Chapter 2 of Sony's story

War chapter 12th

Chapter 2

As early as 1960, I opened a showroom in the Ginza area of Tokyo, where potential customers could try our products without a salesman selling them, the showroom has become a favorite of all people, and its advertising value is huge. Because we are a new company, we must introduce ourselves to the Japanese, just as we will introduce ourselves to Americans and Europeans later.
Setting up a showroom in New York is my goal. I visited the city and realized that if I was looking for rich people who could afford our high-priced products, I should go to Fifth Street. I walked down Fifth Street in Central Manhattan and observed the pedestrians and shops there. I was very impressed with the results. I reduced the search scope to the east section of Fifth Street, between 45th and 56th, because that section looks the most elegant.
Then I began to look for a suitable street-facing rental facade. I noticed that the street shows the national flags of many countries, but there is no Japanese flag. I decided that when we opened our showroom, we put the first Japanese flag on Fifth Street.
In order to find a suitable place, I spent two years and finally decided to be in a very small room. I personally drew a layout map with glass on one side of the wall to make the room look bigger. I worked in the showroom and tried to adapt to the pace of American life. I suddenly came up with an idea. If I really want to know about American life, if we want to become a successful company in the huge U.S. market, we have to do more than just build our company in the U.S. I should move my family to the United States to experience the life of an American. When I am in New York, I have received many invitations and met many people. But I know that if I have a home in the United States, this experience will be richer, because no matter where I am, such as going to country clubs, attending weekend parties, or going to dinner, Americans are always with their families. Many invitations were sent to "mr. And mrs. Morita" (Mr. and his wife, the translator), and I also heard that a separate male guest would embarrass the hostess. If our family lives in the United States, we will know the United States better than visiting foreign guests.
I have never talked about this idea to others, but over time, I am more and more confident that I should do this. The United States is an open and progressive country, while New York has always been a crossroads to the world. On March 13, October 1962, I took my wife and son to New York to attend the opening ceremony. At the most exciting moment of the opening ceremony, I thought the time was ripe, So I boldly said to her, "good son, let's move to New York." She knew me very well, so she was not even surprised to hear the news. I know that she was born in a big city like Tokyo. She can handle the migration to another big city. Although she can't speak English, she will change herself, adapt to the new way of life. She made up her mind to improve my plan. In fact, she was amazed at her individual operations. Because of this move, she even set up her own business. I know that she will handle these things well, because I have been on a business trip for many years, leaving her alone in Tokyo, she not only needs to take care of housework and children, but also acts as my private secretary and business contacts. I often call her when I am not at home, asking her to transfer some information to the company office or other places, and I often discuss with her.
Many things are different in the United States, but I know that her personality and confidence will help her to succeed. She now has many friends abroad, because she later showed extraordinary talent to treat others and learned how to become a folk diplomat. Liangzi has no real interest in foreign countries from small to large and does not want to travel around. Although her French food is doing well, I think it is even more admirable. She was born from a samurai family. Her family began to sell books and publish books in the later stages of the Tokugawa TV era and has been developing into a large chain bookstore. Her company is named "three provinces". Now she has published a very popular concise series of foreign language dictionaries. This idea was developed by her father. Concise dictionaries are also the most popular series of books among high school and university students.
Liangzi's life was full of vigor when she was young. Her Home in Tokyo was no big difference from my home in Nagoya. She had servants, relatives, and was very busy, sisters have laughter and quarrel with a younger brother. She recalled that some people talk about business all day long, just like my family. When she was a child, she traveled only twice to the Hakone resort west of Tokyo, near Mt. Fuji. After introducing each other in 1951, she admitted that when she was a child, she thought it was a wilderness to go west like my hometown of Nagoya. But her father wore a suit, and she was also an International. He likes to take his family out for dinner. One of their favorite restaurants is the singeland restaurant in Ginza. My parents also took me to the restaurant. Later, Liangzi and I found that we still remember the impression of childhood: the huge red and blue lights on the roof.
