During my time in Japan, I would go into the hangar and meet with all the Japanese guards. One of the perks of meeting them was that I had coffee. When the crews came back we had thermoses of hot coffee and lots of cream and milk and sugar. The guards didn’t like coffee particularly, but after being out in the cold, they were pleased with the donuts and hot drink we offered them. They would put so much sugar in the coffee you could stand a fork in it. I charged them. I wasn’t going to do this for nothing…you know, free enterprise and all that.

In return, they would teach me a Japanese phrase and correct my pronunciation. I didn’t realize the full benefit of this practice until I started walking outside the base and into the countryside. The rice patties had walkways on raised paths between them. One rainy day on my outing, I noticed all the farmers were up to their knees in the water, reaching down and planting seedlings. They had great straw hats that were so big that when they bent over, the hats covered their backs and the water ran off them. As I walked along, one of them stood up and took his hat off to wipe his brow, looked at me, and started yelling “Barney-san!” Well, in the service, I was called ‘Barney.’ As I turned around, all of the peasants stood up and in a chorus started shouting “Barney-san!” These were the guards to whom I was providing the coffee. This was their day job.