In a Yokohama hospital a Navyman with the mumps stared blearily at a Japanese magazine and started seeing things. To Lieut. Commander Bryant W. Line, who does not read Japanese, the stylized dabs and curlicues of the brushwork characters, known as Kanji, conjured up all manner of fanciful situations: poker players in a pup tent, an irate baseball umpire, a boy peering wistfully into a saloon.
Out of the hospital, Line copied out some Kanji characters and sent them with his interpretations to Pacific Stars & Stripes, the armed forces' daily newspaper in the Far East. Stars & Stripes ran Line's contribution...