Japanese Surgeon's Daily Life

Asagiriko Lake Marathon

　　Asagiriko Lake Marathon took place today and I joined the category for the 10km road race. It was the first time for me to run more than 100 meters in the last 30 years, so it was epoch-making stuff in my life. The lake is located an hour's drive south of my hometown and the route was arranged around Asagiriko Lake. The route was surrounded by serene rural scenes which was a nice place for relaxing and feeling the nature.
　　Lots of people were registered to run in the event, as you can see in the first picture. There were about 2800 runners and this event is undoubtedly one of the biggest events for this tiny village. The start of the half marathon was coming and the runners moved to the starting point.
　　My friends and I were going to join the 10km road race, which started 30 minutes after the start of the half marathon. We took pictures of ourselves during the 30 minutes which was given for people to see the start of the half marathon. The man wearing number 1428 in the picture is me.
　　I finished the 10km road race keeping the pace as previously scheduled. Generally speaking, the record was not good, but I found it very satisfying. I'll try other races and complete a full marathon some day.

(Vocabulary from comments)
applaud  ［正式］…を賞賛する（praise）；…を支持する（support）
I ～ your decision to quit smoking.  よく禁煙を決意しましたね
We ～ed him for his courage to attack the difficulty.  我々はその困難と戦う彼の勇気を賞賛した.
sideline 〈負傷などが〉〈選手〉を試合に出場できなくする; 〈病気・状況などが〉〈人〉に仕事をできなくする
Plantar Fasciitis  足底筋膜炎
nagging  〈痛み・悩みなどが〉しつこい, 絶えずつきまとう; 〈声・親などが〉口うるさい, いつも小言を言う
a ～ cough  （なかなか治らない）長引く咳
a ～ doubt   つきまとって離れない疑念
have a ～ pain in one's arm  慢性的に腕が痛む.

Wandering in the City

　　I wanted to see a street, DiHua St., where more than 90% of Taiwanese medicine wholesalers supposedly gather. I headed for the street, checking where we were on the map on my smartphone. Incidentally, I came across a monument and a memorial hall on the way, both of which were unfavorable views for me. I'll show you the pictures of them with some remarks.
　　According to its description, the monument was built in commemoration of the victory in the war against Japan. Historically strictly speaking, however, it's undoubtedly untrue. Japan was defeated by the U.S., and stopped fighting on all the fronts. The weapons which the Japanese army was forced to abandon were utilized by the Chinese Communist Party and they expelled Guomindang into Taiwan, which was the opening of the darkness of the originally beautiful Taiwan, which is still stuck in the darkness.
　　The big hall in the picture was named after Sun Wen, who is said to be the Father of China. However, for people who know the real history, he was only a con man.
　　Now, DiHua St. was extraordinary for me. There were numerous curious items here and there. Some of them didn't look like medicine or even things that we took in orally - just a wooden rod, insect larvae' carcasses and so on. I wished I could have spoken in Chinese and communicated with people in those wholesalers.

Wandering Route in Taipei:
http://kumo.typepad.jp/Taiwan13/Taiwan0404_1.html

(Vocabulary)
wholesale dealer  問屋
Guomindang government（中華民国）台湾の国民党政府
Chiang Kai-shek  蒋介石
larva  a young insect with a soft tube-shaped body, which will later become an insect with wings
carcass  the body of a dead animal

The Last Day

　　I noticed that I hadn't written about breakfast in the hotel. It was very nice. On the last day of the trip, we spent a slightly longer time in the hotel restaurant over a cup of tea, checking the plan of walking in the streets in Taipei. Another guide, different from the one who had guided us until the previous day, was supposed to pick us up in the hotel lobby and take us to the Taipei Songshan Airport at 1400 o'clock. We had a free time until the pick up.
　　There was the Taipei Railway Station just in front of the hotel. We started walking from here and dropped in at 228 Peace Park. "228" derives from the huge conflict between the original Taiwanese and Chinese from mainland China, which broke out on February 28th in 1947 and continued for about 40 years. A large number of original Taiwanese had been killed by the Chinese government. I learned about the complexity of the country's history in the 228 memorial museum in the park and understood why this museum wasn't included in the ordinary tour course. I was interested in the history and visited it. The last picture shows the building of the Taiwan Government, which used to be the office of the Governor-General of Taiwan. I marveled at how beautiful and awesome it was.

