Schickless Shel Silverstein, the brilliant, bearded cartoonist whose work appears regularly in Playboy, served most of a two year army hitch with the staff of the Pacific Stars and Stripes, bringing a bit of satirical sunlight into the dark days of the Korean occupation. The indigestion that followed the GIs' bouts with army chow was alleviated to some extent when they'd open the pages of S&S and see a Silverstein mess sergeant admonishing his underlings with, "OK, who's been sneaking meat into the hamburger?" And every joe who ever received a dressing-down from the military police could chuckle sardonically over the drawing in which one surly MP whispered to another, "Psst ... Merry Christmas!" Shel has confessed that the enthusiastic reception given his cartoons by fellow GIs was the second nicest experience of his life. The first was being stationed in Japan.
Sitting in front of his drawing board in our offices, Shel has often leaned back in his chair and reminisced about the Land of the Rising Sun. "In Japan, it's different," he has said on more than one occasion, never bothering to define it. "You're treated like a very special fellow in Japan--especially by the women. The country really looks like those old Japanese prints. I love the place. I love everything about it--the people, the culture, the way it looks, the way it sounds, the way it smells. I'm going to go back some day."
Shel Silverstein has done just that, as the first stop in a trip around the world for Playboy. He took his sketchbook with him, at our suggestion, and we received these impressions of a revisited Tokyo just a few days before this issue went to press.
"By God, the Orient!"
Silverstein
"Er, excuse me, Miss--which way to the Imperial Gardens?"
"American girls don't understand me ..."
"Look at yourself ... out of uniform ... no shave ... no tie ... no pass ... no ..."
"But, Martha, where would we put it?"
Silverstein
"Tell me, Mr. Silverstein--is it true what they say about American women?"
"Contrary to popular Western beliefs, the Geisha girl confines her entertainment to singing, dancing, playing a musical instrument ..."
