Memories from World War II

2015 marks the 70th Anniversary of the end of World War II, the year Imperial Japan surrendered unconditionally to the Allied Forces. The aging generation who survived the war consisted of children growing up during the war (1930 - 1945) wherever they were at the time - Japan proper, neighboring Korea, Taiwan and Manchuria. The children in Korea, Taiwan and Manchuria had to return to Japan, the land of their parents. We knew we had to live with a moral obligation to earn redemption on behalf of our parents in dealing with such close neighbors, but lost contact 70 years ago.

My wife was born in Nampo, North Korea, and her family, after a few years under Russian occupation, voluntarily attempted border crossing at the 38th parallel to reach Seoul and Pusan and boated down to Sasebo (See reunion photos of Nampo returnees, mostly from the second generation. They have a motto "Our home is where we meet".) My Fukuoka friend TM (Toastmaster) Oishi was born in Rason, formerly Rajin-Sonbong, northeastern tip of North Korea, bordering Vladiostok. He took the Jirin land route, China, and back to Dandong to cross the Yalu River. He re-entered in North Korea and headed south to Japan. TM Oshiumi residing in Wakamatsu, Kitakyushu was born in Daegu, South Korea. Both Oishi and Oshiumi told me they have attended Korean school reunions. I know they were both studying Korean Hangl.

TM Mitsuko Nishimura, cofounder of Kitakyushu Toastmasters and her two sisters, born in Taiwan, were boated north from Keelung to Kagoshima. I read that Mitsuko tried to talk to local Japanese women farmers in Kagoshima but was baffled with an answer she couldn’t understand. This was the first of many reverse culture shock she experienced. It was the Kagoshima dialect! I remembered TM Oishi similarly was baffled with the Saga dialect.

My Kumamoto friend TM Uemura was born near Taichung. We traveled together to Taichung when we attended the Taiwan Toastmasters Conference. She took time to visit where she was born during the conference. I accompanied my Tokyo workmate Shimada to Taipei on his first-time return to Taipei where he was born. I introduced him to Taiwan Toastmaster Mrs. Quo who had taught at Ximen Elementary School. Shimada’s Nanmen school was close to Ximen Elementary. Mrs. Quo talked to the principal of Nanmen Elementary School and Shimada received a graduation certificate when he visited his mother school. I was very impressed with Mrs. Quo’s arrangements.

I found out that in 2002, Mrs. Quo organized a reunion of Ximen school classmates, Taiwanese and Japanese, to commemorate the 90th year since school opening and published an awesome book titled “Old Dreams-Deep Compassion” with collected essays from some of the participants. Now she is preparing a belated 100th reunion in March 2015.

The following is a quote from this book:

On board the repatriation boat - We were loaded into the vessel hold in a huddle, no free room to move and slept over rush-mat rug. Once out on the open ocean, the rolling of the vessel became intense and most passengers got seasick. They started vomiting and the bad smell filled the hold. They withdrew and grew lethargic, made no conversations and had lost their appetite. There were few semi-invalid passengers who died in such awful circumstances. Only those who could afford it went up to the deck and attended their burial at sea. The voyage took about a week. Upon disembarking, we all went through quarantine, being sprayed DDT from head to the sole of our feet.

A Visit to Former Residence of Chang Hsueh-liang in Wufong, Taiwan

I made a "beat the clock" solo trip to the hidden back mountain border of Taiwan. I had just one and a half days to accomplish it, so the countdown started as soon as I landed at the Taoyuan International Airport. Delayed departure at Fukuoka was the reason for a delayed arrival, causing everything to be an hour later from the original schedule, even deducting the time difference of an hour between Japan and Taiwan. It was 2 PM (3 PM in Japan) in the afternoon when I completed clearance at immigration and customs. "No use panicking. Go easy!" I told myself.

The airport shuttle bus took only 15 minutes to the Taoyuan Station of the Taiwan High Speed Railway (THSR). I was relieved greatly. Ticket purchase was super fast at a special window serving women and seniors only with passport, and I was on board the speed train by 3 PM bound southward.

In another 15 minutes, I was at the Hsinchu THSR station, where I deposited my heavy luggage and souvenirs in the time locker permitting 24 hour overnight stay and quickly exited for the bus headed for Tsing Hua University. The THSR service gave me the bus line number, so I just followed directions.

By 3:30 PM, I was at Tsing Hua University to change buses for Chutong, per the instruction of an ex-Chutong friend. I faced one snag there. The Chutong bus stop was a little further away from the regular Hsinchu bus stop. My embarrassment was on my face because the young man at the small ticket office came out, locked the door, and walked me to the right bus stop where several people were waiting for the Chutong bus. He asked one elderly woman to help me when the bus comes. She nodded and she sat with me on the bench. We waited there for about 15 minutes. Bus showed up and we got on together.

Another snag was that I used up all my small change (coins used for bottled water purchase), and the bus driver didn't accept paper money. This woman paid NT$40 for me from her purse. I offered my NT$100 bill but she didn't accept. She got off before Chutong, but after asking another passenger to signal me when the bus got to Chutong. I showed my appreciation by gestures and with bowed head.

I expected some change of scenery between Hsinchu and Chutong but same scenery continued until the Chutong bus stopped. The fellow passenger was a real help. It was now a little after 5 PM and I got in before the bus station service office closed. I asked the bus station attendant about the morning bus schedules for the following day and confirmed there was no change from the March schedules I had looked up on the Internet. The man in charge kindly suggested that I could take the return bus around noon to Hsinchu Station without any bus transfer on the way back. He didn't name any particular hotel in Chutong, but gave me instructions where I could find hotels a few blocks away. I was able to check into a clean hotel before dark. It was all I wanted on Day 1. I made it! But only with the big help of those two kind women I met on the Chutong bus. Thank you, Chutong ladies!