(Vocabulary)
marvel at/over something  ＜…＞に驚嘆する
I marveled at my mother's ability to remain calm in a crisis. 危機に際して落ち着いていられる母の力に私は驚嘆した．

Martyrs' Shrine 忠烈祠

　　We finished the museum tour earlier than scheduled. The next destination was the Martyrs' Shrine, where people who had fought and died for the sake of the country were honored. Presumably the guide might take into account the schedule of the change of the guard in the shrine. We arrived at it just in time for the attraction of the change of the guard.
　　As we followed the guards, I took pictures and mimicked the way the soldiers walked. It seemed that it was not so hard if for a short distance, but actually it would be tough work to walk a few hundred meters in a ritual way and stay still for an hour on the pedestal in full view of everyone.
　　Inside the shrine, people were classified according to the military conflicts in which they were killed. Among them there were people who were killed in the anti-Japan conflicts in a curious way, because there had been no war or anything like that between Taiwan and Japan.
　　When I talked about the shrine with a Facebook friend, who is Taiwanese, he told me that people honored at the shrine died for the Republic of China and not for Taiwan. I fully understood the whole picture of the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China from his words. I sincerely hope for the independence of TAIWAN.

(Vocabulary)
take into account sth (take sth into account とも)  ＜…＞を考慮する, 考慮に入れる
Architects must take the needs of disabled people into account. 建築家は障害者の要求を考慮に入れなければならない．
pedestal　（円柱・彫像の）台座, 柱脚;（胸像・花瓶を載せる）台
in full view of everyone 　衆人環視の中で
in a curious way  妙な［不思議な］ことに

National Palace Museum 国立故宮博物院

　　We joined the guide in the hotel lobby and headed to the highlight of this trip, the National Palace Museum. Various items of historical significance were displayed, but we went out after a short tour. It was enough for us to look closely at the most famous piece of the Jadeite Cabbage with insects which is carved into the shape of a Chinese cabbage head with a locust and katydid camouflaged in the leaves. We were annoyed by the incredibly uncomfortable noises of Chinese tourists. I felt sick.
　　I learned that most of the items on display had been moved from Mainland China, surviving from stealing and destruction by Chinese people. Who do you think protected Chinese historic treasures? The Japanese Imperial Army served to preserve Chinese historic treasures in the midst of the chaos in World War 2. It was regrettable that there was no such detailed description about the history of the museum itself in the pamphlet given by the museum.

(Vocabulary)
Jadeite 《鉱物》ヒスイ［ひすい］輝石、硬玉、翡翠（ヒスイ）jadeの中で軟玉nephriteに比べて硬く、希少価値の高いもの。主にミャンマーで産出する。薄緑色のものが多いが、白・褐色・紫色のものもある。
locust バッタ, イナゴ
katydid (北米産の) キリギリス

Chinese People

　　We had to buy the tickets to enter the geological park. I was going to get them by myself because I wanted to talk in Chinese which I had been learning since last year, but the guide stopped me, pointing to the ticket office. Around the office was crowded with Chinese people and completely in chaos. They seemed to hate to line up and squeezed in the crowd in front of the office with screaming. The guide told me that it's tough work to buy the tickets. He showed his ID or something to the clerks and got the tickets at a different wicket. It might be a privilege as the professional guide.
　　Additionally, when we went out of the park, the guide took us to an unnoticeable exit other than the main exit. As far as I saw, people who passed this gate were non-Chinese. Why? I understood the reason in no time, viewing a shopping arcade for local people just outside of the exit, where lots of marine products were displayed and all of them were available for just tasting. If Chinese tourists walked along the market, they would eat up the sample foods. At the end point of the market, a political group was campaigning against the People's Republic of China, raising various picket signs. I took pictures of their signs, some of which had terrible photos of victims of the Chinese Communist Party, and show you one of them below.

