To return to the ladies, sex was in very little evidence in the camps. Malnutrition with its following of painful and weakening diseases, aggravated by constant labor, left no inclination or thought of sex. Hunger and its abeyance was our constant thought. Those who have never been really hungry cannot visualize the obsession to obtain enough to eat which besets the starving man. However, the Japs thought of women. They regarded women as a lesser breed to be used either as workers to perform all menial tasks in the home, and much if not most of the work in the factories and also for mans entertainment. Therefore through out Japan were the Geisha Houses and teashops. The Japanese woman was constant, hardworking and a slave to her husband. She was not allowed to sit at her own table until her Lord and Master had finished his meal and was made to walk five paces in the rear on the few occasions when he deigned to allow her to go out with him. However he could and did frequent the Geisha Houses and was entertained by as many females as he could afford.
During the later part of the war the authorities closed many of these places as a war measure, the Geishas being drafted to the factories. The Japs resented this and bemoaned the pleasures that were past. At the close of the war these houses immediately started up again. At Sendai coal mining camp, where we were marooned three weeks after liberation, most of the boys visited the town and some found themselves being entertained at the local Geisha establishments. I was one of these, as at the time they were the only Japanese places where we could go. We squatted around a bare room and were served in small cups of tea made out of willow leaves. A bevy of flat faced, flat chested waited us upon, duck bottomed females, bundled in a multitude of rags. They all wore insipid grins and toddled around evidently quite satisfied with themselves. It was rather pathetic. There was no music or dancing. A particularly gruesome number, with bad teeth, attached herself to me, devouring avidly an American chocolate bar which I gave her and hiding others in her not too clean garments. None spoke English and we soon tired of trying to show interest in Japanese. Then came the big moment. My partner squatted in front of me and giggling stupidly waved both hands in front of herself, evidently inviting my attentions. I refused, as did most our boys. Our not so charming hostesses were evidently disappointed, having I believe, lost face to those who had picked the less discriminating. We got out of there fast. We were bored and a little sick at such fraternization, male or female they were all Japs.
In the summer the boys had an occasional bath in the sea. There was no soap, towels, or bath suits. Such things are not worn in Japan. All bathe naked, male and female. In the towns and villages they have community bathhouses. In peacetime they were filled with hot water but as fuel became very scarce during the latter part of the war I doubt if there was much bathing. The Jap had broadcasted that he is a very clean race but most of those I saw, both military and civilian, were dirty. They had no soap and of the clothing they wore most of it wouldn’t stand a washing.
Their sanitary arrangements were filthy. Men and women used the same toilets in the shipyards. These toilets consisted of holes in the ground. The Japanese superintendent, who expected us to admire the efficiency of the shipyards, asked how they compared with the shipyards at home. We told him that they were medieval in many respects. For one thing the whole works was indescribably dirty. He asked how this could be remedied and it was suggested that at least there should be seats for the toilets. So a wooden plank was placed above the hole used by the prisoners, but as the Japs continued to squat the plank and the whole place was as filthy as ever. There being no disinfectant the location was black with flies which helped to spread dysentery and other diseases.
I remember an occasion when a group of prisoners bathed in the sea beside a group of Korean women. These women were employed as laborers in the shipyard. The Koreans are much better looking people then the Japanese being taller and not as yellow. Although most of the women bathing would be classed as tough and homely looking by our standards, some of the younger ones could be called attractive. Our boys paid little or no attention to them and this was not surprising. When your shoulder blades stick out like wings, stomach bloated with beriberi and the bones of your buttocks making it painful to sit down, one is in no shape to make a hit with the ladies.
