WWII was in full bloom. In 1944, while the United States, Great Britain, and Allied forces battled against both the Nazi Regime in Europe and Africa, and the Imperial forces of Japan in the Pacific Islands, David Clemens Newquist poured into his last year of post graduate studies at Princeton Theological Seminary, in New Jersey. The son of 1907 Swedish immigrant parents, Arvid and Hannah Newquist, and graduate of UCLA as a history major,” Bud”, his home moniker, wrestled between following a path to Hollywood in theatrics or answering a call to the ministry. Henrietta Mears, who impactfully influenced and trained many college men for Christian ministry at Hollywood Presbyterian Church, enthusiastically “nudged” Bud toward his calling just as she had done for Billy Graham and Bill Bright who later founded Campus Crusade for Christ. Upon graduation from Princeton, Bud returned home to Burbank, California and was ordained as a Christian minister at the First Baptist Church of Burbank. With his education complete, he felt the call of duty to serve in the United States military as a Navy Chaplain.

On July 12, 1944 Rev. David C. Newquist entered the military and began training at the Navy Chaplaincy School at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. The program cooperated with Navy protocol, rules, and regulations but established no Navy form of worship. This allowed all chaplains to practice and serve all men of all faiths without compromising his beliefs. Chaplains were to bring “God to the men and men to God” as well as to deal with all the stresses and ramifications of war on a service man’s psyche – his soul, mind, spirit, emotions, and as later was added to the list, his propensity to satisfy his sexual appetites. Chaplain Newquist was detached from his chaplaincy training on October 23 and transferred to Camp Lejeune, a United States Marines military training facility in Jacksonville, N. Carolina on November 2, 1944 at a time when a shift in the tide of the war favored the Allies. By May 8, 1945 the Allies had defeated Hitler and celebrations of VE Day (Victory in Europe) were held all around the world. Now the focus was all on the war in the Pacific lead by General Douglas MacArthur.

Beside his responsibilities on base, Chaplain Newquist would on occasion do pulpit supply for the First Baptist Church in Jacksonville. On Mothers’ Day Sunday, all the young charming coquettes sat in the chapel with their hand fans waving against the heat and their eyelashes fluttering at the handsome and studly chaplain in his dress white uniform in the pulpit addressing the congregation. One very charming yet coy, very lovely to behold southern belle of eighteen years in the front row of the choir, rose to sing a song of honor for the mothers. Now it was the chaplain who couldn’t divert his eyes from this beauty accelerating his heart beat. Little did he know she was the daughter of the Superintendent of the Jacksonville State prison, Captain Willis Ray Johnson, who had a gangster stare and no-nonsense demeanor. What Bud gazed upon, however, was the gentle and demure, representation of her mother, Agnes, who was soft as a marshmallow and just as sweet but strong in spirit and in her Christian faith.

Pictured: Bettie Ruth Johnson and her parents: Captain Willis Ray & Agnes Johnson 

Chaplain Newquist was eight years her senior. He sought to woo Bettie Ruth Johnson by asking her to play the piano for his services on the base. The two had a bonafide courtship and found true love that Captain Johnson did not sanction. Bud had to fight to establish himself as a suitable match for the Captain’s daughter, but Cap’n Johnson told Bettie not to see him any more.  Then the bomb dropped. Not in Jacksonville, but in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan on August 6 and 9, 1945 followed by the surrender of the Japanese on August 15, 1945. WWII at last was over. Camp Lejeune was astir with preparations as the 2nd and 6^th Marines were to be deployed to Japan with the occupation troops. Bettie knew he was leaving, yet no proposal. He left her sad and confused at the end of August heading back to Burbank to visit his folks before he left for Japan.

