7 forcibly snatched away by Chinese children, and I recall the misery I felt when my mother informed me that it was done because Japan had lost the war. On our return to Japan, my parents shifted from Memuro city to Obihiro, and within the shopping district they opened a footwear store. This business appears to have progressed well, for my father in due course purchased a hot spring inn in Ikenoyu (Teshikaga city, Kushiro subprefecture) on the shores of Lake Kussharo in Akan National Park. Life thereupon proceeded with my mother at the footwear store in Obihiro, and my father involved in the management of the inn. After the war, since I could not commute to the local Japanese school in former Manchuria owing its closure, I shifted to the Memuro elementary school a year later and transferred to Meiseigakuen Elementary School in Obihiro city. On concluding my term at Obihiro Daiichi Junior High School, I entered Obihiro Sanjo High School in 1954. While at Junior High School I was captain of the basketball club, but being a captain who could not easily secure goals, I was able to taste victory only with the aid of others. While in the second year of junior high school I read a speech on behalf of the current students, and at the graduation ceremony I read the valedictory address. At this junior high school I met Morisue Ryoji, who would later travel to Cambodia with me. The two of us proceeded to the prefectural Obihiro Sanjo High School, and became intimate friends. At Sanjo High School I was keen on English, and I was influenced by Mr. Yoshida Shigeru who happened to be my English teacher. At that time, he was around 24 or 25 years of age, a graduate of Hokkaido University, and had just been married. He had a very English-like ambience about him. In the course of his lectures, with regard to English literature and so on, he would pour out his entire stock of expertise for us, and would occasionally include even some nihilistic issues. He would tell us stimulating tales concerning Natsume Soseki’s study in the United
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