As Police Inspector under Marshall Law, Tom had the keys to the warehouses on Yokosuka Base. That meant that he had access to just about anything he wanted in the way of the old materials of war.   That didn’t just include the K-Rations. It included thousands of confiscated weapons, and piles of swords. […]

Kiko on lap at Club Grand Shima, 1950 I was in the new office in Ballston, trying to avoid work. It was hard to make out the scrawl at the top of the note. The typing was regular, with occasional strikeouts, since it was done on a real manual machine. But the e-mail address had […]

US Army Nisei Translator, 1946   I have to take a break today. I am in the middle of talking to Al’s widow B., who is on the West Coast. Al was a nisei, a first generation American, who served in Army CID in Tokyo when Tom was down in Yokosuka. He gave me a […]

Arrivals USS George Washington (CVN-73) departed Norfolk Naval Station amid scattered rain and dense fog on 07 April, en route to its new home-port of Yokosuka, Japan. A Navy band gave the hundreds of sailors manning the rails a spirited sendoff. The Nimitz-class CVN is making history as the first nuclear-powered carrier based in Japan. There is some […]

  Ryan and Jen Sykes   Intelligence Specialist Ryan Sykes is one of our young lions, and you need to know his story. It allows us to place the little travails of life in perspective, and demonstrates the courage of ordinary life sometimes requires, and the power of love.   Ryan and his gallant wife Jen are […]

Sea anemone on HMAS Sydney   The properties of the wood cut from the teak tree are quite remarkable. The timber is used in the manufacture of outdoor furniture, of course, which is important in the coming patio season, and in boat decks and other applications where weather resistance is desired. It is easily worked, and […]

I was talking to Tom out in West Virginia. In the old days, calling from the Hollow as he was, his voice would have been scratchy. Not today; his voice was crisp as fresh paper thanks to digital transmission. He was going to the hospital the next day, and a call to me was one […]

It is the weekend of the infamous Hash Bash at the University of Michigan. The protest began after the arrest of White Panther Party leader John Sinclair, sent up to Jackson for ten years for the possession of two joints.   In 1972, users of cannabis began to flood the crossroads at the heart of […]

I hope your night was silent and peaceful. I dreamt I was soaring in the blackness last night, free as a bird. There were no court dates. On my narrow dark wings I rose with quiet thrust to survey the territory below me. I could sense movement in the trees far below, felt more than […]

  Ownership of the night is the birthright of all Americans, or at least it was in the later days of the last high-octane century. Upon obtaining their driver’s license, the young owned the night.   It would not have occurred to the young Lieutenant Junior Grade to have considered that his first and greatest […]