It seems I when over the thread limit! This is a continuation. See here for the beginning https://twitter.com/war_student/status/1294575336487825409?s=20

Figgess had lived in Japan before, working for an Import/Export Buisness in Yokohama at the age of 23. Anyway, he arrived to a RN shore station, HMS Return, the defacto British Embassy, on 26th September via US Army Transport Plane. He drove to Tokyo and Yokahama. 2/

His recollections are vivid:

“I shall never forget that ride. The landscape on all side was flattened and black. Where buildings still stood they were half-destroyed. Nothing but ruins as far as they eye could see and amidst the ruins a few pathetic shacks roofed..." 3/

When they approached Omori “we were greeted by a huge sign strung across the highway, Welcome to Tokyo – Courtesy of the 1st Cavalry Division. The Americans were in evident control.” They were commanded “by a colourful character in the person of Major-General Bill Chase…” 4/

He later got in contact with former Japanese friends:

"There was little food to be had in the towns…people survived by journeying to the countryside in search of almost anything to eat.”

“This was a society shattered by its defeat in the war and torn from its roots.” 5/

HMS Return was led by a Commander Stokes (RN). The layout was:

Stokes in No.1 Billet (the main House)
Naval Ratings in in smaller houses
MacDermott in No.2 House
General Gardiner's staff in No.4 House

The compound had been looked after by Swiss custodians. 6/

Around the compound however was devastation. Several buildings in the Marunouchi district had survived the bombing, including NYK building which houses the Allied Translation and Interpreter Service and the Counter-Intelligence Service under Lieutenant-General Thorpe. 7/

Poverty continued however. Figgess remembered the growing number of orphans in Tokyo, usually found huddled around Ueno station where they could beg. It would take months for them to be provided with shelter. 8/

Connections could still be made. When CIGS Alan Brooke visited, he requested to see Prince Takatsuka, with whom he shared an interest in ornithology. No translation was required, they conversed in Latin. Brookes spent two hours with him, twice as long as he did with SCAP. 9/

Another officer to reach Japan early was Peter Parker, he arrived in October at Atsugi airbase just outside of Tokyo. He too remembers the destitution:

"and the bleakness of the scene was soul-boggling. How had their war effort on that shattered island survived so long?” 10/

His dislike for MacArthur was readily apparent, though "through gritted teeth" he admits SCAP's reign was "glorious." His unit had been held up on expressed orders of SCAP. Outside interference was viewed with suspicion by SCAP. 11/

Field Marshall Lord Bramall would also reminisce of Japan in the early days. As usual, the poverty was the stand out.

He arrived in Kure with the Dorsets. He remembers what one Australian on the boat in said: 12/

"…the battered remains of half a dozen warships, including two battleships, stood out against the foreshore, itself a tangled mass of churned-up earth and masonry…Kure is defunct."

Kure saw the arrival of BCOF. The Commonwealth Occupation Forces. 13/

BCOF's duty was Hiroshima. As noted "“…the inhabitants of Hiroshima were noticeably and understandably more stolid and sullen, the city-dwellers generally were cooperative, and those who entered the service of the occupation…were naturally enough industrious and reliable.” 14/

Unfortunately, racial stereotypes remained for the British, surprisingly in contrast to the Americans.

One officer noted “…the Japanese men I dislike intensely…I felt a little out of place sitting [in a train] surrounded by these slit-eyes cunning-looking men…" 15/

Another argued “All the same I could never conjure up love for these little men – I am sure they are completely double-faced – so scrupulously polite with their bowing and scraping.” 16/

But there was appreciation as well for such a different culture. A Dorset Sergeant summarised

‘"I made it my business in my rare off-duty time to try to delve into the Japanese mind…but I soon realized that I could devote a lifetime to this subject and still get nowhere." 17/

Ian Nish, a famous Japanologist, reflected on the 'stiffness' of BCOF forces when he was there as a military translator in 1946: 18/

“The Kure citizens’ initial bewildered impression of the rather unresponsive BCOF troops was not exactly inaccurate, because there was a difference between the generous and merry-making American approach relating to [the Japanese] and that of BCOF.” 19/

As Nish notes: “The Japanese experienced culture-shock when the happy-go-lucky Americans who won the hearts of the Japanese children were replaced by taciturn Australians and British. The mind boggles.” 20/

Many others shared their experiences in the early days of the occupation. But hopefully this thread provides some insight into those who went ashore in the first two years of the post-war conflict. The geopolitics continued, but it was experienced by ordinary people. End/