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2007年2月21日

In the Navy

In the Navyといっても1979年頃 Village Peopleで流行った歌のタイトルではありません。アメリカ第7艦隊水兵物語 "IN THE NAVY"という本です。

1978年から81年の間、Californiaでの留学生活で沢山の人と出会いました。その中に大変お世話になった沖縄アメリカンスクール出身の秀才4人組がいました。そしてもう一人、彼らの沖縄時代の友人でUS Navyの兵隊さん、アメリカ人の父と日本人の母を持つハーフのジロミ・スミス（日本名は鈴木治呂美）がいました。
当時彼は空母ミッドウェイの乗組員で厚木基地（空母なら横須賀なのにって思った方は本を読んでください）に居たので、僕がCaliforniaから帰国後MOONEYESをOpenする頃まで、良く彼の家を訪ねたのでした。初期のMOONEYES キッズ Tシャツのモデルを務めてくれたのはジロミの娘さんでした。そのジロミが出した本がこの"IN THE NAVY"。
当時、彼は僕にはまったく分からない世界の話をよくしてくれたのですが、今回この本を読んでよーく理解できました。ジロミに一度「飛行機のライセンス取ったから一緒に乗ろう！」と誘われました。ジロミは免許取りたて、僕は飛行機なんかまるで分からないのに、彼の指示で何かをチェックした時の写真です（左がジロミ）。
感想は一言で言えば「二度とセスナに乗りたくない」。セスナは小さいので怖かったけど、「二度と彼の操縦には乗りたくない」のが正直な話、だってパイロットが離陸直前に滑走路で離陸の仕方マニュアルを読んだりしますか？厚木から江ノ島あたりの往復でしたが、本当に怖かった！着陸はもっと怖かった！彼の操縦ぶりも中に書かれていますが、僕としては一緒に乗る前にこの本を読みたかった！
でも本は全部日本語で書かれているし、聞いたことも見た事ない話ばかり、軍隊物小説とはまったく違う、ハチャメチャな話ばかりでこれは面白いです。当時彼から聞いたハチャメチャな話が、よりリアルにもっと深く書かれているし、そして知っている奴が書いているから尚楽しい。日本語が100%のジロミだから、英語を翻訳した無理な表現がなく、身近に話が伝わってくるのです。

彼はもう一冊 "空母ミッドウェイ―アメリカ海軍下士官の航海記"という本も出しています。こっちも面白い！アマゾンで買えますから、興味のある方は是非読んで見てください。

"In the Navy" is not the title of Song which Village People had hit in 1979. It's a title of book which is about Navy in American No. 7 fleet. I have met many people when I went abroad to study in California from 1978 to 1981. There were 4 super smart guys from American school in Okinawa who helped me out during my stay. Then there was Jiromi Smith, their friend since they were in Okinawa. He was half American half Japanese. With father in US Navy and Japanese mother, his Japanese name is Jiromi Suzuki.

He was crew of an air Craft Carrier "Midway" based in Atsugi base in Japan (for people who thought air craft carrier was based on Yokosuka in Japan, please read his book) so I used to visit him often in his house when I came back from California till I was opening MOONEYES. After opening MOONEYES, I was busy, not time to visit him. The early day model for MOONEYES KIDS T-shirts was Jiromi's daughter. That Jiromi had released book and it was this "In the Navy".

Back then he used to tell me the story of world that I couldn't really understand but when I read this book I got better idea of what he wanted to tell me. Jiromi once asked me for taking ride in air saying "let's take flight I got license for air plane". Jiromi just got license, I didn't know anything about airplane but I was checking something as he told me to and that's when this picture was taken.

The comment I can say is "I don't want to get on Cessna again", it was a fear full experience to be on small plane as Cessna but truth is that I didn't want to be on plane which he was handling. That's because I don't think there are any pilot who needs to read the manual to find out how to take off right before take off. It was from Atsugi base to near Enoshima (in same Kanagawa prefecture about 10 miles in straight distance) but I remember it was really a fear full flight. His flight ability is written in book too but I would rather have read this story before I got on his flight. But this book is written in Japanese. The Book has stories that I never heard or seen of.

It's totally different from naval story, its fun to read all these crazy stories. The stories I heard from him back then is written in more real and deep details and most of all its fun to read the book somebody I know has written. Since Jiromi speaks fluent Japanese its naturally expressed and not some English translated in to Japanese in expression that we don't use. He has another book out called "An Air Craft Carrier Midway". This one is good to read too. You can buy it from Amazon.com so If you are interested, please try and read one. Again, it's in Japanese though!

投稿者 mooneyes : 2007年2月21日 10:00