I was born in Syracuse, New York – in the same hospital where my mother trained to become a registered nurse; however, I spent the first five years of my life in Japan. My mother wrote in my baby book:
When I was six weeks old, I traveled with my mother and father to Oakland. We took 12 days to make the trip, and I slept most of the time in my car bed. […] Mama and Daddy took me across the Pacific Ocean when I was three months old. I did not like the foghorn on the ship. It scared me so that I had to cry and cry. When the water was rough, mummy and daddy couldn’t sleep, but I did.
According to a note made by my father:
We arose early to take our last look at the Golden Gate Bridge for five years. The boat weighed anchor at a little past 6:00 am. The fog was so thick we could scarcely make out the bridge. Cathy was frightened miserably by the foghorn on the ship. She finally slept, however, moving restlessly whenever the thing sounded.
In 1951, the least expensive mode of transportation over the ocean was sailing as a passenger on a freighter. I believe that mode of travel is still available today. At any rate, that’s how my parents and I traveled to Japan. According to my mother, the crew fell in love with me – after all, it’s not often you find a baby on a freighter!
We did arrive safely the day before I turned four months old, and after my parents completed some orientation and training at the mission headquarters in Tokyo, we settled in Karuizawa. I have very few memories of those years, but I have a few memories, pictures, and memories my mother shared. I also have some audio recordings my dad made. (He had a reel-to-reel tape recorder that he loved to use.) Karuizawa is located near Nagano in the mountains north of Tokyo. I think we were there for two or three years, but I’m not really sure. While we were living there, I was joined by a brother and then a sister.
My oldest brother, Dan, was born in 1952 in Tokyo. Barb came next in 1954. She was born in Karuizawa. Can you imagine being asked where she was born when she was a child? I could speak Japanese – not hard to do when you are more or less immersed in the language while learning to talk. I suspect Dan and Barb could as well – at least at their level of knowing words.
Story in progress…