Our two sons, yingfu, Changfu, and our daughter Zhizi, will find that the New Life Style in the United States is very difficult. We know this, but they are still very small, yes. Ying Fu is ten years old, Chang Fu is eight years old, and Xiao Zhizi is six years old. I feel that this kind of experience is very good for them, although at the beginning everyone will feel very difficult.
After returning to Tokyo, Jing expressed doubts about the incident. The main reason for his opposition is that he does not want his executive vice president to be too far away, but I propose that I can come back every two months and stay in Tokyo for about a week. I strongly advocate the use of telephone, but this is still the case. I explained that we can keep in touch at any time. He agreed. I knew he would agree. I started to put the plan into action. I know that traveling beyond the Pacific will not be reduced in the future. (A long time ago, I stopped counting after 135th times of flight across the Pacific .)
In New York, I asked the Office staff to find a house for my family and soon they found the ideal apartment for us. The name is Nathan. the famous concert violator of mill sité lives in the apartment on the third floor of No. 1010 Fifth Street, just opposite the Metropolis Museum at the intersection of 82nd. He decided to move to Paris for two years, I want to rent out the apartment together with a full set of furniture temporarily. The rental price was quite high, at least for the financial resources of the Japanese at the time, which was $ one thousand two hundred a month. However, other conditions are satisfactory: the location is superior, and there is no need to move a lot of furniture to New York, or even any decoration. The taste of Master mill is good for us. We can move in immediately. There are 12 rooms in the apartment, and we are used to small houses in Japan. This is a palace, with four bedrooms, a servant room, and a large living room, the separate dining room and a study room are spacious and interesting, with comfortable furniture. In the evening, the lights of the museum lit up, shining on the front of the whole building. We imagine this is Paris, although New York is very attractive to us. I lived in an apartment in February because the children are still in school, so our house will not be moved in until February. Although I live by myself, there are many things to do. Every day, I take a bus to the office, squeeze in with New York, listen to them, and observe their habits like a sociologist. I also sell products and call customers. If I have time, I have to go to Manhattan to find school for the children. Sam Hart of Smith gave me a lot of help when I went to school. His children also go to school in the city, so he is familiar with this. He gave me a lot of advice, even arranged interviews for me, and sometimes accompanied me. I have been to 20 schools for interviews and want to find a suitable one. I hope they will be willing to receive three Japanese children who do not fully understand English. I want to find a school and want to have the children study there for at least two years, because I only plan to stay in New York for two years at the beginning. Few schools are interested in this matter. Most schools have established a tradition affected by Europe. In the end, the principal of St. Bernard said that he was very interested in making his school more internationalized and he agreed to accept my son. I also found a school for Zhizi. As the school solved the problem, our home could be moved to the United States, and I began to feel much easier.
Next, we would like to tell the children about it. So I flew back to Tokyo and took my family to the new palace hotel where I rented a suite for the weekend. In 1963, Tokyo was preparing for the Summer Olympics in 1964 to start construction of highway systems, many new restaurants and other facilities. In this exciting time, people at home should stay in the latest hotel in Tokyo. Now the children can clearly recall the suite because it was their first time seeing a Western Hotel. EF was impressed by the absence of shoes before entering the room. On that Saturday night, we went to the top floor and had a good meal at the elegant crown restaurant which looked down upon the imperial residence. When we got back to the room, I spoke about our plans to move to the United States. I also promised them that they would go to Disneyland on their way. The children do not know what kind of new environment they will be in, but Changfu, eight years old, is very willing. Later, he said that because all Western TV programs have Japanese dubbing, he thought Americans also spoke Japanese. EF was a little older and not enthusiastic about moving. He did not want to leave his friends. But we really went to Disneyland and lived in the park's hotel, so that the children had enough time before they went to New York. So far, we still remember that pleasant trip.
I realized the impact of this migration on my family, but I believe this theory is "immersive. A week later, we arrived in New York and sent our son to the vinona training camp in Maine before settling home. I cannot imagine that there is a faster way to adapt them to the pace of life in the United States as soon as possible. The training camp stipulates that we should not go to the children within the first two weeks, so that they will depend entirely on themselves and will soon be adjusted to adapt to the new life.
