Yashiro (in Oiso) to Bernard Berenson

Oiso, March 3rd

My dear B.B.,

The coldest season is gone & now Japan is lovely with Spring flower going to bloom.

How are you getting on? I think of you & of Nicky & of I Tatti very much. My wife Fumi does the same.

As for me, I ought to be in U.S.A. (at Stanford University, where I am being invited as Consultant Professor) by this time. But just before my departure from Tokyo on Jan. 29th, something strange was found in my lung by X-ray photo, which might possibly be an incipient cancer. I was taken to Cancer-research Institute Hospital in Tokyo, where I have been treated with Ray Cobalt 60 for about a month. I was released from the hospital just a few days ago. Now they say that strange thing in my lung is not so malicious a thing as cancer, but at any rate it must still be treated with Ray for sometime yet. The treatment with Ray is so exhausting that I cannot do anything now. But thank heaven, it is not painful!

This is short note to you to explain why I have been silent to you so long. I am very glad to tell you that my illness was found so early that it can be cured.

I hope you are keeping well. I must come again to I Tatti & salute you personally.

My wife & my son & myself are always talking about you & about I Tatti.

Please remember me to Nicky.

Yours ever,

Yukio Yashiro