 26 Catholic Martyrs' Hill; Dejima Island where the first 17th C Dutch traders were confined in a small block of houses, away from the city and its people.  Father also made sure I attended special events including activities father had invited to the house like the Sophia University choral group during which I was permitted to join the adult guests.

 

Several public events were approved and supported by SCAP as part of his reform program for Japan.  I recall sitting in the audience among hundreds at the lecture of the gentle deaf-dumb- blind activist, Helen Keller and heard her tremulous but clear voice during her Nagasaki good will visit on Oct. 14, 1948.

 

The following year in June 1949, the relic of St. Francis Xavier, enshrined in Rome, was brought to Japan for the first time and paraded around Nagasaki on the 400 year anniversary of the landing of Father Francis Xavier in Nagasaki. Even though we were not Catholics, Father took me to follow the route with the crowd of thousands who knelt before a brown, skeletal right forearm and shriveled hand in a glass case. This was quite fascinating but bizarre to me that St. Francis’ mummified right arm was cut off and separated from his body. Father explained that St. Francis Xavier was a venerated Catholic missionary who had baptized over 30,000  Japanese with that very arm 400 years ago. Father reminded me that the simple hillside memorial cross where he had taken me before was the  memorial to the 26 crucified and beheaded Japanese converts who followed the religion of St Francis.

 

Life in Nagasaki seemed idyllically normal though I could sometimes overhear mother and father worried conversations about the critical state of their country. It was argued among the Americans that President Truman gravely erred by insisting the Russians enter the last days of the war against Japan and, thereby, were able to gain control of Manchuria and half of Korea for the Communists. I was unaware of the implications of these concerns having grown very accustomed to a life of privilege, comfort and leisure.

 

One warm, clear night father and mother told us they were going to visit the owner of our house, Mr. Sawayama(?) who was living on the 2nd floor of a small house just below our little mansion. Through the Sawayama second floor sitting room window that was eye level with our ground floor veranda, I could see father and mother and the Japanese gentleman politely bowing to each other. I thought this situation could be, indeed, very entertaining! I hurriedly assembled 2 chairs for my brother and me on our open air terrace. Each of us popped open a bottle of Pepsi, peeled back a bar of chocolate to watch this live drama just a stone's throw from our porch. Austin and I chatted noisily(指指畫畫) at their ceremonial tea drinking while we guzzled our Pepsi and chortled through all father’s and mother’s decorous mannerisms with Mr Sawayama.  Upon parents' return home, we were so excited to greet them and talk about our splendid inter-active evening with them. As parents stepped through the door, mother glumly shook her head at us but Father was severely grim faced as he removed his shoes at the entry portal. He then grabbed my wrist and soundly gave me the second spanking of my life followed by a walloping for Austin. After father  had tired himself out and Austin and I were thoroughly wept out, he exclaimed "  How shameful that you disgrace me, disgrace an honorable member of the Japanese Parliament (國會Diet of Japan) like Mr. Sawayama... tomorrow you go over to apologize!“ Still deeply embarrassed and angry the next day, father marched us over to bow and apologize while father explained in Japanese that his worthless brats are badly brought up and father is deeply shamed by their unforgivable  behavior.

 

Several days later, father was still seething and growled at us that Mr Sawayama had courteously assured father that he understood how children can be naughty and consoled father to not be harsh on himself. I wondered if Mr Sawayama was implying father should, instead, be harsh on us?! For weeks we slunk around and stayed clear of father but were relieved no further punishment was delivered upon us. The price for that summer evening show was definitely not worth it but it was absolutely as memorable as my first spanking in Chunking for my mischief with the misappropriated gun. To this day, Austin also remembers his two spankings within a year. Perhaps we each needed 2 spankings to set us on the straight and narrow through life as Austin and I never incurred any spankings again.

 

Some months after that sore episode, father took us on a long drive beyond the lush green mountains of our neighborhood and downtown Nagasaki. Up and over the crest of the verdant hills, I was astonished to see a vast desolate plain of dirt. After the car stopped, father took me over to a 3' tall wooden arrow that pointed directly into the ground. Father said it is safe now to stand on this flat soil but this was Ground "0" where the second atom bomb, code named "Fat Man", was dropped on August 9, 1945, three days after Hiroshima!

