Tortuga (LSD 26) - Naval Cruise Book

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Y F w V I l 1 You don't see many signs of war in Japan any more . . . most of the skeleton buildings are new ones going up. Tokyo is a bustling, modern city. . . mostly. It's a little tattered, torn, and run down at the heels even a few blocks away from GHQ in the Dai Ichi Build- ing, but the streets are crowded with shops and people, nobody 'seems to be going hun- gry, and I guess everything's OK. There are taxis, taxis,- taxis everywhere. All shapes and sizes . . . and none of the drivers quite under- stand English. By the way, I wonder if I'll ever get used to driving on the right hand side of the road again after all these months of just the opposite in Japan. Tokyo Street Dai Ichi Building--General Headquarters . Supreme .-Allied Command , Traveling Salesman A Country .Shrine Former f-Summer Home of the Japanese C Crown Prince Page Seventeen

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Some guys have got it made! Who? Why the ones on occupation duty, who else? Maybe they don't give things away free in the shops any more, but a serviceman in Japan is really living, anyway! All the best facilities of the nation are reserved for the occupation forces, and Uncle seems to have gone out of his way to make things easy and pleasant for you. Private cars on trains, -service clubs better than most in the States, and plenty to see and do all the time. It's funny . . . the Japanese people themselves seem to think Americans are the greatest there is. You can walk down a street in Japan at mid- night without a worry in the world, and I cer- tainly couldn't say that for the Philippines. Of course, let's not kid ourselves . . . the Japanese are making many a buck off all of u-s. You 'can almost feel the prices in the souvenir shops ris- ing whenever a carrier or battleship comes into port But why worry? The merchandise is still dirt cheap if you keep your eyes open and learn how to haggle A 1:---a '54-a-3'Z-': - so 6 'Gp ff as 3 , ,Z W ! i V 1 by f , I Y J' U' 9 4 Jams Our Welcoming committee . . Aband...Gir1s... and lots of laughs! Page Sixteen The Navy Yard Yokosuka, japan

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NN! x .X K n if , - ' .H ' J l rwngmmiiun comepfe! BUGS There's a lot of beauty in Japan . . . particularly the religious shrines. Every village has at least a couple of them, and the Shintos and Buddhas seem to run a contest as to who can build the more beau- tiful structures., I guess I looked at more carved wood, laquer, and pagoda roofs than I'll ever see again. Maybe you wouldn't want them in your back yard, but for a sight-seeing tour you can't go wrong. Page Eighteen This trip to Yokosuka produced the first case of camera madness . . . and within two weeks the disease had spread through the ship like a fire out of con- trol. The symptoms are easy to recog- nize . . . a fixed stare, and an un- quenchable craving for more and more expensive cameras, more and more ac- cessories, and bigger and bigger bags to carry them all in. Finally the victim ends up buying a pack mule, loading it with 300 pounds of filters, and heading off into the wild blue slopes of Fuji- yama to die by throwing himself over a cliff trying desperately to get that perfect angle shot. And the countryside is quite lovely, too once you get away from the port towns and the big industrial areas. On the left is some of the tall timber in the mountainous country around Nikko, north of Tokyo.