Private Martin E Conlon
US 51213731
Co. D 34th INF. REGT.
APO. 24 c/o P.M.
San Francisco, CAL.
TO:
Mr. & Mrs. William Conlon
9 Elizabeth Drive
Bethpage, Long Island
New York, USA
June 7th, 1953
Camp Fuji, Japan1
Dear Dot & Bill:
I was delighted to receive your letter the other day. You see, the mail is just beginning to catch up to me. I received 7 letters in one day. Also, congratulations on the expected new arrival2. I know you both must be very happy.
As usual, it is pouring raining out here today. You can look forward to some rain at least part of every day. Some of the fellows that were here last summer said that it was like that for about two months. To make it more miserable, we take most of our training out in the field and we have to eat our noon meal out there. There isn’t anything like eating a meal in the rain. At least we can change our clothes when we come back in which is more than the fellows in Korea can do.
You can get quite an education on how people live over here by just watching how the civilians act and dress when they come into camp. I think that there are almost as many civilians in the camp as there are GI’s. If all the people in the States could come over here to this part of Japan they would realize how well off they are. There are no luxuries such as television, modern houses, big cars, etc. here. The biggest means of transportation is the bicycle, and some of the houses these people live in wouldn’t even be used to store tools in back home. They are nothing but one room affairs with one or two windows and a door. We have no tar roads in camp. There are great deposits of volcanic ash spread all over the ground. They use graders and spread it over the roads for a surface. I guess it serves the purpose alright.
Everything is very cheap over here. For instance, you can get a haircut for 25¢. If you want a massage, shampoo, and hair tonic, it will cost you 85¢. I can get all my fatigues washed and starched for 30¢ a suit. It costs 20¢ to get shirts laundered and tailoring is very cheap.
We have to have a ration card to get cigarettes because of the black market on them around here. They cost $1.00 a carton. We get one carton one week and we are allowed two the next week; makes a total of six a month. Certain other items such as soap, shoe polish, etc. you can only get one of each every time you buy, but that isn’t bad because if you need them, you can get them every day.
We have Mount Fuji sitting up in the back of us and it’s pretty hard to miss it. When winter comes, if we are still here. We will climb up that mountain and have winter problems. We’ll also get about 3 months of ski training, which ought to be interesting.
Around October, I think that we will have to go to an island off Korea and guard communist prisoners. That lasts for two or three months. I don’t care too much for that myself because the conditions you live under aren’t too good. Well I’m running out of things to write about, but I’ll write again soon. By the way, I sent for my camera, so maybe I’ll have some pictures to send you. Write if you get a chance. Oh, I don’t know if I told you or not, but I signed up for a bookkeeping and accounting course and an English course under the Army Education Center. I hope that I finish both of them because I want to take some more. Well, I guess that’s about all for now.
Love
Ed
- Camp Fuji is located near the base of Mount Fuji and has a long military history.
- The new arrival is their first-born, your faithful editor.
