I made a list of all of the countries that I had visited early this morning. It came to 40 countries including Okinawa (now part of Japan.) I came to Okinawa in August of 1971 on the way to DaNang, South Vietnam.
When we landed we found that all of the barracks were full and we were going to have to stay in a tent city. When we arrived at the tent city area, the master of arms gave each of us a .45 calibre pistol. I asked if the gun was for protection in case some Japanese soldier not captured at the end of World War II was lurking about.
The US Marine sergeant laughed. He told us that they had very big rats in the area. He claimed that they were as large as beavers. He told us to shoot one if we saw it.