Imitating Officers and Handing out the Rum ( Part 9)

The “Ginza” is an area in Tokyo rather like our Oxford Street in London. It was badly bombed, but the Americans took over one of the large buildings and turned it into a PX store. That’s like our N.A.A.F.I. You could buy anything in there from sweets to toiletries. Also on certain days, as you walked into the store, you were given a slip of paper with a certain item written on it. You could then buy this item at a discounted rate. The items were part of the reparation the Japanese had to pay for losing the war.

On one occasion I was given a slip of paper with “String of Cultured pearls” written on it.

Before the war a Japanese man called Mike Moto discovered that if you took an oyster and inserted a small piece of sand or grit into its body, then gave the oyster a mild electric shock before you put it back on the sea bed. It would, in time, produce a pearl. These were known as “Cultured” pearls.

The price in Japanese yen was the equivalent of six pounds for one string and ten pounds for two. I had to borrow most of the money but I was determined to buy them. One was for my Mum and the other was for Lynn, my girlfriend. I borrowed from everyone I knew and eventually had enough money for both strings. They were things of beauty.

There weren’t many British Naval ratings in Tokyo. Most of the servicemen were either Australian or American, so our uniforms confused them. They thought because of the way we dressed we were officers! It was common for Military Police to salute us as they passed. We tested this all the way one day. We went into the PX store and made our way to the officers section. Then we bought some short sleeved Khaki officer shirts. No one questioned us. The next day we thought it great fun to walk through Tokyo wearing officers clothing and being saluted by lower ranks!

By May 1946 our work was done at the Embassy and we were told that staff from the Foreign Office were coming to take over. H.M.S. Return was to be de-commissioned and we would be moved on. Eric Warner was sent to Hong Kong, Brian Stubbs went to Singapore and I went down to Kure, still in Japan.

The train journey from Tokyo to Kure was long and boring. But one thing livened the trip up. I travelled overnight and was given a berth in a sleeper car. I had a top bunk. Opposite me, but on the lower bunk was an R.A.F. Officer. He was a Courier of some sort. What he was carrying must have been of the utmost importance. He had a briefcase chained to one wrist and a service revolver chained to the other. I remember thinking “I hope he has the safety catch on. Otherwise the train might jolt and he’ll end up shooting me!”

Kure is on the island of Honshu about ten miles from Hiroshima where the first atom bomb was dropped. It was a Japanese Naval dockyard. It had a large dry dock and a number of warehouses and industrial buildings, all of them badly damaged by bombing. Kure is on the Inland sea and surrounded by mountains. The small town was also severely damaged by bombing.

When I arrived at Kure I joined the naval party that was operating out of H.M.S. Glenearn which was docked close by. I had to have my injections. The mosquitoes in this part of Japan caused a disease called Encephalitis B, pretty fatal if you got it as many Japanese found out. I had two injections two weeks apart. A very painful procedure I can assure you. These were in addition to the Typhoid and Cholera jabs. My arse was like a pin cushion.

Within a few weeks, H.M.S. Commonwealth was commissioned and took charge. Things began to get organised. It wasn't long before we had a parade ground, Royal Marine Barracks, a NAAFI, canteen, a supply office (where I worked) and living quarters.

I first worked in the clothing store. In the Navy you have to buy your own clothes for which you are given an allowance. The whole process is called “Slops”. It was a busy job but didn’t last long.

Re-enforcements arrived from the UK as replacements for those going home to be demobbed. One of those going home was the Leading Supply Assistant who served out the Rum ration to the ships company. I was transferred from clothing to the victualing office to become the “Rum Bosun”.

Handing out the Rum ration is a strictly controlled procedure and is steeped in tradition. At all times the Rum Bosun is supervised (watched very closely) by the Officer Of The Watch.

Every morning just before 11.00am I would go with the Officer of the Watch to the Rum store and draw off from huge barrels the neat rum required for the days issue. At precisely 11.00am I would measure off the neat rum for the Petty and Chief Petty Officers mess and put this to one side. Then I had to measure out the ration for the lower ranks.

Naval ratings below “Petty Officer” were not issued neat rum. The issue or “tot” for them was two measures of water to one of neat rum. Just before mid-day I would mix the rum and water and then at precisely mid-day I would turn on the camp tannoy and shout “Up Spirits”. Each mess would send a representative with a container to collect from me the amount of rum required for his mess.

As I issued the ration I was watched at all times by the Officer Of the Watch to ensure I didn’t give out more than was required. The containers that I used were called “Breakers” and had “The King, God Bless Him” in brass letters on them. If there was any liquid left in the breakers after all rations had been given out it had to go down the drain. What was left was called “The Gash” and tipping it down the drain was known as “Ditching the Gash”.

So after the rations were given out, I had to ask permission from the Officer Of The Watch to “Ditch the gash”. He would then watch me as I tipped it away. Every single drop of rum had to be accounted for.

The Officer Of The Watch changed from time to time. One in particular was a “Warrant Officer” which means he had come up from the ranks. At the end of the day’s rations I asked his permission to “Ditch the gash”. He looked at me as if I was mad.

“Don’t be ridiculous man. That’s for us!”

He tipped it into two cups and then replaced the amount with water. So all I ditched was water. Every time he was Officer Of The Watch I would go to lunch in an alcoholic haze. He would go off and eat a lump of smelly cheese to take the smell away in case he bumped into the skipper later in the day.