The man who told me this is long gone, so I can't go back to him and verify the story. But when he told me this anecdote twenty or more years ago, he seemed very serious.
He said he was a teenager when the Japanese occupied Guam. He was old enough to earn a few sen (Japanese coins) as a kind of errand boy or runner.
One day, he said, he was told by a Japanese civilian official to run to so-and-so's house and deliver a written message to a Japanese living at that house, which belonged to a Chamorro family but had been taken over by the Japanese. The Chamorro family preferred to live at their ranch to feed themselves and avoid the Japanese, anyway.
The boy gave the message and waited for the Japanese man to write down his response for the boy to take back.
While the boy stood there waiting, his eyes moved to the open door of the restroom. There he saw a Japanese soldier kneel in front of the toilet and wash his face! That soldier got up, and was replaced by yet another Japanese soldier kneeling down and washing his face in the toilet.
Later the boy found out that Japanese toilets were very different from American ones. Either the Japanese soldier didn't know what this ceramic seat filled with water was used for, or he didn't care.
Wartime creates some very interesting stories.
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