This is an article I wrote for The Japan Times. In May, 1999, I revisited my childhood home in Yokohama. Many things have changed since I left in 1961.
Memories of old Honmoku: An expatriate revisits his Yokohama childhood haunts
December 27, 2007 by francistanabe
Kunio Francis Tanabe 
Loved your reminiscence of Yokohama and St. Joes, a school I attended for only two years(1951-53) before more or less expelling myself through truancy. I used to go down to the Honmoku beaches all the time. At another site, Franz Metzger’s photos of the bluff made me catch my breath. He was disgusted with the nitwits who caused chaos on the class trip to Lake Yamanaka in 53? Brought back memories of much amusement and little achievement. But I loved history with Brother Tribull, and somehow became an history professor with Ph.D, now approaching the end of a 40-year career at a small college in Canada. Ever international .
Garin Burbank
I have the SJC yearbook from 1953. I was in third grade and you were in seventh. The photo shows you between O. Akiyama and W. Van Hauffe. I met several of your classmates last March–Franz Metzger, Willy Mahr and M. Matsuura. Also Hans Enderle. The occasion was the 50th reunion of my brother’s class of 1957 and several from the class of ’58 attended. I represented my brother, Kazuo Larry Tanabe, who passed away a few months before the reunion. It was held at the Foreign Press Club in Yuraku-cho, Tokyo.
I retired from the book review section of The Washington Post in September, 2006.
Recently, I read a book by a Canadian professor who lived in Japan, Klaus H. Pringsheim– A fascinating autobiography titled “Man of the World: Memoirs of Europe, Asia & North America (1930s to 1980s). He was the adopted son of a musician who worked under Gustav Mahler and nephew of Thomas Mann. Do read the book if you haven’t already.
Brother Tribull was also one of my favorite teachers. He is buried near here in Baltimore. I do remember impressing him with my account of Lou Gehrig’s last day at Yankee Stadium. This was in 8th grade. He had no idea that the source of my story was a comic book which I bought from a tiny second-hand bookstore in front of Honmoku Sankeien tram station.
Good to hear from you. Would love to learn more about your life.
Kunio Francis Tanabe (St. Joseph College, class of 1961)
My family came from the banks of the Missouri River, specifically Atchison, Kansas. In 1946 my father got an acountant’s job with American President Lines and brought us to Yokohama in January 1952. Loved to watch the ships glide into harbor from the magnificent promontory of the bluff. After a dispute over an unreconciled port-expense account, my father was sacked, prompting our sudden return to California. My mother explained to the schools that we had “lost” my report card enroute in order to cover for my truancy!
Perhaps it was Bro. Tribull who first made me see that history was the one subject I would always embrace in a classroom. So, the dropout from SJC has three degrees from Berkeley, the last awarded for a doctoral diss. on agrarian radicalism in Oklahoma and the great Plains. People in the premier agrarian radical province of Saskatchewan were interested in my work. I taught in Regina for four years(69-73) before getting the opportunity to move to the “big” city of Winnipeg. Since then I have gone”native,” married a daughter of Ukrainian immigrants, and have become a settled citizen of Manitoba and Canada. Like you, I have adapted to my surroundings without quite forgetting where I came from.
But you are more famous, with 16,000 “pure” hits on Google to my 597! My website and current picture is easy to find at History Department, University of Winnipeg.
Isn’t the Internet a miracle! I have spent half the day looking at scenes of Yamate-cho.
This internet world is still new to me and I cannot fathom your reference to “16,000 pure hits,” compared with 597. I will ask my son, a motion graphics designer who teaches at Parsons School of Design in NY , to explain all this to me.
Incidentally, my brother worked for American President Lines for a few years before he switched to Pan American World Airways. I’ve taken tours of several President Lines ships. Yes, we could see the ships sail a short while after they left the Port of Yokohama from our porch window. During the war, foreign residents were forced to leave the Honmoku area. One of the reasons given was that it was too easy to count the ships leaving and returning to Tokyo Bay. I have corresponded with several former SJC students whose families spent the war years in Karuizawa and Goura (near Hakone). Some returned to the Honmoku area and stayed long enough to see the tidal flats covered with concrete and oil refineries.
If you google with quotation marks around the exact name, you avoid bringing up irrelevant combinations of other peple’s names,e.g., garin realty, van nuys, burbank,calif.
I also rely on my sons for computer directions! They are graduates of a good Jesuit high school, St. Paul’s, in Winnipeg. Both now attend the U. of Winnipeg. The older is getting ready to go “international,” with an offer to teach English in Germany. He warns us that he may not be back: after seeing Germany for this second time, Winnipeg will be too “pokey.”