My destination was Wufong (meaning 5 mountain ranges), situated on the northernmost part of Tri-Mountain (Lion's Head Mountain, Lishan and Baguashan), a scenic area that spread out in Central Taiwan, but close to the Shei-Pa National Park whose Wuling Farms is popular as the vacation land of the Taiwanese, the area known for the aboriginal mountain people "Atayal" or "Tayal" tribes.

Now here's why I needed to go to such a hidden and remote location.

In late 1990s, I befriended a Korean Chinese student named Zhu through my Tokyo friend who taught Japanese at Jilin University. He graduated from Jilin University and got a job in Shanghai. Shanghai and Kitakyushu were pretty close by air when Kitakyushu opened its new airport. I had taken an inaugural one-hour direct flight charter airplane to fly into Shanghai and then traveled to Xian in 2004. I accepted his wedding invitation lightly. Then I found the venue of his wedding was not in Shanghai but in Jilin, his hometown near North Korea. I regretted my hasty answer, but I decided to honor my reply. He sent his brother to Shenyang Airport to escort me to Jllin. On my way back to Shenyang Airport, I was alone and spent a couple of sightseeing days in Shenyang.

There I visited Chang's family residence in downtown Shenyang and there I was truly dumbfounded by the huge chateau-style buildings and the luxurious way of living. The building looked like a big banking headquarters, called Daqinglou (大青樓 - shown up top) which belonged to Chang Zuolin, Hsueh-liang's father, killed in a plot / railroad accident by the Japanese imperial army. Hsueh-liang occupied Xiaoqinlou (小青樓 - shown right). Zuolin had actually his bank in this quarter. Chang's residence is a traditional Chinese quadrangle with a courtyard in the middle, surrounded by a number of concubines' homes of Chang Zuolin. I had a preconceived notion that they were bandits, plundering in the mountainous countries. I had to correct my big misconception. On this trip, I had no knowledge how Hsueh-liang fared in his later life during and after World War II. The gigantic chateau and the mysterious family affairs left a deep impression on me.

While visiting Taiwan often, I came to find a couple of familiar Manchurian names which were associated with Taiwan. One is Aisin Gioro (orAixin Jueluo) clan poet, calligrapher and artist Puru or known as Pu Xinyu, who taught at Normal University. He was a cousin to the last Emperor - Puyi.

The other is Chang Hsueh-liang who spent half a century in house arrest by the order of Chiang Kai-shek, since the 1936 Xian incident. Hsueh-liang was brought to the above noted Wufong (the destination of my hasty overnight trip in April), along the retreating Kuomintang (KMT) from the Continent.

The 7 AM Chutong minibus climbed up curving mountain roads picking up and dropping off passengers along the way for two hours. The bus was following an edge-meandering path along the riverbed; I was not able to see from the bus window. At 9 AM, I was at the small park dedicated to the Chang Hsueh-liang Museum at one of the mountain gorges. I've read that this house was rebuilt similar to the former residence of Hsueh-liang which was destroyed by a typhoon and now a museum by the village master to promote the hot springs in the neighborhood across the river.

I waited for the museum to open at 10 AM. It was a very simple unpretentious dwelling as compared to the Shenyang chateau I saw. An old sewing machine, a chair that dominated the house, fishing rod and sedge hat are the main exhibits with a collection of books in a glass book cabinet. There was a video for visitors to learn more about Chang, in addition to the houseful of photographic illustrations of Hsueh-liang's biography.

The custodial locations of Hsueh-liang changed often, almost annually, while on the Continent. Hsueh-liang should have found his first solace here in Taiwan, represented by the fishing rod and sedge hat with use of hot springs nearby

I did not cross the suspended bridge to visit the hot springs. I hopped onto the return bus after taking photos of the surroundings and a cross on a church, towering over the museum. I got back to the Hsinchu, picked up my luggage deposited at the new Hsinchu Station and headed to Taichung, the Day 2 destination, satisfied with the mission accomplished.

On the way to Taichung I was reciting Hsueh-liang's poem I scribbled down from the stone tablet in front of the museum:

不怕死 不愛錢 no fear of death, no love for money

丈夫 決不 受人憐 a true man never accept pity from others

頂天 立地 男兒漢 me, one stand-up man

磊落 光明 度餘年 will live remaining life with honor and dignity

In 1954, Chang Hsueh-liang sent Chiang Kai-shek a self-critical paper of 200,000 words and was allowed to move from Wufong to Taipei later in 1961, but he was still under informal confinement. It was only after the deaths of Chiang Kai-sheck and Chiang Ching-kuo, Kai-shek's son in 1991 that he became free and chose to live in Hawaii, ending over more than half-century of imprisonment. He died in Hawaii in 2001, as a centenarian.

Jerry Fig / Jabuticaba

A jerry fig is a native tree of Taiwan found accidentally by a tea trader in the 1800s when he drank from a river near Chiayi. He found a clear yellowish jelly in the water he was drinking and was refreshed upon trying it. Examining the jelly, he noticed it was fruit hanging on vines that exuded a sticky gel when rubbed. He marketed it under his daughter's name Aiyu (pronounced o-gio in Taiwanese) successfully. Today, lemon aiyu jelly is loved by children and adults alike as their favorite summer refreshment. I heard there are aiyu jelly specialty shops in Tokyo. The problem is that preparation takes a lot time for a small profit margin.

