I So Love Shimonoseki!

Speech given on Feb 20, 2013 at Tokyu Hotel cafe lounge

"Live a pleasant life in the unpleasant world!" This is a famous quote of Shinsaku Takasugi, Choshu Clan Samurai, perhaps your hero, who played a pivotal role in the pre-Meiji Restoration. He passed away young before his dream came true; however, his strategy of organizing militia and his visionary leadership should well be long remembered.

Ladies and gentlemen and guests, I'm honored to speak today for Shimonoseki Toastmasters in the making. Shimonoseki is my favorite city where I'm always hoping to return. My sister-in-law invited my wife and me to live in Kitakyushu upon our return to Japan from the U.S. The first place she drove us to was Tsunoshima Resort, a beautiful cobalt blue ocean view and sand beach and a bridge to the island. The scenery is comparable to the 7-mile Bridge, Key Largo, Florida. I was so impressed that I have taken American guests there, also my son from New York and my granddaughter from California.

Representing Kitakyushu Toastmasters, I was fortunate to meet today's Chair TM Miyake. She visited with me at Kozanji, Mohri Palatial Residence, Nogi-jinja, etc. in Chofu. I had a chance later to visit Akama Shrine, Shunpanro, Yume-Tower, and Karato. Oh, I so love Shimonoseki!

Thank you for coming today to join us in our noble venture, and I know you are anxious to know what Toastmasters is all about. First and foremost, Toastmasters is a non-profit organization that operates clubs worldwide for the purpose of improving English communication and leadership. Founded by Dr. Ralph Smedley in California, it covers over 110 countries and accommodates a quarter million members. The greater San Diego District, where I used to work, had a population of 3 million and had about 150 clubs when I left. In other words, 50 clubs per million there. Upon my return in 1995, I found clubs in Japan narrowly reached 60.

Kyushu had only one club, in Fukuoka, right after the war, started by a GARIOA scholarship student who came back from the U.S. It is one of the oldest clubs in Japan. Fukuoka, therefore, had a few Kitakyushu members who commuted twice a month by train. They were so happy to join the newly formed club in Kitakyushu. It was in 1997, over 15 years ago. Now the time has come for Shimonoseki to claim the same exciting beginning.

New members will learn tonight, through well established protocols - the one minute self-introduction and the two-to-three-minute response to table topics question. Then, after you are inducted as a member, you must give a formal 6-minute speech. You will then be evaluated by your friendly fellow members and the mentor in charge for improvement. Friends help friends practice in a warm accepting atmosphere. You will advance step by step following the Toastmasters Manual, the treasures of this century old wisdom to success. The project manual covers speech organization, vocal variety, language, gestures, humor, persuasion, etc.

I'm sure each of you has made your New Year's resolution in January to brush up and expand your English communication this year. It's never too late to empower yourself by way of joining the Shimonoseki Toastmasters as founding members. Seize this opportunity and realize your dream! It is better late than never. Welcome to an exciting adventure.

Tagore and Japan

"Standing on the outskirts of Yokohama town, bristling with its display of modern miscellanies, I watched the sunset in your southern sea, and saw its peace and majesty among your pine-clad hills, - - with the great Fujiyama going faint against the golden horizon, like a god overcome with his own radiance, - - the music of eternity welled up through the evening silence, and I felt that the sky and the earth and the lyrics of the dawn and day fall are with the poets and idealists."
(from Sir Rabindranath Tagore's speech at Keio University)

1. Visit the Sankeien Garden in Yokohama

2. Visit Koishigawa Korakuen Garden (Mito Branch of the Tokugawa Residence)

3. Visit Rikugien or 6-Poems Garden

These were the top three items of my "bucket" list once I returned to Tokyo in 1995, as I was deeply involved in the planning and fund raising of the San Diego Japanese Friendship Garden, initiated by Wil Hippen Junior, the Honorary Japanese Consul of San Diego. This San Diego garden was named after Yokohama Sankeien, in view of the sister-city relationship between San Diego and Yokohama. Phonetically named it was the same, but our San Diego Sankeien used different Kanji characters. Whereas the Yokohama Sankeien is blessed with the massive land of 43,240 acres, the San Diego Sankeien had leased only 5 acres from the city inside the 14,000 acre Balboa Park. But when you think of the authentic Portland Japanese Garden with 5.5 acres, the size of San Diego Sankeien is fair. Having heard Consul Hippen admiring Yokohama Sankeien so much, I thought I had to see the garden for myself.

One day in 1995, my wife and I extended our trip from our Yokohama relatives to the original Sankeien close to Tokyo Bay, called Honmoku. It is here the Yokohama bay shore bends to form a chevron shape. It is a bit hilly and Commodore Perry called it Treaty Point. Today, the shore is surrounded by oil refineries and tanks by city highways. It must have been a good lookout point in the past. Here the city maintains a complex of public parks, swimming pools, museums, including Sankeien, originally owned by silk trader king Tomitaro Hara (1868-1939).