My family sailed to Yokohama on the President Wilson, and returned to California on the President Cleveland.
Waikiki had only the three original hotels on the beach in 1953, when we stayed for a day.
Mr. Tanabe, I truly enjoyed your article of your childhood days in Honmoku. I was browsing the internet and googled (is this a real verb now?) “honmoku” and the link to your article jumped out. I was so surprised to recognize the places you described and your article brought back such good memories.
Our family also live in Honmoku for about 10 years, 1960-1970. My father is American and worked for the Defense Department, and my mother is Japanese. We lived in a rented western style home immediately across the street from a stone wall that separated the beach and the street. As a pre-schooler while my older brother and sisters were at school (they attended St Joseph, St. Maurs, and Santa Maria), a retired fisherman who lived in our neighborhood would take me out fishing on his small wooden boat. During clamming season we all went down to the beach and gathered asari and hamaguri by the buckets full. When we returned with our load, the retired fisherman’s wife would rinse the clams in their outdoor sink area and instructed me to bring them home so my mom could make delicious miso soup and other delicacies. My sisters and I played “house” on the wooden fishing boats that lined the beaches after their masters were finished with the day’s catch and docked the boats along the beachline. There were also times when the beaches were lined with tall bamboo slats with uniformly squared patches of nori drying in the sun. Sometimes my brother and his friends would use their fingers to scoop some still fresh nori for an afternoon snack. Once they were caught by the fisherman’s wives and scolded. As much as they wanted to deny their guilt, they couldn’t because the dark green bits of nori were still smudged on their white teeth.
During the summer months my mom packed lunches for us (6 kids), usually grilled sake onigiri (salmon rice balls) and thermos full of green tea. We played on the orphanage playgrounds (at the time we referred to it as the Hoikuen) and ate lunch on the benches that overlooked the ocean, which was situated behind the Haseiden bldg. I also remember visiting Haseiden mostly to cool off in the bldg from the hot humid summer days while playing nearby.
Last December my husband and I visited Japan and spent a day walking all over the old Honmoku neigherhood. The change was too overwhelming. Our old house no longer stood, it was replaced by a private parking lot for the area homeowners’ use. There was only one home on the same street that I recognized, but everything else was gone or drastically remodeled. To get to the old neighborhood we took the #8 public bus from Yokohama train station and got off at the bus stop after the Sankeien stop. Toward the end of the day as we walked, I recognized an inner street that fomerly had a public bath house (sento), a tofu store, and a liquor/sundries store (sakaya). The only store remaining was the liquor store. We went in and bought sodas. As we were paying for our drinks, I asked the storeowner if they had been in business for a long time. After he confirmed this, and I asked if there was a tofu store and a public bath house on the same street. He said, yes, a long time ago. I then told him that as a child I lived nearby, and that my mother would send us to the tofu store to buy tofu (I remember she made us bring a container with us since they didn’t provide any plastic containers or other vessels to carry the freshly made tofu back home). I told him that my mother also sent us to his store to buy bottles of soy sauce or sake for cooking (often times my mother would write it down on a piece of paper so we can show it to the storeowner. We were too young and couldn’t remember the brand names). And when I told him that we used to swim in the ocean just down the street. He smiled and asked, so there really used to be a swimming beach here? He said he was 40 yrs old, but didn’t remember any beaches. I confirmed that yes, there was a beach to swim and also went clamming. (What a magical environment it was for young children to play and grow.) I remember riding the street cars and caught the #4 train to visit my grandmother’s house in Hodogaya.
Although I was sad to see that so much had changed, I was also reminded of how fortnuate and grateful I am to have had lived during a such an innocent time, surrounded by the abundance of mother nature’s gifts and the wonderful people of the neighborhood.
I’ve lived in Northern VA for the last 25 years, but still have many fond memories of my Honmoku days. It’s not just the cultural or traditional events, i.e, O-Bon with matsuri and spectacular fireworks that, in comparison almost dwarfs our 4th of July celebration fireworks; or by being bi-cultural, cthe celebration of both Christmas (presents) and New Year’s (Otoshi dama). But every New Years Day (12 midnight) as many people watch the count down at Time Square, I can still recall the days when my family watched the black & white TV, listening to the ringing of the Buddhist temple bells (joya no kane). And in addition, I can still see my mother openning the window and we all listened to the ships in the distant harbors blowing their horns in the crisp cold night. The ship’s way of welcoming the New Year. Somehow I can still feel that same cold air against my cheeks as these memories revisit.
Thank you for your article.