Bettie worked at the Onslow County Hospital at the telephone switch board. A light blinked on an incoming call on a line that Bettie had reserved just for Bud. Now 2,315 miles apart, her heart cartwheeled as she answered. The voice on the line said, “Bettie, will you marry me?” Now he asks me! “Of course, I will!” But Bud needed to honor his parents by sharing in person his intentions to marry to his folks before asking Bettie. A couple days later Bettie found herself and hundreds of military personnel traveling by train west to southern California, Bettie to be married, the Marines to ship out. She spent much of the trip sitting in the women’s restroom to avoid all the ogling and attempts to cozy up. She was a young thing, never been away from home before, traveling off to get married where the only person she knew was Bud. She was a stranger at her own wedding which took place September 4, 1945 at the Swedish Mission Covenant Church in Los Angeles. They honeymooned at Lake Arrowhead, visited the redwood forests, and hung around San Francisco where Bud would leave from Alamada on the USS Hornet aircraft carrier. On the 18th he did just that. First destination, Honolulu, Hawaii. This began a 10-month period of lover letters flying back and forth over the Pacific Ocean nearly one a day each. Bettie stayed with Bud’s family until January 1946 and then spent the rest of the time of Bud’s deployment back in Jacksonville, just too lonesome. A new bride, abandoned. 

Bud left Honolulu for Tokyo, Japan on November 2^nd, 1945. Nothing could prepare one for the visualization of the destruction in Nagasaki where Chaplain Newquist and the 2^nd and 6^th Marines were stationed for some time, walking the destroyed streets, seeing the aimless, defeated citizens, and exposing themselves to residual radiation from the atomic bomb. The air reeked a stench of death and decay and feces.

Since all letters and communications were censored by MacArthur so as not to besmirch the honor of the Americans for such a horrific act, what was allowed to be said in letters home was in many ways abbreviated or in private code words created by the authors. Only years later in the 1990s, when gag orders were lifted, did much of the true details become public. Such was the case for Chaplain Newquist who told Bettie in his letters banal, ordinary reports of daily activities, things that seemed hardly noteworthy, but in reality, had a backstory full of intrigue.  I stumbled upon one such backstory as I read two different history books seeking ancillary information about chaplains and the occupation of Japan. By happenstance, details of significant events that Chaplain Newquist had mentioned in his letters just jumped off the page and gave the true picture of what was really happening by filling in the blanks of the true story. There in front of me was my father’s name and a full account of a major event left out due to censorship. One book was “Marine Chaplain 1943-1946” written by Chaplain George W. Wickersham in 2013 (pages 281-283) and the other “The Allied Occupation of Japan” written by Takemae Eifi and translated from Japanese in 2002.  Let the truth be told! How grateful I was to find these books by Googling words such as “Chaplains in WWII”, “Navy Chaplains’ school” and “the US occupation of Japan.” How even more grateful I am to have had parents (dad a history major) whose saved pictures, letters and newspaper clippings provided an understanding of life in the military in a conquered and destroyed country and the life of those left behind. I also searched the archives at various newspapers where I found supporting information.

From Bud’s letter December 19, 1945 Nagasaki – “I was summoned to Chaplain Marken’s office where I was informed that I would be replacing Chaplain Brubaker who left to return to the States. In three days, I will be transferred to Sasebo to become Regimental Chaplain of the 6^th Marines. This sounds important but means nothing since there is only one or two other chaplains left in the regiment.”

In another letter, Bud mentioned that they had a chaplain’s meeting regarding prostitution which he anticipated would stir up a hornets’ nest with the military brass. In several other letters he mentioned that his responsibilities had been extended to holding meetings with the men in regards to venereal disease.  These were very innocuous comments bland enough not to get censored and in no way exposing the backstory behind the information. And now for the rest of the story…..

Reading between the lines and filling in the blanks from Bud’s report uncovers a Pandora’s box containing a can of worms! Let’s start with “karayuki-san” – comfort women. Imperial Japanese troops had conscripted and raped “comfort women” to service their own sexual appetites as they overran China and other places and were well known for their horrific treatment of women. Knowing the rampageous sexual mistreatment of women in their own Japanese military, they expected the same of the Americans. They believed that establishing government sponsored houses of prostitution in Japan was a protective measure against the rape of Japanese women that they fully expected of the conquering Americans and other Allied Occupation forces, who were “satans and savages.” These brothels or sexual comfort stations established to satisfy the lusts of the occupation forces were named “RAAs” or Recreation and Amusement Associations. To staff the RAAs, women of “lesser status” were recruited (also coerced and tricked) under the guise that the service was a patriotic act, an emergency measure implemented in the name of national security. Recruitment focused on bar hostesses, prostitutes, war widows, the homeless, high school girls formerly drafted for factory labor during the war, and even geishas. It was a way for the women to make money in desperate times. Eventually, 70,000 women “volunteered” to work in the state-run sex industry burgeoning to 300,000 over time. Some of these women had other jobs and also worked at GHQs, (General Headquarters), as receptionists and typists. 