My heart was full of emotion at Sankeien. I felt I was finally back home as a Japanese. Mr. Hara had 17 historically significant buildings moved, set amidst an inner and outer garden and two lakes. These buildings were from Tokyo, Kyoto, Kamakura, etc. Ten of them have been declared Important Cultural Property, and three more are Tangible Cultural Properties. Mr. Hara was a pioneer of transplanting buildings. Today it is fashionable to move old houses to new locations. The outer garden opened in 1915 to the public, and the inner, which housed his private house and garden, was donated to the city in 1953. It is pure bliss to see that Sankeien is now fully recovered to prewar levels.

During this garden tour, I learned Mr. Hara offered Gurudev Tagore and his entourage a two month stay in 1916. The quote at the beginning of this post is from his speech delivered at Keio University. He was on his way to the U.S. to give lectures as Nobel Laureate but he was eager, as an artist himself, to learn Nihonga, inspired by Tenshin Okakura who visited India. When Tagore stayed at Okyo Maruyama's home in Tokyo, Mr. Hara came to his rescue as dilettante and art sponsor. Mukul Dey, a young artist accompanying Tagore, wrote to his father:

"Dear Father, A couple of days ago we came here from Tokyo. Gurudev and the others have arrived as well. We are staying with a very famous Japanese millionaire here. The sea is just in front of this house. Across the sea is America. Steep and big cliffs rise from the shoreline. These are thickly covered with pine trees. On top of the cliff, amid the rows of pine trees, is a palatial complex where we are staying. We are living royally with Gurudev. Lots of servants and maids around. All of them eager to serve us. This wealthy man, Mr. Hara, with whom we are staying, is a superb host. He is full of kindness. The common man can visit his garden at their will and organize picnics here. For them Mr. Hara provides firewood, good stoves and water. In his garden there are places where people can sit down and rest…many teahouses and temples, all are here. This Mr. Hara lets his money flow for the sake of his country’s art. All the great artists of Japan, Mr. Taikan, Mr. Shimomura Kanzan receive generous patronage from him. They receive unstinted support from him in exchange for their paintings. Mr. Hara has a great passion for art."
 
Tagore seemed so impressed with Kanzan's "Yoroboshi" that he wanted to take home a replica. When artist Hirokata Arai made the requested replica arranged by Mr. Hara, Tagore offered Arai a teaching position for appreciation at Visva-Bharati University in Santiniketan, popularly known as Tagore University.

Tagore's observation of the Sankeien was as follows:

"Every day about noontime, neighborhood workers started to arrive on foot at this beautiful garden, like bees gathering for honey. They strolled around the park, bewitched with sceneries of ocean and sky molten, filled their hunger with refreshment, moistened the dry heart, invigorated themselves and walked back to where they belonged. While so doing, nobody made noise, trampled down grasses, broke tree branches or flowers, scattered trashes. No fights and no drunkards. And they were ordinary workers. This totally amazed and enraptured me."
 

Here at Sankeien, Tagore took part in tea ceremonies, witnessed flower arrangement, saw Noh plays and composed haikus. The haiku he sang in Japan became an anthology titled Stray Birds, which he dedicated to his generous host Tomitaro Hara. I'm quoting here several haikus from the anthology including those he made in a Karuizawa summer resort where he met Tomi Kora (1896-1993) as his student of the Japanese Women's University. (Tagore taught summer class there). Dr. Kora, a graduate from Columbia University, became a congresswoman who visited Russia as the first Japanese after World War II and met Japanese prisoners.

Stray birds of summer came to my window to sing and fly away.
And yellow leaves of autumn, which have no songs, flutter and fall there with a sigh.
 
Once we dreamt that we were strangers.
We wake up to find that we were dear to each other.
 
Woman, with the grace of your fingers,
you touched my things and order came out like music.
 
Tagore visited Japan three times but never after Japan marched on to imperialism and took a militaristic direction. I had a chance to read his elegant speeches delivered in two universities, Tokyo and Keio. I felt that he was a real prophet from his first moment of arrival and tried his best to curb Japan from entering into war. But alas, I think very few people understood his lofty proficient English.

His prolific works, available mostly online, includes poems, novels, plays, essays, diaries, national anthems of India and Bangladesh and Bengal folk songs called Baul music and we see in them his noble aphorism, sublime morals, profound religious thoughts and philosophy, call of truth and cry for peace.

The prophetic soul of the wide world dreaming of things to come
 
The tumult and the shouting dies;
The captains and kings depart.
 
