Landing craft from U.S. warships arrived in Otaru Bay under a pallid sky in the early morning of Oct. 5, 1945.

Reconnaissance aircraft were banking overhead and jeeps, amphibious vehicles and large trucks kicked up clouds of dust below. The occupation of Hokkaido had begun.

Among the soldiers landing that morning was Vincent W. Allen. Although only a 23-year-old second lieutenant, he had been appointed deputy police commissioner for Hokkaido. Years later he would write "A Very Intimate Occupation" (Vantage Press, 2000), which includes an unvarnished account of the early months of the island's occupation.

People were afraid, Allen writes. As the allied convoy rumbled through Sapporo's nearly deserted streets after 7 a.m., residents drew open sliding doors for a glimpse of machine-gun-toting GIs. The Hokkaido government exacerbated their fear with a drumbeat of dos and don'ts. Most were warnings for women: Do not wink or show bare arms or feet, do not wear provocative clothes, and do not walk alone, especially at night.

"The women wore big baggy pantalooned gowns [which] made them look fat and shapeless," says Allen.

So-called comfort stations were established in Sapporo and four other Hokkaido cities. Half of married GIs and 80 percent of the GI singles visited these brothels, notes Allen. The percentages would have been higher, he suggests, but the men's toilets were furnished with monstrous needles for prophylactic use after brothel visits.

A confluence of factors made Hokkaido a GI paradise. Camp Crawford, in Sapporo, was considered the best base in Japan. Hokkaido's barns and dairy farms, its rolling hills and rivers teeming with fish were reminiscent of home. Even Sapporo's gridlike street pattern, adopted from a suggestion made by American Horace Capron, resembled small-town America.

Unlike Tokyo and other devastated cities, Sapporo had escaped fire bombing. Modern office buildings gleamed, trolleys trundled down wide paved streets, trains rolled out of stations. And Allen and others in the military government didn't have to salute brass. The general, Robert Eichelberger, was in distant Yokohama.

In spite of the comforts of Sapporo, it was a long, bitter winter. The people were hungry and incidents of theft surged. Allen's efforts were focused on suppressing riots by Chinese and Korean laborers at mines in Bibai. He mediated disputes and arranged for the laborers' repatriation.

But, says Allen of his Hokkaido sojourn, "All the joys of life were free or could be easily paid for with one or two candy bars."