[ShadowDancer]

If you don't mind my asking, how old were you when you lived in Japan in the '50's?

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I was a little kid in Japan 1951-1961, with three brief return trips back Stateside during that time. Each trip was 14 days via MSTS ship from Yokohama to Seattle or Oakland, with troops on the fantail and bow and us military dependents in five floors of tiny staterooms mid-ship. My sixth crossing was on my 13th birthday.
My dad was an old China hand, had been in Asia with his dad in the 1920s, installing Otis elevators in China's first hotels. My dad learned to fly and was a pilot for China National Airlines Company (owned by American Airlines), then was in the CBI as a civilian C-46 pilot for the Army Aircorps in WW II. He was 42 when I came into the world.