*Note:
"Yoroboshi" or the blind beggar monk based on the Zeami's Noh Play is one of Kanzan Shimomura's representative works produced in 1915 on a folding screen. It is currently housed in the Tokyo National Museum as an important cultural property. The replica produced by Hirokata Arai is housed at the Visva-Bharati University.

"See the USA in your Chevrolet" - Dinah Shore

New Year's Sunday papers were enlivened with a full page ad of one of the leading travel agent's "6900-kilometer Cross U.S. Bus Trip for 15 days". The agency is holding its orientation meetings for their prospective clients in major Japanese cities, including Fukuoka. This particular bus tour's itineraries are as follows: luxury bus ride (max 24 passengers on one bus, so one person to occupy two seats) from LAX to Atlanta, stopping at Las Vegas, Route 66 Cruise, Grand Canyon (for sunrise viewing), Santa Fe, San Antonio, Memphis and Atlanta, then Amtrak train ride from Atlanta to Washington DC, then back on the bus to Philadelphia and then on to New York. "Will promise you an unforgettable trip", so reads a catch phrase, since "you go over land with grand landscapes and spectacles, you can appreciate different multi-colored faces of the U.S." I looked up the agency's website and found the cost of the tour to be 600,000 to 700,000 Yen, equal to $6,800 to $8,000 per person.

In early 1980s, I was blessed with a happenstance to drive close to 3,800 kilometers, from California to North Carolina. My ex-employer acquired a German plant in Mountain Home, near Asheville, western North Carolina. I was short by 900 kilometers to make it coast to coast – roughly the distance from Asheville to maybe Cape Hatteras (eastern end of NC), known as the graveyard of the Atlantic Ocean. A few San Diego engineers were to join the new affiliate plant with their accompanying families. The corporate relocation policy then, however, allowed transportation of only one car per family to be paid by the company. If families owned a second car, they had to move it on their own. I was consulted by my relocating friend for advice and I just told him," leave it here until spring". "As the parent company, we should regularly offer you administrative services, and we will deliver a car as extra service by our administrative teams".

I had read about cars driven by hired students from coast to coast, a cheap way to haul cars long distance, but I wasn't sure about the credibility. I asked a couple of colleagues if they would join me in a driving venture. A Safety Officer and an Insurance Officer volunteered to go with me, as I went to the local AAA service to map out the driving routes and look for key precautions, such as snow. I also carefully gathered weather reports from the east. I have lived in New York for close to 10 years and I knew you could not stay free of snow before the month of April. Our departure was set in late March.

So at noon on a Friday, we rolled a brown sporty Chevorlet Camaro, just back from the service station, onto the highway. There were only two drivers - the Safety Officer, Al and myself. The Insurance Officer Mat bowed out at the last minute because of family matters.

Friday, the first night, we drove past the New Mexico State border, after our decent Mexican dinner in Phoenix until we became sleepy and called it a day. We stopped at an unknown roadside motel and fell dead asleep. On the second day, Saturday, we drove to Dallas/Fort Worth. We got take-out-lunches and ate in the car while one of us was driving. Sunday, we just drove on and on, passing Texarkana, Little Rock, Memphis, Nashville, and then started climbing up hills. We saw a bit of snow fall and quit driving as we had no tire chains. All I remember seeing was a Tennessee Tech sign.

It must have been near Cookeville somewhere. Luckily, the snow stopped at night. Monday morning, we had fine weather and we arrived at Mountain Home at around a little after noon, our venture completed. We made it in 3 nights and 4 days. Al reminisced that I was singing while I drove, spoiling his nap.

I learned through this venture that California to Texas is semi-desert, followed by a lot of greenery in Arkansas and Tennessee. On major highways you had to adjust your speed and follow the fleet of truckers as they communicated among themselves by CB radio. When they slowed, police cars were approaching. It was fun to mingle with them at the big truck stops. Food was delicious there, my favorite being grits served as you went east.

Upon returning to Japan after retirement, I read author Haruki Murakami's travelogue "Henkyo, Kinkyou" (Frontiers and Borders) wherein he wrote a 25 page article "Let's cross the U.S. Continent" with his personal note that this article was originally for a June 1995 Magazine "Sinra." "When you drive yourself coast to coast, you'd feel with your skin how gigantic the country is. Culture and clothes vary drastically as you go. The gas was impressively cheap. Toll roads were few. Meals and hotels, however, were monotonous. I would probably say no, if asked to do it again, because the intense yearning might develop akin to a craze or sickness to make you take another trip for trip’s sake. He was accompanied by his photographer friend.

