| My Wakkanai assignment with USAF
In Spring 1956, I received a phone call from the Japanese guard at Wakkanai AS's Main Gate informing me that a woman wanted to see me. I went to the gate and there was a woman dressed in a nun's garment who said she was referred to me by the pastor of the Catholic Church in Wakkanai city. Her name was Sister Marie-Noel de Jesus. She told me that she was responsible for setting up several mission houses in the Far East and Wakkanai was selected as an ideal location. The function of her organization was to place missionaries around the USSR periphery to pray for the conversion of Russia to Catholicism. The way it worked was that the society would build a low-cost mission house where the missionaries would have a 24-hour schedule. For example, pray on 8-hour schedules, work in the local economy to earn sufficient income to support their needs, do assigned household chores, such as shop, prepare meals, clean house, and get a few hours sleep. Sister Marie-Noel told me she had already purchased a small plot of land on the Wakkanai peninsula (about 200 yards from Det 2's main gate) and contracted to have a house built using her very limited budget. She told me that the specs she wanted for the house were deemed to be non-compliant with Japanese building codes. So she negotiated with the Japanese contractor to build the absolute minimum compliance house. Consequently, the assigned missionaries would need minor support (not money) to get set up and she wanted to know if I would be willing to help. I told her that I would within the means available to me. The biggest problem she could foresee was the need of a truck to transport the altar from the Wakkanai train station to the house. I informed Capt Spolarich (Det2's C.O.) of my conversation with Sister Marie-Noel and asked if he had any problem with me helping out. He said I could help so long as it didn't impact my scheduled duties, nor involve the use of US Government resources, except for the use of a truck from Det 2's motor pool and a couple of Japanese men from the labor pool. I informed Sister Marie-Noel about my conversation with Capt Spolarich and she was elated. She said the first two people to occupy the house when it's completed in a couple of months would be a nun from a Scandinavian country and a novice from the Tokyo area, neither of them spoke English. A few weeks later, Sister Marie-Noel contacted me later with the dates the two missionaries would move into the house and when the altar would be shipped to Wakkanai. She also asked me to check with the two missionaries periodically to see if they needed any help, which I did. The altar delivery went as scheduled. Altar in the chapel of the French mission house at Wakkanai - Aug 1956
Altar in the chapel of the French mission house at Wakkanai - Aug 1956 Sister Marie-Noel de Jesus, Director of Little Sisters of Jesus Society sent me a letter of appreciation (in French) after I returned to my home in N.H. on emergency leave to attend my father's funeral. |
