Most of us would probably be happy to have a handful of memories to reminisce over in our later years, episodes from our youth we could run past our friends while hoping their eyes don't glaze over. Ichiro Urushibara, a British citizen who has spent 69 years in Japan, has enough memories and amusing anecdotes to entertain people for hours and keep them coming back for more.
His employment history reads like a Wikipedia page of significant organizations and companies of postwar Japan: Civil Censorship Detachment, Time-Life International, Otani Insurance, USIS, U.S. Embassy, Foreign Reports Tokyo, Hill & Knowlton. The page listing freelance stints is just as impressive: Nippon Shortwave Broadcasting Co., Radio Nippon, Tokyo Broadcasting System, Pioneer Corp., Toyota Motor Corp. and the Lower House of the Diet.
"If somebody were to ask me what I did for a living in those days I would say I did translation, I did radio disc jockey-type work, I emceed parties, I announced car races. I did simultaneous interpreting at political conferences and consecutive interpreting for executives."
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