Haruki's route was opposite to mine, east to west, and took a northerly route. Started from Boston to Toronto (he visited his Canadian friend on the way) and down to Detroit and Chicago. Then, South Dakota (visited Chinatown underground) to Yellowstone, down to Las Vegas and LAX. He rented a Volvo 850 Estate, well cushioned seat car. They were stopped often by police for questioning because of being an out-of-place vehicle wandering into the countryside.

I wrote in my June 2009 blog post that my San Diego friends, the Doi couple, made a 10,000 kilometer trip in one month, crossing the U.S. Rockies twice. I wrote "They visited Yellowstone, then drove east on Interstate 90 (5,000 kilometers from coast to coast) to see Niagara Falls, then south on I-75, and back on I-70 to the Rockies." Their route was somewhat closer to Murakami's.

Another San Diego friend, Fred, was always on tour until some years ago. I asked what motivated him to travel so much. He recently replied:

"It must be in the blood or genes. As you may remember, I was a holocaust survivor. My home was gone and so there was nothing holding me to one location. After I grew older living in the USA, I went into the military twice and saw more of the world. When I got married, I found that my wife (interned Nisei American) also had a sense of adventure and we agreed to a life where we traveled for the company I worked for, as an aerospace engineer. Prior to retiring we bought a motor home and spent four months out of the year seeing the USA. We covered over 100,000 miles (161,000 kilometers). I never regretted it. I don’t travel any more, but do miss it.”

See the USA in your Chevrolet
America is asking you to call
Drive your Chevrolet through the USA
America's the greatest land of all
On a highway, or a road along the levy
Performance is sweeter, nothing can beat her
Life is completer in a Chevy
So make a date today to see the USA

And see it in your Chevrolet
Traveling East, Traveling West

Wherever you go Chevy service is best

Southward or North, near place or far

There's a Chevrolet dealer for your Chevrolet car
So make a date today to see the USA

And see it in your Chevrolet.

Tragedy at the Great Wall Part 3

8

"Human nature, essentially changeable, as unstable as the dust, can endure no restraint; if it binds itself it soon begins to tear madly at its bonds, until it rends everything asunder, the wall, the bonds, and its very self." - Franz Kafka

Franz Kafka (1883-1924) wrote a short story "Die Chinesische Mauer" (unfinished same as most of his major works) something like an exotic historical account narrated by a mason, so raised and trained from his birth somewhere in south-east China.

He remembered as a child that a group of kids erected a sort of wall out of pebbles in their teacher's yard and the teacher gathered up his coat to crash it. As the teacher scolded them for the weakness of the wall, the children ran away in all directions, howling as they went to their parents.

This young mason, passed exams and attained a supervisory position, despite his lowest ranking, as he had grown up a real wall builder, driven with a sense of himself being part of the wall.

Where day laborers are driven only by pay, this mission motivated mason lived and breathed with the growth of walls and was impatient to see the structure finally standing completed to perfection. He was the backbone of wall builders. Kafka's narrative starts as follows:

"The Great Wall of China was finished at its most northerly location. The construction work moved up from the south-east and south-west and joined at this point. This system of building in sections was also followed on a small scale within the two great armies of workers, the eastern and western armies. It was carried out in he following manner: groups of about twenty workers were formed, each of which had to take up a section of the wall, about five hundred meters long. A neighboring group then built a wall of similar length to meet them. But then afterwards, when the sections were fully joined, construction was not continued on any further at the end of this thousand-meter section. Instead the groups of workers were shipped off again to build the wall in completely different regions."

His description is sure-handed and well-conceived as if he had traveled to see China. You may be inclined to open up a map of China where the above mason was born. You will not get anywhere since no names of province or village are given. The narration is all fiction. The Wall wasn't finished in its most northerly location, but who cares about the when and where in a Kafkaesque world. What impressed me is Kafka's clairvoyance. His travelsphere was very limited and his stories mostly written in that small Gold Makers Alley by the Prague Castle in the Czech Republic.

Kafka continues:

This mission-driven mason, reinvigorated after a brief home leave and looking forward to the exhilaration and enthusiasm of laboring once again, set off for another journey of venture.

"Half the villagers accompanied them for a long way. Every countrymen was a brother for whom they were building a protective wall and who would thank him with everything he had and was all for his life. Unity! Unity! Shoulder to shoulder, a coordinated movement of people."

"Also on their journey they saw here and there finished sections of the wall rising up; they passed through the quarters of higher administrators, who gave them gifts as badges of honor, they heard the rejoicing of new armies of workers streaming past them out of the depth of the land, saw forests being laid low, wood designated as scaffolding for the wall, witnessed mountains being broken up into rocks for the wall, and heard the holy mantras of the pious praying for the construction."

What beautiful imaginary scenes of expedition! There is no negative, dark element about hard labor.