After we sent our son to the training camp, I suggested the good son to test a driving license in the United States. I told her that everyone in the United States must drive. In addition, some businesses require her to drive. Also, our sons are in Maine (we have also found a training camp in Manhattan for Zhizi .), It is important for me to go on a business trip. she must learn to take care of herself. I think we should be able to visit friends in the suburbs and travel on weekends. When preparing for the exam, she worried about her limited oral English skills. She gave all the exam materials back, including one hundred possible questions, though she didn't quite understand. She passed the exam with excellent scores, and there was no problem with the road test, but we were not allowed to borrow a Volkswagen car operated by a shift lever for her, because the clip I bought was automatically shift, she felt that the car was not suitable for driving.
Liangzi likes to recall the first thing I asked her to do after we got married in 1951 was to let her get a driving license. At that time, this was not a common thing for a Japanese woman, but she did. When we needed her in New York, she was already a very experienced driver. When we first built a company, there were often Japanese engineers and other people coming to New York, and Liangzi was nothing for them. Sometimes our engineers will get sick, get bored with strange food, or need help when they encounter something they don't understand. In this case, Liangzi will not only cook for them, and give them an idea.
Our study turned into an electronic lab where engineers checked and tested the televisions produced by their rival manufacturers. Television sets, parts, and tools are everywhere in the study, and the Japanese are walking around the world. When the head of Tokyo arrived, he asked the good son to pick them up at Kennedy Airport. Sometimes, due to bad weather or other reasons, the flight was transferred to nezeek, and the son had to drive from adway to nezesi to pick up people. While in Manhattan, she drove us to town for meetings on Wall Street or somewhere else. Sometimes our engineers want to test the sensitivity of the FM radio. She wants to drive her car and take him all over the suburbs, that is, try to take the empire state building as the center, the signal disappears only when the signal goes far in all directions.
At the beginning of the summer camp, life was hard for our sons. There were no other Japanese children there. They were assigned to different groups and slept in different tents. The battalion commander bought an English-Japanese dictionary so that he could tell them a few Japanese words he had just learned. We later heard that our sons cried at night, which is understandable. When we left them a piece of paper, which was written in English, "Please call my father" and told them to use it when they were in trouble and did not know what to do, but they never used it. I felt a little worried, but I thought it was a good experience for them. When we broke up with them on the first day, Liangzi and I both endured tears.
Changfu said that he was doing everything as others. At the beginning, he didn't understand why he was doing that. There are many opportunities for individuals to choose from in the vinona training camp, which is very different from the Japanese summer camp. In Japanese summer camps, everyone learns the same courses. Changfu is always the same as most people. Because of their age, EF was assigned to intermediate classes, and Changfu was assigned to primary classes. So they can only meet each other at lunch. Two Japanese children who do not speak English should learn how to play baseball and swim, and climb the rocks with American children. These children speak the third language, American slang. But they get along well with other campers. My wife and I tried to visit them over the weekend. EF can eat it very much. He enjoys enough meals, ice cream, a lot of watermelon and fruit juice. Changfu did not like training camp very much, but he was eager to go back when he arrived in the next summer. He was not happy when he was about to leave the camp.
The children learned to be independent and adopt an American style, which is very healthy for them. They saw the difference between the Americans and the Japanese and began to understand the sense of honor of the motherland and the symbolic meaning of the national flag. Every morning, they feel the greatness of singing the national anthem and raising the national flag. Later, when we built a new house in Tokyo, we also had a flagpole. Before the two sons went abroad to go to school, they had to raise a Japanese flag every morning. Today, all Sony factories are flying with a Japanese flag, a Sony company flag, and a country's flag. Just like the Olympic athletes, we represent the country of Japan, so we should be proud to wear the logo of our motherland.
That year was too small to go to the summer training camp, so we sent her to the biqiwood training camp in the city for training only during the day. She gradually got used to her new life, and a very small child seemed adaptive. After finishing her first year in New York, she seems to be enough to go to the summer camp. She thought the same way because she heard her brother tell the story of the vinona training camp. Two weeks later in the next year, when we first went to see her, she took us to the lake and got on a boat. She decided to let us go around. She was proud of the achievement. When I asked her how she felt at the time, she admitted that she felt very lonely at night, and she cried after turning off the lights. To be safer, she opens a flashlight under the quilt. This story explains why she has less and less pocket money. She used all the pocket money we gave her to buy a flashlight battery in a small store in the camp.
