Tokyo

Here is another report on the activities of probably the remotest Dartmouth Club on earth. Our first official report in the May issue mentioned that we were just beginning and that we hoped to become more active. Whether by will or by chance, we have been rather active since.

Word that Douglas Storer '21 and Bob Ripley of "Believe It or Not" would be in Tokyo on May 7 started us planning to get together to welcome them. Details of their exact schedule were lacking and it was not until the morning of May 7 that we discovered in the paper that they had flown in from Shanghai and were leaving that afternoon by boat. DaveSills '42 and Marque Richard '32 were finally able to locate the Ripley party just as it returned from a plane trip to Hiroshima, the A-bomb city. That was about 10 a.m. and by 12:30 we managed to round up eight Dartmouth men in this city and some of their wives. Mr. Ripley appeared to greet us but could not stay for the luncheon. The occasion brought out Major Joe Bird '40 and Mr. andMrs. George Gercke '24, who were not present at the first Dartmouth gathering. It was amazing the way the Ripley party whipped in and whipped out within a few hours, like a hurricane, and got the alumni here together on such short notice.

On June 4, Dr. Wen-Tsao Wu '25 of the Chinese Mission to Japan invited the Dartmouth group to dinner. Those present were Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Hewes '24, Mr. andMrs. David Sills '42, Kyosuke Fukada '29, Marque Richard '32, and Nobu Mitsui '43. We met at the Imperial Hotel and in a threecar procession drove the spiral route through the city to the Chinese Mission Compound. Mrs. Wu, our gracious hostess, is a Wellesley grad. Around the dinner table we ate delicious dishes of shark's fin and frog meat with long silver chopsticks, drank Chinese wine from Japanese jiggers of the famous Kutani ware, and discussed great issues of Japan and the Orient in general. The atmosphere was memorable and the serious discussion continued after dinner, well into the night. There were no definite conclusions when we broke up at midnight but we grew by exchanging views. The Dartmouth family feeling was also a wonderful experience.