Kathy
I used to tutor you after school – your brother, 3 of your sisters and you. I lived just around the corner from you at 282 Honomoku Motomachi. I still own the red suitcase and matching cosmetic case that your parents bought me as a graduation gift in 1968! It’s now considered “vintage”
Linda’s comments above is addressed to Kathy Anderson (scroll down to see her comments). I lived at 62 Honmoku Motomachi and recall, quite vividly, the area that you refer to, where the sea wall was. There was (is?) a very large house at the corner, which, if I recall correctly, belonged (or still belongs) to the Komors, and rented out to well-to-do American families. My classmate at St. Joseph’s (Meyer or Mayer) lived there at one time, and I think their parents worked for Standard Oil.
The family name “Milne” sounds so familiar, but cannot place it in the context of the Honmoku neighborhood.
Great to hear from you! Sono setsu wa osewa ni narimashita!! At least 3 of us are on facebook — please look us up!!
Kathy:
I loved reading your response to my article about Honmoku. We must have been neighbors. We lived at 62 Honmoku Motomachi, Naka-ku, Yokohama (the old numbers have been changed recently, though). We lived in front of the beach between the shack (where they kept two ceremonial boats and the mikoshi) and the Hiranos who operated a rental boat business. Our house had a western style look to it with a white picket fence. Your house must have been very close to actress Akiko Koyama’s house (which was in front of a sea wall.) I remember the public bath, the liquor store and a store named Mayoka that sold foodstuff and candy. I do remember the tofu shop. A girl I knew, Michiko Iwasaki married the son of the owner of the tofu shop. Further up that back road was a fancy feudal-looking gateway to Japanese-style house, an entrance that could be used for a samurai film. We used to walk along the sea wall to the next beach where we used to play softball. Along that seawall lived a Hawaiian family whose daughter attended Niles C. Kinnick high school. I can just picture my neighborhood as if it were still there in the form half a century ago. The fishermen ruled the beaches. I used to take my pet dog for a walk on the beach at low tide. I have to tell you about a discovery I made a year ago: at an art exhibition of Hokusai woodblock prints at the Sackler Gallery in Washington, I came across one that depicted the view of Mt. Fuji from Honmoku beach at lowtide. From the look of it, the artist must have sketched it right in front of our neighborhood.
Thank you for your wonderful recollection.
Francis
Kathy:
I enjoyed your fine portrait of a local culture, beautifully evoked and tenderly remembered, as all those happy family times should be. I can see what I missed by not having a family member native to that ground!
Garin Burbank
Thanks to all of you for sharing your memories of Yokohama. I was an army kid and lived in the Yamashita Park housing area on the waterfront down from the New Grand Hotel. We lived there from 54 to 56 and I attended St. Joseph’s College the last year [my 6th grade] before we were transferred back to the states. I have very fond memories of living in Yokohama and would like to go back some day. I now reside in Lenexa, Kansas.
Dick Day
I lived in Sugita till 1965 and then had to move to Okinawa because my father was stationed there. I have fond memories of attending Nile C. Kinnick and going trick-or-treating at the Navy housing.
The old tram that ran from Yokohama Station passed by Honmoku Sankeien (where Nile C. Kinnick — Yohi– was located, later relocated to Yokosuka) wound its way to Sugita, if I am not mistaken. I lived within walking distance to Yohi. Sugita has changed since the national railway line runs in that direction all the way to Ofuna Station on the Tokaido Line. That railway connects to Tokyo Station on the other end. The railway line must have been completed years after you left Sugita.
I had read your comments about Yo-Hi,and it brought back many years of great joy to me,thanks. My times that I have lived in Yokohama have always been with me. I use to live in the Navy housing known as area 2 ,which was the housing that was behind the school. It was a great time to live there. What I remember most was that when I left the school and down the road from there I found a small road or alley that took me to a very beautiful garden that was open to all,the ponds,pagodas, and flowers. I use to spend all my time there when I got a chance. I do miss those times and the people I got to know. thank you. I still concider myself a Yo-Hi Red devil.
To the Yo-Hi Red Devil:
Sorry for the late reply. We were away on vacation to visit Olympic National Park, Seattle, Victoria and Vancouver. Lovely places to visit. When I toured the Japanese Garden in Seattle, it reminded me of Sankeien, the garden near our house. How lucky we were to have a neighborhood like that–the hills, the sea, secret caves, etc. Yokohama was a wonderful place. We had a neighbor, children of a Navy officer, Betty Sue Lewis, Barbara and Joy. Lost track of them. That was way back in 1956 to 60. They attended Yo-Hi. The older kids who attended the CYO Saturday night dances taught us to rock and roll in the basement of Sacred Heart. We formed a band called the Blue Saints and toured not only Yokohama but Tokyo, Zushi, Kamakura, etc. Those were fun days.