(Vocabulary)
wicket (米) (切符売り場などの) 窓口
picket  　when a group of people stand or march in front of a shop, factory, government building etc to protest about something or to stop people from going in during a STRIKE:

Yeliufengjingqu（野柳風景区）

　　Do you know the Rock Sites of Cappadocia in Turkey on the list of UNESCO's World Heritage Sites? I've never been there, but I've seen the scenery on TV or something. Where we were brought to next was such a place, though its scale was far smaller. The area was called Yeliu Geopark. There is also a similar place in Japan, and I'll show you it(link). Anyway, the park is located at the nearest part to Japan in Taiwan, so you can find where it is on the map. We walked around and enjoyed the interesting appearances of various rocks.
　　Our guide gave us some information and advice on the way; More than 90% of the tourists of the park are Chinese who came from Fujian, China and stay in Taiwan for a day or two and will move to Okinawa, Japan by ferry. It's the regular route of the package tours for Chinese people. They are so rude and noisy, and sometimes spew sputa out. You'd better keep away from them.
　　We followed him in the park all the way, because he knew every curious rock and funny stories about the area. No policeman and no guard was seen only a decade ago, but now they were positioned from place to place. It seemed that a few Chinese had died here, ignoring the regulation lines a few years ago. The Chinese groups are sure to spend money in Taiwan, but they are probably uninvited guests.

Cappadocia in Japan
http://kumo.typepad.jp/weblog/2006/08/hotokegaura-jap.html

Jiufen（九份）

　　Next, we visited the small native Taiwanese village of Jiufen, one of the principal tourist attractions around Taipei City. The name of this village derived from the fact that there were only nine households in this area in the late 19th century, for "Jiu" in Taiwanese means nine. I found some shops and inns run by native Taiwanese in back streets away from streets teeming with sightseers. I'll show you one of those shops. The guide advised us to try some Taiwanese tea and we dropped in at a tea shop along the narrow busiest street. The next two pictures are of boxes of the tea we bought and the tea lecturer. I could communicate with her in Chinese with the assistance of the guide, although it was only several words, but I was happy.
　　Arranged by the travel agency, we had genuine Taiwanese cuisine at a historic restaurant(阿妹茶楼) in the picture. I'm not sure, but a well-known Taiwanese movie was apparently shot in this restaurant. Several Taiwanese were taking snapshots in dramatic poses inside. The atmosphere, the way the waitresses behaved and the interior design in the restaurant were similar to those of Japan and we felt relaxed.
　　By the way, Chinese food hazard has become widely known in Japan and we have avoided drinking Chinese tea, such as oolong tea, but the tea in the picture was Taiwanese. I really liked it.

Google Images

Pingxi Line 2 (平渓線）

　　I'll continue the topic of the last entry. I referred to the stuff in the first picture as a kind of tent, but a fire balloon might be more suitable. The base of the tent was made of thin bamboo with a thin wire across it as you see in the picture. What was attached to the center of the wires were fuel sheets. Writing the prayers on the balloon, setting fire to the fuel on the base of it, and holding it on the ground, then the preparation was done. The second picture shows the moment just before the launching. Do you notice someone  squatting on her heels behind the balloon. She was just about to ignite the fuel. An old man was passing by chance, and he helped us hold the balloon. We had to hold it until the limit that we put up with the increasing heat of the balloon. At the next moment, the balloon flew far away. You can see the fire in the balloon in the picture.
　　By the way, a Fire Defense Law is strictly in place in Japan. How is its equivalent in Taiwan? It's unbelievable to fly things with fire. This area was in the midst of the subtropical forests and seemingly wet all the time. Forest fire might not break out. I asked the guide about it. He replied, "Mountains don't burn, but the houses burn." I took a snapshot toward the direction he pointed, which is shown below. The balloon which was launched from the adjacent shop flew into the third floor of the shop we dropped in at, but people looked indifferent. I admired their easygoing way of life.
　　In Japan, walking on the train track is banned in any case. However, it seemed that people in this village didn't mind such a thing. I'd like to have seen how they behaved when a train was coming, but I had to move to another point due to the time constraint.

