Evening star., 1953-04-05
Shelton
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SIBSlAVU
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were many kidnapings, and
women were not allowed on
the streets after dark"
Early in September all the
Japanese men in the mission
group were rounded up and
taken away. The women,
many of them wives of the
men who had been taken,
of course were frantic with
worry.
Nine. Kamimura was equal
ly worried about her husband,
from whom she had had no
word since she left Manchuria.
Meanwhile, there was an
even more urgent problem.
The Japanese group had
plenty of official Japanese
money. but the Russians had
prohibited the exchange Of
any other currency for Ko-
rean money. They said any
leader" caught exchanging
would be shot. Finally star
vation was looming and Nine.
Kamimura decided that dras-
tic measures were called for.
"I decided that it was better
that be shot than all ISL die
of starvation" she says.
She managed-by means
she thinks it still not wise to
divulge, with Russians still In
power in Pyongyang-to ex-
change her money and quickly
divided handfulls among sew
eral members of her group
without even stopping to
count it.
The group was still in Ko-
rea in the spring of 1916,
having gotten no place in at
tempts to persuade the Rus
SLAMS that as diplomats they
were entitled to safe passage
home.
Nine. Kamimura thought
the time for action had ar
rived again. "Our money was
running very low, and I knew
another cold Korean winter
would kill us ALL" she says.
So in August, Nine. Kami-
mura gathered together her
entire flock of $50 men, women
and children, and all started
walking south in the hot Ko-
rean sun. They drank river
water and slept in fields at
night. Their food was the
small quantity of cooked rice
each carried with him.
It took them two weeks to
reach the 38th parallel. I'VE
walked and slept, walked and
slept" she says. Fortunately,
it didn't rain the entire time.
They crossed to the Ameri-
can side of the parallel at
noon and "all cried for JOY"
declared the envoy's wife. From
here they were transported to
Pusan by train, and from there
took a ship home.
Nine. Kamimura found
upon returning to Tokyo that
the foreign office had had
no word of her husband.
She had a wonderful reunion
with her two sons, who had
spent the war years at a pri-
vate school outside Tokyo.
Two years later Nine. Kami-
mura got a phone call from
the foreign Office, telling her
her husband was in Siberia,
and was being shipped home.
He had been poorly treated
in Siberia, and had to rest for
almost a year to recuperate.
His Washington assignment
came along a short time later,
and soon the KamimuraS will
go to Turkey, where he will
be his country's Ambassador.
The couples two sons, Eiichi,
1S, and Jiro, II, will stay here
and continue their schooling.
The former is a freshman at
Georgetown University's For
eign Service School. The latter,
a senior at Western High
School, also intends, to study
foreign service.
"The boys want to be the
japanese Ambassadors to the
United States and Britain some
day." their proud mother says.
Their early years were spent
in Britain, where Mr.. Kami-
mura was Charge d'AffaireS
before the war, and both speak
English fluently.
Their mother speaks excel
lent English, too, but she con-
fesses she's a little jolted by
the boys when they come home
with new American slang like
whats the big idea?"
Nine. Kamimura does most
of the housework in their
roomy, comfortable house. Its
so easy here. I just throw the
clothes in the washing ma
chine. 1t would take week in
Japan to do laundry I do here
in an hour" She cooks the
mealS-WeStern style. THE
boys are more used to it, and
anyhow, Japanese food costs
too much here" she says.
The only exception is on
week ends, when her house is
overhowing with young Jap
anese-fellow students Of her
sons or japanese stud nts
whose parents have asked her
to keep an eye on them.