I had a chance to try it in Taiwan and was interested in taking a look at the tree. I looked up Chiayi Toastmasters website to ask where I can see the tree. Bingo! The president of Chiayi Toastmasters was Dr. Lai, with the Chiayi Experiment Station, Governmental Agricultural Research Institute. He introduced me to Dr. Chung, an expert working on low land cultivation of the jerry fig. I learned that the jerry fig thrives in a misty highlands like Alishan, which requires plant breeding in the lower land and special farming preparations such as a watering networks, trelliswork, vining support, etc. I was looking forward to meeting Dr. Chung. So I sent email when I decided to join the Spring Toastmasters Conference in Taichung, he didn't respond. I contacted through my Taichung friend. I was told he retired last year.

An alternative advice came from Taichung Toastmasters friends. A new member joined them who was with the Taichung Experiment Station and he could drive me to a jerry fig farm. It was a case of wish fulfillment and I jumped on the opportunity.

The Taichung Experiment Station Complex in Wufen we dropped in on the way (about an hour drive from central Taichung through a new highway) has been the main headquarters of the Government Agrarian Research Institute since 1997, occupying 145 hectares (ha) including 17 ha building and 128 ha of experimental farms served by complete irrigation and drainage systems.

Unfortunately, the Puli farmer we visited no longer owned jerry fig farms any more. He took us, the disappointed guests, to a jerry fig farm in the neighborhood mountain. They are taller than I thought. The owner didn't go into detail, but I'm guessing he either sold it or changed all of his plant acreage from jerry fig to jabuticaba, a new lucrative business, grape tree native to Brazil for the following reasons: l) the fruit is new to Taiwan and has rarity value; 2) farmer receives possible Government subsidies; and 3) provides opportunity for sightseeing and on-site grape picking tours. He was excited to welcome tourists coming soon after us. He gave us fresh jabuticaba on trays. Tasted like grape, more viscous than regular grapes.

Edson Aoki, my Brazilian friend (see Imamura Church post) sent me info on Jabuticaba from the Netherlands. He wrote:

Jabuticaba is indeed a typical Brazilian fruit from the Atlantic rainforest, and hence is common in my state of São Paulo. I don't think jabuticaba is produced in a large scale, but it is commonly found in small farms and ranches, mostly for local consumption. ‘Jabuticaba’ is actually a word from Tupi (a Native Brazilian language) and it means ‘button fruits.’ But ‘Jabuti’ alone is also a word from Tupi, which means ‘tortoise.’

My jerry fig hunt caught jabuticaba instead! I met a smart farmer ahead of his time!

Notes:

I searched books giving information on jabuticaba in the library. I found one "The Fruits Hunters - A Story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce and Obsession" (2008) by Adam Leith Gollner. Here is some information from the book:

1) Appearances are embryos of cosmonauts. Tastes, however, are fantastic, incomparable to any other fruits.

2) Jabuticabas grow on the trees like mushrooms. Children in Brazil sneak into the orchard of others to play "jabuticaba kiss", pluck jabuticaba by mouth, with sounds like puk, gooch, pooch.

3) At Hilo Airport, Hawaii, I pulled out souvenir jabuticabas from my pocket. As I gazed at them, these cubes I've never been aware of before seemed to veil unworldly riddles. I photographed them, one sharp focusing, the other blurred and hazy to have cubes melt in a geometric pattern. Jabuticaba promised hopes, endowing revelations which I have not experienced. Just holding jabuticabas in my hands, I felt miracles to descend, answering my prayers I'm humming without notice.

4) Brazilian photographer Silvestre Silva stopped endangered white jabuticaba from extinction after his 10 years of personal battles. It was in the suburbs of Guararema, the State of Sao Paulo. Soon the white jabuticaba will be cultivated and we will be able to see it.

Taiwan's High Speed Railway (THSR)

A refreshing November morning at 6 AM, after an overnight stay at Taoyuan, the gateway city of Taiwan with two million people, I took a bus to the new THSR (Gaodi) Taoyuan Station, following advice from my Lao Taoyuan friend, TM Alex Hsiao (in a telephone message awaiting for my arrival at the hotel).

The bus journeyed through the dawning hustle and bustle of downtown, picking up THSR passengers at key spots and corners, gradually filling and almost fully loaded by the time I reached my destination. This was a special bus, exclusive for THSR passengers, (gratis) free.

I was at the newly built Gaodi Station by 7 AM, bought my seat ticket and waited for the train to have a rendezvous with two special friends, my Tokyo friend Shimada and Janifer Quo of Taipei (see January 2010 Riosloggers post). Kazunobu Shimada, President of IQM, an ISO-9000 auditing company, was born in Taipei and studied at Nanmen Grade School. He had to return to Japan at the end of World War II before graduating. I had introduced Shimada to Janifer, asking for her assistance, should Shimada make a return visit to Nanmen, Nanmen and Ximen are two different grade schools in Taipei, but under one Taipei City Government.

Janifer, now retired, but an ex-teacher of Ximen Elementary School, talked to the principal of Nanmen Grade School and arranged to have Shimada awarded with his dream Nanmen diploma after 60 years. They were heading for Taichung together to serve as judges at the Taiwan Toastmasters Conference and a Japanese language contest, and I was joining them.

