／11　赤富士に再訪を誓い、帰国

　1945年12月中旬。中国からの帰国途中に東京に立ち寄ったドナルド・キーンさんは、東京に1週間ほど滞在し、戦地で出会った日本人たちの生存を家族に伝えてまわった。いかにも「人がいい」、キーンさんらしい話である。唯一の観光として、日光を訪れるチャンスもあった。そのエピソードからは、終戦直後の地方の様子がうかがえる。

The only sightseeing I did during my week in Japan was a trip to Nikko. A phrase from the textbook of Japanese, Nikko wo minai uchi wa, kekko to iu na (Don’t say “wonderful” until you’ve seen Nikko), lingered in my memory, and I was happy to accept when several nisei from my old office in Honolulu invited me to accompany them to Nikko. We naturally went by jeep, American servicemen’s favored means of transportation. I had traveled in this uncomfortable but sturdy vehicle across the tundra in the Aleutians and through the forests of the Philippines.

The road to Nikko was largely deserted, and there were almost no road signs. We had to stop again and again to ask if we were heading in the right direction, and people seemed glad to tell us. By this time, even Japanese living in the country were familiar with jeeps, and when we passed through villages, children lining the road waved their hands and shouted greetings at us and the jeep, apparently delighted we had paid them a visit.

Before leaving for Nikko we had been urged to take rice with us for our evening meal. We gave the rice to the innkeeper, and that night a miracle occurred. The white rice we had given him had turned into brown, unpolished rice.

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