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Chapter 16; The Party at the Mayor's
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CHAPTER 16 THE THE P PARTY ARTY A AT T THE THE MA MAYOR’S YOR’S It was in the middle of October. The mayor, Mr. Machida, formally invited Col. Payne and his staff to his home. Mr. Machida’s house was a big house in the center of the town. Usually the main gate was closed and people went in and out of the small gate at the side of the house. But this evening the main gate was thrown open welcoming the honorable guests. Mr. and Mrs. Machida were in formal Japanese kimono, and Mrs. Machida who was a typical Japanese woman, reserved and shy, was very nervous. She said to me, “I don’t want to sit at the table with the guests. Do you think it is all right if I retire soon after I am introduced?” Mr. Tanaka, who was the chief interpreter at the camp and was there at the mayor’s to help with the preparation, overheard this conversation and said, “Oh, no. You can’t do that. You are the hostess and you must eat the food first to show that it is not poisoned . That is the custom, you know”. Mrs. Machida gave up the idea of retiring to her room, but begged me to stay by her and show her how to use knives and forks. “You see I have never had a western-style dinner and I don’t know how to eat properly.” She had been brought up in a wealthy family, and was a goodlooking woman of about forty. She did not go out very much, and although people talked of her as being stuck-up, I felt that it was her shyness that kept her to her home and children. She had three children. A boy and two girls. The two girls, fifteen and ten, were in kimono tonight and were very charming. “You must come out and bow to the guests,” Mr. Machida, who once boasted about his popularity with geisha girls, was very fatherly tonight. There were some eight or nine Japanese men, all in kimono and hakama (a kind of skirt men wear with their kimono on formal occasions). They were, beside Mr. Machida and Mr. Kuno, the chief of police and some important men of business. They all looked fine in kimono. Girls who were to serve were picked out from our station office, the town office and the police station. They all were in beautiful kimono. Four of them were my friends at the office. “I haven’t worn kimono for a long time. Is my obi (sash) all right?” “I don’t know English at all. Please come to my rescue if I am spoken to.” They too were nervous and excited. They stood close together like so many little birds and wouldn’t let me go. I said, “I shall have to serve them with sake, too. Show me how you do it, please”. They were experts at that and that made them feel more at ease. “Put the plate first in front of the colonel and then serve the others.” They were rehearsing. Mr. Tanaka, the interpreter, was an excellent coach since he had once been a cook in New York. Mr. Machida went out of the gate several times to see if the jeeps were coming. Mrs. Machida, her daughters, Mr. Kuno and two or three others and I lined up just inside the gate to welcome them. “Here they are,” Mr. Machida said. One, two, three, four … four jeeps were coming with eight bright headlights brightening up the dark shops on each side one after another in succession. 68 [3.95.39.127] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 11:43 GMT) There were about ten guests: Col. Payne, Col. Frost, Maj. Hazel Andrews and Maj. Turner, Capt. Mattison and Capt. Higgins, Lt. Loyte and Lt. Reed, with Sgt. Nishi as their interpreter. Mr. Tanaka being busy in the kitchen, I introduced Mrs. Machida and her two daughters. The Americans thought the girls very charming and their kimono unusually beautiful. They asked how old they were and whether they liked school or not. The younger daughter, who was more courageous than her sister, declared she did not like mathematics. The older sister told them that she liked music, but when asked to sing a song, she hid her face with her long sleeves—a most womanly gesture that only Japanese women can do with their long...