While I was congratulating Shimada on his diploma, Janifer handed us her homemade breakfasts, consisting of cut wax apples, star fruits, dragon fruits, pineapples, grapes, custard apples, etc. along with youtiao, a roasted rice cake. The care packages were prepared by Janifer so the two of us could try tasting Taiwan fruits and we really appreciated her thoughtfulness. Shimada told me he had eaten some of them in his childhood but not all. Custard apple is shaped like the Buddha’s head, called "Shijia" in Chinese. It was new to both Shimada and me. We scooped up white flesh grain with a spoon, totally enjoying the delicious, sweet taste. I was told many Japanese expatriates leave Taiwan without being baptized of the taste. The fruit, from Pintong area, needs 20 weeks or so to become ripe. Australians call it "Bull's heart".

Our train reached the brand new Gaodi Wurih Station in an hour, just as we finished our breakfast. It was so quick. Luckily, the Conference venue was close to the station and we did not experience any confusion in changing trains from Gaodi to Taidi, on the old Taiwan Railroad.

I was back to Gaodi Wurih Station alone by taxi to return to Taipei at 5 PM the following Sunday. The station was packed like a can of sardines and had many long lines at the ticketing stations. I waited for about 30 minutes to get my ticket. The waiting lines were orderly and even prioritized people with disabilities. I had to present my passport to the ticket counter service. I got a senior discount (65 and above), half the fare of an adult. No wonder I saw a good number of senior passengers. I didn't see empty seats so the THSR promotions must be working. I noticed that the green car passengers got free coffee and a pack of snacks.

I observed that all THSR workers, including those serving foods and drinks, were quite enthusiastic. Their morale was high. The THSR's BOT (Build/Operate/Transfer) prerogative formula seems to be finally paying off after the initial disappointing years of low passenger levels. In 2011, monthly users hit 3 million, recording over 100,000 daily passengers.

My 10th Visit to Taiwan

Happy New Year! I start the New Year with a 3-part posting to commemorate my 10th visit to Taiwan.

"Nowadays not only humans, but houses cross international borders."

Meili Chen, Taichung Toastmaster opened a conversation in impeccable Japanese when her close friends sat together for a break at the conference forum in Taiwan.

Meili, in her maiden days, had studied at Kyoto University. "Sounds nice! Is it a Taiwan story? Can you tell me where?" I inquired. "A Japanese house of 100 years old came to Tamsui," Meili started her talk. I had one free day in Taipei on this trip and I was hoping to visit the house to commemorate my 10th visit to Taiwan." Here is Chen's story summarized. The house was originally located in Oicho, Fukui Prefecture along the Wakasa Bay facing the Japan Sea. The project was intended as an inland transplant to a community park in Kobe and any move outside of Japan was not even considered.

What happened was the bond that developed after two intense (above 7.0 on Richter scale) earthquakes that victimized Kobe (1995) and southern Taiwan (1999). Both countries struggled for a speedy recovery. As care packages and comfort goods were exchanged, rescue crews and volunteers mutually dispatched, the relationship evolved into a very close one and grass roots movement of joint cooperation on respective key projects was established.

I am a returnee from the U.S. after 30 cumulative years. It was in late 1994 that my wife and I came back to my Tokyo house. My sister-in-law from Kitakyushu helped us unpack during the New Year holidays. The Kobe earthquake hit hard and the Shinkansen (bullet train) service was halted. My sister-in-law had to return to Kitakyushu by air. In Sept 1999, Taiwan was struck. It was after I made my first few visits to Taiwan. I remember writing sympathy letters, sending donations, to my new Taiwanese friends.

More than 10 years has passed and I just finished my 10th visit this past November. I was reminded that a steady and vigorous relationship has developed between Taiwan and Japan. (On and after 3/11, Taiwan continues to assist in recovery efforts of the Tohoku Earthquake/Tsunami victims).

What kicked off the house transplant project was the disassembly and reassembly of a Fukui antique house for the Kobe Mikura North Park Community Center when Taiwan volunteers saw the beauty of the wooden house. They were so impressed that they expressed their wish to have such a house in Taiwan.

The Mikura nonprofit organization (NPO), called "Machi-Communication," is an organization of that has won awards from the Minister of Domestic General Affairs, as well as the Prime Minister, for efforts of caring for deceased victims and compassion toward recovery. A 100-year old house built by Master Carpenter Kakuji Minakami, father of writer Tsutomu Minakami, was secured for the project. The NPO "Machi-Comi" arranged to make it Minakami's Library with 200 books donated by Tsutomu's daughter. The NPO also arranged to make Chen Shun-Chen's Library, because Kobe is where Chen was born and spent his childhood. The house was christened with the name "Ittekisui", the Zen philosophy Tsutomu Minakami embraced, meaning "the infinite universe exists even in one drop of water".

Meanwhile, Taiwan searched vigorously for suitable land. First, Changhua County in the south volunteered. Plans fell through, however, when the soliciting County Mayor lost his election. It was in 2009 when Tamsui Mayor answered the call as Tamsui was where the writer Chen returned to live from Kobe after the war. It was reported that students from Tamkang University volunteered to complete the termite treatment of stored timbers before the Japanese carpenters were summoned in. The work started in June and was completed in December. It took a full 6 months to refinish, given the fact that the original design did not use any nails. The successful completion of the project was the result of the effort of 5,000 people.

Photos of the progress of the project reminded me of the Amish villagers constructing a new house with all hands.

The celebration of completion was attended by Tamsui Mayor and other key volunteers, including a Taiwanese called Lao-Tai as reported by writer Ryotaro Shiba of the NPO Machi-Communication News. His real name is Kun-Zhan Tsai. He is a Japanese fencing master, an entrepreneur of the semiconductor industry and he served as Taipei guide for Ryotaro Shiba. A Toast to the real hero: NPO "Machi-Comi," the salt of the earth!

