We flew out of Auckland heading for Tokyo. I was sitting next to a window and shortly after takeoff, I was horrified to see a starboard engine on fire – going off like a blow torch. We were sitting opposite two stewards sitting for takeoff,  they turned grey.

         The pilot of this Singapore Airline Boeing 747 was very reassuring. He said he was going to cut the fuel to that engine, drop to a low altitude and discharge120- tonnes of fuel into the Tasman Sea before returning to Auckland. The next half hour of low-level turbulence was unpleasant.

         Although we had only just become airborne we were required to fill in customs and immigration papers and join the immigration queue.

         The airline had to find emergency accommodation and meals for over 300 passengers and make all forward travel arrangements. This took about six hours to organise. No one was permitted to leave the plane until all the ground arrangements were put in place – this was the frustrating part. Looking back the whole thing was well handled.

         We were heading to Tokyo to attend an Eisenhower Fellows conference. These were remarkable events, well worth attending.

         The delay cost us twenty-four hours. We arrived wearily just in time for the start of the conference. One hundred and twenty-one Fellows attended from forty-eight countries. It was held in the Akasaka Prince Hotel. Even with subsided accommodation, it cost us $400 a night. This forty-storey hotel was very sterile – more like a hospital than a luxury hotel.

         One speaker was a distinguished  Japanese University Professor. His English was not very good and he didn’t know when to stop. The chairman had been one of his students and was scared to call time. The following speaker’s twenty-minute slot was reduced to five minutes. He upset the programme for the rest of the session.

         The best speaker was President George Bush Sen. His speech was amusing, non-political and not too long.

         One morning I found him behind me at the breakfast bar. In deference to his rank, I stood aside to let him have the first helping of cornflakes. I turned to Mrs Barbara Bush (I had been introduced to her at a social function) and said “How did you sleep last night Mrs Bush? She replied, Not very well. I’m getting too old for this game.” I knew how she felt.

         I don’t think Barbara Bush has ever received the full credit for the contribution she made. She was not only America’s First Lady but she was also the mother of a President.  I understand she made a significant contribution to her husband’s initial campaign by researching the names of people and backgrounds and reminding George of them. Behind many successful men, there is very often a good woman.

         On our post-conference tour, we went to Kyoto on the Bullet Train. It was a very smooth ride with no sensation of speed except the lampposts were flashing past very close together.  There was no room on this train for luggage. Our luggage left by road the previous night. We found it in our room waiting for us when we arrived in Kyoto.  

         On that trip, Colin McLeod forgot to leave a shirt out and ended up having to wear one of his wife’s colourful blouses, much to his embarrassment. I sat next to John Rose, a Kiwi now living in Melbourne. He had set up the Melbourne University Business School and had been an economic adviser to the Australian Prime Minister.

         The cultural part of this conference was well done. We visited temples and visited some beautiful gardens. At a rock garden, we sat in meditation to observe the 15 rocks that had been arranged in 1525.

         The local people were very kind to us. On our last day in  Tokyo, Professor Tomonari Nishino and his wife insisted he shows us the Tokyo of his youth. They took us out for a meal at a fine restaurant near the large fish market.   After the meal, we were taken by ferry to inspect the famous bridges of Tokyo.  

         At the finish of this tour Tomonari’s wife, who didn’t speak English, demurely presented Joyce with a scarf she had hand-crocheted – how kind of her.

         After I left high school in 1942 I joined the Home Guard because we thought we were going to be invaded by the Japanese army.

         While living in Thailand we visited the massive British Cemetery when visiting the site of the Japanese atrocities when they were building the railway to Burma using slave prison labour.  

         How times have changed!

Geoffrey Moss(mossassociates.co.nz)