Clients of the RAA’s (“panpan”) prostitutes, were not just the lower ranking service men. By the end of the year in 1945, venereal diseases had become rampant. 90% of the sex workers reportedly were infected by the carriers, the customers. GHQ set up prophylactic and clean-up stations outside the RAAs in a futile attempt to stem the venereal disease. The photo on the left is of sailors visiting an RAA in Yokahama. The charge to the soldier (only occupation forces were admitted) was the equivalent of eight cents, and that included a bottle of beer. Half the take went to the woman and half to the house.

In Bud’s letter to Bettie – “We had a chaplains’ meeting regarding prostitution which I believe will stir up a hornets’ nest with the military brass.”

Backstory:  The Chaplains’ meeting regarding prostitution resulted in a two-page official letter. The subject of the letter was “Prostitution Districts, possible opening of, either officially or unofficially in the Nagasaki area.”  The letter was sent to the 2^nd & 6^th Division Chaplain challenging the General Headquarter’s, (GHQ) meaning General MacArthur’s, consideration of removing the restriction for the occupation troops to visit the houses of prostitution that the Japanese had rapidly established after the surrender to accommodate the needs of the occupiers. These houses had been tacitly approved by GHQ.

Pictured: Far left, “Windy” Brock, center, David C. Newquist, right, McShane.

The two-page letter was composed and signed by all of the Second Marine Division Chaplains in the Nagasaki area except for the Division Chaplain to whom the letter was presented and who bore the heavy burden of delivering it to Headquarters. These chaplains, all United States Navy Reserve, included Brubaker, Costello, Lutz, Donahoe, Cooper, Ahern, Cusak, Stovall, Newquist, and McShane.

Reference was made to “United States Navy Regulations Article I. Article I states that the moral and spiritual welfare of his men shall always be the responsibility of every commanding officer. These “Navy Regs,” taught to these men during their chaplaincy training were commonly known in the Navy as “The Book” and carried almost Biblical authority. So these ten “Chaplains for Chastity,” (“CFC”, my term) had thrown the gauntlet!

The CFC presented six position statements:

1. MacArthur receives the letter. 2. They considered ACCs to be counter to Article I. 3. To consider only venereal disease a hazard and disregard morality was regrettable. 4. To designate brothels without publishing the orders was dishonest. 5. To excuse prostitution on the basis of poor morale in the Division was to sidestep the need for more wholesome recreational and educational programs together with more considerate treatment of individuals, and 6. That if prostitution was to be approved either officially or tacitly, the signing Chaplains would submit their letters to the Bureau of Naval Personnel requesting transfer due to Division policy which in their opinion was contrary to Naval Regulations, the welfare of the men, and the convictions of the chaplains concerned.

Chafing under the burden of bearing the treatise from the Chaplains for Chastity, the Division Chaplain got as far as the Chief of Staff at Division headquarters, not nailing the treatise to the door like Martin Luther, but leaving the letter in the Chief’s hands with a behest of a reply to Chaplain Ed Brubaker as senior representative of the CFC. The insurrectionist letter was not warmly received.

Here comes the hornet’s nest.

The CFC received a pithy rebuff which I paraphrase. The Chief remonstrated: 1. The CFC’s letter was an ultra-act of disrespect to General MacArthur and his authority, an offense of Article 8 paragraph 7 of the Navy Regulations. 2. The CFC should confine themselves to the duties of a chaplain as outlined in Article 1245 (preach, visit the sick, etc.) 3. The CFC should not concern themselves with approved prostitution as the service providers have been tested by the Division personnel for “scientific knowledge only” and treatment is provided by the Japanese Health Department. 4. No off-limits signs had been removed from the ACCs. 5. The Navy had always supplied prophylactic stations in large cities. 6. The CFC had acknowledged that some men would engage in illicit sex practices and should not be denied use of a prophylactic station. 7. There were plenty of wholesome recreational activities available to the men, movies and a taxi dance hall and a projected enlisted men’s club and plans for trips to resorts. The Chief concluded with the ameliorating statement that, “It is quite apparent that the subscribers possessed no malice or intent to commit any offense, but have been misled by false rumors that cannot be substantiated by actual facts and have been unduly influenced by some Chaplains who listen for every rumor.”

