大象传媒

Early in March a trip was organised by boat to 鈥淢iajima鈥� that is an island about 15 miles by sea from here and on there is the 鈥淪acred Shrien of Shinto鈥� and the 鈥淭emple of the Sun鈥�. We set out at 9-30am. The weather was sunny but pretty cold, on the way we passed Hiroshima and saw several sunken Japanese ships, eventually arriving in Miajima about 11-30.

We had bought our own food with us so we were free to roam around as we pleased. Where we landed there was a small village and through this we passed on our way to the temple gardens.

The temple itself was situated on the crest of a rise over-looking the gardens, the nearest thing I can think of to compare it with in England is a dance hall, as all it is a wide expanse of polished wood with a roof over, the sides being open.

A very curious thing in there is the fact that slung up in the rood is an very old and antiquated aeroplane, a very queer thing to see in a temple, but most things are queer out here. The only thing I could guess at as to the reason for it is that it was the first aeroplane to be flown in Japan and was offered as a sort of sacrifice to the Sun God asking for his forgiveness for trespassing on his domain. That is only the conclusion I came to myself, I may be wrong, but it doesn鈥檛 look as if any high personage has been killed in it as it is in perfect condition.

Adjoining the temple is a five roofed Pagoda, these pagodas are very interesting as inside them is a large pendulum put there and fixed in some way to allow the building to overcome the force of gravity to a certain extent, in the event of an earthquake, we sat on the bass of this Pagoda and had out lunch.

After that we continued on out tour of exploration about the gardens and looking at the numerous smaller temples here and there. It is here that the Sacred White Horse of Japan is kept (or one of them) and a vicious brute it is too, one of the lads put his hand out to it and was lucky he didn鈥檛 get a bad bite.

Later on we had our photo鈥檚 taken by a Jap, with the Shinto Shrine in the background, this shrine is what all Japanese are married under, this particular one is about 60 yards off shore as can be seen by the photo鈥檚.

After, we left the temple grounds and went for a prowl around the village, buying several curio and then back to the board at 5pm. So ending a very interesting day out. We had several of these trips during out stay here. One day we went to an island, 鈥淚tsukishima鈥� by name, on here we found a large aircraft store and in there were dozens of rubber dinghies marked 鈥淒unlop 1942鈥� captured of is at Singapore and like places I guess.

Another trip I went on was to a Japanese Submarine building yard, here there was dozens of subs large and small and varying stages of completion and several on the slips for repairs and the like. These subs are made for Japs and Japs alone as the conning towers are very small, which I soon found out much to my dismay when I got stuck in one, half-way down the conning tower my feet dangling in space. I had a quite hectic five minutes getting free. An Indian Sloop was later given the job of taking these subs out to sea and sinking them.

From here we paid a visit to a sunken Japanese Battleship cum Aircraft Carrier, she was lying half submerged close inshore, all forward was battleship while her stern was a flight deck used for Hari-Kari planes I should say as it didn鈥檛 look large enough for a plane to land on. She has ether been sabotaged or bombed as there was a gaping hole in the centre of the flight deck. It was apparent that she had not been to see fro some considerable time as to all her superstructure was lashed fir trees and the like as camouflage.

During our stay here we saw many changes, on our first arrival there were plenty of Americans here but these gradually went and were replaced by British and Australian Army personnel, including a regiment of the Caeron Highlanders, who on there arrival made the hills of Kure echo echo and re-echo the skirl of bagpipes at a march past. Also a contingent of RAF arrived and took over a dormer out Hiroshima way. A Japanese hospital was taken over and converted into the 92nd General Hospital and to this came nurses on the hospital ship 鈥淪.S.Manunda鈥�.

To make things better for us in the entertainment line came the N.A.A.F.I ship the 鈥淪.S.Menetheus鈥� she was a God-send as she had a first class beer bar on her also a restraint, and carried a concert party who put over some good shows, everybody was sorry to see her leave us.

Merchant ships and troopers arrived nearly every day from Australia bringing stores, lorries and all the necessities of a occupational force. Two Australians invited my mate and I to accompany them on a trio to 鈥淗ymara鈥� which is about 60 miles from Kure over the mountains. So at 8:30am on a cold April morning with snow on the mountains we set out in an open jeep, taking food with us.

We crossed right over the mountains that surround this port, stopping at the summit of one to admire the splendid view, the roads were very treacherous as they only consisted of hard packed dirt and were very narrow, and owing to the snow were one mass of sludge, in several places we had to back off the road into the paddy fields to allow lorries coming in the opposite direction to pass.

It was 11-30 when we arrived at the Hymara having passed through numerous villages en route. On arriving there we drove round to the Japanese Police Station which is the best place to go as there can generally be found an interpreter, as it happened it was the regular interpreters day off so one of the flatfoots went and fetched a Japanese woman who could speak English pretty fluently and she arranged a room for us at the local hotel to have our lunch, and what an experience that was, we sat on cushions on the floor in true Japanese style, the table was about a foot high and we had to sit crossed legged on the cushions as there is no chance of getting your feet under the table. We each had a fire to ourselves, the word fire is apt to give the impression as all they actually are is glorified flower pots with smouldering charcoal in it, give of quite a bit of heat though which was more than welcome to us as we were frozen stuff with the ride. Another interesting custom is that of removing ones shoes before entering the hotel, a very embarrassing procedure if one happens to have a hole in ones socks. There are no doors in these hotels instead all the walls are sliding panels.

As we had to be back on board the ship by 7-30 we only had time for a quick walk around the place but there wasn鈥檛 much to see and very few shops, so at 4pm we started back. The return trip was uneventful except for the fact that it poured with rain, and we also got lost and had to go about ten miles back to get on the right road. We arrived in Kure at 7-15pm just in time to catch the boat aboard.

鈥楾his story was submitted to the People鈥檚 war site by Jim Salveson of the CSV Action Desk 大象传媒 Radio Stoke. On behalf of Elizabeth Adams and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.鈥�

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