Francis,
As a recent arrival in Yokohama and the Honmoku area I have spent the last few weeks aghast at the realisation of what has changed around here. After an unstructured walk led me to the Hasseiden I saw what the old Honmoku used to be like.
I am now searching the local libraries and the internet to try and gain a full understanding and have really appreciated your article and its first hand memories of a time that seems strangely close but is long gone.
I doubt that a fisherman mayor of Yohohama will ever reclaim the sand flats but maybe in the Star Trek future the cliffs will once again feel the waves washing against them.
Ian:
Just returned from a trip to St. Malo and Dinard in Britanny, France. There the tide can go as high as 13 meters compared to lowtide. The beaches are well preserved and, at lowtide, there is not a single plastic bottle or bag littering the beaches. The flatlands and cliffs of Honmoku could have been preserved if the city so wished. But it was too conveniently located, close to Tokyo, and those wanting to push industrialization won out. There are so many other such beautiful shorelines that were bulldozed by those pushing factories and other ugly structures along the shores. Perhaps it is a matter of educating the citizenry, to teach them the value of beauty, in other words, return to Japan’s core values. I do wish the emperor, the head of Shintoism and nature worship, to take a more active role in preserving natural beauty throughout the land.
Hi Francis, During research for a documentary on Yokohama in the 60s I ran into your corner of the internet. Obviously it is an exciting source of info.
I lived in Honmoku, near to Sankeien. I think the address was 354 Honmoku. It was 1965 and 1966. We had a huge western house, in what essentially was a Japanese neighbourhood offering me an ideal playground. It must have been a beachside property once. When we came land was being reclaimed for all the industry that dominates the scene now.
I was ten years old when I arrived, together with parents, sister, brother. In Shizuoka my father oversaw building ships for a Dutch shipping company. I attended Yokohama International School, which contributed to the impression that I had entered paradise. Yokohama was mine, both through western delights such as the YC&AC and -especially- the Japanese. I frequented Sankeien, which asked 5 yen for entrance I remember. With friends, but more often alone I went to the station and roamed around the mall before heading for the rooftop fun of Takashimaya. Coming back from school on my bike I stopped at the Japanese grocery for sweets and fire-crackers and smoke bombs. And there were so many more of these Yokohama gems.
Until a few years ago my memories of Yokohama bliss were dominated by these kind of spots, rather than occasions, developments and people. That changed when I started thinking of writing a novel on my Japanese youth. I realised for instance that along with my introduction to Japan, there was my introduction to the United States, and Vietnam for that matter. There was ‘D Avenue’, where I put my bike against the fence separating Yokohama and what was for me a piece of America. It was -by the way- where I took the streetcar. I discovered them currently in use in Calcutta, India. There I rode them again, which was somewhat surreal.
I also started wondering what the reason was for quite a few interesting young westerners to come to Yokohama and stay for a while. My teacher at YIS was one of them. Valerie Mance was her name. She was not more than 24 years old then, from Canada, and a motorbike riding hippy playing Joan Baez records in the classroom. A schoolmate came up with more people. The performance artist Stelarc was one of them. There was how Yokohama appealed to an eleven year old, and there was how that city drew in young adults. It is worthwhile to document that.
I am not going to write the novel. There is to be a documentary instead, bringing together all the Yokohama pieces together; from Takashimaya to the YC&AC, from Vietnam to the Bluff, from the Navy Exchange to –in the end- Stelarc performances.
It is obvious that I wouldn’t mind discussing the script for the documentary with you, and anyone else reading this with having an attachment to Yokohama in the 60s. I need the input. My email address is rob@design4governance.com. Thanks!
Honmoku was an idyllic place to grow up while the beach and the tidal flats were still there. I loved to run to the fishermen’s boats after they returned with their catch and see the fish jumping in the baskets. It’s amazing to me that we had such an abundance of sea life just in front of our house. We didn’t bother to pick up mussels nor razor clams that are delicacies today. Instead we dug up asari clams and hamaguri. We ignored the sea cucumbers–delicacies in Chinese cooking. The area had an abundance of black seaweed (from which nori is made). Just last week I purchased a photograph of Honmoku from a German source on E-Bay that was taken in the 1890s. It showed a fisherman’s hut next to a shapely tree; and a fishing boat being pushed out to sea. In the background is a familiar scene of Ju-ni-ten, a landmark called Mandarin Cliff named by Commodore Perry and his navigators. Most of the Western homes were built when traders from Europe and the U.S. moved to Yokohama. Many were destroyed by the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1929. We lived in a Western-style bungalow that must have been a summer home, I was told, belonging to a French family.
