Marlene is my GrandPal. She has had an extraordinary life. What is interesting about Marlene is she has been to Japan a total of eight times. The reason behind her going to Japan is really what is most amazing! The Second World War started on September 1, 1939. The United States was not involved in the Second World War until the attack on Pearl Harbour happened. Pearl Harbour is a base near Hawaii. On December 7, 1941, Japan sent ships called aircraft carriers close to Pearl Harbour. The planes on the ships then flew to Pearl Harbour and bombed most of the U.S. Navy ships that were in the port there. Some of the ships got away and went to attack Japan. 2,403 people died from the Pearl Harbour attack. That caused the United States to join the Second World War. When the U.S. joined the war they made atomic bombs. The Americans developed the first atomic bomb. An American B-29 bomber dropped the world's first atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. The explosion destroyed 90 percent of the city, killed 80,000 people, and tens of thousands more people would later die of radiation. Three days later the Americans dropped another atomic bomb killing about 40,000 people in Nagasaki. The Emperor of Japan was very unhappy with the bombing. The Emperor of Japan decided it was time to end the war and surrender to the U.S.
Marlene was born on November 21, 1927 and she was born in Ohio, U.S.A. Marlene went to Japan in 1950 after the Second World War ended in 1945. Marlene was in her early twenties when she decided to go to Japan. The reason she wanted to go to Japan was because she could not understand why people killed each other like the Japanese and the Americans did. Marlene wanted to make friends with the Japanese. Marlene's mom didn't want her to go to Japan because her mom thought she was selling herself to the enemy. It took her two weeks on a boat to get to Japan. The boat she took was a cruise ship. The cruise ship was like the Princess Line that people take cruises on today. It was early September when Marlene left for Japan and since the Korean War had just begun (the Korean War began on June 25, 1950), passengers didn't want to spend their vacations in Asia. The expensive tickets were not sold and Marlene got a good stateroom at an inexpensive price.
When Marlene arrived in Japan, at Yokohama Harbor, they couldn't dock because all the docks were taken by ships with supplies going to Korea. Marlene left the ship by climbing down the ladder, onto a raft that took them down to the shore and she had to wait hours until their trunks of clothes could be brought to shore. The part of Japan she then went to was Tokyo.
After arriving in Japan she met some new Japanese friends and they decided to go on a camping trip. On this camping trip, Marlene and her new friends decided to hike around the foot of Mount Fuji. Mount Fuji is a volcano 100 kilometers southwest of Tokyo. There were five lakes near Mount Fuji and Marlene and her new friends decided to camp by one of the five lakes. There was no one else at the campsite that particular day. Marlene and her friends had two pup tents and one large tent. When they went camping there were three boys and three girls, including Marlene. The boys were in charge of making the fire to cook the rice, but all the kindling they found was wet. Kindling is made of small sticks used to start a fire. The boys also set lines to catch fish. The fish that took the bait were too small. Once the boys gave up trying to catch fish they just ate what the girls had brought. The girls were in charge of the rest of the meals and they had brought canned goods. It was too cold to swim and too rainy to hike and that's why they sat in the big tent and played cards all day. The card games helped bridge the language gap between Marlene and her new Japanese friends. Marlene was the only American on the camping trip. One of the guys was so tall his head hit the top of the tent. Every time he stood up, he made the tent leak. They had one pan to put under the leak, but it was going to make sleeping difficult. One boy found out that his pup tent was wet, so he decided to get the evening bus and go home.
It rained harder that night. They had to catch water leaks from the roof. Marlene thought about all the things they were going to do but everything was wet. Marlene and her friends joked around together. Lots of their time was spent trying to find dry wood for the fire, plus the boys trying to light the fire. After they took a vote they decided to abort their camping trip. They made the decision at midnight, so they started packing for the bus and the bus came at 8:00 a.m.
Marlene decided to stay in Japan to teach instead of going back to Ohio. She stayed in Japan and taught for three more years. After those first years, she went back to Japan seven more times. The camping trip was an experience she would never forget because she wanted to get to know the Japanese people better. The camping trip showed that Americans and Japanese people could become friends and were not so different after all.