Memoir of Korean War Vet James Henry Christiansen: Japanese Moose
...After hearing the news that we were going to Japan, Graham and I got back to our unit so quickly that we had to wait there for about two weeks to get the orders cut...While in transit, I noticed one of the men who came with the boat looking at me. It was 1st Sergeant Frank C. West, whom I knew well...He...asked, "Do you need a moose?" A moose* was a kept girl. Not a street whore, but one who was maintained by a soldier and (supposedly) slept with only him. There were advantages to such a set up. I said, having been several months without female companionship, "Yes, I do." He said that his moose had a girlfriend who needed a Sergeant, and would I like to go meet her that night. I told him that I didn't have a uniform, that what I was wearing was all I had to the world, and he said he would get me a uniform. So less than 24 hours out of Korea, I was in the arms of a pretty Japanese girl, and sipping on Asahi beer. I thought, life ain't all bad. I didn't stay with her long, though, because I was more of a rogue than I was a steady man...
...There were a few American women on Eta Jima, and they were highly sought after. I never chased them, though. They were just too much trouble. And expensive. You had to do a lot of wining and dining. There was always concern about sexually-transmitted diseases being with the Japanese business girls, but I used "safe sex" and came home clean. Several of my friends got a dose of clapp, though. And, in practice, you generally limited yourself down to a few girls. It was actually the other way around--one of the girls found a GI she liked a lot, and put out the word to the others. The other girls then refused to have anything to do with that guy. There was honor among the girls, and I never looked down on them...
...I didn't get into any trouble, but I did get the hell beat out of me once. Ralph Graham had been out the preceding week and a bunch of students jumped him and beat the hell out of him. We could not let that go unanswered, so me and a guy named Pankey went out and proceeded to jump every student we saw. This eventually backfired, and I got beat up so bad that my face looked like the "elephant man"...I knew I couldn't walk back through the gate looking like that, so I took refuge in "Mommasan's Whorehouse," where for three days I was nursed back to health by Tomiko, the girl who liked me and had put the word out on me (as mentioned above)...more...
(*"Moose" came from "musume")