In Chaplain Newquist’s letter to Bettie:  “I was informed that I would be replacing Chaplain Brubaker who left to return to the States. In three days, I will be transferred to Sasebo to become Regimental Chaplain of the 6^th Marines. This sounds important but means nothing since there is only one or two other chaplains left in the regiment.”

Those “some Chaplains,” Chaplains Brubaker and Costello, were singled out and punitively dealt with. Out crawled a multitude of repercussions from the can of worms. Both Chaplains received immediate orders to return to the States. Every action has a reaction, so even under a gag order, like a straw in the wind, the word spread far and wide. Letters were written by Chaplains Ahearn, Donahoe and Cooper requesting transfers which they sent to the Bureau in Washington via official channels.

Chaplain Stowall addressed his to the Marine Command in Pearl Harbor (FMF Pac). He also added to his reasons for the transfer the recent evacuation of Chaplains Brubaker and Costello to the States. He also impugned a recent denial of permission to him to speak to a group of Japanese Christians. “For the Division to allow fraternization at the low level of prostitution and at the same time to deny the high level of fraternization of Christian worship is to follow a policy that is not in keeping with the best interests of the personnel of this division, etc.” The Chief’s reaction to this effusion consisted of a cross-fire telling the little Methodist “twerp” (my emphasis) by phone that he should be “shipped to Truk!”

Pictured: Chaplain Brubaker ministering to the wounded soldiers fighting in Saipan prior to being stationed in Japan.   

Thus, it was that the position of Regimental Chaplain vacated by Chaplain Edward Brubaker was given to Chaplain David C. Newquist seemingly by attrition as he and McShane had not requested a transfer but most of the other CFC had. Brubaker’s big combat boots would be hard to fill. A shepherd in combat boots, Chaplain Brubaker was awarded the Bronze Star for making the most trips to the front-line units in Saipan to administer religious services, assurance, and confidence to his men. Cheerful and courageous composure under fire and disregard for personal safety did much to advance the high morale and fighting spirit of his men.

The “Big Cheese” from Williamsburg, the CFC’s former mentor, flew from Pearl Harbor all the way to Japan to enter the conflagration by meeting with MacArthur and also with the Chaplains. Bringing General MacArthur’s platitudes and assurances with him to meet the warriors of Chaplains for Chastity, he encountered a unified front who set about unanimously shredding the General’s arguments. Chaplain Cooper said that he was never so proud of the clergy as a body than during that two-hour conference. The synod of Chaplains even shot down Chaplain Cooper’s thought that perhaps asking for transfers was cowardly and running away from the battle. His compatriots countered that if no transfers were asked, the protests in the letter would never have left the Division. The four stripe Williamsburg emissary stated that the Chaplains had done nothing wrong and that their stand represented the official Naval attitude. He promised that changes would be made.

A short while later it was time for the Chaplains to file their annual reports to the Secretary of the Navy, a complete narrative account of their ministry including any information which the Chaplain deemed additive to the interest and value of the report and to include frankly all matters he considered essential to get a full picture of his work. The four members of CFC that had written letters for transfer due to the RAAs included mention of it and the reasons behind it in their reports. Contretemps developed over this revelation. It was viewed as another act of subversion and insubordination. The Division Chaplain was summoned to the office of the Division Chief of Staff who required that mention of such request for transfers must be redacted from the reports of each chaplain: Donahoe, Ahearn, Cooper, and Stowall, and they were to stick to reporting their religious activities only. Stowall refused to delete the nefarious paragraph and was sent to the Force Chaplain’s office in Pearl Harbor thus to be sent home to the States for discharge even though he didn’t have enough points.

