Four of us went out on the P&O liner Chusan as Japanese language students. Two of us were married – myself and Merrick. We were both older, by a year or two. I had been working for an industrial company, Courtaulds, for a couple of years after university and then a year of trying to study for the bar. But having passed the Foreign Office exam and volunteered for a “difficult” language we found ourselves on the way to Japan at very short notice, so no grand first class travel!
The course was for two years with teachers coming to our houses. we were meant to keep our distance from the Embassy except to pick up mail from the diplomatic bag and to shop at the Commissary for much missed cheese and English sausages. Merrick and Chrystal were by far the most adventurous and lived in a Japanese house in area where no foreigners lived. Accordingly they spoke more colloquial Japanese, slept on futons and lived a “shitamachi” lifestyle.
As a result we did not see a lot of the other language students, and later Merrick took leave of the Foreign Office to work for a British trading company before returning to what had become the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as Consul General in Los Angeles. We still remained in touch until his death.
John Field, CMG