After the first summer full of fresh air and energy, the two sons returned from Maine. They noticed the first thing in New York, the first thing they complained about, the smell and smoke of exhaust gas in the city. When the school started, other students at the St. Bernard school accepted the two new students with curiosity. They struggled to name new students. EF remembers that most of the students in the class called him "high-dee" (which is similar to the pronunciation of Chinese and English Japanese-the translator ). Later, they called him Joe at a local school in the UK. This is the abbreviation of Tojo. It is obviously the only Japanese name that students in the class have heard. Changfu remembers how frustrated he felt when he used a limited number of English words in his French class. He is trying to learn English as a second language, but he wants to learn a third language in a second language that he just started to understand.
Liangzi's English was very bad at the beginning, but she made up her mind to use it. She learned English, listened to English, and soon made some friends. When I was on a business trip, if she had nothing to do at the company, she would take the children to carteski or visit a friend in the outskirts of New York. If I was in New York on weekends, sometimes we went out for a picnic and drove the car, I put the map on my knees, like a navigator. She is also very good at entertaining guests, holding lunch and cocktail parties. She only needs a Japanese helper and she is our maids. When we were living in New York, we once hosted four hundred guests at home, And Liangzi was very good at this. After we went back to Japan, she wrote a book called "My views on family concierge". this book has been selling well for the moment. People who have foreign guests visiting the house or want to serve as guests at the home of foreigners regard this book as a reference book, which is still the case until today. At present, Japanese still seldom hold reception activities at home. Of course, those who have experience living abroad and have a relatively spacious house are now often entertaining foreign guests at home.
Liangzi encountered some difficulties at the beginning, because American merchants and the wives of other people often invited her to the luncheon. At that time, we had only one translator in New York, but we were still a man, liang thinks it is not appropriate to take him to the women's luncheon. In addition, in Japan, men never bring their wives to business and entertainment activities. In other occasions, when two or more couples attend the same time, their husbands always sit with their wives. However, according to Western etiquette, the male host will let the VIP girl sit on his right, often far away from her husband, so the good son truly feels the pressure of language communication.
In her book, Liangzi said that she was a Japanese who had never been far away and could not speak English, at a social gathering in New York, she found that women in France and Spain had no better English than her, and she felt a lot of courage had been added. She also wrote a lot of practical experience. For example, she advised Japanese women not to wear a kimono on inappropriate occasions: "the purpose of holding a social gathering is to make the guests enjoy a delicious meal and chat with each other calmly. When everyone is wearing similar clothes, it will strengthen the harmonious atmosphere. If only one person is wearing gorgeous clothes, it will make everyone else feel uncomfortable, as a result, the whole party will lack warmth." She learned how to treat the guests in an elegant and concise manner and how to make the guests feel relaxed and happy. In Japan, she realized that some foreign guests were worried that they would have to use chopsticks to eat Japanese meals, even though we live in a modern western-style house. If there is such a guest and we want to hold a cocktail party, she always opens the door of the restaurant early, so that the guests can see western-style silver tableware on the dining table. She has a list of guests who have come to our house, which says when and what they like. For example, in her list, it was noted that the male singer discauu only liked simple barbecues; the mother of the pianist Andrew watz did not like fish, and the conductor Leonardo bernstan liked to eat sushi and sashboard.
Her cheerful personality makes the Americans who get along with her very happy, but sometimes it makes some Japanese feel embarrassed. It is a bit like myself. As a Japanese, I am too honest and honest. I have a friend in New York. He is a fashion designer named Miyamoto Yiqing. One day he told me that Liangzi and another of his friends, Diana, fashion editor. he felt embarrassed when she had a big fight. But soon after, Diana called aliang (Everyone called her ). So what is the quarrel? In fact, there is no quarrel at all, but there are some disagreements. It is natural for Westerners, but most Japanese do their best to avoid this. Due to the characteristics and structure of Japanese, it is difficult to quarrel with Japanese. In fact, it is very indirect and non-countermeasure to express your meaning in Japanese. It forces you to be polite unless you are rude. When most Japanese hear about the West-style debate, they can easily react to such exchanges.
