I happened to meet Mr. Yutaka Katayama at the exhibition hall of Tokyo Motor Show on October 20 after a few years. I have been familiar with him for more than fifty years as though he is my elder brother. He was awarded the honour of "A Man of Automobile Palace" in Detroit last year. He received the award because his extraordinary passion and love toward cars impressed American deeply. He is the third Japanese who received the honour after Soichiro Honda and Eiji Toyoda. I received today a message (translated by the editor)from Mr. Katayam as follows:

----- Original Message -----
Sender: Yutaka katayama <mr.k@drmteam.com>
Address: <akawaha@ibm.net>
Date: Tuesday, October 26, 1999 4:02 PM
Subject: I am happy to see you the other day.

Dear Kawahara-san：
It was my pleasure to meet you at a good place after many days. I remembered old days. Many thoughts and various memories were coming up but I could not express myself orally at that time.
Nissan was established 66 years ago and started its operation in 1934. It was April 12, 1935 when No. 1 job of DATSUN came off a conveyer line which was the first one for automobile production in Japan.
It was just a few days after I entered the company graduating from a university. I was excited with the scenery and had a big hope for the future. I remembered it as if it happened yesterday. All people who were there faded away except me.

Many things happened after that !！!
In 1939, I went to Manchuria dreaming a big automobile industry town being planned by Gisuke Ayukawa as I believed him. Soon I was disappointed with the future of Manchuria and came back to Japan. When Nissan restarted their operation after the war, I rejoined Nissan expecting I could contribute myself for the auto manufacturer earnestly. But my resistance to the union was observed by company as resistance to the management. As I was at Advertising Section, I tried to find some interesting events outside of company. One of it was Tokyo Motor Show. Although I presented its draft, many people were against it. Mr. Seiji Kakitsugo, Chief of Automobile Section, Ministry of International Trade and Industry, supported the plan strongly with the result that I could get the approval from Mr.Genshichi Asahara, chairman of Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association. It developed to an extravagant show of today.

I was sitting beside Nissan's corner with various thoughts about past events and waited for the speech by Ghson who came from France abruptly.
Does Japan need black ships even when it has been modernized?

But Nissan could not revitalize itself without adopting such a measure！！！
Japanese do not listen to related people. From the foundation of country, Japan has been always waked up by foreigners. I hope Japan in 21st century becomes a good country, dismissing its old fate, Pray for it.

Y. K.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Yutaka Katayama <mr.k@drmteam.com>
4-12-16 Okusawa Setagayaku Tokyo
1580083Japan Mr. K .Tel/Fax 3727-6444
DatsunDatsunDatsunDatsunDatsunDatsun

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