The Xie-Xie Taiwan Project

I traveled to Taiwan in mid November to attend the D67 Fall Convention in Taichung. It was my 10th visit to Taiwan. I had a special mission of my own. To thank the Taiwanese for showing their compassion towards the Japanese plights on and after 311.

Convention programming is usually a hectic one, allowing no interruptions and changes. Foreign visitors are usually recognized by the District Governor and I dared to grab the opportunity, with the prior consent and approval of DG Grace Shih, through Dennis Chen, an old friend and the founder of Taichung Central Japanese club. My speech went like this:

Hello, Taiwan Toastmasters! I wanted to come and thank you personally for the very much needed help from the Taiwanese who pitched in right after the 311 Earthquake/Tsunami that hit Tohoku Japan. Thank you, Taiwan.

I didn't attend the Spring Conference but got your jia-yu (加 油）messages posted on the wall during the Spring Conference that was carried back by our delegates to convey to the rest of Japan.

Taiwan topped all quake donors through the Red Cross along with your rescue teams and relief goods that were dispatched.

So in order to physically express gratitude, the Japanese swimmers did a 110 kilometer open water swim in relay from Yonaguni Island of Okinawa to Su-Ao Taiwan, despite the approaching typhoon, calling it the Xie-Xie Taiwan Project. I'm a swimmer myself. I would have joined them if I was younger.

Please accept our Xie-Xie Taiwan voices from District 76. All of the Japanese Toastmasters are very appreciative and deeply touched by your warm feelings for the Japanese.

After the session and during the break, some Taiwan Toastmasters came to shake hands with me. I was happy that I got my message through.

Wanderer of Formosa (福爾摩沙漫遊者)

Sun Moon Lake
My first trip to Taiwan was a gift given by my son, Kirk, for my retirement. Actually, it was made possible by cashing in miles from the airline I most favored. My son spiced it up by arranging a Taiwanese guide for me who spoke excellent Japanese. My son spoke to his Taiwanese colleague at work in San Diego and surprisingly it was his colleague's father, a recently retired UN worker, who helped me tremendously - starting with meeting me at the airport, traveling downtown together by bus, and walking to the reserved hotel close to Shin Guang Mitsukoshi Department Store. I have made trips to Taiwan almost 10 times since then, and I always stay at the same hotel.

I appreciated his discretion not to accompany me constantly. He suggested minimum necessary tips and gave me an overall orientation. At the University of Taiwan, he politely let me walk around the campus and study at the library. It was the day before the MRT subway systems came online. The crazy bus trip to Gugon Palace became a memorable story when I experienced a frantic moment boarding the bus. He and his wife were excellent hosts. The welcoming dinner was at Hai Pa Wang, and the farewell dinner was at Shinyeh, all serving local Taiwanese dishes. I fondly remember their warm hospitality on my first visit.

My second visit was to Fenyuang, north of Taichung. I visited my first e-mail friend, who is a dentist. It was my first visit to Taiwan's Toastmasters Club there and I was thrilled to see a club which boasts more than 50 members. They met in the basement of the hotel where I was staying. I am grateful to him for the early morning ride from Fenyuang to the Taoyuan International Airport, as I had to catch an early flight to the U.S.

On my third visit, my wife accompanied me to Taipei where we met Michelle Chen, who was a contestant speaker at the Toastmasters Convention. I never imagined Michelle had such a passion for traveling abroad like I did. My interest in Czech Republic was inspired by her trip to Pardubice. I got a lot of information from hearing about her trip there.

It rained hard in Taipei the day the convention was over. A gentleman with whom we sat together noticed us and instructed his chauffeur to take us to our hotel. We sent him our letter of appreciation. We never saw him again at subsequent conventions.

On my fourth trip, I was in Taichung for the Toastmasters Convention at Tunghai University with another Japanese delegation staying at the University dorm. It was the Taichung Central Japanese Club who offered to take us sightseeing to their historic Lukang Port. Lukang was the trade port of deer skins during the Dutch colonial days where the terms e-kang and teng-kang originated, referring to north/south of the port respectively. Dennis Chen, the Club founder led a fleet of cars with volunteer drivers one full day enabling us to tour Lukang's Longshan temple and see Maz, the Goddess of the Sea.

Talking to Dennis, I learned that he planned to visit Sun-Moon Lake the following day accompanying his New York physician friend and his wife and I made a bold request to get a one way ride if at all possible. He called me later, granting it as if it was my once-in-a-lifetime wish. I wanted to see the after-effects of the Jiji Earthquake that hit in 1999. I sent a small check as a contribution to the victims through the Fenyuang physician friend.

The view of the Jiji Mountains was tragic, but the lake resort had recovered. I walked up the hill to see the famous tea farms. Basking in the twilight I made a deal with a female captain and chartered a boat to cross Sun-Moon Lake.

Dennis Chen had stopped at the Muh Sheng Museum of Entomology in Puli on our way to the Lake and that gave me a good reason to return at a later date to the museum to write about the Chestnut Tiger, the butterfly that migrates between Taiwan and Japan. I met Meili Chang, while on the trip to Lukang and was struck by the beautiful Japanese she spoke. Later I learned that she had studied at the University of Kyoto.