Pingxi Line 1 (平渓線）

　　On the second day in Taiwan, it was about to rain in the morning. When we joined the guide in the lobby, he rearranged the sightseeing route due to the unfavorable weather. Taipei City is surrounded by mountains and we headed for the eastern mountainous area. You can retrace our route on the map(link). After an hour's drive, we reached Jingtong Station, which was built about 80 years ago and is still in service even now. There were several coalmines around there and the station was prosperous at that time, but now most passengers are sightseers who want to feel nostalgia for the good old days. The historic coalmine museum was adjacent to the station, which, to my regret, was closed on a regular holiday. One more thing, I noticed the remarkable resemblance between this station and Nagahama Station near my office. I'll show you its picture later.
　　We enjoyed the scenery of subtropical forest and native people's villages from the train for some time and reached Shifen Station. An old custom still remained alive around there, in which you write your prayer on a kind of tent and fly it, then the prayer will be answered. They came in various colours and the shop owner chose a white one for us, hearing our wish to be healthy. The picture shows my wife's writing, meaning her wish for everyone's good health. I'll tell you how it works in the next entry.

Dinner, Night Market and Beauty Salon

　　We had dinner in a packed restaurant "鼎泰豊", which is shown in the first picture. The dinner was included in our tour and even the dishes were set. As you see, it was so crowded and a waiter was checking the number of customers of each waiting group outside the restaurant. It seemed that he'd like to utilize the seats as efficiently as possible. As far as I saw, a half of the customers were Japanese. I thought that the restaurant had something of a pact with our travel agent. I tasted some real Taiwanese cuisine and it was very satisfying.
　　After dinner, the guide took us to a famous night market, which was busy and swarmed with lots of sightseers. We found various unfamiliar food items there, but we were sorry to be too stuffed to try some. The moment when we went down to the underground, we got caught by an unbearable stench of rotten food. We thought we were near a garbage storage room at first, but it was the smell of a particular kind of tofu. Anyway, it was an unbelievable smell.
　　Lastly for this day, the guide took us to a beauty parlor or something. The massage of the sole of the feet was included in the tour and additionally, following the advice of the clerks, I had my layers of dead skin removed, and my wife got an elaborate face treatment. Their pampering was nice!

(Vocabulary)
pamper  to look after someone very kindly, for example by giving them the things that they want and making them feel warm and comfortable:
She spent her childhood as the pampered daughter of a wealthy family.

National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall （中正記念堂）

　　Next, we visited National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, who is well-known also in Japan. Presumably our guide arranged the order of the sightseeing sites. When we arrived there, the changing of the guard, which was the principal tourist attraction of this facility, was just about to begin.
　　After we followed the guards for a few minutes, our guide took us to the floor where the statue of Chiang Kai-shek was placed ahead of the guards by another route. Just the moment we reached the statue, the guards appeared before us using the elevator. Their brisk movement and posture gave us a kind of refreshing feel.
　　While watching their movement, I thought of the history of Taiwan. Why was he honored in such a way? What do the Taiwanese think of him? He got away from China after the humiliating defeat against the Chinese Communist Party and invaded Taiwan. Moreover, he perpetrated a massacre, the genocidal killing of intellectual Taiwanese figures. I pestered our guide for his sincere opinion. "Taiwan is under the control of the Chinese now", he answered regrettably.
　　The URL below is linked with a map showing my flight route from Tokyo to Taipei. I'd like to have seen and taken aerial pictures of Senkaku Island, which China wants, but thick clouds prevented us from seeing below, and the route of the flight veered off the island.











