JAPANESE BOYS WANT TO MATCH ALL BLACKS

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28840, 10 March 1959, Page 16

JAPANESE BOYS WANT TO MATCH ALL BLACKS

Japanese schoolboys want to play Rugby with the skill of All Blacks. They were so impressed with the performance of a New Zealand team last year that a request for correspondence with Dominion schoolboys has come from Aoyama Gakuin, one of the great educational institutions of Tokyo. The Department of External Affairs has asked physical education officers to nominate five boys throughout the country to act as official correspondents; but officers in Christchurch have been *so impressed with the Japanese enthusiasm that they suggest other schoolboys, aged 12 to 15, may like to seek other penfriends. Letters should be addressed in the first instance to Mr Hideake Matsumoto, Aoyama Gakuin University, 22 Midorigaoka, Shibuya, Tokyo. Mr Matsumoto tells the story:— “A few pionths ago I had a lucky chance to see the worldfamous All Blacks to come to Japan. It was wonderful and unforgetable memories for me and my boys to have welcomed four gentlemen of the team to our school. They not only visited our school but also were favourable enough to coach my boys, Both the primary school and junior high school of Aoyama Gakuin have their own Rugby teams and the four gentlemen’s goodwills and fine coach gave the boys very great impressions. You have no idea how glad they were. Now they are dreaming of becoming so good players like All Blacks as to be able to play international Rugby games against most Rugbyplaying countries in the world. “It may be, then, no wonder

why they are most interested in your country. About your country they know very little. But now they are very anxious to know your country and its people. It would'be a great pleasure for them to have friendly relations with Rugby-loving boys in New Zealand. In that idea, they wrote some Christmas cards, hoping that some unseen friend will receive them and answer soon. We trust to be favoured with your help by sending the letters of friendships to little ruggers of their age in your country.” And Kazuhisa Imamura, the boy whose letter has been sent to Christchurch for the nomination of an official pen-friend, writes:— “Dear Sir, How do you do. This year, when your team came to Japan, two of you came to our school and taught us Rugby football. I want to go to your country and want to see the strongest team in the world. But me can’t go there now. Me want to know the Rugby that being played in your country. As me send films and letters of Japanese junior high school. Please let us know about your life and after things. Me shall be happy if you teach us basic method of training the centre three-quarter then. Goodbye.” The Christmas card he sent, beautifully embossed in red, gold, and black, is reproduced below. Aoyama Gakuin, founded by Methodist missionaries in 1879, has an enrolment of 11,000 in five sections—primary school, junior high school, senior high school, women’s junior college, and university. A brochure accompanying the letters suggests the buildings and equipment match anything in New Zealand.