JAP SEAMEN VISIT U.S.A.

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 87, 27 January 1947, Page 4

JAP SEAMEN VISIT U.S.A.

ANXIETY TO PLEASE JOURNALISTS

STRUGGLES WITH PRESS INTERVIEW

The first Japanese seamen to arrive in an American port in five years anchored the Army transport George A. Custer in San Francisco Bay recently. The captain, M. Ishikawa, a caricature-like little Japanese in a tight-fitting and wrinkled blue merchant marine uniform, greeted us in his cabin, writes Robert Brunn in the Christian Science Monitor.

He was flanked by a United States Army major, and a Navy lieutenant commander, who are in charge of receiving the 200-odd American vessels which the Japanese are returning after repatriating some 4,500,000 soldiers and nationals from the former Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.

Captain Ishikawa blinked as flash bulbs popped. He was neither stern nor jovial, but dignified with one hand on his desk and the other in his lap. He quite evidently felt the weight of the responsibility that was his—leader of the first group of Japanese to see the United States after bitter years of war. Sitting there, he no longer was the sea captain, but the envoy. 4 Press Handout—Very Dictionary We had seen the boyish faces of his crew of 48 grinning or staring from various parts of the ship’s interior as we clambered aboard from the tugs. There was no fear in their eyes, only curiosity. An embarassed Japanese-American Pfc. from Seattle, Washington, assigned as interpreter for the afternoon, had guided us to the Captain’s cabin. We had expected to use the interpreter to pry some reactions' from Captain Ishikawa but after the popping of the bulbs, his Purser stepped forward in approved American public relations manner and gave us a two-page press “handout” duplicated on thin, soft rice paper. It must have been the result of a nightlong wrestling with an English dictionary. “We are the first Japanese seamen who came over to America after the war,” the statement began, “and very glad and much admiring in the depths of our hearts to know that your attitudes to Japanese seamen do not show any difference from before the war, remembering up and comparing with the experiences of having come to the States a few years ago. “We think this will be the first steps for us to understand what democracy is, and what the Golden Rule of the Bible is, “Do to others what you would be done by.” The statement went on to say how the Japanese had “led with the wrong militarism,” and suffered waiting for their soldiers to return from war. He thanked the United States for cutting the wait from the anticipated four years do a year and’ less through our “understanding help and sympathy for demobilisation which brought the loan of the Liberty ships. We “rejoiced many poor ladies and children who were looking for their lovely fathers and husbands coming back, although their faces were pale and exhausted from starve and tireness,” the captain’s. statement read. And he thanked the United States for General MacArthur’s action in relieving the “foods shortage”—a sign of ‘heartful sympathy.”

“We Should Be Responsible” ‘We are now exerting with all our strength and ability for re-estab-lishing New Japan which should be able to play a great part at the international stage to bring peace to the world,” he promised. He admitted hazily, “We have not good enough knowledge to put definition of democracy but only know that true freedom should require us to act with each responsibility.” In another sentence, “Whatever we may do freely, we should be responsible for it.”

Reading Captain Ishikawa’s ricepaper handout, one could laugh at the careful choice of wrong words. Or if one believed in the success of American policy in Japan, one could swell a bit with pride and consider this a lesson well learned. Too, one might match the pathos of his words with one’s own war-felt emotion. Or one . could read the whole with tongue in cheek as a parrotted, on-the-surface expression of expediency. Laughter, pride, sympathy, or despair may greet Captain Ishikawa’s statement in any one of .millions of American homes. But his statement and the presence of his bobbing, curious crew in San Francisco Bay remind us that there are millions of Ishikawas in Japan—waiting expectantly and watching our every move.

SPORTS CARNIVAL ANNIVERSARY DAY a * At Beautiful Ohope Beach Officially sponsored by the Ohope . Progress League. ATHLETICS, CHOPPING NATIONAL DANCING All proceeds in aid of Beach Improvements. PROGRAMME 10.30 a.m. 25yds Flat Race, Boys under 4. 10.35 a.m. 25yds Flat Race, Girls under 4. 10.40 a.m. 50yds Flat Race, Boys under 6. 10.30 a.m. Ist Heat of Second Class 12inch Chop. 10.45 a.m. 50yds Flat Rac£, Girls under 6. 10.50 a.m. 50yds Flat Race, Boys under 8. 10.55 a.m. 50yds Flat Race, Girls under 8. 11 a.m. 2nd Heat of Second- Class Chop. Commencement of Highland Dancing Section. 11.5 a.m. 50yds Flat Race, Boys under 10. 11.10 a.m. 50yds Flat Race, Girls under 10. 11.15 a.m. 75yds Flat Race, Boys under 12. 11.30 a.m. Ist Heat Open 12” Chop. 11.35 a.m. 75yds Flat Race, Girls 12. 11.40 a.m. 75yds Flat Race, BoyS 14. 11.45 a.m. 75yds Flat Race, Girls 14. 11.50 a.m. 100yds Flat Race, Boys 16. 11.55 a.m. 100yds Flat Race, Girls 16. 12 Noon 2nd Heat Open 12” Chop. 12.5 p.m. 100yds Flat Race, Open, Boys. 12.10 p.m. 100yds Flat Race, Open, Girls. 12.15 p.m. Young Farmers’ Clubs Relay Race. 12.30 p.m. Final of Second Class 12” Chop. 12.85 p.m. 75yds Ladies’ Open Race. 12.45 p.m. 75yds Gent’s Open Race. 1 p.m. Final of Open 12” Chop. 1.5 p.m. 100yds Ladies’ Open Race. 1.10 p.m. 100yds Gent’s Open Race. 1.15 p.m. 75yds Married Ladies’ Race. 1.20 p.m. 75yds Married Men’s Race. 1.25 p.m. Young Farmers’ Club’s Tug-of-War. 1.30 p.m. Ist Heat Second Class Club Chop. 1.35 p.m, 100yds Ohope Championship. V* 1.40 p.m. Girls’ Marching Teams. 2.0 p.m. 2nd Heat Club Second Class 12” Chop. 2.5 p.m. Hop, Step and Jump. .Judging of Baby Show. 2.30 p.m. Ist Heat Standing. 14” Chop. 2.35 p.m. Cross Country Race. 2.45 p.m. Long Jump. 3.0 p.m. 2nd Heat Standing 14” Chop. 3.5 p.m: Marching Teams Relay Race. 3.15 p.m. 220 Men’s Race under 19. 3.30 p.m. Final of Second Class Chop. 3.35 p.m. 220 Men’s Race, Open. 3.45 p.m. Slow Bicycle Race. 4.0 p.m. Final of Standing 14” Chop. * 4.30 p.m. Underhand 14” Chop. Throwing the Cricket Ball. Stepping the Chain. Ladies’ Nail Driving. Weight Guessing. Putting the Shot. Merry-Go-Round. Skittle Alley. Side Shows. Bands. Ice Cream. Soft Drinks. Tea, Cakes & Pies. MAORI HANGI. Post entries for all events (except, Chopping). Fifteen entries in each event or no Thipd Prize. The Committee reserves the right to alter, delete or amend this programme also to substitute Trophies for Prize Money in certain events and rehandicap if necessary. All competitors compete at own risk. All protests to be lodged with the Secretary within 15 minutes of the event.