Imperial Valley press., 1934-12-08

SERVICE To
JAPAN OPENS

Eighty years after Commodore
Perry's treaty of peace and amity
opened Japan's door to western
nations, voices flung across 5100
miles of water yesterday (Decem-
ber y opened regular commercial
radiotelephone service between the
United States and Japan.
Recognized builder of national
and international understanding
through personal contacts, the tel
ephone assumed role in furth-
ering fulfillment of the prophecy
which President Fillmore, in 1854,
wrote into Article 1 of the Perry
treaty. Article I read as follows:
There shall be perfect, perman-
ent, and universal peace and
sincere and cordial amity between
the United States of America on
the one part, and the Empire of
Japan on the other part, and be-
tween their people respectively
without exception of persons = Or
places. -
The opening calls were made
between high government officials
of the two countries and press as
sociation chiefs. including Cordell
Hull, secretary of state, converSing
with Koki Hirota, foreign minis
ter.
The Bell system IS radiotelephone
stations at Dixon and Point Reyes,
Calf, connect with Japanese
tranSmitter and receiver near To-
kio. The California stations were
established in 1881 for the first
transpacific channel to Hawaii, op-
Grated by the Bell system
Perhaps never duplicated on the
world IS so or more commercial
Tadioteleplrone channels, some of
the transmission tests long prior
to opening service included the
playing from America of phono-
graph records of japanese music
and speech across the Pacific.
Tests Extensive
Another interesting test was par
ticipated in By a San Francisco
japanese telephone employee who
talked for hours with a young
Japanese woman employed by a
Bell laboratories engineer in his
Toxic home. While these two
talked, a dozen radiotelephone en-
gineers in a half-dozen japanese
and American stations and control
rooms in two hemispheres listened
and wrinkled their broWs or nod
ded approvingly.
These radio men wanted especial
ly to see how the equipment would
"take' hundreds Of staccato
"naySp and 'uh," japanese
sounds not found in American con-
versations. The San Francisco Jap
anese, after every half a dozen
words, would repeat may" mean
ing, in the American vernacular,
81 Do you get it?' Immediately fol-
lowed by her "uh, uh, > cores
ponding to our "O.K.p Americans
sometimes speak hundreds of words
without interruption, but the jap
anese seem to need reinsurance
that the other party is still on the
line. Whenever the local man
missed the "uh, uh - he broke
in with "moshi, moShi," meaning
"hello, hello" These tests proved
the equipment could ''take' it,
The new circuit to Toxic is the
fourth across the Pacific ocean,
making four channels, totaling 23,-
900 miles. The first circuit was
opened to Hawaii, 2400 miles, in
1881; the second, to the Philippines,
1000 miles, in 1888: the third, to
Java and Sumatra, 3700 miles, ear
ly in 1884; the fourth, 500 miles,
to Japan, 1884. The Java channel
is the second longest commercial
radiotelephone channel in the
world and the longest operated
across the Pacific, exceeded only
by the London-S Sydney circuit, TO-
600 miles.
Following the opening calls, reg
ular commercial service was open
ed to the public.