RELICH-HOUTZ, JULIANA
Secretary to General
MacArthur
"Old
soldiers never die; they just fade away." Those words, credited to Gen.
Douglas MacArthur, describe well Juliana Relich Houtz, who served as secretary
to MacArthur while he was commander of Allied forces in the Pacific during
World War II.
At
84, Houtz's short-term memory is fleeting at times. She might not recall what
she ate for breakfast, but she frequently holds rapt an audience at Village
Oaks assisted living center in Fort Wayne, regaling caregivers, residents and
visitors with stories of her 20 years as a U.S. Army WAC sergeant.
"General
Mac was my chief. I thought he was a great guy. He was a very handsome
man," said Houtz, who was one of fewer than 50 U.S. Army women serving in
active duty overseas in World War II. Most women in the military at the time
remained stateside.
She
served as MacArthur's secretary, but because she was fluent in Japanese and
four other languages, MacArthur sought her out for other duties. "He asked
me to go into homes of the Japanese. I met a cleaning woman who invited me to
her home. She had a son in the Japanese Army. One time I was eating with the
family, sitting on the floor like they did, and her son - he was in uniform -
came in and saw this American soldier, this WAC sergeant, sitting there. He was
shocked.
"But
the people, they trusted me. They told me things. They (the commoners) liked
Americans. It was their leaders, the higher (government officials) who hated
the Americans." So Houtz socialized with the Japanese."I found out
where the Japanese (military) were. Then I reported all the things that were
going on. I guess you could say I was a spy. I'd hand (MacArthur) the reports
and salute him. He'd say, 'Thank you,' and wink at me."Because of her sometimes
short-term memory loss, one might wonder if her military stories are accurate.
"Oh,
they are. It's amazing," said Lee Marki, nursing services director of
Parkview Hospital's New Life Center and Houtz's long-time friend and now the
person with power of attorney. Marki's mother, 84-year-old Laura Steffen, and
Houtz were best friends in high school in Milwaukee. Because Houtz has no other
family, Marki and Steffen encouraged her to move to Fort Wayne several years
ago.
"She was a spy. After she came back from
Europe, she worked at the Pentagon, doing high security information
processing," said Marki, who has many of Houtz's military keepsakes.
"They asked her to spy in Europe, but she wanted to stay stateside."
In
great detail, Houtz describes the Diichi Building, once the Japanese military
headquarters in the center of Tokyo, where American forces eventually set up
command."There were the most beautiful ballrooms there. I danced with
Jimmy Martin, a civilian. He bought me beautiful, long gowns. Then he went off
and married someone else."I don't think I ever danced with General Mac,
but I danced with all the other guys," Houtz said, a gleam in her eyes and
a smile radiating memories of good times gone by. "I think I had my
picture taken on the steps of the Diichi Building once with General MacArthur,
but I don't have the picture."In her 50s, she married Kenneth Houtz, a
military retiree who also worked at the Pentagon. He is now deceased.Houtz's
penchant for languages started when she was young in Milwaukee. Her mother, an
immigrant from Croatia, worked at a Chinese restaurant, where Houtz spent a lot
of time."I learned Chinese there. I picked up Japanese easily when I was
first stationed there," said Houtz, who also speaks Polish and
Croatian."I enjoyed serving in the military. It was my life. I was good at
what I did," she said.Marki agreed: "Whenever I saw her, when she was
home on leave, she was always in uniform, impeccably dressed. She was always
proud of being in the military and of being a woman in the military."For
Houtz, the advantage these days of knowing so many languages has a different
twist."If I get mad at someone here, I tell them off in Japanese or Polish
or Croatian. They have no idea what I'm saying."
By
Jennifer L. Boen
of The News-Sentinel, Fort Wayne, TX May 28,
2004