Recently, the addresses in Honmoku have been changed. I used to live at 62 Honmoku Motomachi but that address has been moved to the Hachioji area about 200 meters east. The Helm real-estate company owned many of the large mansions in the area. I know the large mansion in front of the sea wall a couple of blocks up the street from where we lived. The Komor house used to be rented to an executive of Standard Oil. Maybe that’s the house you lived in. The sea wall is no longer there and access to the Bay of Tokyo has been moved some 500 meters beyond.
You’re right about the fun places near where we lived, beginning with Sankeien. We used to camp up on a hill near Hasseiden (Temple of the Eight Saints) nearby. I did occasionally go to play tennis at YCAC (Yokohama Country Athletic Club). Then there is Chinatown and Isezaki-cho, Nogeyama zoo, etc. You’re right about the fireworks: it was easy to obtain them, from smoke bombs to cherry bombs, many of them now considered too dangerous to be sold to anyone. And the streetcar. I loved the streetcar that took me to Chiozaki-cho. From there we walked up the hill to the Bluff. I walked up the steps to St. Maur’s and Futaba or towards Kitagata Primary School and then up the steep hill to St. Joseph College (renamed St. Joseph International School). The school has been demolished and in its place are the luxurious condominiums. Only the cherry tree remains that stood near the entrance of the school at 85 Yamate-cho.
I stumbled across this while researching for a return to Japan. I am looking for 354 Homoku Motimachi. we lived there also in 1969-1971. Western house. Naval orientation…shipping …sailing? Is it the same house perhaps?
I lived in front of Honmoku Motomachi beach at No.62 near the Hirano boat house. Neither the beach nor the boathouse exist since the landfill of the 1960s. The beach has become container shipping docks and an oil refinery.
Also, please note that the addresses have changed. The police station near the streetcar station still exists so they might be able to help you locate your old home.
Good luck! Do visit Sankeien Gardens. It’s lovely with fall foliage.
Mr. Tanabe, thank you for the response. I’m attempting to locate it via google earth but cannot narrow it down. So, I’ll take your suggestion. Also, it was a commentator, Rob Ruts, who mentioned the same address. Alas, his email is not valid anymore. Thank you. CW
I really enjoyed the article. My family owned Helm Brothers and a large number of houses in Honmoku. I’ve been working on a family history and would love to hear from anybody who has any memories of the early days of Yokohama and particularly about the Helms.
Leslie,
Just a brief note to say the we lived in Helm House in 1973 for some 3 months while awaiting the renovation of our rental in Negishi. Some years later I became involved with the management of YC&AC and had the pleasure to work with one Don Helm and many of the then older members including gentlemen like John Johnstone and Serge Beilous. If memory serves Johnstone was an Englishman and Beilous, a white Russian. We lived in Yokohama and Tokyo in the years from 1973 through 1994 when I retired and we remained members of YC&AC throughout. Should I be of any help with specific issues that you may be of interest to you, please don’t hesitate to ask.
A member of the Helm family is writing a history, according to an email I received a few months ago. Three years ago, when the alumni of my school, St. Joseph College met, we had a meal at the YC&AC. This is where our senior class had our prom, where we attended dance parties. I used to play tennis there when a club member invited me there. Serge Beilous–the name sounds familiar–probably is a graduate of St. Joseph’s. Many of my classmates belonged to YC&AC, which was convenient for me since I could use the facilities. I was talking to George Mays Ozawa (in Chinatown a few months ago) , and found out that his great grandfather built the horse race track not far from the club. Another graduate’s grandfather built a theatre for westerners around the corner from the foreign cemetery. If I have any questions about the club, I know who to ask. Thank you.
Several friends and their families lived in homes owned by the Helm Brothers. Our family lived in Honmoku Motomachi, a few houses from the Hiranos who operated several boat rental outlets. The actress Akiko Koyama and the writer Shugoro Yamamoto lived nearby. We lived there from 1943-60. We moved to Zushi soon after the city authorities began to fill the tidal flats with dirt and concrete. Now the entire seacoast is filled with container ship ports, oil refineries and warehouses. Those of us who grew up in Honmoku are familiar with so many of their properties–upscale western-style houses rented mostly to foreigners. I would love to read about their family history.
Hi Francis,
Enjoyed reading all the reminiscences which you have provided in your articles and those who have
responded with similar memories from their childhood.
Aloha,
Tom
Linda Milne Hata is the wife of Kenny Hata (SJC ’68). One of Kenny Hata’s classmates is Mike Bielous (SJC’68). Mike’s older brother is George Bielous (SJC ’68). I belive that the Bielous brothers’ dad passed away several years ago in Japan (Serge Bielous?). Kenny Hata and the Biielous brothers live in the Bay area.
