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CHAPTER FOUR

Japan

Several weeks after his walk on the beach with Suenaka, O’Sensei returned to his homeland. Suenaka and his family joined others in bidding their formal good-byes to the Founder, seeing him off at Honolulu International Airport the day of his departure. Although Tohei Sensei remained in Hawaii for a short while, once again guiding the development of the local aikidoka, Suenaka had little time for practice, occupied as he was with preparations for his imminent move to Japan. And so it was that in early March of 1961, less than a month after his first meeting with O’Sensei, Airman Suenaka found himself, duffel in hand, standing on the tarmac at Tachikawa Air Base.

The first thing one does when arriving at a new military station is to report to one’s immediate command, receive one’s housing assignment, and get settled in. This, of course, is assuming your command is aware of and anticipating your arrival. Upon reporting to the Tachikawa HQ Squadron CBPO (Central Base Personnel Office), Suenaka was told there was no record of his assignment there—for some reason, his orders were nowhere to be found. Straightening things out would take days, perhaps weeks, and Suenaka was placed on a list of “surplus airmen” and told to find something to do in the interim. The choice was easy. After taking only as much time as necessary to drop off his bags at his barracks and pack a few essentials, Suenaka hailed a cab and told the driver to take him to Tokyo and the Aikikai Hombu.