Flight Route to Taipei:
http://kumo.typepad.jp/Taiwan13/TtoTaiwan.html

(Vocabulary)
a humiliating/crushing/heavy defeat  屈辱的な［決定的な，手痛い］敗北
a narrow defeat  際どい敗北

Streets in Sanxia and Yingge （三峡と鶯歌）

　　We wandered along the streets in Sanxia and Yingge for some time without our guide. Those streets were apparently old, but tidy. It was fun to see various new things there. At that time, an odd sensation crept over me. It seemed as if we had been in Japan of the old days. Most buildings along the streets dated back 100 years, when Taiwan was a part of Japan. In the Great East Asian War, the U.S. avoided invading Taiwan and a huge fortune was preserved and left intact, though they finally fell into Chiang Kai-shek's lap. There was a toy shop where some toys which I had used to play with when I was a child, were displayed. Antique shops were also fun. I was sorry that the time given us for walking around was only 30 minutes as it was too short.
　　Yingge is famous for its beautiful ceramics. The streets were lined with so many pottery shops. I found a pair of really nice cups in a shop, but they were a little high in price. I gave up.
　　Without our guide, I had some difficulty in communicating with ordinary people in Taiwan, though there were surely some personnel in our hotel who could understand Japanese or English. I keenly felt the need to learn Chinese. Before the next visit, I will.

(Vocabulary)
creep over sb〈感情などが〉＜人＞の胸に込み上げる
A cold realization was creeping over them. 無情な現実に彼らは気づき始めていた．
Chiang Kai-shek 蒋介石
line [他]〈道など〉に沿って並ぶ
be lined with sth〈道などに〉 ＜…＞が並んでいる
The street was lined with small shops. 通りには小さい店が並んでいた．








For your information:
http://mykafkaesquelife.blogspot.jp/2011/03/sanxia-taiwan.html

Qingshuizushimiao (清水祖师庙)

　　The picture shows Qingshuizushimiao, the mausoleum of the high priest Qingshuizushi who lived 900 years ago in the Sòng period. We entered inside after finishing a croissant ice cream. No entry fee and anyone was allowed to step in freely. There were seemingly no staff members or policemen. The facility must have been valuable. I wondered how easygoing the Taiwanese were. According to my travel guide, the building had to go through tough days of repeated warfare for a long time and had been repaired after the Great East Asian War. Some were similar to the equivalent of Japan, but most parts of the mausoleum were different from Japanese ones.
　　What attracted me most was its elaborate sculptures. It was really nice. The red items of a crescent shape in the picture were used to tell your fortune. Our guide showed us how to use them, and we tried and got a slip of paper also in the picture. The slip told us "not bad", according to our guide's words. I presumed that the possibility to pick up the good slips would be higher than the bad, but took it back Japan to examine what it means looking it up in the dictionary.
　　In the open space before the mausoleum, there were various people in a peaceful atmosphere. It was only 2 hours after setting foot on Taiwanese soil, but I felt relaxed.

(Vocabulary)
mausoleum 壮大な墓, 霊廟
high priest  (ある宗教の) 大祭司; the most important PRIEST in some religions
the high priest of something  ＜…＞の指導者, 権威者
Sòng　宋（960年 - 1279年）
crescent shape / crescentic form  三日月形
tell/ divine sb's fortune  （人）の吉凶を占う

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sanxia （三峡）

　　We joined one of the tours planned by ANA, All Nippon Airways, and we were told to reach Taipei by ourselves. We were supposed to get together with other members of the tour in Taipei SongShan Airport. Just after getting out from the baggage claim, we met our guide, but there weren't any other tourists. That is, the guide and the driver were there for us only. The car had been changed from a minivan to a Mercedes E280, which was so luxurious. The tour fee was not so expensive and we felt a little sorry, but it was not our fault. We got in the luxurious car full of joy.
　　It was cloudy and muggy. We realized that we actually were in a subtropical zone. Our car went south on the highway to Sanxia and Yingge. On the way, the guide told us about various things about Taiwan, every item seen through the windows, the traffic regulations, the climate, the country's history,,,
　　We arrived at the busiest site in Sanxia for about an hour. The driver dropped us and our guide there, and drove the car away. The guide took us to a stall famous for its original croissant icecream. It was nice and tasty. If you are Japanese, look at the first picture elaborately, and find the Chinese translation of croissant. Then I came up with a significant idea, and I'll write about it in the next piece.

