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.

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.

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!