In March 1990, a China/Japan/Germany Joint Symposium "Uber Die Chinesische Mauer" (over and beyond the "Great Wall of China") was held in Beijing China.

Debated at the Symposium was the allegorical lesson Kafka tried to teach us. The Wall might be interpreted as the Wailing Wall or Western Wall in Jerusalem - a bold leap! Chinese was replaced with Hebrew. Unity is "Einheit". Eastern crew and western crew are eastern Jews and western Jews. How was Kafka involved in Zionism? Was there a reference to the Tower of Babel. Why did the Tower collapse? I am just raising the issue and wish to leave it at that.

In closing the Great Wall trilogy, I wish to re-emphasize the reported length of the Great Wall (21,000 kilometers) is close to one half the length of the global equator (40,100 kilometers). It's a really, really long standing work of wonder.

Tragedy at The Great Wall - Part 2

4

Olha o muro e edificio nunca crido,
Que entro um imperio e o outro se edfica
Certissimo sinal, e conhecido,
Da potencia real, soberba e rica;

Behold the Great Wall built beyond human imagination
against the uncivilized
Showing the impressive power and strength of King
full of pride and wealth

- from Os Lusiadas by Luis de Camoes (1524-1580) -

As is well known, China (Japan or Cipangu as an addition) was first introduced to Europe by Marco Polo (1254-1324), a Venetian merchant who made a Silk Road trek from 1271 to 1295 with his father Niccolo and uncle Maffeo. On their return, the family settled in Venice where they became a sensation and attracted crowds of listeners who had difficulty believing their reports of distant China. Since they did not believe him, Marco invited them all to dinner one night during which the three Polos dressed in the simple clothes of peasants in China. Shortly before the crowds ate, the Polos opened their pockets to reveal hundreds of rubies and other jewels which they had received in Asia. Though they were much impressed, the people of Venice still doubted the Polos. Marco Polo was later captured in a minor clash in the war between Venice and Genoa, or during the naval battle of Curzola, according to a dubious legend. He spent a few months of his imprisonment in 1298, dictating to a fellow inmate, Rustichello da Pisa, a fortuitous meeting with a romance writer, who detailed accounts of his travels. This "travelog of Marco Polo", first appeared in French and then in many languages with illustrations by Italian artists, shocked all of Europe.

Did he mention the Great Wall? No, he did not. Absent were important cultural traditions of China such as tea drinking, calligraphy, binding of woman's feet, etc., and quite a few people today wonder if he had ever set foot in China.

Arguments regarding no mention of the Great Wall by Polo are that reinforcements to the structure came after the Yuan Dynasty since the Mongolians as invaders didn't take the Wall too seriously.

In any case, a Portuguese poet, Luis de Camoes, praised the wonders of the Great Wall in his Os Lusiadas, a Homeric epic of the Lusiadas quoted above; proof that the Great Wall was already widely known among Europeans by the 16th century.

Marco claimed he served Kublai Khan (1214-1294) for a decade, his detailed accounts of Xhandu, Khan's palace and celebration programs, paper currency, ocean expeditions to invade Japan, are very graphic, inspiring many Europeans to look toward Asia.

5

Was Temujin (meaning blacksmith), later Genghis Kahn (1214-1294), the first Mongol Emperor, the World Destroyer or the Green Savior? Following are the most famous GK quotes contrary to each other:

"My greatest happiness is to vanquish your enemies, to drive them before you, to rob them of their wealth, to see those dear to them bathe in tears, to clasp your bosom their wives and daughters."

"Keep your grasslands and rivers always clean."

I read a theory that the cyclical climate change in Ural-Altaic forced Mongols, Huns, Uyghur's, to head south for food and survival. China had been invaded and threatened constantly for this reason. Grasslands in Mongolia helped raise and breed great horses that provided strength of speedy troopers with archery skills for the Mongolian Empire to reach Eastern Europe. Mongols hate harsh winters, especially the "Zud" condition, a Mongol term for an extremely snowy winter in which livestock are unable to find fodder through the snow cover and large numbers of animals die due to starvation and the cold. The term is used for other meteorological conditions, for instance, the desertification that makes livestock grazing impossible. "Keep your grasslands and rivers always clean" has been remembered and revered by Mongolians as Genghis Kahn's admonition.

Genghis Kahn's bloody conquests scrubbed 700 million tons of carbon from the atmosphere as depopulated land returned to forest. This is equivalent to the world’s total annual demand for gasoline today. So GK has been branded the greenest invader in history.

