Snap Shots

     My latest book, Snap Shots, from a Wingshooting Odyssey is out and available from Amazon.com in print (paperback) version.  The electronic Kindle version is still to come, probably next week.  So, here I am, once again shamelessly flogging one of my books!  If you have been following my blogs from the beginning, you may recall that I started to blog in order to promote my book The Manchurian Tales, thus the blog was called "Nick Hahn's Manchurian Tales."  However, the blog developed a life of its own, and before long I was blogging on subjects that were only marginally connected to The Manchurian Tales. 
     More recently I changed the blog title to "Nick Hahn's Manchurian Tales and Snap Shots," to allow me to blog on subjects that were covered in my latest book.  I believe I explained all that on my Facebook Wall earlier.  So, here we are, entering somewhat different areas of discussion, but not really, since we will revisit the "boy soldier" subject, the so-called "kamikaze" pilots that were better known as tokkotai.  You may recall there were two blogs on that topic back in July and I mentioned in the first blog that there was a short story in my forthcoming book Snap Shots called "The Boy Soldier" that was about someone I knew on Okinawa.  Well, the book is out, so I guess I better give a bit more of an explanation.  Snap Shots is a collection of short stories taking place all over the world.  They are stories about my experiences in different corners of the world, interesting people that I met during my time abroad, connected with my interest in hunting.  Naturally, Japan and Okinawa play a prominent role and several stories are about the interesting people I met as a pre-teen and as a teen living in Japan and Okinawa.  I am purposely separating Japan from Okinawa because at the time that I lived on Okinawa, it was not part of Japan.  It was only after reversion took place in 1972 that the island was called Okinawa, Japan.
     For those of you who were on Okinawa (before the reversion) during the time period roughly from mid 1950s to early 1960s, you may recall there was a U.S. government installation at the southern tip of the island, past Yonabaru, and up a steep, winding hill that was called "Habu Hill."  The installation, Camp Chinen, was named after a peninsula on which it was located. If you had been to that camp and happened to visit the small bowling alley (only four lanes!) and by chance met the manager, then you would have met the man I described in the short story called "The Boy Soldier."  I changed his name somewhat, and I changed the name of his American friend, but overall, the characters are described as they were at that time.  As I stated in the story, I knew him very well and we were very good friends.  It may seem odd that a teenager would befriend an older man who was in his 30s, but I did become his good friend.  So, what he told me about himself was not something that I took lightly. 
     When I returned to Okinawa much later in the late 1960s, one of the first persons that I looked up was my friend from the bowling alley, the former "boy soldier."  However, he was no longer working at the small bowling alley in Camp Chinen, he had moved on to a bigger job and was a manager of a much larger bowling alley in what used to be called the Machinato Troop Area.  It was good to see him, and we spent some time reminiscing about the "good old days." 
     In the late 1960s, there was much talk about reversion to Japan in local papers.  My friend, like many other residents of Okinawa, did not think it was a good idea.  My friend, as I mentioned in the story, was not Okinawan by birth.  He was originally from Hiroshima area and moved to Okinawa after the war.  So I was somewhat surprised at his view, I thought he would have been glad to have Okinawa become part of Japan.  When I asked him why he thought it was a bad idea, he explained that Okinawa never was really part of Japan and it would never be completely accepted by the Japanese.  In other words, he thought Okinawa would just become the poor, "distant country cousin" of Japan.  He was right, of course!  To this date, some 42 years after the reversion, Okinawa is still the poorest Prefecture in Japan, essentially getting left over help from the central government in Tokyo!
     I have lost touch with my friend, and if he is still alive, he would be in his 90s!  He was quite prophetic about what would happen after reversion.  He said at the time that the Japanese from Honshu and Kyushu would move in and take over all the important positions both in government and business.  He was absolutely right, of course.  There are people who are native to Okinawa who have succeeded under the new Japanese rule.  But overall, it is the people from naichi (the main islands or mainland Japan) who control everything.  It is amusing to note that he predicted that one of the first things that the Japanese would do was change the driving to the left side of the road!  He said that it would make sense to keep the traffic laws as they were, making the transition to reversion easier for everyone.  But he said that the government in Tokyo would never allow that.  Changing the traffic laws was one of the ways to establish their control, their stamp.  He was also concerned about the new laws that would come, making gun ownership and hunting more difficult.  He was right on all counts.  Japanese gun laws are some of the most restrictive laws in the world, and their hunting regulations border on ridiculous!  My friend the "Boy Soldier," quite a man!