On the fifth trip, again after the Toastmaster Convention, I traveled by bus for 3-days to Hsitou, deep inside the Nantou´s valleys, with my friend I met in Yangmingshan. He was a genuine Taiwan Alpinist, who walked mountain ranges above 1000 meters from far north to south in Taiwan. His adventure was featured in one of the southern local newspapers. I asked him for a copy, but he didn't keep any. He took me to Yangmingshan Library, or the Chiang Kai-shek Summer Resort. I met his family, his three granddaughters in Yunhe and through his granddaughters I got my message across to him. The granddaughters are all away from home. The eldest granddaugher got a PhD in Germany in biology and lives in Chiba, Japan until March this year (I'm asking her to visit us before her departure). The second granddaughter is in the UK studying fashion. The third granddaughter is in her senior year in Chenkong University in Tainan.

The experimental forest of Hsitou was very pretty with exotic bamboos and many therapeutic hiking trails. I saw a number of divine trees, 1000 years old. I inquired as to how the trails were kept so serenely and no rubbish anywhere. He simply said "Taiwan is a small country, so people empower themselves."

On the sixth visit, Tainan Chenkong University was the Convention venue. My wife and I flew to Kaohsiung and took a train ride to Tainan. DTM Y. H. Chen, the legendary southern Toastmaster leader, accompanied us to Tainan. Before moving on to Tainan, he and his Kaohsiung Toastmaster member gave us a tour to visit Cheng Ching Lake, a man-made water reservoir turned beautiful lake (about 300 hectares) and Tsuo Ying Lotus Pond and the nearby Confucius Temple. Cheng Ching Lake was undergoing quite a renovation and the lake was half dry when we visited. That night, the three of us returned to Kaohsiung and wandered through the famous night food stands to enjoy "eel shao-chi (small bite)".On the 7th trip, Dr. Kobayashi of Shimonoseki University joined us and the Japanese delegation to attend the Kaohsiung Toastmasters Convention and immediately afterwards, we visited Chi Mei Corp private art museum in Baoan Industrial Quarters near Tainan and Usanto Reservoir irrigation dam built by Yoichi Hachida (1886-1942). We owe a debt of gratitude to DTM Chen's advice regarding the visit and for making the museum reservations for us.For the visit to Chi Mei Corp, we prepared by reading Founder Wen-Lung Hsu 's book. Chi Mei is the No. l producer of ABS, plastics in the world and their main plant and research lab site are located near Tainan. We arrived before the museum opened and waited at the restaurant service desk. Then the morning meeting started, Japanese style, as employees lined up chanting something. I sneaked a quick snapshot (see the photo). The museum must be a jewel among the privately owned. Since photos are prohibited inside the museum, please visit their official Web site for images.Yoichi Hachida, a native Kanazawan, arrived in Taiwan upon his graduation from the University of Tokyo as a civil engineer. He tackled irrigation problems immediately and was revered by his lifelong dedication to complete Usanto Dam, as well as the Chianan Canal. Unfortunately, he was drafted by the Japanese Army and on his voyage to the Philippines, his boat was sunk by allied subs. His wife killed herself in the dam discharge leaving a note that she preferred to be with her husband rather than return to Japan.Daja near Taichung, was the Convention site on my 8th trip in 2007. I met the Taichung Central club members again, including Meili Chang and Melody Hou, who took me to Lukang years ago. They kindly offered to take us on a trip to Mu Sheng Museum in Puli and I fulfilled a wish I had for years. Melody said Mu Sheng was already there when his father was a small boy.

The latest Yangmingshan Convention was my 9th trip to Taiwan. I thought I made ten trips but not quite. I could not have made these trips without the help of many, many friends mentioned above. A real Big Salute and thank you! All of you have motivated me to return to Taiwan. I thank my Kitakyushu Toastmaster colleague Masaki Oshiumi who joined me on my trips to Taiwan these last few times. His son-in-law was stationed in a plant in Touliu and he visited the family there. He is very interested in Taiwan and is a great fellow traveler.

So, I am now looking forward to my double digit trip. Hallelujah!

Ximen Elementary School Soon To Reach Centennial Anniversary!

My recent trip to Taiwan yielded many harvests, adding more Toastmasters friends and contacting Yangmingshan National Park volunteer interpreters. I wrote that I joined the choir during the Toastmasters Conference Night. While I was waiting in the anteroom, I met a group of female sword dancers clad in men's "kendogi and hakama" (part of the Japanese fencing attire) with their sleeves braced up on the back. We rarely see them in Japan these days, so I was struck with the gallant outfits. One of them spoke excellent Japanese and I gathered she was a teacher or iemoto, sent from the headmaster of the dancing school.

Her name is Janifer Kuo, a Taiwanese, President of the Japanese Toastmasters in Taipei called Taiheiyo, the Pacific. I was unable to see their performance on stage as our choir immediately followed them, but I saw the photographs after the show. After the Conference, Janifer sent us invitations to a special Chinese dinner, representing volunteers from a mix of two Japanese clubs, Pacific and Peace; noticing our short stay and probably with less than a week's notice to their members. About a dozen Toastmasters gathered for us, taking time out of their busy schedules. It was a wonderful meeting getting to know them on a more personal basis as self-introductions rolled around the table.

Janifer read selected lines of articles from a thick book entitled Journey Back Through Childhood Memories but it took me some time to recognize that it was the book she edited about 5 years ago for the reunion of Ximen Elementary School Japanese graduates on the 90th anniversary of the school being established. This school was founded in l915 as Kotobuki Elementary during the Japanese colonial days and since been renamed Ximen Elementary after World War II.

In 2005, Janifer, helped organize the welcome reception of the 40 graduates from Japan as a teacher at Ximen Elementary School. The highlight of the Anniversary was the tearful reunion of classmates, all reaching the age of three scores and ten, who had been separated between Japan and Taiwan. Some graduates had visited before, but for the majority of Japanese, this was their first return trip to their mother school.