6

It is Qin Shi Huang (259BC-210BC), the first Emperor of the Qin Dynasty, who first linked a number of smaller walls, built separately by six rival lords (Chu, Qi, Wei, Han, Zhao, Yan) after conquering them, and combined them into one wall, a first clear boundary of unified China. Initially, defensive fortresses were made of hardened dirt, but later when more sophisticated materials became available such as bricks, mortar adobe, etc., the walls gradually shaped into the Great Wall that we see today. It took over 2000 years, spanning from the Qin Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), excluding the Yuan Dynasty period when work on the wall was totally ceased. When the Yuan Dynasty collapsed, the Chinese Han once again took control under the command of rebel leader Zhu Yuanzhang, who became the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty. China flourished during the Ming Dynasty and its military might swelled. The GREAT WALL was rebuilt in a 100 year project to prevent further northern invasions. The walls close to Beijing, like the Bataling and Mutianyu sections, were built during the Ming Dynasty.

The manpower mostly came from frontier guards, peasants, disgraced noblemen, convicts and war prisoners. During the construction, Great Wall was called the longest cemetery on earth because so many people died. Reportedly it cost the lives of more than one million people.

There are two popular legends about the Great Wall.

One is the story of Meng Jiang Nu, a wife of a farmer who was forced to work on the wall during the Qin Dynasty. When she heard her husband had died while working the wall, she wept until the wall collapsed, revealing his bones so she could bury them.

Another is a story of a tall monster (maoren in Chinese, thick-haired man), haunting the Great Wall villages in Fangshan (known as cave mountain) in Hubei Province. The villagers were often annoyed with his appearances to look for food and hunt chicken and dogs. The monster ran away when they shouted, "Here come the drafters (meaning Qin's guard to draft GW workers).” Apparently he was a deserter and had hidden in a cave. (Source: from the "Zibuyu" written by Yuan Mei).

7

I read "Joint China/Japan Academic Investigators Reports of the Great Wall", written by Hiroko Uchiumi (Kusanone Publishing 2001) in two volumes, a most labored work. The group trekked an accumulative 6000 kilometers from Yumenguan, the western frontier near Dunhuang, to Shanhaiguan, Hebei, close to Qinhuan Island, a famous summer resort, from 1992 to 2001. The author was secretary of the group keeping records and facilitating communications between group members of Japan and China. It was reported that, in most of the areas, weathering progressed where little or no attention was paid for upkeep. I'm still in the middle of reading the book.

Researching the Academic Investigation group on the Internet, I found the comment of the Japanese group leader, Hisakatsu Fukuda, on a recent tragedy at the Great Wall. The average temperature in Beijing from October to November goes down sharply. The average low of October is 8 degrees C. Snow may come at 3 or 4 degrees. Now most of the Great Wall north of Beijing is 1000 meters tall, the difference of temperature could be plus or minus 5 degrees C. You have to consider the difference in temperature as you ascend the mountain. The tour must be guided by a veteran. Amateur trekkers should not go unless accompanied by a veteran. The site of the accident was far away from the village. Even veterans try to make it in a day, even in the summer, at 3PM at the mountain. Besides, he said he was sorry that none of them thought of snow caves or snow shelters in that situation.

Tragedy at The Great Wall - Part 1

1

In mid-October, 2012, my American friend from Ohio emailed me that he had arrived in Jinan, Shandong, China, to teach English at the Shandong University of Science and Technology. He wrote that he took a trip to Beijing, taking his days off in early October and extended his visit to the Jinshanling. It was a typical Beijing clear sky of autumn to visit a relatively uncrowded section of the Great Wall. He sent a couple of excellent photos from Jinshanling, including German visitors he met on the bus. The Jinshanling Great Wall where my Ohio American visited is located northeast of Beijing, beyond the Miyun Reservoir, and further away than the Badaling section of the Great Wall which is always crowded with tourists.

2

My personal trip to the Great Wall was in the summer of 1996. It was on my way back from Yunnan Province, where I joined the Vermont University Summer Program of China Studies for Teachers. The State of Vermont has sister state relations with Yunnan Province as both have mountainous geography. The summer program was specifically set up for Vermont High School teachers but accepted a few applicants from other states. I applied from California when I was still a resident. There were 18 participants including myself - 14 women and four men. I was paired with a male teacher from Connecticut. The program ran for one month, hosted by Yunnan Normal College (now Yunnan Normal University) in Kunming. We spent mornings in class taking lessons ranging from Beginning Chinese and History to Calligraphy and more. In the afternoon we visited local schools of children, temples, scenic parks, etc. Three weekends were for long distance travels to Shilin, Dali, etc. We all flew back to Beijing after Yunnan and the Chinese International Exchange Bureau gave us a trip to the Great Wall while we were there.

We went to Badaling, due north of Beijing, the most popular and most visited site of the Great Wall. Xiao Song, an interpreter/guide from the Bureau accompanied us. She was a wonderful woman with whom I corresponded for a number of years afterwards. We took a cable to the North Eighth Tower (just about 1000 meters tall) and walked down. Xiao Song emphasized that Badaling was the most heavily guarded military outpost, reflecting the location's (Juyongguan Pass) strategic importance. Back then, Badalin was less crowded, even in summer.

