The Japan Times 1948: Helen Keller recounts impression of Japan tour

From The Japan Times (Sunday Oct 24 1948)

October 7 2023

JAPAN – Eternal vigilance both in public and private beneficence is the price to be paid for progress and happiness to the largest possible number of the handicapped, the press was reminded yesterday by Miss Helen Keller. She was accompanied by Miss Polly Thomson and Takeo Iwahashi, Director of the Lighthouse for the Blind in Osaka.

Miss Keller met the press upon completion of her tour of Japan and gave her impressions of the work being done here for the blind and deaf.

Just as the education of normal people in Japan depends on school boards represented by intelligent men and women alive to democracy and public ideals, so the blind and the deaf will receive the best assistance if the persons appointed to watch over their affairs are well qualified, forward-looking and sincerely interested in the well-being of the sensorially crippled, Miss Keller went on.

The Japanese public must get it out of their heads that blind people are limited to just one job, that of massage, she emphasized.

Miss Keller is scheduled to leave for Korea on Monday, from where after a week’s stay, she will go on to China.