HONOURABLE DEATH

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 110, 9 April 1934, Page 7

HONOURABLE DEATH

SATOH’S SUICIDE MOTIVE. STATEMENT BY FIANCEE. TO PLAY AGAINST WILL. (United Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received April 9, 9.50 a.m. TOKIO, April 8. The late Jiro Satoli’s fiancee, Miss Samal Okada, aged 21, a ranking woman tennis player, in an interview said: “1 believe that Jiro committed suicide solely from a sense of responsibility after acceding to the Tennis Association’s urging to proceed to Europe even when he wanted to return from Singapore. He was still haunted by the fear - that his illness would endanger Japan’s chance of victory, and removed himself like a samurai of old. I hate them for obstinately forcing Jiro against his will, driving him in desperation to death.” Satoh had had stomach trouble and often said he had already played several years and did not want to play this year. “He wanted rest and a quiet summer in Japan happily with me. We intended to marry nest spring,” his fiancee added. In the former feudal system of Japan, the samurai constituted the class, or member of the class, of military retainers of the gentry or lesser nobility. They possessed power of life and death over the commoners and wore two swords as their distinguishing mark. LACOSTE’S TRIBUTE. LONDON, April 7. Leading tennis figures pay a tribute to Jiro Satoh. Lacostc says: “We all deplore the loss of this magnificent player. Everybody loved and appreciated Satoh. He was a perfect gentleman, and Japan has suffered an irreparable loss.”