Sasebo was actually the place that I behaved myself. I remember volunteering to speak to a Japanese high school English class. I actually had fun, and was invited over a student's house for dinner on top of that. Her name was Ikuko Kamakawa, or something like that. Her family was really cool. Her father was a teacher in the school. I had always wanted to become a teacher, so I think we really bonded. I remember him telling me that he was a soldier in the Imperial Army during WW2.
I also made an ass of myself at that dinner, stomping all over their traditions without knowing it. I was just a kid, and I think not a very well informed one at that. I remember leaning against a wall in their house as I was leaving, and putting my elbo right through it. They were really nice about it, although I wonder what they said after I left. I have some pictures of them when I brought them aboard Cochrane, and they posed in sickbay. They really were cool people, and I sometimes wish I could find them to say hello, although I doubt Mr. Kamakawa would still be alive.
Edited by - Richard Cooper on 10/30/2001 19:39:41