An Englishman in Japan ?

We had an amazing conversation in Skypeland with a man from England who claimed he had lived in Japan for a few years. At first he seemed very rational, but the longer we talked to him, the stranger he seemed and the less his story stood up to scrutiny.

He told us about visiting a Post Office in Japan where they had never seen foreigners, or Gaijin before. The young lady in the Post Office was so panicked at his appearance, that she thought he was a robber and she screamed. He also told us that when he walked past a school, the little children called him "Gaijin-san" or "Mr. Foreigner" and would call out things to him. (I am told by Japanese friends that this would have been highly unlikely, when he was supposedly in Japan, about 10 years ago according to him).

He had met a very high government official in Japan when he visited, who had asked about the bird conservation programs in England. He told us that he had been in Japan for 3 years, about 10 years ago, at the time of the Kobe Earthquake (Actually the Kobe Earthquake, or Great Hanshin Earthquake took place in 1995). He also claimed that he did not want to cause trouble so he had removed his war medals he had obtained from fighting in World War II when he was going to visit the high government official. (If he fought in World War II, and was 20 years old when it ended in 1945, this would make him a minimum of 82 years old, and 72 when he supposedly met the official in a work capacity, which is highly unlikely).

After he told us these stories, I said I wrote a blog, and he was upset that I might put the stories in the blog because he expected to get more of this same sort of work he had when he met the government official. I said I would not put any mention of the type of work in the blog, and only talk in general terms. He was still quite upset, and sent an angry sequence of instant messages to my friend in Japan about the encounter:

[2:15:09 PM] AT says: M - I am not very pleased that you included me in a conference call with a American, especially one who wants information for a book. In the Y business we are very careful not to speak about what happens to the press or any person involved in disclosing details of what happens. It was very unkind of you to do that. Please do not phone me again as I will not answer.

[3:11:14] M says: ?????

[3:11:46] AT says: I would prefer that you did not let him have a copy of my photo either

[3:12:03] M says: I didnt

[3:12:32] M says: he just wants to hear about the interesting story from the people

[3:13:05] AT says: Big deal !!

[3:13:18] M says: when he says a book, this means blog

[3:13:34] AT says: That is even worse

[3:13:40] M says: why are you so worried about this?

[3:14:18] M says: all right I will tell him not to write about this

[3:15:19] AT says: Because it is possible that I may get further Y work and if it is known that I have disclosed private information my chances of work is reduced

(My friend decided to tease him at this point, since he was being so obnoxious about this).

[2:22:15 PM] M says: he is going to put everything you had to say in his blog since you are so upset that it changed our mind

[3:23:33] AT says: Well, I cannot stop him, but it could affect my future

(I did not want to be so cruel, so I had a soothing message sent)

[3:24:25] M says: he says he is not intended to do anything tjhat might affect your future

[3:27:28] AT says: Good, as I am a professional and I do not need a job at the moment but one might come up. The things I said that were nothing to do with the job is OK, but other things might come to the wrong eyes

[3:31:09] M says: dont worry he is not going to talk about Y, he is just going to talk about gaijin, it will not affect your future

[3:32:55] AT says: That is a relief - you make the same mistake in spelling Y that nearly everyone makes.

M decided to test him some more:

[2007/10/07 7:53:20] M says: I go to NOVA quite often

[2007/10/07 7:54:27] M says: there are lots of boring young people from the english speaking countires in NOVA

[2007/10/07 7:58:18] AT says: What is NOVA?

[2007/10/07 7:59:00] M says: NOVA is an ENglish conversational school in Japan

According to M, everyone who was in Japan 10 years ago would know NOVA for sure, especially someone who is a native Anglophone. Here are some more of his claims about his wartime adventures:

[2007/10/07 8:18:45] AT says: During the last war I fought against the Germans and was in France , Africa and Italy. I was evacuated from Dunkirk when we were losing the war. I was Captain of a landing craft that went on to the beaches and landed tanks and infantry

[2007/10/07 8:19:16] AT says: Great fun !!

(Somehow the dates and times are not adding up for me...)