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- PEARL HARBOR, Page 51REMEMBRANCE"That Was Our Heyday"
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- By KIICHI MIYAZAWA
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- [Now 72, he became Prime Minister of Japan in November.]
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- In October 1942 I was chosen for a survey team of
- Southeast Asia. That was our heyday. I remember army and navy
- officers wanting to load Johnnie Walker out of the Hong Kong
- depot onto our plane, but the strip was too short; it never did
- get aboard. Those were the days when Japanese soldiers tried to
- eat Camay soap as a cake.
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- In some countries I thought perhaps the people had been
- liberated from colonial rule. We were able to serve for their
- good. It was mostly fantasy, but we did have a kind of idealism.
- The local people were not very unhappy.
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- In Singapore I asked a factory worker how she felt working
- under Japanese occupation, how it compared with her previous
- employer. She refused to say she was much happier. I was
- impressed with her candor. She was not the least bit
- subservient.
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