I just read Stephen Hunter’s ackowledgement to you for having advised him and having written Hideki Yano’s death poem, in The 47 th Samurai. My son advises me that the book is being made into a film, starring Keeanu Reeves. I will look forward to seeing it.
Commuted daily from Kita Kamakura to Yokahama, first to attend YIS (2nd through 4th grades) and then SJC (5th through 12th grades). Those were interesting times.
Cordially,
Wilbur Roadhouse (SJC ’69).
Fellow schoolmate:
We miss Stephen Hunter’s movie reviews. He was the movie critic at the Washington Post where I worked for 39 years. Exciting to hear his book is going to be a movie starring Keanu Reeves. I don’t know if Steve Hunter did this but if you have a chance, go visit the museum of the 47 samurai in Shinagawa. After avenging their lord Asano by killing Kira, the group put Kira’s head on a spike, marched all the way from Ryogoku bridge on a snowy day to the site of their lord’s tomb in Shinagawa. That’s quite a walk.
Our SJC class of 1961 will be having our reunion in Yokohama this year. I have not met some of my classmates since graduation 50 years ago! One suggested we wear name tags even if our class numbered about two dozen. The fun is in the process: trying to locate our classmates–not just those who graduated with us but also those who left earlier–much earlier. But we found quite a few–from Switzerland to Indonesia.
correction. George Bielous is SJC ’66.
Our family had a house on top of the cliffs above the beach in Honmolu. Our grandfather owned the property and his family members built homes there and were there during the summer months or full time. I remember playing on the beach, gathering clams, swimming and fishing along the cliffs. A temporary pier was built and we and all the people who rented the small huts used this facility.
An Englsh lady, Mrs. Gripper had an adream parlor and many cats I rememvber one of the complaints was that cat hair would find its way into the ice cream. Mrs Gripper also was a patriot and had a flagstaff that she ran the Union Jack up wery morning. This was in spite of man flagpoles that flew the German flag with a Swastika.
I remember the big production of a musical or play that was put on each summer at Honmoku Beach and in which we all had to participate. My Aunt was in charge one year and decided to present a ballet. It was to be quite serious from her point of view but brought down the house and was talked about for a long time when she used her son, and my brother, and others of similar age (12 or so) to dance in tutu’s and tights
We were advised to leave Japan as the Americans had put an embargo on oil. Dad was an American and we came to San Francisco of June 1941. We ended up settling in Piedmont in the East Bay.
My bother, Don, lived in Yokohama for most of is life and is mentioned in some previous correspondence.
I, too went to St. Joseph’s and did know Mr. Tribull. He visited our family after the war was over. Monsieur Higle was the primary teacher and I remember a Monsieur Bertran and Gasche, the principal.
WE had wonderful times in Honmoku and I will never forget the early morning sun sparkling on the water thru the the pine trees that grew on the edge of the cliff.
Ray Helm .
I had many good times living in Honmoku from 1963-1967. My family lived in Area 2 in the Navy housing area, I used to walk down the long, steep hill on the side of the neighborhood toward Yokosuka to catch the streetcar. I also went that way to get to my best friend’s house. His father was a VP of Esso oil, and their family lived right next to Hasseiden up on the cliff overlooking the reclaimed land, which was a project that was just underway at that time. I do remember passing a public bath house on the way to his house. There were 3 luxurious western houses in the compound where he lived. They were provided by Esso as family living quarters for their executives. I also remember a path leading uphill in the property between Kinnick High School and the teen club. This path led up to a flat area where there were some outdoor basketball courts. The path had large stone steps and passed right next to a spooky cemetary where I recall that the gravestones were about 3 feet apart. Apparently, they were buried standing up to conserve space.
During lunch at high school, we used to go to the large cafeteria that was in the strip mall type area where the bowling alley and the Bill Chickering Theater also were located. Sometimes we would go across the street to a small lounge call Tina’s. There we would drink beer and eat toast before returning to school for the afternoon. Ah…the good old days!
Great to read an addition to our collective memory. The Navy housing area, that steep hill (cycling down forbidden!) and the streetcar. I was in one a few years ago. In Kolkata, India, to where they were shipped after becoming redundant! Paid the same fare as in Yokohama 1966…
20 yen
Back when the yen was 360 to the dollar. The good old days….
I loved the tram that ran between area one and area two all the way to Yokohama station. To celebrate Commodore Perry’s opening of Yokohama, there is a festival that still continues today. Back in my childhood days, I remember the trams all decorated with flowers, etc. There were army and navy marching bands. I remember going to a US army or navy facility near Yokohama baseball stadium where we played games with money–gambled as kids. There were rows of lucky strikes and if you threw money that landed within the circle, you got a pack of cigarettes.
