From Stan Packer, HMS Belfast......

You'll Never Forget Japan

Stan Packer, H.M.S. Belfast Association

The astonishing thing is that the time will come when you will remember it all with something close to affection or, at least, nostalgia......that seems, perhaps, ridiculous to say just now.  When thoughts of home are predominant, and when "If I ever see this place again it'll be too soon" is the almost universal reaction to the places around us.

But on some January morning, "when the rain is weeping out of the skies and Chatham looks even drearier, when the gay blacks and daring browns of the Island Race seems even more bedraggled than ever;  when the bus or tram or train is full of complaining voices, sniffing noses and wheezy coughs spreading a million bacteria; when in the name of equality among men, the bus conductor snaps your head off or the waitress throws your meal at you, perhaps.....for an instant.....the tiniest fleetingest second......you will actually sigh for the colourful, smiling, bustling, courteous, East."

Anyway, you'll nor forget Sasebo....who could?  You'll not forget:

• the upthrusting hill on the left as you come in, named after the characteristic curve of a famous film star - and a remarkable likeness, too.
• the two-funnelled monster that puffed and blew its way around the harbour (and did anyone ever discover what it really did?)
• the archway at Fleet Landing and its tribute to the modesty of the US Marine Corps
• Black Market Street and its offshoots, or those tiny shops bursting with the most incredible merchandise.
• the bustle, the blaring music, the tin-pan taxis, the people, the puddles, the chaos; and, especially near the river---the smell.

Someone told me that Sasebo made him think of those hell-bent, rep-roaring towns you read about in the old Wild West.  You'll not forget it, and it will return to you at the most surprising moments; and the same goes for Kure, Yokosuka and Kobe.

Kobe was the first part of real Japan - that is apart from the naval ports we visited.  For Tokyo was too huge to make a lasting impression.  And Kobe would seem to be, from the general impression, the most successful of our visits.  The courtesy of the various colonies there, we certainly will not forget.  Quite a number of us were wise enough to take advantage of the leave given, and go inland to see something of real Japan; for to judge it by the naval ports is, as in the case of other countries, to get a totally wrong impression.

A strange people the Japanese, that is by our standards, which is not always correct.  To witness the Japanese delight in children is to wonder how it was that this same people could perpetrate the cruelties of the last war.  To witness their love of industry, and pride in workmanship, is to wonder, perhaps uneasily, about our own modern ways at home.

Anyway, you'll not forget Japan in a hurry.

Statistics from the HMS Belfast, 1950-52

We steamed:  10,199 miles in 1950; 49,534 in 1951; 37,482 in 1952  Total: 97,035 miles

We ate and drank:  56,000 pints of rum; 10 tons of tea (half a million tots); 250 tons of bread; 208,000 tins of milk; 625 tons of potatoes; and 134 tons of meat

We fired: 7,816 rounds of 6-inch; 538 rounds of 4-inch; and many rounds at the radio-controlled aircraft

We used: 1,000,000 sheets of signal paper; 150 miles of ticker tape; 100 ensigns; 200 typewriter ribbons; and 1 ocean of blood, sweat and tears (The Comm. Dept.)

We wrote:  8,370 official letters

The Captain saw: 1,736 Request Men

We use: 60,000 tons of fuel and fueled 96 times

We had steam on the main engines 455 days (1 year, 3 months out of 2 years)

An unknown voice said "P.C.O., telephone please!" 1, 936 times

Number of aspirins consumed by the Captain's Secretary is confidential

The Instructor Officer started 573 arguments and won 3.