Suenaka recalls an incident during one of his evening meals with O’Sensei during his first visit, which echoed their first encounter in O’Sensei’s hotel room in Hawaii a month earlier. The event impressed on him, in an unexpected and almost comic way, aikido’s guiding philosophy; that O’Sensei, martial master though he was, literally wouldn’t even harm a fly:
“As we got ready to eat, he noticed a fly on his bowl of rice. There were some other uchi deshi eating with him as well, and we all noticed the fly and were ready to chase it away, and he stopped us. ‘The little fly won’t eat too much,’ he said. ‘We’ll just let him eat his fill and then let him go away, happy.’ We tried to tell him about flies carrying diseases and all that, but we all ended up just sitting there watching the fly eat until it eventually flew away.”
On his fourth day in Japan, Suenaka realized it would probably be in his best interest to report back to his duty station before the MPs began searching for him. After taking his leave of O’Sensei, Suenaka hopped a cab back to Tachikawa Air Force Base and again reported to the CBPO. This time, he was sent to his squadron for assignment. It was there that Suenaka met Captain Rausch, his squadron commander and the man who was to unwittingly play a pivotal role in Suenaka’s continuing martial education.
Captain Rausch was young, barely ten years older than the twenty-one year old Suenaka. In answer to Rausch’s query, Suenaka said he was supposed to report to Civil Engineering, whose primary responsibility it was to keep the base’s physical plant in good repair, but that there was no record of his orders. “What’s your AFSC (Air Force Specialty Code)?,” Rausch asked. As luck would have it, he was frustrated with CE’s slow reponse to his repeated requests for service: whenever he needed something fixed, it took them days to attend to it. “I can’t even get them to come by and change my lightbulbs!,” Rausch lamented. When Suenaka informed him he was an electrician, Rausch asked, “Would you take care of my lightbulbs, electrical switches, everything? Can you repair things?,” he asked. “Oh, I can repair anything!,” Suenaka responded. That’s all the answer Capt. Rausch needed. Before the day was through, Suenaka found himself assigned directly under Rausch, charged with the awesome duty of pretty much killing time until a lightbulb burned out. He was issued his own supply card to requisition supplies as needed, and was left alone.
Opportunity was banging on the barracks door. Suenaka wasted no time in approaching the barracks houseboy, Yama-san, who made about forty dollars a month to see to the household chores of all the airmen on Suenaka’s floor: shining shoes, cleaning house, laundering clothes and uniforms. Would Yama-san be interested in earning an extra 2,000 yen (at the time, $5.60) a month to change lightbulbs and electrical switches? For Yama-san, it was close to a week’s extra salary, so naturally, his answer was yes.
As long as his light bulbs and switches were changed whenever needed, Capt. Rausch cared little who changed them. Suenaka left his supply card and the Hombu phone number with Yama-san and headed for Tokyo. He stayed at the Hombu for weeks at a time, checking in occasionally with Yama-san to make sure everything was okay, and returning about once a month to meet with Capt. Rausch in person to ensure he was satisfied. “Very satisfactory,” Rausch would say. ‘You’re doing a good job!” And so Suenaka would thank his CO, pay Yama-san his 2,000 yen, and return to the Hombu. Paid by Uncle Sam to study aikido under the Founder; it was a pretty sweet deal.
Even with his near constant study at the Hombu, Suenaka from time to time took a few days to travel from dojo to dojo to observe and study other styles, both familiar and foreign. Suenaka visited dojos not only in Tokyo, but in Shizuoka, Nagano, Beppu, Osaka, and other cities. Many of these visits were part of his travels with O’Sensei, Tohei Sensei, and other uchi deshi as part of teaching assignments, both during his time at Tachikawa and during his subsequent years in Okinawa (discussed later), but just as many were undertaken alone. (Note: Many of the events described hereinafter occurred over a period of several years, for reasons which will also be addressed later.)
Suenaka Sensei with judo Meijin (10th dan master) Kazuo Ito at the Kodokan in Tokyo; Winter, 1969
One of the first places Suenaka visited was the Kodokan, established in 1882 by judo founder Jigoro Kano, the Mecca for judoka worldwide as much as the Aikikai Hombu is for aikidoka. It was there that Suenaka met Meijin Kyuzo Mifune, one of the world’s most celebrated judoka, and Meijin Kazuo Ito, under whom Suenaka studied whenever he was at the Kodokan. Suenaka had the great honor and good fortune of occasionally practicing with Mifune Sensei: “He threw me around quite a few times!,” recalls Suenaka. “It was very pleasurable being thrown around by him; it was like being used as an uke by O’Sensei.” Suenaka also studied from time to time under Ito contemporary Sumiyuki Kotani, but it was Ito Sensei with whom he spent most of his time. The judo and jujutsu master, at the time in his early sixties, took the young Hawaiian under his wing, and the two soon developed a relationship much like Suenaka’s relationship with O’Sensei, with Suenaka serving as Ito’s deshi whenever he was at the Kodokan. One might think O’Sensei would have discouraged Suenaka’s study of other arts, but the contrary proved to be true. It was precisely because of Suenaka’s pre-aikido experience in judo, kempo, and jujutsu that the Founder gave his blessing to Suenaka’s extracurricular studies. Indeed, O’Sensei made a point of discussing Suenaka’s outside studies with him whenever he returned to the Hombu: “He would ask me how they were teaching, and what I thought about them. Of course, he was very happy when I told him that nothing compared to aikido!” Ultimately, in his position as president of the Kodokan promotional board, it was Ito Sensei who, in 1970, encouraged Suenaka Sensei to request promotion to sandan (third degree black belt) in judo and jujutsu, and who personally awarded him those ranks; his dual certificate is signed by Ito Sensei and Risei Kano, son of Jigoro Kano.
Less frequent but no less educational were Suenaka’s occasional visits to Masutatsu Oyama’s Kyokushin-kai karate hombu, his first introduction to that rather brutal and unforgiving martial art form. All three of his brothers had studied Kyokushin-kai in Hawaii under Edward “Bobby” Lowe, one of Mas Oyama’s chief pupils, but Suenaka himself had been too busy with his other martial studies to join them. Fit and experienced as he was, Suenaka was forced to limit his study to a maximum of two hours a week, lest he risk injuries that would interfere with his judo and aikido studies. Still, he relished his time there, and the hard lessons learned.
Despite his outside studies, Suenaka’s heart remained true to aikido, and the more time he spent with O’Sensei, the more their relationship grew. The Founder seemed to have a distinct fondness for “Suenaka-kun” (kun is an affectionate term; roughly, “Young Suenaka”), perhaps because of their unique first meetings. Regardless of the reasons, Suenaka found himself spending a lot of time with O’Sensei. He often served as his kaban mochi (personal valet) when O’Sensei traveled; carrying his bags, holding doors open, or assisting the vigorous but nevertheless aged Founder up and down stairs. Often, O’Sensei personally requested that Suenaka accompany him. Other times, Suenaka was chosen by Tendokan founder Kenji Shimizu, a favorite uchi deshi of O’Sensei. Suenaka was also lucky enough to be invited to join O’Sensei from time to time as the Founder visited area temples to meditate, or traveled to the Aiki Jinja (aikido shrine) at his country home in Iwama, for practice and meditation. (Morihiro Saito Sensei, at the time in his early 30s, was the assigned caretaker of the jinja, a duty he maintains today.) Though an enviable honor, traveling with O’Sensei was pretty much a formal affair, as Suenaka recalls:
“[O’Sensei] never really talked too much. He was very private, very busy. The only time we really talked was when he was relaxing, or while we were eating.