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#33 (Charley and Evan Davis send their cordial regards) Saturday 28 October 7:15 pm Dearly Beloved, Time goes by so fast - but still no word from you. Perhaps tomorrow. This afternoon I had the entertaining experience of being one of a group of two officers and about four enemy alien civilians which received some 8 or 9 hundred children organized for mass calisthenics and [s?ing] on a large playground here. They were about half and half boys and girls (in separate ranks), perhaps ¼ Korean and ¾ Japanese. After performing various little exercises and singing several songs (one of them in English - I recognized it vaguely as a song we learned in grammar school) they saluted us en masse and marched away. Previously to that we witnessed a baseball game between Korean and Japanese teams of 12-16 year old boys (at sight you’d underestimate their age, on the average, about 3 years). It was well played, and I was amused to hear expressions like “two down” or “batter out” from both players and their several hundred spectators, including adults. The Military Gov't Officer who supervised this activity told me that they had no notion at first that they were using American terms (they’d played baseball before, of course). One of the men in the [grays?] [?] out with is slated to take over this supervising work, among other things, and I envy him just a little for it. Since, however, the actual handling of children is done by older ones and adults from their own groups, and a few of the latter speak sufficient English to get along, there's no essential need of a language officer there. There'll be more need and better opportunity for it in what I'll be doing - work which, like [pg 2] practically everything here, involves constant direct contact with civilians (known to the staff as “Gooks”) Another cause for slight envy (tho I'm sufficiently satisfied with the setup not to become preoccupied with the primitiveness of life here for some time to come) is the reports of men coming to visit from other spots in the Mariannas and talking about an officer's club with lots of liquor, Army nurses (most of them homely, but as one of the visitors put it, just a cheerful grin from some big dumb Swede was enough to add that vital feminine touch - there are lots of women here, but not an attractive one by our standards, except for a few shyly pretty young girls) and perhaps best of all, lots of native handicraft products for sale. There are none at all here, though there probably will be later on. (That, in fact, is part of Charley's job to promote, since just recently). To go back to the playground - the general civilian leader assisting the MG Officers reminded me a little (not in build, but in manner) of “Meksiko” - Suzuki- in Boulder. Loves children, says he didn't like “Mr. Tojo's militaristic youth movements” - was formerly a member of the International Boy Scout Council, headed by Britain's Baden-Powell, and translated the principles of the movement with Japanese. We had a pleasant chat together. Stop to talk wherever I feel like it and have no self-consciousness here about Nikongo - picking up speech a lot faster than I ever did at B. and with a good deal of relish. The important thing is to forget the language and lose yourself in the subject. At this afternoon's close I found myself discussing bull breeding with a veterinary. I'm going to switch to writing at noon when I'm fresher if I can, darling - still very weary [?] evening, or rather feel like [comp?] Am getting enough sleep now. Here's to our dreaming of each other tonight I love you Warren