Command Center of the Imperial Japanese Navy

　　On the last day in Okinawa, I visited the former site of the command center of the Imperial Navy. People in Okinawa resisted the U.S. until the last minute in 1945. The top officials of the Navy turned their guns on themselves or had their hand-grenades on their arms in this command center to take responsibility for the defeat. Some following pictures show the inside of the commander's room. You can see the bullet-pocked or damaged walls by the broken pieces of their grenades. There were brief descriptions in every room and they were enough to know the cruelty of the war. Who and for what started the last war? The answer is now being brought to light bit by bit. I'm going to write my opinion in this blog.
　　This center was constructed in the underground of a hill near Naha airport. When you stand there, you can get the whole view in all directions. It's maybe why this hill was chosen as the fort. A monument stood on top of the hill in memory of people who had departed around here. My wife and I commemorated them by a moment of silence. What were they thinking about in their fading consciousness. No one would want to die. I decided to write about the last war from the eye of a Japanese.

(Vocabulary)
bullet hole/mark 弾痕
a body full of bullet holes 弾痕だらけの死体
bullet-pocked 弾痕の残る
commemorate someone by a moment of silence  黙とうで（人）を追悼する

Aquarium

　　Dec. 23rd is the Ten-noh's Birthday. The Japanese word of Ten-noh has been frequently translated into "emperor." However, this English translation is wrong, if you ask me. My thought about it has already been written in this entry(link). Anyway, I had a hangover on such an important day. My wife's sharp eyes were scary.
　　We set out for the Ocean Expo Park by rental car. My wife was eager to visit an aquarium which figures prominently in the park. The Ocean Expo Park was planned utilizing empty lots of Expo'75 (沖縄国際海洋博覧会：Okinawa kokusai kaiyou hakurankai in Japanese). As I expected, the park was enormous. Because it was off season for sightseeing, we could park our car at the nearest parking lot from the aquarium. It was really lucky. If it was high season, we would have taken nearly an hour to reach the entrance of the aquarium. The first picture showing Iejima island was shot on the way to the aquarium. The acrobatic performance by dolphins was spectacular. I wondered how the trainers educate and control the dolphins. I also saw three Dugong dugons for the first time.
　　Next, we dropped in at Kourijima island, which is connected with the main island of Okinawa by the Kourioohashi bridge. This bridge is very beautiful itself and the scenery from the bridge is also beautiful. It was regrettable that the weather wasn't good.

(Vocabulary)
Ocean Expo Park  海洋博公園
1975年に開催された沖縄国際海洋博覧会を記念してその跡地に整備を進めている国営沖縄記念公園海洋博覧会地区。
Dugong dugon　ジュゴン
figure prominently in sth  ＜…＞の中で極めて重要な位置を占める
Environmental issues figured prominently in the talks. 会談の中で環境問題は極めて重要な位置を占めていた．

Ryukyu Dynasty

　　After the sunset, we visited the illuminated Shuri Castle, which had been the seat of power during the period of the Ryukyu Dynasty. The last picture was shot in a traditional restaurant in which we had dinner. The local musicians of cojaco and her friends were playing various Okinawan music and they were full of hospitality and really nice.

(Vocabulary)
Ryukyu Dynasty　 琉球王朝

Tsuboyayaki, Pottery

　　Next, we visited the birthplace of Okinawa's original pottery of "Tsuboyayaki", which was near the main street of Naha City. There remain several traditional houses along the street and we enjoyed wandering. I'll upload some pictures shot around the area. I bought a small cup for Japanese sake and my wife a cup for Japanese tea.

Medical Meeting in Yokohama

　　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？