On the Way to Japan (August 20, 1966)

This blog post is different from most of the 1,130+ posts I have made over the past 17 years. It is a personal narrative of life-changing events that began on my 28^th birthday, events that have greatly impacted me and June and our children from then until the present.  

SS President Cleveland

August 15, 1966, was a significant birthday party in Kansas City. In addition to my immediate family, several extended family members and a few personal friends gathered in Swope Park for the last birthday I would celebrate in the U.S. until 1971. That is because our family of four (our two other children were born later), started to Japan that day for a five-year term as missionaries.

We flew from the old Kansas City airport to San Francisco, where we had time for some much-needed rest and relaxation before boarding the President Cleveland Steamship on August 18 for a 13-day voyage to Japan. It was the best vacation June and I had ever had. The seas were calm, the meals were bountiful and delicious, and having some carefree leisure time was wonderful.

June and I married in 1957, the month we graduated from junior college. I was then a full-time student for the next eight years. Throughout the year of 1965, I was under considerable pressure to finish my doctoral dissertation. Kathy, our daughter who turned five that year, often included these words in her prayers: “Help Daddy get his thesis done so we can go to Japan.”

A few days after leaving San Francisco, the steamship stopped in Hawai’i, and we had an enjoyable and somewhat tiring day, sightseeing near and around Waikiki Beach and other places on that beautiful island of Oahu. By evening, the four of us were so tired we decided to turn in early. Because of going to bed so soon, we missed having an interesting experience.

When we arose the next morning, we found a notice that had been slipped under our cabin door the night before. It said that a famous Italian actress would be on deck for the filming of a movie scene that very evening. So, Sophia Loren was there on our ship that night, and we never even knew she had been there until she was already gone!

September 1, 1966, was a thrilling day for our family. That is the day our ship arrived in Yokohama, the harbor city not far south of Tokyo. We woke up early that morning and went up on deck, and what a wonderful view we had! There in the distance we saw Mt. Fuji, perhaps the most beautiful mountain in the world. That was a good omen, as It usually is not visible from the Tokyo area.

About a week later, we started language school and began the long, difficult process of trying to learn the Japanese language. In addition to learning English from birth on, I had studied several languages up until then (in this order): Latin, Greek, French, German, Hebrew, and even a smidgen of Danish. However, I had never studied a language in order to converse in it.

With Japanese, though, the challenge was not only learning to speak but also learning to read. In addition to the two fairly simple fifty‑sound syllabaries, one must learn around 2,000 Chinese characters (kanji) in order to read at the level of a high school graduate. I had to learn many more than that, for I was designated to become a college professor.

October 1968 was a grueling month as my teaching career began then. This was why we started on our trip to Japan more than 25 months earlier. It ended up, though, that my “career” at Seinan Gakuin University and the larger school complex involved many administrative jobs as well as teaching in the classroom.

I never sought any administrative position—and I never turned one down, as refusing to take a position to which I had been elected to or appointed for would have seemed presumptuous. Beginning in 1970, I served in six admin positions, including two four-year terms as Chancellor and one year as Chair of the Board of Trustees. Except for the last four years, I also continued to be classroom professor, .

If I had it all to do over again, I would choose with no hesitation to do exactly what we did beginning on my 28^th birthday.

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** I am now wondering if I have perhaps discovered when the year of my death will likely be. Since I have always emphasized balance, perhaps leaving for Japan on my 28^th birthday and being in Japan for 38 years indicates that perhaps my passing will be in the 28^th year of our retirement from Japan, which will be in 2032. Even that might be pushing it, as I would turn 94 that year.