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180 Navy #3247 (Mil. Govt) FPO San Francisco Sunday 25 March 8 pm (Doug's birthday) My dearest darling, Bursts of laughter every four or five minutes from the next room of the office Quonset where Tel, with his bad Japanese and his good teaching technique, is coaxing the fifteen members of the advanced adult English class to repeat in their own words parts of an article from the Hawaii Times, keep me chuckling as I finish assembling and making notes on the contents of a long envelope for you. The class started out by reading in the one primer of which we can now boast a number of copies (Cordt's Primer - light blue cover - not a very good book, but better [pg 2] than nothing) and it was exceedingly amusing to hear Yamashima - Jap. asst. camp leader - reading with clear pronunciation and a serious tone of voice some ridiculous phrases ending with “Toot, too, toot, toot? Says the engine.” Now, a little to my surprise, he has them reading about the assault on Iwo Jima. In the near distance is the steady hum of the generator which furnishes electricity to the two buildings now wired and which breaks down every third or fourth night; over my right shoulder and a hundred feet or less from our office door is the other wired building, an open shelter where [at this point I go out to investigate] four Japanese 8th grade girls are being coached in algebra for tomorrow's exam [pg 3]. Oh, darling, if you could only see these kids and their eagerness to get into the new chūgakkō (middle school)! Several hundred 6th-8th grade kids, a few not in school, are to take the examinations, and only 50 can be accepted. The school except of course for English will be taught entirely in Japanese (no sufficiently skilled Korean teachers are available) but Korean kids will be admitted - and we hope at least four or five will pass, even tho the highest grade in the Kor. School up to now is the 6th- to follow the same curriculum. [The class has broken up and Yama is talking to Tel about a court case involving a civilian on a serious charge in which the former is to act as the defendant's attorney. [pg 4] I am to sit as judge, along with two other officers, and Yama says, laughing, as he leaves, “[Narubekn Karuku, Onegai shinias?]” (As light as possible, I beg of you)] Tel wanders back in from the Japanese teachers office in the next room and says - “You know - I think I’d like going into school teaching (he plans to return to a law firm in Des Moines) - I get such a kick out of seeing these kids…don't know about grammar school [with States]; a private school might not be so bad…” Tel is tall, pink cheeked (ruddy-faced sounds better) with dark blonde hair growing a little thin on top, cut short and seldom combed. He is completely natural and absorbed [pg 5] in whatever he's doing, has a charming, boyish smile, and a generous spirit. He's not a man's man but gets along well with men. Impulsive and eager, he's sometimes hard to work with because he gets so many ideas, feels them out aloud and is forever thrashing out little decisions, making for a constant atmosphere of teacup storms and stress. But such energy and fond addiction have built this school. Remember Wordsworth's line-“My heart leaps up…” That's just what I feel as the rare luxury of [Barbirolles'?] Orchestra playing a Schubert piece comes over the school radio, which Tel has just turned on (We don't use it as often as we’d like to because the power has to be turned on especially for it in the day time) [pg 6] Here's where I am now (just to prove my artistic illiteracy)- DRAWINGS [pg 7] Your #190 of March 10th- Speaking of tan and freckles reminds me of my own slightly stinging sunburn from the early afternoon baseball game yesterday - enjoyed playing. The pictures which you conjure up (Wendy walking along the water's edge with you a few months from now) give me such a [?], expectant feeling - Darling, no amount of time and distance can make you and Wendy less precious to me than you are - so many times a day I think of you as being with me, and just as with you in a recent dream you spoke of or rather in your feeling when you woke up, your presence in that way refreshes me more than our temporary absence from each other can ever damage me. My dearest darling, I hope you are being charitable with me when I speak of the many things I share with you in fancy, and then don't write of them in the detail [pg 8] that such allusions would seem to justify - there just isn't time for more than little snatches of here and there, honey. You are sacrificing something in my having a job I enjoy so much (for all its fulfilling irritations) I feel is so worthwhile, because I just can't confine myself to office hours here as I could at a routine job that I disliked and felt obliged to put no more than an 8 hr, 6 day week's work into. In the latter case I’d have plenty of time to write, but being away from you would be hell then. As it is I feel as though you’re a part of my work here and are somehow sharing in it. Tel turns off the radio and says, Geez, I think it's almost time to quit…He looks tired, and I am a little, so we'll go out to turn off the generator in a moment and make our way back thru camp in the dark. “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways-” Warren
