Right song & dance over letter to Japan

The lady who was surprised to get a telephone call from Richard Attenborough because her son hadn’t told her he might call reminded me of when I went on a trip to Japan. Fifty years earlier I had been stationed there during the Korean War. I returned with a party who had served together during National Service and this time we took our wives. We visited a junior school, where a group of girls who were learning english entertained us with a song and dance they had prepared specially for our visit. After the performance, two of the girls chatted with us. They said they hoped we had enjoyed the show and would never forget us. This turned out to be rather ironic . . . They gave us the castanets they had decorated and used in the performance, plus a piece of paper, which we assumed was their name and address in Japanese. The headmistress said she hoped that when we got home, we would write to the girls and tell them about our home and life in england. She asked us not to send expensive presents as it wouldn’t be fair to the girls who hadn’t taken part. I wrote back about our family and included some pictures of our house and garden. I also sent a photo of our three boys outside the junior school they had attended when they were a similar age. I sent a brightly decorated leather bookmark which had a simple text in english. I had no idea what the Japanese characters said, so I stuck the paper we had been given on an envelope and added Japan for the benefit of the Royal Mail. Six weeks later, I received a letter from Japan. The mother who had received the letter didn’t read or write english, but she had a friend who did. She had asked her to read it and write a reply. She didn’t know why we had written to her daughter and sent a present, as the young girl hadn’t told her about the school visit. I’m sure that when Mum asked what she had done at school that day, her daughter had shrugged and said: ‘Just stuff.’

Derek Trayler, Hornchurch, Essex.