Going and coming
Media
Part of The Cabletow
- Title
- Going and coming
- Language
- English
- Source
- The Cabletow Volume III (New Series No. 4) April 1961
- Year
- 1961
- Rights
-
- Fulltext
- GOING AND COMING The truth has out. Wc went to Japan, gomen nasai. Not only once, but three times last year. Since they were dubbed as business trips, we shall not write anything about business. Being a beginner, we took a boat and the first port of call en route was Hong Kong. Previously, wc had carried on correspondence with a brother Mason, Bro. Wing W. Kwong, who had a share in the es tablishment of the Grand Lodge of China in Shanghai some thirteen years back. He escaped the com munist regime and settled in Hong Kong where he set up an import-ex port business. Because wc arc a pen-pusher for the Cable Tow, as if you did not know that, we were welcome to a small group of brethren in the crown colony. So, it was lunch at zAlcxanclra House with Bros. Peter T. H. Chao. William Choy, Y. K. Yang, R. Y. Cheng, and of course, Bro. Kwong, who knows his way around Hong Kong, being known in gov ernment and YMCA circles also. I missed my fellow Zapotcro, WB Ruben Mendoza. Adm. Officer of the Philippine Consulate, the fits! time. He had official business to attend to then, but in my second it ip in August, Bro. Kwong and wc caught up with him; wc three had lunch together with Mr. Salmcngo, the commercial attache there and now assigned to Tokyo. At the .Alexandra House gathering, wc had a chance to learn about Masonry in Hong Kong. There are some fifteen Lodges there under the Grand I.odgcs of England and Scotkind who welcome brethren from other Grand Lodges recognized land who welcome brethren horn the Grand I.odgcs of the Philippines and China, however, prefer to be together among themselves. Since J919 they have banded together as a “Square Club” for social and frat ernal purposes. The club has a membership of over one hundred: they meet once a month, but do not do degree work, f find in the roll six brethren from Island-Luz-Minerva 5, Mencius 93, Cebu 128, and Noli Me Tangcrc 148. The rest are members of Lodges of the Grand Lodge of China, all of which are now meeting in Taipeh and also other Grand Lodges. When poss:blc some of the brethren go to Tai peh for stated meetings. If they can not, they satisfy themselves with their monthly gatherings of the Square Club. Some of the members who m a i n t a i n memberships in Lodges recognized by the Grand I.clges of England and Scotland, can attend lodge meetings in Hong Kong. ,\t Yokosuka. Japan we attended a meeting of the Eastern Star chap ter there*. Wc were agreeably sur prised to find WB Norman Karschncr, the District Deputy Grand Mas ter, who was last year's Worthy Pa tron ol the Eastern Star chapter. 1 Iistorically-inclined persons will associate Yokosuka as the first port where Commodore Perry landed in 1860 bringing with him a letter from the President of the United States asking Japan to open her ports for 127 dueling with other countries. Beginning in June 1960, the Jap anese celebrated the 100th anniver sary of their trade and cultural re lations with the United States; odd ly enough, with a labor group ask ing that President Eisenhower do not visit Japan. Wc were told, how ever, that it was not the sentiment ol the majority of the Japanese peo ple; but to avoid embarrassment, the Kishi government had to accede to the importunings of the vocal and militant group. But back to Yokosuka and Com modore Perry. Il will be recalled that Count Masahiro Hotta, premier at that time, welcomed the Commo dore in Yokosuka. It has been a big naval base and is presently main tained by the U. S. Navy and in part used by the navy group of the Japan Defense Forces. It is a long way from Yokosuka to Sakura Citv: but in Sakura we were taken around the feudal estate of Count Holla and saw the ruins of his castle. The big estate has, since the establish ment of land reforms in Japan, been divided and sold to former tenants and workers. When one has been a teacher for over a cptarter of a century, he has a tendency to revert to type on short notice. After a visit to the schools of the ci tv, wc were asked to speak to senior high school students and later made an honorary citizen ol Sakura city bv no less than Mayor Hotta, the great-grandson of Count Hotta. At Tokso, wc met many brethren, but did not have a chance to attend any of the lodge and chapter meet ings. There was the summer recess in August and in December winter, in below zero weather outside, the temptation was too great to stay in the hotel room. We made friend ship with a former Lions Club sec retary and organizer who asked about Masonry. It was not until he asked a third time that wc took it upon ourscll to introduce him to WB Murayama of the Japan Times and a Past Master of Kanto Lodge. That was in the summer and when wc came back in winter, we found the friend due for initiation a week after our leaving. The daughter of a late brother, an active and loyal Mason in Bulacan, herself a singer of note in Ame rica and Europe, had planned a con cert in Tokyo last October. Her friends, both Filipinos and Japancsc there were wondering licnv best to get newspaper publicity for her concert. Having been asked by one of them, we contacted stall members of Japan Times and Asahi Evening News, already known to us, to sec about the publicity. The third trip was easily an ad venture in Rizaliana. We got pet mission to reprint two articles on Rizal by two Japanese writer?; the first one in this issue by Masahiro Sasagawa of the Asahi Evening News and the second in the coming July issue by Tatsumaro Tczuka of the Tokyo Metropolitan Historiography Institute. We were able to do some researches which will be written up in the future. Just to get the feel of it, we stood several times on the site of the To kyo hotel where Rizal stayed. Wc had to dodge streetcars because the site is now the center of the tracks. We spent hours at the Metropolitan Historiography Institute, read the original reports and accounts, looked at the maps and pictures of the places visited by Bro. Dr. Rizal v’hen lie was there in March 1888. 128 THE CABLE TOW April, 1961