Standing on the school playground, they were reminiscing among the mangos, bread trees, ginkgo nut trees, as it was 60 years ago, and they were impressed, being told that the school did everything to revive the trees. They were particularly overjoyed to see the swimming pool. As the war came to a close, the money they saved for a school excursion to Japan was instead used to construct the swimming pool. The planned travel by ocean was canceled fearing Allied's submarine attacks. Janifer passed out writing pads (Japanese Genkoshi) to the 40 Japanese alumni to scribble down their thoughts while they made their nostalgic tours to Tanshui and Wurai and she was glad everyone complied with her request. She not only reproduced in the book the Genkoshi as written with photos of the writers, but she translated everything into Chinese, side by side. It was a wonderful memento for the Japanese alumni who so dearly remembered their childhood in Ximen.

She added historical school photos including those of the principal and faculty, school flags and songs, and even neighborhood news, including the symbolic Ximen Hong Lou story. Ximen Elementary School is just a couple of blocks away from Ximen Hong Lou. I salute Janifer for her passion and energy for bridging the distance of Ximen Elementary alumni living apart in Taiwan and Japan.

They agreed to target 2015 for the 100th Anniversary in Taiwan. However, they hold reunions whenever they get a chance. They have now adopted the club name "Evergreen” for themselves. They held a second reunion in 2008 in Taipei and a third one in 2009 in Tokyo with Janifer playing a major role.

The Japanese alumni, whenever heading for Taiwan, eagerly cooperated as virtual "carrier" with the so-called "Flying Wheels" program, numbering more than 100 to date. They agreed to fly to Taiwan used and retired wheelchairs, for the aged or physically challenged, which were donated by a Japanese non-profit organization. There, the chairs will be rebuilt or refurbished for reuse by Taiwanese in need. It was a friendly gesture by the Japanese alumni who served as good-will ambassadors to help the physically challenged in Taiwan.

Long live, Evergreeners, to celebrate their 100th Reunion!

Ximen (West Gate) Hong Lou, A Surviving Theater

When you surface from the Taiwan subway at Ximen Station, you catch a glimpse across the busy intersection of people and car traffic of a chic and stodgy brick building. Modestly illuminated at night, it invited our inquisitive attention and we walked in to see what was inside.

Ximen is compared and likened to Shinjuku or Harajuku in Tokyo where young people visit boutique shops, cafes and restaurants. It's a place I felt nostalgia and I see why. It was a Japanese town before World War II. The historic temple Lonshanshi is close, where the area named Ban-kah, the name of the dugout canoes still kept, but in different Chinese characters "Wanhua" (pronounced Manka in Japanese).

Michelle Chen, our guide of the night, told us that this Hong Lou Theater was occupied by Guomindang soldiers. The building, decayed and neglected for a long time was restored recently as one of the historic buildings designated by the country. The brochure we picked up explained that it was built originally as a public health station, but later became the Taipei City Market, which thrived as an abundant commodity supply center. It became a show window of Taipei commerce and distribution, and the Japanese government officials used to pay a visit to observe how things were going down there.

Aptly nicknamed Octagon Hall because of its shape, the concept was reportedly from the art of divination, I Ching (Book Of Changes). The area was a kind of marsh where dead bodies were found on the roads. So, many prayers are placed in the octagonal design.

The architect was a man named Jyuro Kondo, one of the famous Japanese quartet, who worked at the Building and Repair Section of the Colonial Government. The four architects were Nagano, Moriyama, Ide and Kondo. Nagano was responsible for today's Presidential Office, Moriyama for today's Audit Office, and Ide for the Judicial Office and Educational Hall, the latter is still being used for all kinds of Musical events near the Ximen subway station as Zhongshan Hall. Kondo was responsible also for the old hospital of Taipei Imperial University. The Taiwanese probably had mixed feelings when they dealt with the Japanese architecture from the colonial days. It was just during the past 10 years that the Taiwan Government authorized the designation of those building as historical buildings and funded their restoration efforts.

Zhongshan Hall designed by Ide
A common style shared between the four architects are Gothic or baroque design, accents of grandeur and combined use of red bricks and white stones for horizontal belts. All these elements of style were apparently influenced by an architect named Kingo Tatsuno, their teacher at the University of Tokyo, whose representative work is the Tokyo Station Building.

Currently, the first floor of the Hong Lou Theater houses not only a cafe but also a place where traditional toys, artifacts, and photographs are exhibited and sold. The second floor is an open theater with a big stage / screen, used for small concerts, operas, and perhaps movies. We dropped into the theater a couple of times on the way to and from Heroes Hotel where we stayed. The hotel is within walking distance from this Ximen Market.

I searched the Internet for more information about Jyuro Kondo. He returned to Japan from Taiwan and opened an architectural firm. He built one hospital, called Do-Ai Hospital, in Sumida Ward. However, it was demolished 15 years ago. He must have consumed all his energy in Taiwan and had little left upon his return.

Translated version of Dear Miss Breed now registered at the National (Japan) Diet Library

A good friend is a great blessing. Our friendship, based on Toastmastering and deepened with travel, led to the book Dear Miss Breed that I translated to become registered with the Japanese National Diet Library.