 

Father recounted that originally the bomb was supposed to be dropped on Kokura, a flat plain like Hiroshima, but thick cloud cover that morning diverted the US B29 bomber to the alternate target, the Nagasaki Mitsubishi shipbuilding and munitions factories. The clouds parted at 11:00 am for the bombardier. At 11:02 am, Thursday, August 9 1945, the second atomic bomb was detonated. A flash of brilliant white lightning was followed by a piercing purple pillar and roiling, gray, double mushroom cloud 40,000' high, spewing a deadly black rain upon the land below. Because the plutonium bomb detonated in the air, there was no crater - just immediate, total annihilation below!

 

The city of Nagasaki itself was mostly spared because the bomb missed by 2 miles and the protective mountain range shielded the city from greater destruction. That was why I didn't see much destruction in Nagasaki city. Over 35,000 civilians were immediately incinerated in the Nagasaki drop zone compared to more than 70,000 at Hiroshima on August 6. I couldn't grasp how many people, 35,000 was and asked father "Children, too? Why?" Father answered, "The Japanese had bombed America. The Japanese and Americans were at war... If America did not drop this bomb, the American president believed a million more Americans would die."  The number "million" was even more inexplicable to me! Father did not respond to my question, “Children, too?”

 

The photo father took of me standing next to the Ground Zero marker shows a somber, scowling girl who could not comprehend the magnitude of the event but understood a deep suffering had happened - even to the children!

 

From the previous 50 years, 23 million Chinese countrymen had died under the Japanese “democide”.  Since the First Sino-Japanese War (甲午戰爭) in 1894 aggression by the Japanese, an implacable hatred of the Japanese was bred in the hearts of Chinese and festered, from their earliest childhood, as a weeping wound in my parents.  When in Chicago, parents heard of the dropping of the atomic bomb, it seemed a just vengeance upon the loathed enemy and a cleansing retribution for the rivers of Chinese blood spilled at the hands of the bloodthirsty Japanese. Yet, in the short time parents had lived in Japan, they could not help but be impressed by the universal civility, order, cleanliness, “shibui” beauty in every detail of life, the reverence for nature and the acquiescent calmness of the Japanese people. Parents discovered much to admire about their former enemy.

 

As a child, Nagasaki was a complicated experience for me to figure out: Madame Butterfly and her heartless American husband; the mystery of religious faith and the cruelty of martyrdom; our pampered life, segregated from the Japanese, on the beautiful hillside - yet, a plateau of death and barrenness on the other side of the hills; the dressed up Japanese cowboys/girls "Niblo dancing" to the tune of their American conquerors and the rigid formality of ancient kabuki; Skippy's audacity with his BB gun compared to our spanking and apology to a Japanese who had to surrender his home to us as reparation for his country's despicable atrocities.

[ Postscript:  When we lived in Japan, my parents didn't discuss the Japanese wartime atrocities anymore, as they had in Chicago. In 2012, I met one of Benjamin's friends and colleagues, attorney Chris Chen who told me his father had been conscripted from Taiwan to a Japanese child labor camp in a tunnel outside Nagasaki that built weapons and submarines. The safety in the tunnel saved the lives of the many child laborers during the American fire bombing.  At the end of the war in 1945, his father was 14 and able to hitch a ride back to Taiwan on a US military ship. His family who had long given him up for dead, was flabbergasted when he walked in the door. There were approximately 40,000 Chinese slave laborers in Japan in 135 camps, but I did not know there were children until Chris told me. Since then, I learned that more than 8000 Chinese children, between the ages 8 and 14, had been pressed into Japanese labor camps. By the time my father had set up the ROC consular office in Nagasaki, most of the Chinese laborers had been repatriated back to Taiwan and China Mainland. In China, 3 million Chinese laborers had been forced into slave labor and women into being "comfort women" for the Japanese troops. Would Thomas Blake Glover have collaborated with the Japanese in building the Mitsubishi industry in 1869 if he could have foreseen the malevolent forces that would be inflicted on his countrymen and the world from that factory?]

以下影片來自YOUTUBE