I believe it.
As I said, we could smell Japan three days before landfall.
What I forgot to mention was on my first liberty in Japan back in 1951, I was walking down a street in Yokasuka (pronounced “Yo-koska”, and saw a guy casually taking a leak. No one seemed to notice. A guy taking a leak on a city street raised no comment.
Except when a drunken American sailor did the same. Then crowds would gather and point. I saw this, didn’t do it myself.
Then there was Panama. The bars had running water in front of the bar itself. Drunks would pee into the running water. One day it was 103 and raining. I never was charmed by Hispanic culture.