I joined the 25th Annual Meeting of the Japan Society for Endoscopic Surgery held in Yokohama City on Dec. 6-8th, which is located to the south of Tokyo and is also one of the best known ports in Japan and has lots of historic cultural assets. If I write about the medical items, most of the subscribers would be bored, so I'll write about one of the main tourist attractions of the city, a cargo and passenger ship, "Hikawamaru", which was built in 1930.
Before starting its story, I have to write about Seattle in the U.S.A. Seattle used to be a small town with a population of only 6,000. However, after the Great Northern Railway was built in 1892, and Japan's ocean transport company, "Nippon Yusen", introduced a new line between Yokohama and Seattle in 1896, Seattle remarkably developed as a relay point between the Far East and New York. A mayor of Seattle declared that the prosperity of Seattle owes much to the Great Northern Railway and Nippon Yusen, calling both of them the father and the mother of its prosperity respectively.
"Hikawamaru" was one of three ships operated in this line. It was requisitioned during the Greater East Asian War and served as a hospital ship. It had touched mines a few times, but survived until the end of the war. Generally speaking, the life of the ship should have ended after around fifteen years, but it had to work on the transportation of Japanese soldiers and citizens from overseas after the war. The number of people who are grateful for its contribution is countless. The Nippon Yusen decided to preserve her forever in the port of her hometown, Yokohama, in honor of her life.
I visited this ship which was permanently moored near my convention center. I'll show you pictures of the restaurant and the stairs to the first class cabin. How did they look to the Japanese people of the time? Sitting on a chair was not frequently seen in Japan at that time. I was eager to look at the front view of the ship and get on the sightseeing boat showing the visitors the inner section of the bay.
(Vocabulary)
introduce a new line between 航路を開設する
relay / transfer point 中継点
requisition [U] (軍隊・政府などによる) 徴発, 接収;〈軍隊・政府などが〉…を徴発する, 接収する
How did they look to the Japanese people of the time? 当時の日本人の目にはどう映っただろうか？
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