In early 2000, our Toastmasters Club in Kitakyushu invited Professor Kobayashi from Shimonoseki City University to a meeting. An excellent speaker, in an ice breaker speech, Kobayashi Sensei talked about his young days in Hawaii. We learned that he graduated from the University of Hawaii with a master's degree and later earned a PhD. In 2004, he gave his retirement lecture "50 years as an Asian researcher" to Shimonoseki citizen and his students, and returned to Yokohama to live with his family. In the fall of 2006, the Kitakyushu Club invited Kobayashi Sensei to join them in attending the Toastmasters Convention held in Taiwan. He gladly accepted it, and so, three of us, Oshiumi, Kobayashi and I flew down to Kaoshiung representing Kitakyushu. There he volunteered as an ad-hoc speech demonstrator during the training sessions and was immediately surrounded by young Taiwanese fans throughout the convention. He happened to be fluent in Chinese and was a big help when we traveled to Taipei via Tainan, Chiayi, Poan, etc. and visited Taiwanese industries and universities on the way back.
A photo from Taiwan Toastmasters Conference. I am addressing the audience (of about 1,000 people) as a representative of Kitkayushu as well as District 76 (Japan) Toastmasters. Behind me were Masaki Oshiumi and Eiji Kobayashi.

One of the books he wrote in 1979, Developments of Indus River, Agriculture and Water Problems in India/Pakistan, was highly acclaimed by Japanese financiers and industrialists, Asian scholars as the best introduction available of the area. He gave detailed history of how India and Pakistan disputed water distribution and how the Tarbela Dam, the world's largest embankment dam, helped solve the problems from the Asian Development banker perspective. He was a banker himself then, before he became an educator.

I forgot that I sent the publication notice of my translation to the professor. After a month long trip to California, I found his letter, dated March, waiting for me upon my return in April.

He wrote that he was so impressed with the translation of the book that he felt the need to help promote the book. He voluntarily sent his book review to the biannual newsletter published by and for the ex-employee association of the National Diet Library. Attached to the letter he sent me was the said Newsletter No. 44 dated March l, 2009 with a full page of the book review.

My quick search yielded the following designation of my book at the National Diet Library as follows:

NDC (Nippon Decimal Classification) - (9) 334.453,
NDLSH (National Diet Library Subject Heading) - JP: 21460307

Thank you, Kobayashi Sensei. I feel really honored. I'm hoping that I may travel again, not only to Taiwan, but to other Asian countries where your expertise shines.

*****

Book Review by Dr. Eiji Kobayashi (formerly with the Legislative Reference Bureau, National Diet Library)

As in the subtitle, the book depicts "the true and heart warming stories of Japanese American children and a librarian Clara Breed" in San Diego, California. During World War II,.Clara taught the children of the neighborhood how to enjoy reading and was popular as their friend.

It all started the day of December 8, 1941, when the Imperial Japanese forces raided Pearl Harbor. I myself remember the day well as a first grader. However, until I read the book, I didn't know what happened to the Japanese Americans in the West Coast, as a consequence of the raid. In reflection of the Americans' terrible fear of a possible Japanese invasion of California, then President Roosevelt issued his Executive Order to evacuate all those people who had Japanese ancestry, regardless of their status of naturalization.

Suddenly on April 8, 1942, a total of 120,000 Japanese Americans were interned into relocation camps scattered internally off the coast lines. The children Clara Breed served as her students were first sent to the Los Angeles Assembly Center. There they had to live in horse stalls turned housing, which emitted a most unpleasant odor.

It was shocking to Clara Breed who believed incarceration based on being a descendant of a particular nation was a mistake. She began to receive letters from her children, all with the heading "Dear Miss Breed." Children wrote about their camp lives - barbed wire surroundings, watchtower guns aimed at those inside rather than intruders from outside, waiting in long lines for everything from meals, laundry, showers, mail, etc. One young man (Tetsu), desperate from seeing nothing but shanties wrote that he was betrayed by his mother country. They were then herded into a permanent detention camp in Poston, Arizona, in a desert full of snakes, scorpions, tumble weeds. There they had to face extreme summer heat, sand storms, freezing air and bitter coldness in winter. Riots broke out among those who could not bear their situation.

Clara Breed continued to ship books to children in the camps for encouragement. She sent not only books but also some daily necessities, shoes, woolen yarns, socks as requested by children in their letters along with candy and gum. Christmas presents Clara sent particularly cheered up the children. In their homesickness they asked Clara to update them on news from San Diego. Soon some of them graduated from high school and joined the American military or entered universities, leaving their camps with WRA permissions. San Diego, a naval town, however, was reportedly still hostile toward them and children hesitated to return there despite their homesickness.

In 1970, Miss Clara Breed, then promoted to the Head Librarian, had a great reunion with all the children who finally returned to San Diego. She retired from the the San Diego Library system after 42 years of service and passed away in 1994 at the age of 88. Her creed was "I can't imagine life without books. Reading is food for the spirit and immeasurable."

Author Joanne Oppenheim (born 1934) has written many children books. She happened to see the "Dear Miss Breed" letters in the National Japanese American Museum and contacted the writers of those letters to interview them in hopes of putting faces to Breed's human characters and to document the period of infamy in American history.

I know the translator, Rio Imamura, who worked for a San Diego manufacturer and was a resident there for over 20 years. We are fortunate to be able to read Oppenheim's book in Japanese published by Kashiwa Shobo. Thanks to his hard work, explanations of photos, illustrations, footnotes and indexes are all painstakingly translated for easy reference. I was glad to see that all the library terminology was correctly translated.

America saw the birth of the first African American President, Barak Obama, who proclaimed "Change". However, has America really changed as in President Obama's slogan? Am I the only one who feels that the dark shadow of racial discrimination and injustice still continues to linger in America and elsewhere?

(Review translated by Rio Imamura)

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