3

The morning of November 6 brought devastating news: four elderly Japanese tourists became trapped in a snowstorm on the Great Wall of China. Then around noontime, sad news followed. Two women had died of hypothermia. One woman survived and was rescued followed by another. A missing man had been found, but was pronounced dead. The president of the travel agency was on his way to Beijing. Amuse Travel was the same agent that lost 7 elderly trekkers and a guide in a central Hokkaido mountain called Tomrausi (2.141m) in 2009. News media wondered if the "punitive 50 day business closure" didn't give enough of a message for the agency to improve safety precautions.

We learned that the tour was for nine days -- 100 kilometer trek of the Great Wall in a particular area reinforced by the Ming Dynasty, and the first trial project for Amuse Travel Agency. The Japanese trekkers were accompanied by a Chinese guide named Ming Pingming, 25 years old.

On Nov. 11, the remains of three seniors were flown back. One was flown to Fukuoka and transported to Kitakyushu, where I live. I learned he was 76 years old and an ex-city official, who served as Chief Librarian, financial manager as well as auditor. Upon his retirement in 2008, he took up mountain trekking as his hobby, often accompanied by his wife. I might have been on that excursion if I had known about it.

I had to dig deep to find out what happened in Huailai County, in Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province. My Google search led to the Huiali County website where the Chinese Guide Pingming spoke in Chinese, which was translated into Japanese.

"On Nov. 3, we started climbing at 8 AM and at noon we were at the Great Wall near Mt. Hengling. Snow started falling fast and heavily at about 1 p.m. and soon we were snowed in, white everywhere. We knew about the snow forecast, but thought we could finish our trek before the snow came. Falling snow deepened and we had no shelter around as the temperature quickly went down. Everyone had worn special winter clothes but not enough to protect ourselves from mountain chills. Especially, Mr. Y, 76 years old, was unable to bear it and his condition gradually deteriorated. In view of the crisis, I asked a young Chinese named Gong, who voluntarily joined the trek group through the Internet, to go down and get immediate help. While waiting for help, we shouldered together to warm up. While so doing, we saw that Mr. Y's breath became stifled. Women encouraged him by rubbing his face and hands. I gave him semi-AED treatment without a machine but to no avail. As night approached, he closed his eyes. I couldn't tell the exact time he passed away. Snow continued without mercy. Three women were also getting weaker. We shared the last piece of chocolate we carried. Since there was no sign of rescue, I myself decided to seek help. Mountain roads which usually took one hour, took more than 4 hours. It was around noon when l finally climbed down, falling and tumbling as I approached a village and saw a group of rescuers. I was near exhaustion and taken to a hospital. Rescuers, however, searched for a long time for the three women left behind. I'm sorry that I was unable to assist in locating those left behind."

Samurai Missionary

”I tell you the truth, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds."

- John 12:24

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It was close to my retirement when browsing the UCSB Library, I found the book titled Samurai Missionary published in 1985. While perusing the book, the name "Imabari" jumped out at me and caught me by surprise.

This is the city in Ehime Prefecture on Shikoku Island where I was born and raised. I never imagined Imabari as a stage for international drama for the scriptures. The book was written by Rev. Jiro Nakano, an MD and Hawaiian pastor, in memory of Rev. Shiro Sokabe (1865-1949), the Samurai Missionary himself.

As a new Doshisha University graduate, Rev. Sokabe answered the call from the Hawaiian Board of Missions to work with struggling immigrant Japanese plantation workers and their families on the Big Island. This was not exactly a trip to paradise. He overcame poverty, prejudice and rigid social class systems to raise hundreds of plantation children, teach them about Jesus, and show them how to fit into the community. His inner strength and his countenance made him an effective communicator in the Japanese community and to plantation managers. Not only did he educate and raise hundreds of children, but he helped the immigrants make the transition to their new country of residence. His ministry here began only a few short years after Hawaii was annexed by the United States. Meanwhile, a woman named Shika Nakagawa, an acquaintance of Shiro, who had been trained as a nurse at Doshisha University, was courted, and brought over for marriage to work together with him. Shika became a mother figure for many of the children, especially the girls.

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By now you are probably wondering how Imabari figures into the story. Kenjiro, aka author Roka Tokutomi (1968-1927), was a friend of Rev. Sokabe – a friendship fostered during their Imabari days in 1885. Both were disciples of Rev. Tokio Yokoi, the first pastor of the Imabari church, which was the very first church which opened in 1880 in Shikoku. Rev. Yokoi is the son of Shonan Yokoi, a scholar and political reformer of the Meiji Government, who was unfortunately assassinated in Kyoto. Kenjiro, who was just baptized in his native city of Kumamoto, wanted to work under his cousin Rev. Yokoi in Imabari.