On another subject: Last year when I visited Japan, it was 79 yen to the dollar. This year, as of last week, it was 88 yen. It will never get to 360 to the dollar but 100 yen to the dollar is possible within a year or two.
The comment below from Raymond Helm refers to their house in Honmoku on a cliff. If I am not mistaken, the Esso house on top of the cliff is the very same property. I think Esso rented or bought the large property and built houses for their employees. I attended kindergarten just below the Helm House and this past summer, visited Hasseiden, the temple of the Eight Saints. Now, the other steep hill Tom Jones refers to may be the one leading up to the Race Track area.
there is or was a firestation on the way. I don’t know about the cemetery but the typicasl Japanese cemetery stones are vertical, with cremated remains buried just in front of the stones. I used to go spear-fishing just below the Helm House and out towards Sankeien Gardens. I usually speared greenlings that hid under huge rocks. I also speared flounder and a fish called “kochi” that was really good cooked as tempura. Yumm!
YOKOHAMA YANKEE – My Family’s Five Generations as outsiders in Japan by Leslie Helm will augment your memories and add to the history of Yokohama and Honmoku. Leslie’s recently published book (March 2013) is a great read, especially for anyone who was fortunate enough to enjoy Japan in the Good Old Days. I graduated from Yo-Hi in 1957 after two wonderful years of living in Yokohama. (Leslie Helm, Ray Helm and I are 4th generation cousins who share Great Grandfather and Grandmother, Julius and Hiro Helm.)
P.S. I have very much enjoyed your insight and commentary through your article and website. Thanks so much for the Memories.
I read Leslie Helm’s “Yokohama Yankee” and enjoyed it thoroughly. The book works on several levels: as a history of Yokohama, a fascinating family chronicle, and as a personal odyssey involving his family and career. He is painfully honest about his relationship with his sometimes abusive father. The story of how he successfully adopted two Japanese kids and how they were Americanized is very touching. I never met Leslie Helm although he attended school around the corner on the Bluff (Yamate). I went to St. Joseph College and Leslie attended Yokohama International School. Strangely, the two schools never got together for activities. But with Yo-hi, there were basketball matches. Our soccer team was amazingly good and won several championships but we played soccer with teams from Japanese schools. Oh yes, we had a Catholic Youth Organization that met at Sacred Heart Cathedral. We learned to dance American style at the CYO dances held in the basement of the cathedral. Yo-hi kids taught us to dance the jitterbug. It’s funny that during a cruise from Lisbon to New York, my wife and I were dancing and a Japanese woman approached us to applaud our dancing and correctly identified the dance as Yokohama jitterbug (Hama-jiru). We have to thank CYO and the kids from Yo-hi for that.
Mr. Tanabe
With great pleasure I have read your article of your childhood days in Honmoku. In 1956 my father (we are from Hamburg, Germany) worked in Yokohama harbour, building ships for a Greek shipowner. He took his family: my mother, my little sister and me with him. I was eight years old. First we lived in the New Grand Hotel, afterwards in the Helm House, which had a little swimming pool on top for us children. Going to school I had to cross Motomachi Street upon the Bluff to St. Maur’s Convent School. My first grade teacher was Mother St. Genieve, in the second grade Madam St. Agatha and Madam St. Lelia and in the third grade Madam St. Henri. My favourite teacher was Madam St. Agatha. I have still got the St. Maur’s yearbook from 1957. Later St. Maur’s became an International School. I have got so many good memories from Yokohama! First, my school was so different from German schools: we wore school uniforms, learned in the first class needlework, learned to work with earthenware and my classmates and me changed sometimes our food. In my class were girls from all over the world: Japanese girls, American girls, one French girl and Chinese girls and so I was invited to many different birthday parties. I was also a member of the Brownie Scouts and we had much fun making trips to the most wonderful beach I could remember. Concerning this, I agree with you, Mr. Tanabe, I also have seen many beaches, but those in Japan (we also lived one year in Aioi in 1960 ) were the most beautiful I have ever seen. My parents had the same opinion. In Motomachi my mother went with my sister and me and with her American and Greek friends to the German bakery and in the Japanese shops. One very little shop selled cold milk or was it jogurt? I do not remember. I also remember a little book shop which belonged to Mr. Takahashi, I have still a book from there, which had several remove outlast. My father had a Japanese friend, the director of the Uraga dock, he died in 2000. We were in contact to him until he died. With him, his wife and their two little daughters we used to make trips in Honmoku and in the surroundings of Yokohama. We have still photos from that time. The Japanese friend invited us in his Japanese house also and my mother admired his wife, because she could prepare the food so decorative. Since those days I love Nori, Sushi and Sukiyaki. My sister and I also liked the Japanese sweets very much. I also bought the book from Leslie Helm ‘Yokohama Yankee’ about his family and enjoyed reading it. And so I have a photo of the Helm House. A funny thing is that my fathers surname was ‘Janke’ and he was always called ‘Mr. Yankee’. Nearly every day we went in the Yamashita Park and had a look at the ships. We enjoyed the launch of a ship in our hand the coloured ribbons, until they tore.
