WEBVTT NOTE Created by CaptionSync from Automatic Sync Technologies www.automaticsync.com 00:00:00.356 --> 00:00:01.166 align:middle >> You want some more reading? 00:00:01.426 --> 00:00:01.976 align:middle I'm going to talk. 00:00:02.876 --> 00:00:03.466 align:middle I've got some more. 00:00:04.126 --> 00:00:06.976 align:middle I'm going to read something from Korean love songs. 00:00:12.086 --> 00:00:12.776 align:middle This -- 00:00:15.686 --> 00:00:21.836 align:middle -- thing that I'll read for you, I have to give you some context. 00:00:24.156 --> 00:00:32.006 align:middle This is just a narrative prose poem and it's about the lives and times of four Texas Mexicans 00:00:32.006 --> 00:00:37.176 align:middle from the Rio Grande Valley, where I was born, in peacetime Japan and then in wartime Korea. 00:00:38.406 --> 00:00:47.006 align:middle And at the very beginning of the war, at least the first hard nine months and wounded a couple 00:00:47.006 --> 00:00:52.436 align:middle of times. Now he's back and because he had lived with his friends in peacetime Japan 00:00:52.436 --> 00:00:55.716 align:middle for about five months, that some Japanese friends. 00:00:56.736 --> 00:01:01.556 align:middle You can imagine what 18, 19 year-old GIs, irrespective of nationality, 00:01:02.036 --> 00:01:06.606 align:middle the type of people they will be befriended by. 00:01:06.946 --> 00:01:08.256 align:middle And this is called Old Friends. 00:01:09.576 --> 00:01:12.736 align:middle This takes about seven minutes, maybe less. 00:01:13.336 --> 00:01:18.936 align:middle In Honshu, the bigger island, the southern Japanese businessmen call their 00:01:18.986 --> 00:01:20.386 align:middle whorehouses Emporiums. 00:01:21.176 --> 00:01:25.926 align:middle Off Baron Otsuki Boulevard, in Southeast Kobe, are five emporia, all in a row. 00:01:26.916 --> 00:01:31.926 align:middle The nominal owner of Shirley's Temple of Pleasure Emporium is middle-aged Tomiko Sambe 00:01:32.946 --> 00:01:34.496 align:middle and she prefers to be called Shirley. 00:01:35.126 --> 00:01:38.486 align:middle And when she says it, it doesn't sound anything like that. 00:01:38.486 --> 00:01:44.066 align:middle Here, on an earlier medical R&R, Tomiko replaced my lost dress army shoes, for a week or two, 00:01:44.556 --> 00:01:46.406 align:middle with black navy shoes of proper fit. 00:01:47.446 --> 00:01:50.006 align:middle My good acquaintance here is Mosako Fukuda 00:01:50.926 --> 00:01:54.206 align:middle and she has a brother named Hideo who's a medical student in Nagoya. 00:01:54.796 --> 00:01:59.956 align:middle Mosako is native to the Kobe-Kyoto-Osaka Triangle and she visits her parents in Nara, 00:02:00.846 --> 00:02:04.616 align:middle every ten days or oftener, and always when the cycle comes and lays her low. 00:02:04.996 --> 00:02:08.486 align:middle There's no pretense here: Her parents know where she works, And I, 00:02:08.486 --> 00:02:12.726 align:middle learning the ways of the world, do not add insult to their injury by visiting their home. 00:02:13.566 --> 00:02:17.266 align:middle I know of them and of Hideo through her and, like the popular song now, 00:02:17.716 --> 00:02:20.596 align:middle She's never been to Tokyo, Hokkaido is out of the question. 00:02:21.036 --> 00:02:23.456 align:middle She's been once to Kyushu, but never to Shikoku. 00:02:24.176 --> 00:02:26.336 align:middle She loves to walk, and she loves the parks. 00:02:26.906 --> 00:02:30.806 align:middle We go and stay until the familiar shimbun, the newspaper. 00:02:30.876 --> 00:02:33.936 align:middle And then enough, she says enough, and we walk back to Shirley's. 00:02:34.326 --> 00:02:38.966 align:middle And now, midday of the sixth day of R&R, and despite what Dr. Berman claimed, 00:02:39.296 --> 00:02:43.836 align:middle the shoulder's stiffened up again, thus making this just one more of Mosako's love duties. 00:02:44.466 --> 00:02:48.046 align:middle And, as she starts on the shoulder, she hums and sighs, 00:02:48.426 --> 00:02:51.316 align:middle and when she tickles me, she laughs, and I laugh, too. 00:02:51.696 --> 00:02:54.526 align:middle And after this, the usual bath and mat and bath again. 00:02:55.156 --> 00:02:58.356 align:middle We're a likely pair, we are, and I'm certainly no Pinkerton 00:02:58.356 --> 00:03:00.816 align:middle to her Butterfly, but I have come to say goodbye. 00:03:01.746 --> 00:03:06.766 align:middle Later tonight, we'll go shopping and then I'll leave with nine days left on my R&R. 00:03:06.766 --> 00:03:11.856 align:middle Early next morning, the World War II veterans sweep the Temple of Pleasure Emporium, 00:03:12.156 --> 00:03:15.176 align:middle while we enjoy a quiet breakfast of pastry and tea. 00:03:15.736 --> 00:03:20.656 align:middle Tomiko, who prefers to be called Shirley, comes in and we shake hands, Western style. 00:03:21.406 --> 00:03:25.896 align:middle After her tea, we take long, full bows just like the old friends that we are, 00:03:26.296 --> 00:03:30.446 align:middle And Mosako will walk me to the [? Keiyo ?] Railway, less than three blocks away. 00:03:31.226 --> 00:03:35.046 align:middle She holds my pass, my ticket, and the money and she puts them 00:03:35.046 --> 00:03:37.076 align:middle in my pocket, in a flowered envelope. 00:03:37.806 --> 00:03:41.596 align:middle And then I surprise her with yet another fan which she needs like another hole. 00:03:42.066 --> 00:03:44.966 align:middle But she takes it, and her eyes close when she smiles. 00:03:45.996 --> 00:03:49.956 align:middle Then her eyes and mine open wide when the train surprises us, and we watch the rushing crowds. 00:03:50.746 --> 00:03:55.356 align:middle Gently, with her fan, she pushes me away, and again her eyes close when she smiles 00:03:55.706 --> 00:04:00.136 align:middle and she turns, walks away, carefully opening and studiously closing the fan 00:04:00.596 --> 00:04:02.966 align:middle and as the train rears back before moving on. 00:04:03.396 --> 00:04:08.926 align:middle I look for a familiar patch or face, and finding none, I remove my cap in time 00:04:08.926 --> 00:04:13.256 align:middle to catch the last faint smell of the tea and pastry, prepared by my old friend. 00:04:14.436 --> 00:04:15.896 align:middle Thank you.