Take the A train
Take the "A" train.
Billy Strayhorn
Orriginal. Duke Ellington and his band.
After their stay and great success in Hawaii, Hibari, Kawata and their companions moved to San Francisco. Unfortunately they met here with a very sad reality, discrimination. Being Japanese they were given mainly Chinese food and they rejected from many places by the message: Not yellows allowed. Only five years have passed after the end of the War. Definitively talking about Misora Hibari is talking about History. In that time Japanese were not allowed to leave the country and they received a special pass singed personally by McArthur. Kawata's diary is filled with bitter words when referring to this part of the trip. In Hawaii they were welcomed by all the Japanese and they had a daily amount of money for their expenses, but in San Francisco and the rest of the places they visited, they hardly received this economic help. As a result the most of the times they had to work without having their meals. Needless to say that the one who was suffering the most because of this situation was our little Hibari. But, to everybody's surprise, was always Hibari the one who was encouraging all in the hardest times. When they were flying in a 5 hour long trip to Portland, when every body was tired, Hibari took the "Air girl's" hat and began to distribute chewing gum and smiles to everybody in the plane cheering them up.
Things went worst day by day. In Washington the hotel was so dirty that Hibari and her mother cried bitterly. The bands that accompanied were very bad and although they have the chance of singing in a lot of places, these weren't at all the ideal places to sing and they were almost empaty. Yet, Hibari was singing with all her heart where ever they went. Then they were invited to appear in TV. This was the very first time they saw a TV, they saw a TV show and, the best of all, and the very first time they appeared on TV even when there wasn't TV in Japan. It was only a 5 minutes appearance but they were happy enough.
In Los Angeles everything changed for the best. They had the chance of meeting Bob Hope and Margaret O'brien among many others. They finally had the chance of eating Japanese food and they played with a very good band. The trip was filled with hardships but they appeared again on the TV news. Thanks to this a lot of people went to hear them. One of the last notes Kawata did in his diary of those days was: I wish I could have more time to stay in the USA and learn a lot more.
When returning to Japan they were received as the big stars they have become with this trip. Kawata began to talk about the difficult times they had. He talked about how one day they were told they should wait for the "jail" to come for them to take them to the place were they were going to sing. When they heard the word "jail" they though it was a joke, but it wasn't. The car was van that it was used in those days to transport prisoners. It was called the Monkey's car. In that time Hibari didn't say anything, but once the trip was over and she heard the tale concerning to her self from Kawata's lips; she began to cry helplessly making everybody cry with her.
Hibari always said that the Hawaii (USA) trip was of a great value in her life and career. That she understood who Misora Hibari might be during this trip. She never mentioned about the discriminations or hardships, nor in her diary or in her two books of memories. There's no doubt that the 12 year old child who arrived to Hawaii holding her favorite doll, changed during this trip becoming the great Misora Hibari, though she was only 13 years old when she went back to Japan.