But, the straw in the wind drifted all the way to the media in the United States by the United States postal service and otherwise and began to show up in Newsweek and the New York Times. The story got out and one of the biggest suppliers of information was Chaplain George Wickersham who was stationed in Kumamoto, Japan.  Totally copacetic to the cause of the CFC, Wickersham spoke to his own men in the 3^rd and 8^th division stationed elsewhere in Japan about infidelity and the sin of fornication or adultery and also about venereal disease. His division had a very high percentage of infected men of which Dr. Richards was well aware. Chaplain Wickersham, “The Mole” was also Chaplain Brubaker’s friend and helped in disseminating the cause of the CFC to the upper echelons of the military in the States. Chaplain Brubaker had sent Wickersham copies of the CFC treatise.

Pictured: On the left, Dr. Richards. On the right, Chaplain Wickersham, “The Mole,” and author of the book, Marine Chaplain 1943-1946

Chaplain Wickersham from Kumamoto, however, included in his own report all his own efforts standing against prostitution and received no pushback from his own Division Chaplain in the 8^th Division. Like a secret agent mole for the CFC, he seemed to have an open, unopposed, uncensored channel to the high military officials in the States. Wickersham contracted malaria and had been sent home. He carried with him all the documents his friend Chaplain Brubaker had given him: copies of the letter of protest by the CFC, the rebuttal letter, Chaplain Cooper and Chaplain Stovall’s requests for transfer, a copy of Chaplain Cooper’s unamended annual report, and a copy of the Division Chaplain’s reply explaining its return to be redacted. These he hand-delivered to the Chief of Chaplains, Rear Admiral, ChC, USN, W.N. Thomas in the Naval Annex in Arlington, Virginia.

MacArthur had placed a gag order on all news releases or communications that might sully the reputation of the United States occupation forces or the reason for the use of atomic bombs. Indeed, the American forces had incidences of rape and other malfeasance during the occupation of Okinawa and initially in Japan, too. This public decry of prostitution initiated by the CFC was an embarrassment and annoyance to GHQ. Wives and girlfriends and mothers in the United States didn’t like hearing about infidelity and fornication being commonplace among their husbands and boyfriends and sons. They were highly disturbed about their men bringing venereal disease home from Japan with their other souvenirs.

So amid the complaints from the CFC and concerns that disclosure back home of the brothels would be an embarrassment, on March 25, 1946, MacArthur placed all state authorized brothels, comfort stations and other places of prostitution off-limits. Men who went AWOL to continue their promiscuity were thrown in the brig, but the policing at the RAAs was lax. Eyes were averted. The RAAs were not available to Japanese men. Some disgruntled men behaved badly and more rapes occurred. Lots bore their sins with VD.

The article published on April 3, 1946 in the New York Times states that General MacArthur had asked the Occupation Chaplains to “help end the promiscuous relationships that exist between the American Occupation Forces and Japanese women.”  So, MacArthur yielded to the treatise of the CFC and basically said you can have your can of worms and eat them, too. So he burdened the Chaplains with the challenge of educating about venereal disease and promiscuity. These venereal meetings had been casually mentioned to Bettie in his letters.

Wickersham’s meeting with the Navy brass yielded fruit as well when General Order No. 238 was issued regarding the repression and prohibition of prostitution, disciplinary measures, and guidance for the commanding officers (Chaplains) regarding venereal disease. The RAAs were closed down and dismantled the end of June 1946 just before most of the occupation troops were sent home. The Chaplains for Chastity and their supporters stood on Biblical principles and won a great battle victory for morality and health although the war on prostitution was never completely won. The stand of the CFC became the law of the land

Because Chaplain Newquist remained in Japan instead of seeking a transfer due to the prostitution debacle, he was able to use his carpentry skills (his dad, Arvid, was a builder in Southern California) to restore buildings to create places to worship, preach the gospel to the men, become a support to the Japanese pastors there, arrange to get surplus food to the starving Japanese people, do circuit preaching by train to many American troops spread out over southern Japan, listen to and counsel his men under distress, advocate for them for early release due to adverse circumstances, and play a lot of volleyball and baseball. He also shipped home many physical war artifacts from Japan: samurai swords, an air raid siren, a highly radioactive parachute (which later a woman in his church made into curtains for my sister and my nursery!), a kimono, and a plethora of other items. He continued to support and ship food and supplies on his own accord to the Japanese pastors after he returned home.

By Sharon Soames, second of six children born to David and Bettie Newquist