JAPAN 1961

JAPAN 1961
Originally uploaded by roberthuffstutter

NOT THE TYPICAL PICTURE SHOW AMERICANS LIKED...

WHEN I WAS GROWING UP...the movies were a big event for us kids; Saturday movies were cheap.

There wasn't really an "economy" back in 1949--you either had a dime or you didn't. For ten cents, I could escape the terrors of my Uncle's turkey pen for an afternoon at the Byam Theater in Fairmont. The movies were a thrill. I liked the cartoons, but it was the movie that I liked. My favorite movie at the time was Sands of Iwo Jima starring John Wayne. Remember, the second world war had ended in 1945 and the barrels were still hot in the late 40s and early 50s.

Forever a patriot afterwards, us guys wanted war movies, the more the better. If the main flick was something like the Three Stooges, we were upset. No, it was not that I had no sense of humor. Felix was great; Mickey Mouse was okay. Porky was right good, but the essence of Saturdays was the featured movie.

Let me see one more good war movie with my buddies on a Saturday afternoon with the aroma of hot, salty popcorn so thick we could touch it with our tongues. We liked the Western shoot 'em ups too; let me ride with the Cisco Kid and find the bad asses he always found. Who else do I want to see again? Hopalong was okay. He was a bit too finished for me. Okay, there were lots of gangster movies with everyone using Tommy guns. Us guys liked that kind of action. But it was the war movies, yes, the war movies with bodies scattered everywhere.

We were eager to get home to the woods behind our neighborhood so we could play war. We were sorry that all the wars were over. "Shoot, we won't get to kill any enemies now that our dads and uncles have killed them all," whined my best buddy, Tim Duggins. We had no idea what war was about or how often they came around. It was not that we had not received some grade school lessons about wars. We knew all about the Redcoats. We studied the Civil War. We were surprised that America had began as a nation still favoring slavery, but since none of us were Black, we thought about how terrible it must have been and that was it. There wasn't a lot taught about minorities in the 50s; we had no idea what minorities were. Education had not yet become progressive or totally honest.

We knew about the Germans and how mustard gas was sprayed in our grandfather's faces. We tried that one time with a jar of mustard and got in big trouble. Well, it was a bad idea; we knew nothing detailed about the First World War. We were yet to hear about how an Arch Duke named Ferdinand being killed was the reason the first world war began; it was a "shot heard around the world."Nobody told us the real truth: that World War One began, in actuality, because of nasty and cruel religious reasons, the number one reason most wars begin. We would find that out later, just as we are still learning about religion and war. We would learn much about good and evil and it was not all from Bible lessons.

We didn't care for the uniforms our guys wore in the First World War. The helmets were weird, odd, not at all cool like the U.S.Marine helmets in the Second World War. We laughed when we saw those leggings laced up. But that wasn't near as funny as the French helmets. That helmet was a real classic. Millions of French soldiers were killed in World War One, another reason only a few were left for the second world war. Note how few of those archaic iron helmet are seen on the military channel's newsreel creations.

Now I have strayed a long way from John Wayne. Let's see, I did not care for slapstick comedy, love stories or musicals. Musicals got better after I turned thirteen. I remember Shirley Jones in Oklahoma. Jane Russell was sexy and sexy was a word that was naughty at that time. "Damn" and "hell" were bad words too. It was okay, however, if they were spoken by John Wayne.

Stationed in Japan at nineteen until I turned 22, talk about some easy duty. I didn't know how good I had it for awhile. Compared to what our troops in combat theaters of the Pacific Theater had to endure and compared to the Nazi stench that drifted throughout Europe, the service personnel in Japan had it good in the sixties.

Where in the hell am I going to find any good movies in Japan? There was the base flick. Fairly good movies, but I can't recall any that I saw. There were other entertainments that drew my attention.

Today, I look at the quaint cutout couple outside a Japanese Movie House in 1961 and chuckle. I was worried about the movies? I thought our dads and uncles had won all the wars. Youth is so naive. At least this youth was naive for many years. There was a storm brewing. We could feel its vibrations from within the hangar of our squadron. There was war and rumors of war. Security was gradually tightened. Naval Intelligence was beefed up.

It was not until years later that I discovered what was happening throughout the military in the Vietnam War. One thing leads to another. Things always lead back to places we have been and seen. And there finally comes a time, like now, when one asks what it all meant anyway? Evil still exists. Wars are still being won and lost. And cardboard cutouts and posters are still higly collectible items. We live in interesting times; we have lived in interesting times. May our children's children be able to enjoy an America that was as joyful as the one I grew up in during the 1950s. It was, no matter where one lived, a time of innocense and naivity. It was a time we remember as "good old days" just like they say in the picture shows.