Good Clean Fun on Okinawa

THE TEAHOUSE OF THE AUGUST MOON (282 pp.)--Vern Snelder-- Putnam ($3).

Captain Jeff Fisby, an ex-pharmacist from Ohio, neither looked, felt nor behaved like a professional soldier. He was chubby and sloppy, and in his job as administrator of an Okinawan village he was shamelessly inefficient. When it came to carrying out Plan B, a scheme for re-educating the natives, he was a failure.

Plan B had been drawn up by Fisby's boss, Colonel Wainright Purdy III, "a man with a clearly defined mission in the Army-- he was reaching for the stars." Behind Purdy loomed the formidable figure of Mrs. Purdy, president of the Tuesday Club of Pottawattamie, Ind. It was she who had persuaded the colonel to organize a Woman's League for Democratic Action among the Okinawan ladies, and to suggest model menus for the league's meetings (chicken aspic and salmon loaf garnished with water cress, fruit compote and other delicacies).

The Native Souvenirs. How Fisby got around the Purdy plan and built himself a miniature Utopia full of happy Okinawans is the story of Vern Sneider's nimble novel. An Army veteran with Okinawa service, Sneider has written a shrewd fantasy about the American in the uncomfortable role of conqueror.

When Captain Fisby agrees to accept a couple of native "souvenirs," and they turn out to be two little geisha girls named First Flower and Lotus Blossom, he thinks his career is cooked. But the men of his village, usually appalled at the prospect of hard work, are so charmed by the geishas that they enthusiastically pitch in to build them a proper teahouse. To do so, it is necessary to scrounge and improvise, and soon Captain Fisby, who is weak on Army directives but strong on old-fashioned initiative, finds himself supervising a complex business combine. His once-sleepy village distills sweet-potato brandy, manufactures salt, china and wooden sandals, sponsors wrestling matches, sets up a teahouse with an international menu including everything from snapping turtles to borsch--and all because of First Flower and Lotus Blossom.

The Sympathetic Shake. While converting Okinawans to U.S.-style go-getting, Fisby also learns to appreciate their customs. Nothing seems more restful to him than to visit the teahouse dressed in his bathrobe (as a substitute for a kimono) and drink tea while gazing quietly at the lotus pond. He has been suspicious of the geishas' morals, but he learns that they are respectable girls whose only job is to sing, dance and listen to people's troubles, shake their heads sympathetically and coax the customers into good spirits.

This scene of idyllic contentment is almost destroyed when Colonel Purdy bursts in on an inspection trip, but the story works its way to a happy ending, with Fisby convincing his boss that he is not really setting himself up as Okinawa's vice king. The Teahouse of the August Moon is really a short story puffed up to novel length, but except for a slight sag in the middle, it manages to be good fun.

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