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357 I didn't thank you and Wendy for the lovely birthday cards, and a birthday card too! I loved them Tuesday 30 October 7 pm Sweetie - After Sunday and for perhaps six weeks following (or until my relief arrives) I shall enjoy the doubtful distinction of being the only Japanese-speaking officer on Tinian. Johnny Reif disclosed tonight at dinner that he had just received orders direct from [BuPers?] sending him on temporary additional duty to Tokyo, apparently to be interpreted to the American ambassador specially accredited by Truman to handle the matter of separations. Since the ambassador in question happens to be vice-president of a California oil company with which Johnny was thinking of getting a [?] job, it's a particularly good break for him. Just what effect, if any, it will have on my present assignment [pg 2] remains to be seen. To pick up where I left off in #355, where I was describing the events of my birthday - I picked up Okiyama the school janitor and Asanuma his brother-in-law - two pleasant, mild (tho not meek) and naively pleased little men, both in their early forties - drove by our quarters for Barrett and went forth on several errands: more medical supplies, the jeep (which he got), our liquor rations; then Asanuma directed me to Marpo where I at first supposed he had seen, on a work detail, some abandoned ironwood boards left by a departing unit. I soon learned, however, that this was the first trip out of camp for one of them, and the first to where we were going for both. Our objective: Asanumas pre-war homesite. It was a beautiful sight overlooking Saipan, framed in the water in between, and that I complimented him on his good taste (not that he’d had much to say in choosing where he lived, I imagine.) He proudly showed me the trees [pg 3], bushes, and flowers he had planted - papaya, oranges, mango, bougainvillea - even a garden with a goldfish pond. I let them pick a couple of dozen large papaya which later I helped them smuggle into camp, along with a 2 quart bottle of Japanese-made [shoyu?] (soy sauce) which had miraculously escaped being broken and was lying amidst the rubble of concrete, broken dishes and other junk. Meanwhile, however, the two of them had tramped into the nearby sugar cane, out of sight, and about ten minutes later had come back with a dozen brands of wood which they proudly pointed out just didn't rot (a thin film of it on the outside does so, giving it a spoiled appearance, but the inside remains firm and solid). I asked them where it had come from and they said Tinian - cut from a big tree in the Carolinas area (south) - rather than [Rota.?] where most of the railroad ties originated. [pg 4] When I realized that it was his own personal property and told him that he had a right to keep it, he assured me that he didn't need it for anything and would like me to have it. So, after having it planed down and sharing it with Barry. I'll try to find time to make that box I spoke of in connection with the piece of brass. Last night I went to a concert in our military theater (the AGF band), leaving before the feature movie. Tonight I shall spend the rest of the evening reading Time and thinking a little about other job opportunities than the one which currently looks so promising. I love you so much, darling, that nothing matters except providing the optimum condition for that love to flourish in many big and little ways Warren
