Frank Tanabe

ESSAY TEXT INCOMPLETE

I was a member of the US forces in the occupation of Japan and served on active duty with an infantry unit in Hokkaido and as a Department of Army Civilian (DAC) in a language group in Tokyo.

I first set foot in Japan in early October 1945 after a tour of duty in the China-Burma-India (CBI) theater in New Delhi and then in Kunming and Nanking in support of the surrender of Japan to China, and in Shanghai.

After landing at Tachikawa AFB and taken to Billets in war devastated Tokyo, I was ordered to escort a language team to Hokkaido assigned to the 77th Inf. Div. The team translated official Japanese government and military documents and interpreted in meetings between US and Japanese officials and interrogated remnants of the Japanese military.

After the division deactivated in May 1946, I was assigned to the 11th ABD and sent to the army's replacement center at Camp Zama dictating and returned to the US.

However, I was recruited at Zama to work for the Allied Translators and Interpreters Service (ATIS) as a DAC and assigned to it's news section which translated editorials and articles of interest to the occupation in the major Japanese vernacular press and prepared analysis for distribution to GHQ star offices.

While at ATIS, I became aquatinted with Prince Kuni, elder brother of the Empress and an former army general, through a friend, an ex Japanese military specialist, and who had a consultant's office in Tokyo and wrote a science column in the Snake Shim bum (newspaper).

The Prince, his entourage of chamberlains, my friend, and I took weekend trips into the countryside, overnighting in resort hotels emptied of guests before our arrival.

The Prince called these trips made in the spring and summer of 1948 his inspections of the rehabilitation of the Canto Region from the war's devastation. We talked about our different cultures and ways of life, mostly in response to his curiosity and queries, I told him about my family and its observance of Japanese values and traditional festivals, the education I received, life in the Tule Lake and Minidoka internment camps, relocation to Chicago and enlistment in the army and Japanese language studies at Camp Savage.

The Prince, on his part, never mentioned the war except once when he claimed his wartime office suites in Manila were taken over by General McArthur.

I left ATIS in 1956 to work as a staff reporter in the Tokyo bureau of International News Service.

In 1959, I joined the US Civil Administration of the Ryukyu Islands (USCAR) as an information supervisor/news writer in its public affairs department.

USCAR had completed administration, legislative and judicial powers over the former Japanese prefecture, as an instrument of the US government. This authority was given to the United States pursuant to a provision in the 1952 treaty of Peace with Japan and was to continue until such time that the United States agreed to return the island to Japanese administration. This occurred in May 1972.

USCAR was headed by an active army three-star general as high commissioner and a one-star general later replaced by a state department officer as civil administrator and was organized into government departments. My duties included the writing of news releases, the drafting of official statements and speeches, the preparation of talking points and public relation assessments on USCAR policies and programs. I was assigned to escort and brief local and visiting media representatives.

Among activities and programs, I initiated on an official, but personal basis were these:

I organized a media group and called it the "Oki-Boke-Kai" (persons enchanted with Okinawa.) It was comprised of the reporters from the local newspapers, the Okinawa Times and the Ryukyu Shimpo and Japanese correspondents from the Kyodo and Jiji Press, the Asahi, Mainichi and Yomiuri newspapers, radio and TV, NHK, and a representative of the Pacific Stars and Stripes. The group met on a monthly basis with the host rotating among the members. A cardinal rue was there was to be no "business talk," but, if inadvertently there was any, it was to remain "off the record." The group existed several years, but ceased with the frequent reassignment and replacement of its members.

I was instrumental in working with Jiji Press in bringing to Okinawa experts on foreign and Japanese domestic issues to speak at meetings of Okinawan political and economic leaders. The speakers were members of the Jiji speakers bureau. Under this program, Jiji billed us for the speakers' transportation and room and board while on Okinawa. USIA in the US Embassy paid Jiji from a budget held by USIA to provide books, magazines, pamphlets, movies, and other educational materials distributed through the cultural affairs programs. This was reported in the local press as being sponsored by Jiji.

I was a member of the "Uechi Gakko" along with the language aide to the high commissioner. Kazufumi Uechi was president and chairman of Okinawa Times-Ryukyu Broadcasting Company and director in a dozen other civic and business organizations. The group was comprised of the Who's Who in Okinawa - officers and directors in the political, economic, educational, and cultural sectors of the Okinawan community. Meetings were held quarterly and hosted by Mr. Uechi at his spacious residence. The "Gakko" dosed when Mr. Uechi died in a plane crash off Greece while on a round-the-world business trip.

The language aide and I were members of the "Oki-Am-Kai" (Okinawan-American Association), a golfing fraternity. The group was formed to promote friendship and understanding, and it was comprised of the US Forces commanding general, other unit commanders, the governor of Okinawa, majors of municipalities near the military bases and business leaders. the monthly tournaments were held at the military courses. The language aided and I arranged the date, time, and other tournament details.

The return of a territory taken in a bitter battle and returned in peace to a nation defeated in war was unprecedented in US military history. USCAR played a key role in this process of rebuilding a devastated land into democratic society and a viable economy with