5 The wings of a woman pilot

「ふるさとの川は野は麗しく
ふるさとの山はこよなく美しい
只感激！　只感謝!!
二等飛行士　松本きく子」

These were the words spoken by Kiku Nishizaki when she made a flight to her hometown in 1933. She was the first Japanese woman pilot to fly overseas. Now let’s see how she became a woman pilot.

Kiku was born in Kamisato in 1912. She was a very active girl. When she was only four, she went up to the roof of her house by herself. Her parents were surprised at her behavior and worried about her a lot. But she looked very happy and had fun on the roof. Now you can understand how active she was. Also, she was a very honest girl. When she had an interview test at a teachers’ college, she answered very honestly as follows:

Interviewer:	Why do you want to enter our college?
Kiku :	Because I missed entering a girls’ high school.
Interviewer:	Why did you choose the two- year course?
Kiku :	I have many brothers and sisters so I don’t want my parents to pay a lot of money.

After she graduated from the teachers’ college, she became a teacher at an elementary school. She was sixteen years old. She often played basketball with boys and enjoyed cycling with students.

One fine day in fall, she went cycling with some students. They stopped by at Ojima(尾島) Airport and watched a plane. She touched a plane for the first time. From this moment, she became interested in flying. She studied about flying all by herself. When she had a question, she sent a letter to the pilots that she met at Ojima Airport . These pilots gave her a chance to fly! She asked her parents, “Can I go and fly?” They said “OK.” They thought, “She will learn that flying is scary and give up her dream of flying.” Did she feel scared? Of course not! She said to herself, “The sky is mine! Flying is just for me!” This experience made her decide to become a pilot.

In 1931, she entered a pilots’ school. After two years of studying and training, she passed the test and became the first seaplane woman pilot. Now her dream was coming true! In 1933, the day of flying to her hometown had come. On October 15th, at six in the morning, her plane left the school airport in Aichi prefecture for Saitama. It was a 408 km flight and it took seven hours.

About a hundred thousand people waited for her by the Tone River. Among the people, her students from the elementary school were there. The students welcomed her and said, “You are great! You showed us we can do anything if we try hard. We’ll do our best.” She was so happy to hear that.

The next challenge was the flight to Manshu (満州). Her mission was to take letters to the soldiers there. On October 22nd in 1934, she left Tokyo for Manshu at 8:45. Her plane was named “Shiragiku-go(白菊号)”. With several refuels, Shiragiku-go flew over the sea on the 27th. She became the first woman pilot to go overseas. But her flight was not easy. She had a hard time with a head wind, so the fuel was running out before her arrival in Seoul . She had to make a forced landing with little light at night. She didn’t even know where she was landing. Fortunately, she could land on the river bank without any trouble. If she had stopped one meter further ahead, her plane would have dropped in the river. Someone said that her landing was like a circus! In this way, she made a 2,440 km-long flight that took 14 days.

The next year (1935), she was given the Harmon trophy by the National Airplane Association in Paris, as the best pilot of 1934. Her award number was 31^st and she found the name of Lindbergh as the 30^th. She was very happy. (666語)

extremely 格別に The second pilot 二等操縦士 behavior 行動 honest 正直な

From this moment その時から　　　scary 怖い　 seaplane 水上飛行機　　soldiers 兵士

refuels 給油 a head wind 向かい風 a forced landing 不時着

the Harmon trophy ハーモン・トロフィー（その年の最も優秀なパイロットに贈られる賞）

Circus サーカス the National Airplane Association in Paris パリの国際航空連盟

Lindbergh チャールズ・リンドバーグ(単独で大西洋横断無着陸飛行を初めて行った人）