Kazuo Yoshida interpreter for Muriel in Japan
On Monday S. Yoshida sent email relating to her grandfather, Kazuo Yoshida who:
worked as an interpreter and met Miss Lester in a japan shop “Zohiko”. (It was a typical spot for tourists at that time and it still opens now.) We really don’t know why, but he was praised for speaking English well and was invited to stay at Kingsley Hall by Miss Lester.
He actually stayed there from February 1936 to July 1936.( According to his passport and memo.) She offered him to go to University, but he declined it and came back to Japan. I suppose, he was sick for home.
After some years, she visited Kyoto, Japan again. When she arrived at Kyoto (rail ) station, my grand father went to see her. The moment of their reunion was taken photos and appeared in the newspaper. He preciously kept it and sometimes showed us, but unfortunately we can’t find it now. When he died about 20 years ago, his children might throw away unwillingly.
My father ( his son ) and I have interests in his footsteps in London and so we would like to see the article again, but we are not sure which year and month she visited Kyoto.
My grand father left a small autograph book and there are many names like Mary Hughes, George Lansbury and Sybil Throndike. We found these names on your website. There are more but I can’t read them. They are only names, names with address and names with message etc… It was really interesting.
Thank you very much for your hard work and we are very happy to know what Miss Lester did for people and the world peace.
S. Yoshida has now very kindly sent a photograph from the autograph book. She says:
If my grand father was still alive, he would be just 100 years old in September this year. Miss Lester’s website will be completed in September. I’m feeling that this year will be very special and memorable for my family and myself. If Miss Lester didn’t met my grand father, I wouldn’t exist in this world. It is really wonderful !
It was so exciting to get this email and then the photograph. I did respond to S. Yoshida and in the process I learnt a bit more about Muriel and her world tours for peace. It brought home to me how important Muriel was on the international stage. She was visiting Japan at a time when it was dangerous to do so for a British Christian. I only used Jill Wallis: Mother of World Peace as my resource. Soon we will have the archive online with many more possibilities.
In the archive are some news clippings from Muriel's visit to Japan in 1933. These are mostly in Japanese and reading them S. Yoshido discovered that: "Miss Lester met the wife of the president of Doshisha university where my grand father was a student at that time."