Liangzi has always been very interested in fashion. Through her friends in New York, she brought the fashion information back to Japan. She used our latest video recorder U-matic to interview many fashion designers, such as Bill. blas, Oscar. derareata, Bailey. alice and others, and recorded their fashion. After we moved back to Japan, she ran a fashion show on TV, which lasted for ten years. She often went to a foreign fashion center and brought back the interview information, introduce new ideas to Japan. At that time, Japanese fashion was still behind the times. Unlike today, it has become a leader in the fashion industry.
We originally planned to stay in New York for two years, but this plan was shortened due to the unexpected death of my father. Although he did not take responsibility for my family after the war, I am still the eldest son. Now I have become the owner of shengtian's family and the master of the family, so I have to go back to Tokyo. As soon as I left New York, Liangzi cleaned up the apartment within one day and rushed to the vinona training camp to bring the children back to New York. After all the sundries were prepared, the package was first sent out, then, I rushed back to Japan within a week. Children do not want to leave training camps or the United States. They say they have fun and feel like they are at home. The children went back to Japan for a period of education. Later, we went abroad to find a school for them. EF and Changfu went to England and went straight to Switzerland.
When someone dies at home, you will be able to review your life and consider the future of your family. When considering the children, I strongly felt that Japan's education system lacked discipline after the war. Except for some important exceptions, teachers have lost their original majesty and have not obtained the expected social status. The pressure from the left wing Teachers' Union and the Parent Teachers' Association has greatly reduced the quality of teaching. It is meaningless to cope with the study of exams, but it is just a mechanical recitation.
When I went to middle school, my discipline was very strict, including training in both physical and mental aspects. In winter, our classrooms are very cold and there is no heater, but students are not allowed to wear more clothes. I have also had hard training in the Navy. Although I only need to have four months of training in the military camp of new recruits, we have to run a long distance before breakfast every morning. At that time, my body was not strong, but during that hard training, I found that I was not very weak. My Understanding of Self-ability gave me unprecedented confidence. The same is true for discipline in mental training. If you are not forced to use your brains, you will become too lazy to use your brains. In the end, you will not make full use of your potential.
When I was traveling abroad, I realized that there were still some traditional schools in the UK. Most American schools are too free in my opinion. I have worked hard to learn English, and I realize that the world will become smaller and smaller in the future due to the speed of airplanes and the continuous improvement of communication tools, so I hope my children can learn to speak English and work under strict self-discipline.
I 've been thinking about this since my first trip to the United States and Europe eleven years ago. I did not dare to speak English when I left the United States for Europe, but when I came to continental Europe, I found that many travelers in the United States and other countries did not speak the local language, so I began to speak a little English. I met many people on the train who didn't speak the local language. They even had less English than I knew. I felt that they could not speak the local language, for example, German, make us in the same predicament.
In this way, I used the English I learned in junior high school. I also learned a little about German and French, and I found that I could communicate with others. Suddenly, a group of travelers found the same problem. We all speak English, and my English is very simple, but it can still be understood and accepted. After returning to New York from Europe, I began to speak English to people, which surprised everyone. I completed the transistor license transaction before I went to Europe. At that time, I invited a Japanese friend to serve as my translator. He was surprised to see that I spoke English. Before leaving the United States, I spoke only Japanese to him in all the negotiations. Now, after only one month, I can speak English! He thought for a moment and thought that I learned to speak English in non-English countries in Europe within a month. I explained to him that it was actually just a matter of confidence, and the trip to Europe gave me this confidence.
When I was looking for a school, many of my British friends talked to me about the Atlantic College's preparatory school. I was planning to send my eldest brother, an old man, to the school, but he was a year old. After the children returned from the United States, we decided to let them study in Japan for another year, in order to learn some basic knowledge, such as Japanese and history.
My wife and I spent a long time in the UK looking for school for ef. He was still in the second year of high school. Liangzi was very careful about the incident. She and a friend went all over the UK. This friend is the wife of a person in charge of us in London. She was a celebrity on Japanese TV for a long time, she is the first female host of the Japanese children's show "Easy hut.