I want to thank you so much for your very interesting article which lead to good memories of my childhood in Yokohama!
Susanne Ritter, birth name Janke
Apologies to all who have contributed to this blog. I just reread my article about my memories of Honmoku and didn’t realize there were more towards the bottom.
Confession: I had not looked at my own website for many years. So here is an update especially for Susanne Ritter.
Last year, before Covid and travel restrictions were lifted, I visited Japan in April, a few days before the Yoshino cherry blossoms fell to oblivion. I stayed at the Hotel New Grand and took walks to Yamashita Park, Chinatown, Motomachi, the Bluff area and Honmoku. My friend from adolescent days , Makiko Saigo, her two classmates from Futaba (next to St. Maur) and I had kaiseki lunch at the hotel. Makiko-san, who owned the Michelin-one-star restaurant, Rinkaen, situated adjacent to Sankeien, is a descendent of Tomitaro Hara who built Sankeien Gardens. Last year she closed her famous restaurant and sold it to the president of Hotel New Grand, who married into the Hara family. He was a police chief in Tokyo.
All this connects to one of my side interests: the Yakuza in Yokohama. Our beachfront home in Honmoku was situated next to the Hirano (boat rental) family on one side and a Yakuza guy who used his home as a gambling den. He always wore kimonos, a haramaki (cloth around the stomach) a toothpick on the side of his mouth and had an elaborate tattoo. I did a bit of research and found that the Inagawa-kai, one of the three big yakuza organizations recently built a new office near the Honmoku Hara bus stop. The place has three cameras in the front and a shuttered garage for three cars. I also found out that four years ago, the bosses of the Big Three: Yamaguchi-Gumi, Sumiyoshi-Kai, and Inagawa-Kai met in Yokohama Chinatown. According to news reports, Japan’s biggest yakuza organization, Yamaguchi-gumi, was in a continuous feud with the Kobe Yamaguchi gumi. In order not to have an open war, the big boss consolidated with the other two families. Yokohama has this layer of underground society that still yields power. And speaking of THE power, there is the Don of Yokohama Harbor, Yukio Fujiki, who may have known your father. He placed his man as mayor of Yokohama last year and succeeded in thwarting plans to build a casino near the Hotel New Grand.
This thread has been so interesting to read, as I spent just over a year, living in Yokohama as a child. The address in my mother’s diary reads 354-2 Honmoku Motomachi. I have been trying to work out where is was (in 1970) but can’t find it. We were there because my father worked for Shell, in shipbuilding. Now I know the addresses have been changed, that makes sense. Is there a way of working out where the old addresses fit into the modern map? I was at school, at YIS, with (possibly) Leslie Helm’s younger sister. My brother and I spent many happy hours roaming the neighbourhood and I, too, remember playing in the playground at the orphanage, where our favourite was the seesaw. We went down to the park at the bottom of the cliff, to hire bikes and I fell off onto the barbed wire fence and had to have stitches in my arm.
When I was about 10 (that was in 1953) I too rode my bicycle into a barbed-wire fence. We lived at 62 Honmoku Motomachi in front of the beach where fidhermen’s boats were hauled up, where the tidal flats extended out maybe a hundred meters. I rode my bike often to my friend’s house in front of Hachioji Beach just below the former Helm House where the cliffs end. You are right about the Honmoku area and the address number changes there. Someone else mentioned the house number that you wrote. Maybe they were Helm-owned rental houses. There were a few near Hasseiden, the octogonal Temple of the Eight Saints. The Helm real estate company is still in business in the Honmoku area. They could probably locate the address.
Thank you for your memories.
Francis T
(Honmokujin on the webchat “Yokohama Navy Exchange Was Where?”
Thank you for sharing so many memories.
My family and I moved to Yokohama in 1970, at first temporarily staying at the Helm House until our quarters were ready at 333 Bayview, Yokohama. My father worked for the US Navy at the base in Yokosuka. I attended Nile C. Kinnick HS.
My father’s secretary was Nobuko Ishiwata. She became a true friend of the family and we maintained correspondence with her after returning to the USA. I knew she was in declining health about two years ago. I suspect she has passed away.
Would it be appropriate for me to ask here if anyone knows about her or how to obtain records from the city of Yokohama? I have her last known address and I can provide is appropriate. She lived near Motomachi.
Thank you.