Flying Home Page #3

When she was in Rome,

she even danced for the Pope.

June 1955.

Dear Mami, what a pity

that I cannot introduce you

to Martinique in Comano.

I would have been so happy

to see the two of you meet.

"I am sure she would have

called you Mother",

and that you would have loved

the little black baby.

I do not know what happened

between Walter and Martinique

in the following months.

The fact is that from spring 1956,

he no longer mentions her in his letters.

Martinique told me

she had returned to Mexico,

and had always hoped

that he would follow.

But Walter never came.

He gave up the small apartment,

put his belongings in storage in Los Angeles,

and set off on a round-the-world trip.

On his big trip,

Walter visited his 80-year-old mother

for the second and last time in Comano.

He stayed for two weeks,

then continued to Istanbul.

7 July 1956.

Dear Mami,

I miss so much, not being able to

accompany you to your bedroom,

to sit by your bed and chat with you,

and, in the morning,

to have breakfast with you again.

Tokyo, 3 May 1959.

Dearest Mami,

I like it here in Japan,

and feel better than

I have in a long while.

Everything is so strangely nice

and different,

that I keep going further and

taking photographs and never want to leave.

4 August 1959.

Everyone must think I am totally crazy,

to be learning Japanese.

But I am so obsessed with it,

that I want nothing else.

It drives me from within,

like building cars did, back then.

It is all so strange,

and I am surprised myself,

that my life is going in a different

direction from what I had imagined.

From 1959 to 1964,

Uncle Walter lived in Tokyo.

50 years later, the journalist.

Masayuki Ishiguro led me to the archives

of the Bunka Hoso radio station.

I had discovered Walter's method of

learning Japanese.

At home, he taped radio plays

based on popular Japanese novels.

Every week, he visited the radio station,

to pick up the original manuscripts.

That way, he could listen to the recordings

and read the text at the same time.

After Walter's death, I found over

200 cassette reels among his belongings.

Masayuki recorded for me

the radio play Snow Country",

based on the novel of the same name

by Yasunari Kawabata.

On either side of the long tunnel,

is the snow country.

There is a sad beauty

in the constant snowfall.

When it stops snowing,

there is a lonely purity.

This is like the heart of a woman.

The radio play tells the story

of an impossible love,

between the writer Shimamura

and the Geisha Komako,

who keep meeting in a ryokan,

surrounded by snow,

in the north of Tokyo.

The train that separated us,

and carried me out of

the snow country,

brings me back to this woman.

Could that not be the same train,

and the same compartment, as back then?

Yes.

Perhaps it is even

the same seat as then.

Tokyo, October 1961.

Dear Mami,

I don't have time for anything anymore,

apart from, uninterruptedly,

listening to radio plays

without missing a single day.

Instead of living my own life.

I have immersed myself

in the life of the people in the stories.

It is not what I wanted,

but it just happened.

And I don't have the strength

to change it.

For a long time, I thought

Uncle Walter had been all alone in Japan -

a hermit.

But then, I found Japanese letters

among his possessions,

which I sent to my friend Masayuki

Ishiguro, for translation.

Shortly afterwards,

he replied that Walter had not at all

been so lonely - on the contrary.

You are probably surprised

about this letter,

please forgive me.

Should I run away from home?

Should I come to you, Mr. Wyss,

and live with you?

I will say good night now.

Please tell me if you need help.

I was surprised that you are

such a bad person!

Japanese men are not

as cowardly as you.

I have never experienced

a man physically.

I am totally crazy about you,

and am now scared.

And I send you my kiss.

Thank you for being so kind to me.

To tell you the truth:

I have met a man in Kyushu.

I am going to marry him.

I will forget the past,

and start a new life.

Do not be angry with me,

I will never forget your kindness.

If he has been with many women,

that would be a shock for me.

Of course,

I am also shocked about the women.

Mr. Walter was an admirable man.

But he was a man, after all...

Yes...

First I would like to ask you,

how you got to know Mr. Walter?

When I worked at the radio,

Mr. Walter was sometimes there.

He asked me for textbooks,

and I gave them to him.

I was not actually allowed to do this,

but because he said,

that he was eager to learn Japanese,

I gave them to him.

Apart from at the radio,

I had nothing to do with him.

Once, when I went for a walk

near my home in Kagurazaka,

I ran into Mr. Walter.

We chatted, and I mentioned that

he was often at the radio.

He told me he lived in the area,

and taught English occasionally.

What kind of person

do you think Mr. Walter was?

That is hard to say.

I just wanted to

learn English from him.

Probably I was inattentive.

Once,

he mentioned the name of a woman,

who lived in the same apartment block as I.

So I thought

they must get along very well.

I was engaged, and so I had

no interest in Mr. Walter's girlfriends.

Only once did Mr. Walter invite

myself and Miss Tsubouchi

into the apartment he was renting.

It was really a very small room.

You could only sleep curled up.

He only had textbooks,

and a little bed.

Why did you come?

Why did you come here?

I came here to meet you.

I don't believe you.

People in Tokyo are liars -

I hate that.

I won't take you to the station anymore.

I am torn.

Oh - this time I will leave

without saying anything.

Liar. I waited the whole time.

I cannot trust what you say.

And then you invited him

to your wedding.

Why did you invite him?

As a friend?

I thought that

a Japanese wedding

could be interesting for a foreigner.

That was all.

We researched a lot,

and discovered many women and girlfriends.

I hope that he only had

good experiences with girlfriends.

That would have been nice for him.

Tokyo, March 1962.

In this country,

I can stand it much better

as a hermit.

And at least I like being

among all these strangers.

The fact that everything is so peculiar,

is what attracts me the most.

I have decided to enjoy life,

before it is too late.

In the summer of 1963,

Walter sent a long letter to Comano.

For the first time in his life,

he spoke up against his mother.

He was 52 years old,

and she was 86.

Tokyo, 25 June 1963.

Dear Mami,

For 25 years,

I have only read kind words from you.

But all I have inherited from you,

is a miserly austerity,

and the feeling,

not to have achieved anything.

Mami,

since, on the inside,

I am still strongly attached to you,

I have to try not to lose my belief

in you and the way you brought me up,

otherwise,

my conflicts will make me ill.

After 5 years, Uncle Walter

no longer renewed his visa for Japan.

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