Among My Souvenirs

      More Letters From Paradise
        Among My Souvenirs
Have you ever heard of a "Long Chong"?  I doubt it.   Some G.I.'s in the Pacific during WWII, made them.  They took foreign bank notes and taped them together end-to-end.  Names and addresses,  phone numbers, and other information were written on them.  The bills were then rolled-up, and put away.

I was given a Chinese bill from the father of a friend of mine, and I carried it in my wallet for years.
 
Japanese rifles were very crude-looking.   Rough metal work, and poor quality wood, which clearly showed the lack of materials available.  You could buy one for a few bucks, or you could rent one during deer hunting season, for $3.00 a week.  German Mauser rifles were excellent, and had been used during WWI and even before.  They were often easily converted into deer hunting rifles.

My father had some worthless German marks, with which he said he would paper a wall.  There were also two large-size books with pasted-in photos of Hitler holding a child, or feeding a deer.  A German "War Bride" translated the books and said they were awarded to high-ranking Nazi officials.  There were also Nazi arm bands, medals, and three pistols.

Soldiers and Marines in the Pacific also sent home Japanese Samurai swords.   Esquire magazine had a feature story saying that many of these swords had been in Japanese families for generations and were very valuable.  These had been in Japanese families, and handed down from one  generation to another.
I once owned two of these swords, but of very common quality.  I also had a collection of Tsuba, Japanese sword guards.   Some dating back to the seventeenth century.  I needed money while in college and had to sell them.
                   
The men fighting overseas sent a lot of stuff back home.  At my house, I was sent a German helmet, and my mother received  some dishes. My father let me clean his German Lugar pistol.  He had a pile of worthless German marks, some tied with the Bank of Berlin paper band around them. He said that he wanted to paper the wall of some room with them.

After my parents separated, all of this disappeared.  I do have a photo album of the European theater of the war.  Also, a couple of felt patches, corporal stripes, an enamel Nazi pin, and a G.I. sewing kit. That's all.

You know, maybe it is just as well. Wars are an extremely bad example of human behvior.  Millions dead.  Why is it that warriors always carry away their trophies?