Shiro Sokabe had been with Rev. Yokoi since 1883, as an active and devoted minister. He was popular in the church as a good singer. Nicknamed "Koya", Shiro was described as a high-cheeked boned and a peach-complexioned young man with downcast eyes. These were the distinct features of the Samurai Missionary as per the author Rev. Nakano.

The book details their youthful daily routines they took together along with another disciple Hayashi. The three of them went out preaching (neighbors called them "the three fanatics") to the area that had a thriving towel manufacturing industry as well as poor fishing villages. They often met with disappointment, going back to their commissioned off-school building upstairs room they shared to sleep. They made their beds on a big table and slept with kaya (mosquito net) over the beds. Even with three square meals a day, they had big appetites and energy, and used to pawn their belongings to buy more food, fruits - watermelons in particular, and cheap sweets. One night, they bought plenty of beef, ate it all and slept. When Kenjiro woke up in the morning, he found Shiro was missing and he didn't come back until the next day.

Shiro, upon returning, told friends that he fasted all day, spent the night in meditation and prayer, on top of Mt. Chikami. I, as an Imabarian, cannot count the number of times I climbed Mt. Chikami (244 meters) in my childhood. Now, a park today, the mountain was my backyard. That's how Shiro was nicknamed Koya. While three quarreled and grappled, their friendship grew and Kenjiro gave advice and even pawned his silk Kimono for Shiro to travel to Kumamoto to join the Oe Gijuku (School) built by Soho Tokutomi, Kenjiro's brother. Via Matsuyama, Shiro walked all the way to Sata Point, crossed the Inland Sea by fisherman's boat to Kyushu and walked again to Kumamoto.

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Thus, reading such detailed descriptions of Imabari in the Samurai Missionary, I suspected the author Rev. Nakano may have been influenced by the work of novelist Kenjiro Tokutomi, who left many tales of his youth, such as "My Memoirs", "Shadow of Death", "Fuji" (the incomplete posthumous work) etc. because Rev. Shiro Sokabe wanted everything he had written destroyed upon his death. He was a man of integrity who desired no fame.

During the past 10 years, I searched in vain for Kenjiro Tokutomi's writing where he might have mentioned Shiro Sokabe. When I did a search on his name on the Internet upon my return to Japan, all that came up was: "Shiro Sokabe, born in Fukuoka Prefecture, descendent of Sokabe clans in Tosa Province".

A few weeks ago, I Googled Shiro Sokabe and found his digitized book online in the National Diet Library in 2002, since his copyright expired. The book title was $3000 Short! I was finally able to discover Kenjiro Tokutomi's preface, which was his "Imabari Memoir" I had been looking for. $3000 Short! was written in 1926 by Rev. Shiro Sokabe to raise funds to build a new church and school called Honomu Gijuku (after Oe Gijuku in Kumamoto) in Hawaii, in memory of the past Shika Sokabe. He wrote in the book that $6000 had been raised but the project required $3000 more. Apparently Rev. Sokabe sent a letter to ask Kenjiro Tokutomi for financial assistance. Inasmuch as Kenjiro wished to help his lifelong friend (he had not seen Shiro for 30 or more years), he was not in a position to pawn all his belonging as he did in his younger days.

He saluted, however, the Sokabe couple’s lifework to help and educate 1500 Japanese American children in Hawaii and thanked Honomu Gijuku for modeling themselves after Oe-Gijuku. Kenjiro wrote about all the episodes that took place in Imabari. Rev. Nakano quoted Kenjiro’s reply in an English translation in his book Samurai Missionary. $3000 Short! is roughly 100 pages long, consisting mainly of Rev. Sokabe's sermons, including "Addressing all the youths, boys and girls, born in Hawaii" (Chapter 1). The book, written in Japanese, was originally printed in Tokyo.

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Hilo Coast United Church of Christ is the name given to Sokabe's chapel. Headstones of most Japanese Americans at the Melany Cemetery nearby face Mauna Kea, but Shika and Shiro Sokabe's headstone face the Pacific Ocean (see photo). Honomu's current population is 600 as of 2007, of which Japanese Americans make up approximately 100, less than 20%. The scholarship foundation started by Sokabe's good will is still going strong. Some of the Nisei children disciplined by Rev. Sokabe went on to enlist and fight in the 442nd Battalion.

The homepage of Hilo Coast United Church of Christ shows in its heritage page l) Imabari Church where Rev. Sokabe was baptized; and 2) Doshisha University Church, known as the first church in Japan funded by American money, where the reverend was educated.