Word: sakamoto
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That ambition first hit Soichi Sakamoto a decade ago, when he was teaching grade school on the Hawaiian island of Maui. He knew nothing about swimming except what he had learned as a scoutmaster, teaching lifesaving. "I read some books on swimming but it didn't do any good," he says, "so I started just using common sense." Common sense consisted of rounding up the best young prospects on an island where kids are naturally amphibious, then straightening out their faults. His first pupils, who could not afford to use private pools, swam their time trials in irrigation ditches...
...Sakamoto's ditch-wrigglers did all right. Led by the Nisei NaKama brothers, they won the A.A.U. outdoor team championships in 1939 and 1940. Sakamoto was gunning for the 1940 Olympics, but they were called off. In 1941, before war dispersed them, Sakamoto's protégés won their third outdoor A.A.U. title; and one of them, Bill Smith, son of a Honolulu cop, broke most of the world's records from 200 to 800 meters...
Even more remarkable: Zacharias had pointed out to the Admiral that there were then two Jap envoys in Washington, Nomura and Kurusu. "When the third one arrives," he said, "you can look for it to break immediately." The third Japanese diplomat, Tatsuyi Sakamoto, Ambassador to Peru, arrived in Washington...
...Identical twins Eva and Hannah Sakamoto, studying nursing at the University of Colorado. Former University of California students and high-school glee clubbers, they got scholarships from their church (Methodist) education board to finance their Colorado studies...
...Jaretz could not even keep his 100-meter title from the flying Hawaiians. Takashi Hirose took that. And Jose Balmores, another Islander, took the breaststroke and medley championships. When the final points were tallied, Coach Sakamoto's boys had won the U.S. team title for the third year in a row-with 71 points to 21 for the second-place Chicago Towers Club...