![[Mt. Fuji from Panorama near Lake Shoji.]](img/pg20_1.jpg)
Hawaii is quiet, peaceful and interesting. Nobody hurries. There may be a law against it.
I swam at famous Waikiki and rode a surfboard. The waves here are much longer than those in California and sometimes attain the speed of sixty miles an hour....
Leaving Honolulu filled us with regret and we stayed on deck for two hours watching the city and Diamond Head fade into the distance.
Westward tugged the ship’s twelve thousand horses.... Two days out of Honolulu summer clothes were replaced by winter overcoats.
The second engineer took me in hand and showed me over the ship, a complete city afloat; the galley, spotless with shining equipment and Chinese cooks who grinned and displayed blank teeth; the great engines; the fireroom, so hot the plates were red and the oil fire white; the metal “Mike” which guides the ship by radio.
Still hale and hearty we began to anticipate Yokohama, the city of the earthquake. Fujiyama came into view fifty miles at sea, first seen above the clouds. A symmetrical cone, it has a celestial beauty that distinguishes it from all other mountains. The pink robe of snow suggests a garment for royalty.
Early in the morning we began to wind our way among the reefs that menace the harbor entrance to Yokohama. Japanese subs, seaplanes and destroyers gave us the look-over.
Guarding the harbor entrance at one time were two forts, for at the time of the quake Japan was all set for a nice, little war with someone. The south fort was hideously scrambled and seventeen hundred men within its walls were crushed. So shaken were the foundations that it cannot be rebuilt and the bodies of the soldiers could not be recovered. The other fort lost a thousand men in its falling walls, but it has been rebuilt.
Having passed quarantine, our ship went in alongside the dock. Only the huge concrete base was left after the quake and the warehouses were not rebuilt on the dock. After seeing Yokohama one can realize what a horror an earthquake can be.
On the seaward side of our ship the unloading took place in great lighters. Aboard these lighters families make their homes and the women work beside their men with babies strapped on papoose fashion.
Ashore we saw sights that make the slums of our own cities almost tolerable. So few of the poor were clean and many covered with sores. The rickshaw boys’ clothing had a permanent cocoon look, but the rickshaws were clean with white laundered covers....
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