When looking for a school in the UK, we invited bomu Green and her husband Bo Mu Sheng to walk with us. At that time, we were developing a color TV set using chromatron tube. The "Easy hut" was the only color program on Japanese TV that was broadcasted during the day. No matter what we were doing in those days, as long as someone shouted, "Hello, ten o'clock !" We will rush into the lab to see how the prototype works. It is vital to get a real, natural color, especially the skin tone, So I carefully check the color on the screen. I have carefully studied every detail on Mrs. bomu's face, so I joked to her husband that maybe I think his wife is closer than him, at least when she appears on a TV screen.
I think Liang Zi and Alan have visited at least a dozen schools in the UK before finding the desired school. It is a two-year boarding school with only 50 students. EF found the school very difficult, but still adapted. He was named "child head" in the second year ". He earned A and O-level and two British universities are willing to accept him. However, because he is weak in the history and literature of Europe, he is reluctant to learn science. "I don't want to compete with my father," he said ." He is more interested in economics.
Changfu once joked that he was forcibly sent to the Atlantic College. The Dean of the School, Admiral Hall, was visiting Japan and told me that he was raising funds. Changfu was not going to school that day. He came to the office to visit me. General Hall was there too. He talked with Changfu and took an exam on the spot, so he could be admitted. Changfu still said: "I am on the trap ."
Atlantic College is an interesting place. In the castle of a small manor, there are one hundred and fifty rooms in the castle. The school is located in San donatz, south of gormogan-gun, Wales, about 50 miles from cardiv. The castle was built in the 11th century, and its host continued to expand. In 1934, William randfow hster, the American publishing king, bought the castle and added tennis courts and swimming pools. Harster's lover, movie actress Mary. davis once said that she and W. r. (She tried William. it was rare to come to the castle. If they were about to come, fifty Wales singers wore high hats made of satin, lace-up clothes, and lined up on the lawn to sing a welcome song to them. In 1938, hast planned to sell the castle, but the British Army acquired the castle for war officer training camp. In 1960, a rich donor bought the castle and gave it to the school. Changfu spent two years there and graduated from Georgia University in Washington, USA. EF went back to Japan to go to college. For a while I was thinking about opening a farm in Brazil, where EF wanted to manage the farm, so he switched to the University of California in West us, where he studied agricultural economics for two years, then I went back to Japan and graduated from Asia Pacific University. In fact, I did not buy any livestock farms later.
Zhizi's learning experience is more complex than that of the two sons. At the beginning, she said she didn't want to go to college. This was influenced by me because I once wrote a book titled "useless academic qualifications". this is an objection to Japanese business over-emphasizing academic qualifications. I have created a policy in my own company that does not consider education qualifications. When a new employee arrives at the company, people will not judge him by his education qualifications alone, it depends on his actual ability, specific performance, and internal potential. This is mainly because Japan places too much emphasis on the brand of universities.
When I was studying French in high school, we found a senior training school for her in Lausanne, Switzerland. Although she was very successful in her studies (as a good volleyball and softball player, she still had to pass the award .), But she thought that the Swiss French language was not the pure Paris accent she wanted to learn, so we sent her to Paris again. She stayed there for a year and learned the Paris accent. English is next. She came to Washington and went to the language learning class in Georgia, where Changfu studied. Later, she went to LA to learn fashion design. When she comes back, she has become a world activist. When she walked straight away, she was a shy little girl. When she came back to us, she was filled with joy, vigor, and confidence. She and her husband, a sales engineer at the Kyoto Ceramics Company, have recently returned to Tokyo from California.
I also learned a lot from the children's education, mainly to understand this and place them in other cultures, only in this way can they learn from the island countries that they are Japanese and a minority in the world. They have learned to cherish their Japanese nationality and understand that they must adapt to the world. There is no other way to do this. Liangzi once said that it is very important to know that foreigners are not general concepts. Each of them has different ideas, religions, and backgrounds. Our overseas short-term trip has broadened the horizons of his family. We feel Comfortable wherever we go, but Japan is our real home.