Those Days in Muramatsu: One Woman's Memoir of Occupied Japan

Chapter 26: Teaching Japanese

CHAPTER 26 TEA TEACHING CHING JAP JAPANESE ANESE Capt. Mattison came to see me one day. I had met him before at the mayor’s party. He was a nice elderly officer. “I heard from Lt. Garden that you have had some teaching experience,” he said. “Yes. Before the war started, I was teaching Japanese at the International Student Institute in Tokyo. It was only for a year, though. And I didn’t have a big class. Just a few students.” “We have an Army school at the camp. And as some boys are interested in learning Japanese, we are planning to open a course in Japanese. Would you like to teach them? I assure you they will behave all right.” “I would be interested in teaching them. But please ask Mr. Kuno whether he is willing to let me do it, because I am employed by his company.” Both Mr. Machida and Mr. Kuno were nice enough to let me take it. “But not every day,” Mr. Kuno said. So it was arranged that a jeep would be sent to the station at 12:45 pm on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to take me to the camp to teach two classes. It was during the first week of November. The next day, a very good-looking boy came up at 12:40 pm and asked for Mrs. Goto. It was my driver, who looked surprised to find me just a young girl. “Are you ready to come?” he asked. “Just a minute. I’ll get my dictionary.” I went back to my desk and stayed there for a few seconds to summon enough courage before facing my soldier-students. This was the first time I had ever come to the camp during the daytime. In the spacious ground surrounded by many buildings , some boys were playing football. Some others were leisurely walking around. They all looked at me curiously. I sat stiff, trying to look like a dignified teacher. The school building was situated in a corner of the compound. When we approached, I saw a tall soldier standing at the door. He waved his hand to me. It was Lt. Garden. I felt glad to find an old friend when I was feeling so tense. “I was waiting for you. I’d like to join your class, but I have a class to teach. When it’s over I’ll come round to see how the boys are behaving.” He led me into a room and introduced me to a Lt. Hummel. He was a very tall intellectual-looking officer. He was even a few inches taller than Lt. Garden. I had never seen such a tall man, and, as I was measuring him in silent surprise, Lt. Garden laughingly told me that Lt. Hummel was the tallest officer in the regiment. He was in charge of the school. After a short while, the bell rang and with it my heart started throbbing. “I shall introduce you to the boys,” Lt. Hummel led the way and Lt. Garden and I followed. The room was upstairs. There were many soldiers in the hall. They all looked surprised to see a small Japanese girl in the army school. When the lieutenant opened the door, the talking voices inside were hushed and I found some twenty soldiers all looking at me. In the front row was a familiar face smiling. It was Ohara-san. I smiled back, feeling so very much relieved. When Lt. Hummel introduced me to the boys, Lt. Garden 124 whispered, “I’ll be in the next room. So, don’t worry,” and they both went out. I was glad that there was no platform for the teacher. I hated to stand on the platform while teaching. But the blackboard was a little too high for me. I had to stand on my toes. “Kon-nichi-wa” (Good day, or How do you do) “Ohayo gozaimasu” (Good morning) “Ikaga desuka” (How are you?) “Sayonara” (Goodbye) “Domo arigato” (Thank you) I started with the greetings used in everyday conversation. The boys were very eager to learn. I made them say the phrases all together and then one by one speaking in Japanese as much as possible . Black-haired, Spanish-speaking boys were generally good at pronunciation but they were rather slow in grasping the meaning. When I made them repeat the same thing again and again, they...