Category Archives: Remembering Japan

Remembering Japan: 1945 – 1946: Chapter Three

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From October 1945 to June 1946 my father, a Navy signalman, was stationed in Japan  at Toriga-saki by the town of Kamoi, at the entrance to Tokyo Bay. He was then nineteen years old, a young Danish-American man from rural Oregon. The experience made a profound impression on him and he spoke of it often.

 

In Chapter Three, he describes the village of Kamoi next to the Harbor Entrance Control Post.

Chapter Three: Kamoi

 

Chapter Two: Harbor Entrance Control Post Toriga Saki, Tokyo Bay

Chapter One: The Sea Devil to Japan.

Introduction can be read here.

 

Remembering Japan 1945 – 1946: Chapter Two

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From October 1945 to June 1946 my father, a Navy signalman, was stationed in Japan  at Toriga-saki by the town of Kamoi, at the entrance to Tokyo Bay. He was then nineteen years old, a young Danish-American man from rural Oregon. The experience made a profound impression on him and he spoke of it often.

 

In Chapter Two: Harbor Entrance Control Post Toriga Saki, Tokyo Bay, he arrives at and describes the signal station where he spent nine months. It includes Dad’s famous story about how he and the signal crew there proved they were the best signalmen in the Navy.

 

 

 

Chapter Two: Harbor Entrance Control Post Toriga Saki, Tokyo Bay

Chapter One: The Sea Devil to Japan.

Introduction can be read here.

 

Remembering Japan 1945-1946: Chapter One: The Sea Devil to Japan

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From October 1945 to June 1946 my father, a Navy signalman, was stationed in Japan  at Toriga-saki by the town of Kamoi, at the entrance to Tokyo Bay. He was then nineteen years old, a young Danish-American man from rural Oregon. The experience made a profound impression on him and he spoke of it often.

In Chapter One, The Sea Devil to Japan, he describes the voyage from the USA to Japan.

 

Our entire crew with a few support positions was sent to man the Harbor Entrance Control Post at the entrance to Tokyo Bay. We were commanded by a mid-western high school principal by the name of Harris. He must have felt right at home since we were all recent high school graduates. Our small group was assigned a hold in a troop ship named the Sea Devil. The troops assigned were all Navy but bits and pieces of various units and replacements. I seem to recall that there were two to three thousand men on the ship.

 

You can read Chapter One in its entirety here.

The Introduction can be read here.

Remembering Japan 1945- 1946: An Introduction

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Title: Remembering Japan, set over a photo from 1945 of three American sailors in uniform standing in front of the Great Buddha at Kamakura, Japan.

Title: Remembering Japan 1945 – 1946 by Gerald Rasmussen. Type is set over a black and white photo from 1945 showing three American sailors in uniform standing in front of the Great Buddha at Kamakura, Japan. My father is on the left.

 

From October 1945 to June 1946 my father, a Navy signalman, was stationed in Japan  at Toriga-saki by the town of Kamoi, at the entrance to Tokyo Bay. He was then nineteen years old, a young Danish-American man from rural Oregon. The experience made a profound impression on him and he spoke of it often.

In 2003 Dad traveled with my family (my spouse and three children)  to Japan to track down the places he had been. We found the pier and the site of the signal station and were able to visit other landmarks he had seen at that time including the Great Buddha of Kamakura and the Kofukuji (Five Story Pagoda) in Nara.

With the aid of his letters home, his memory, and the assistance of his colleague Keith L. Miller, he wrote and published these memoirs in 2010.

I will be adding a chapter every Friday until the entire memoir is online (24 weeks).

Today we begin with

Introduction (by Keith L. Miller):  A brief overview of my father’s early life and the circumstances that took him to Japan in the wake of World War II.

 

The Week Ahead (1 Feb 2015)

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While January remains the first month of the Gregorian calendar, February marks the real beginning of an incredibly busy and I hope not too stressful year for me.

In 2014 I published a single piece of fiction ( Spiritwalker-related novelette posted as free fiction on my web site), no novels, and a few scattered pieces of non fiction in the form of blog posts. While that seems sparse, I also did a LOT of work on other projects. You can find a retrospective of 2014 and a list of forthcoming 2015 projects here.

On February 10 my first short fiction collection, THE VERY BEST OF KATE ELLIOTT, is released by Tachyon Publications.

February also brings two interviews (one at writer Gail Carriger’s blog and the other at SFSignal), a very personal blog post at Book Smugglers tomorrow (February 2), an AMA at Reddit on February 17, as well as a few other posts yet to be scheduled. Reviews of THE VERY BEST have started to drop: Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Interzone, with more coming.

For the month of February I will try a steady diet of keeping readers apprised without engulfing them with too much promo, which means I am trying to make a schedule for myself that will include writing about other things in order to counteract the sense that we are all of us being inundated by a promotional barrage.

So, stealing outright from the Book Smugglers with their weekly Sunday “Smugglers Stash and News,” here’s what’s up for this coming week:

 

Monday February 2:

The Courage to Say Yes, a guest post at The Book Smugglers

On my blog, a post wishing Smart Bitches, Trashy Books a very happy 10th anniversary and explaining why I think SMTB has been so important.

 

Tuesday February 3:

Showing off my Polish covers for Crown of Stars. After publishing the first three some years ago, Zysk did a re-design for the whole series that I really like.

 

Wednesday February 4:

Kill Your Rituals, Not Your Darlings, a guest post by Harry Connolly

 

Thursday February 5: Enthusiasm Thursday

A long overdue “enthusiasm” (I don’t really write reviews which is why I prefer to call this an Enthusiasm) for THE TIME ROADS by Beth Bernobich. My goal is to write an Enthusiasm every Thursday on whatever takes my fancy.

 

Friday February 6: Memoir Friday

I begin a 24 week series, each Friday blogging a (often very short) chapter from Remembering Japan 1945 – 1946, my father’s memoirs of his nine months posted in Japan after World War II. I’ve been meaning to do this for a while and his granddaughter (my daughter) kindly got everything ready to go. However else my blogging goes, this series will run on Fridays until all the chapters are posted.

 

Saturday: Shabbat and thus no post.

 

If all goes as planned my first newsletter will launch next week, 10 February. You can sign up here on the blog page (right sidebar) or on my webpage.

The newsletter will be occasional and short, with pre-order and new release information, updates or momentous news, and a few surprises and previews that subscribers will get before anyone else.