20 years ago a delegation from our sister city left New Paltz early in the morning to catch their first flight in their journey home. The larger events of that day will never be forgotten, and thanks to delegation member Kiyoshi Yamamuchi’s account of what happened, we have another part of that story. This part is one of the friendship, community, and support that grows when devastation occurs. You can read his original full account at the library.

A transcription of Kiyoshi's account is provided below.

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Kiyoshi Yamauchi,

Associate Professor of English, Niimi College,

member and interpreter of the Delegation from Osa Town, sister city of New Paltz Village

I was at LaGuardia Airport with nine other members of delegation from Osa Town, [redacted] , [redacted], [redacted], [redacted], [redacted], [redacted], [redacted], [redacted] and [redacted]. We finished our official visit to New Paltz Village from September 7 to 10, during which we had several visits, meetings, reunions and parties. On the very early morning (4:30 am) of September 11, we gathered at the parking lot of the village hall and said good-bye to our sisters and brothers in New Paltz who woke up very early to see us off without knowing what would happen in several hours. At the parting, our friends in New paltz told us to come back soon and we said that we would like to come back very soon hoping to come back in a year or so. We were sent to the airport in New Paltz vans. Our flight to Detroit (NW069) was scheduled to depart at 9:12 am. We already passed through the security and were in the waiting lounge at the gate. Some of the members tried to call home before the departure, but could not get through. I think it was around 8:40. Now the gate was open, but something seemed to be wrong about the wicket machines and they did not work. So the ground crew at the gate checked in passengers manually yelling something at one another. Some of the members already boarded and I was helping other members check in, when the passengers who already had boarded the plane returned with their bags hastily, and so did the captains and the flight attendants. Someone just said, ``There was a major crash." We did neither hear any sound nor feel any vibration of the crash, so I thought the crash happened in Detroit, and then the flight was canceled. We started to discuss what we should do, when the announcement of the airport just told us to evacuate from the building area of the airport with our baggage. Then we went to the turntable downstairs to pick up our baggage, which came up pretty soon. We still did not know what was happening out there, so we were discussing the possibility to have an extra day in New York City for sightseeing and shopping before we could arrange our new tickets home. But there were quite a few people at a loss outside the building area of the airport, and we could hear sirens of police cars and ambulances approaching. I asked several people what was happening, and a man told me that a plane crashed into the World 'Trade Center. What!?! I just could not believe my ears. We had to give up our plans to stay an extra day in NYC. We had to get out of this chaotic airport, but how in the world could

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we do that is a big question. No taxis or regular buses were available, and our friends' vans were long gone away now. Moreover we could not use our cell phone. I asked a hotel van to give us a ride but the driver said, "We are sold out." When we were trying to find our way out, other Japanese travelers gathered around us. After a while, a man in a Connecticut Limo uniform was yelling ``any passengers to Rye?" I did not know where Rye is, but I thought getting out of here was the first priority, so I approached him and asked him if they could drive us out. Then we were a group of seventeen-the ten original members of the delegation plus seven other Japanese tourists stranded in the airport, who are [redacted], [redacted], [redacted], [redacted], [redacted] and [redacted] sisters and [redacted]. The negotiation went well and we got a ride on a bus driven by a good driver James Holmes. The bus was all right to get out of the airport but soon caught in stopped traffic on a freeway. We could see smoke rising up from lower Manhattan. We spent several hours on the bus thinking about various things. I was thinking about what we should do now, work at college back in Japan, but mostly about my girlfriend, Chizuru and a quarrel we had just before my departure. I wished I could call her, but still the cell phone was unusable. James kept the radio on, and horrible facts were continuously announced in the bus. He told us that his girlfriend was a cop and that she was on duty and might have been around the world Trade center. He could not contact her on her cell phone. He was very much worried about her, but he was calm and sometimes funny. He was discharging his duties faithfully in this stressful situation. I think highly of him. We would like to see and thank him again. We were glad to know she was safe later. In the radio news, the announcer compared this attack to kamikaze attack in World War II, but distinguished the former from the latter because the former uses passenger planes. I was afraid a war might have started and would prevent us from coming back to Japan for a while or forever. We tried to make a phone call to Osa Town and New Paltz, but with no avail. After several hours, though, we could get through to Osa Town Office. We told them that we were all safe and asked them to pass it on to our family. We also told them that the seven other Japanese' names and telephone numbers and asked them to call their homes to ten they were safe. We further asked them to contact New Paltz for us, because telephone line was not so stable then. We got a phone call from a New Patlz friend later, but the voice was difficult to hear, but we told we were stranded on a freeway, and that we would contact them once we can settle at some place to wait for their rescue. I told James that we are from a sister city of New Paltz and that we had a lot of good friends to take care of us there, and asked if he

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could drive us up there. But his answer was, "I wish I could. But I'm sorry I can't." Yes, the company is based on Connecticut, not on New York. I thought we had to walk to New Paltz on freeways for more than a hundred miles without our baggage in the worst-case scenario. I do not know exactly how many hours we were on the bus stopped on the freeway, but we spent good four or five hours before the bridge was open and the bus started again. We were sad, nervous, worried and at a loss what to do, but there was certainly a unity among us on the bus. Once the bridge was open, traffic began to move. One thing we really need is a hotel room for us to put our baggage in, have a rest, take a shower and wait for the rescue. We asked a couple of hotels in White Plains area, but no room was available. At a kiosk of one of the hotels, I bought a postcard of the World Trade Center as a souvenir. The shop lady said the postcard of the buildings sold very well that day. Now I keep this postcard as a good luck charm or a token of my survival on 9/11 after having it autographed by my friends in New Paltz. Now we were in Greenwich, Connecticut. We decided to get off the bus at a large hotel even though there was no vacant room available there since it is already beginning to be evening and we are tired and hungry. We were hungry but we were not inclined to eat in that situation, though. We put our names in the waiting list of the hotel, put our baggage in the hall, called New Paltz and our Japan homes, ate at a restaurant in turn and waited for the rescue by New Paltz friends. Yes, New Paltz friends agreed to come all the way down to rescue us. Thank Heaven! Three of the Japanese travelers accompanying with us left now, so we were a group of 14. I think it was after nine o'clock when four vehicles from our home away from home arrived. Tom Nyquist, the mayor of New Paltz Village, Jeff and Caleb Clock, and Sue Sherburne came to rescue us. Friends in need are friends indeed! It was around midnight when we arrived at Village Hall and some of our New Paltz friends were waiting for us. We were very glad to see you again so soon! We felt really at home in New Paltz Village. I am afraid my article is quite long, but it means we had a very long day on September 11, 2001. We had very good time during our extra stay in New Paltz before we could leave on September 17, thanks to all the friends in New Paltz. We were invited to [redacted] and [redacted] ' home, [redacted] and [redacted]'s home, [redacted]'s home, [redacted]'s home and [redacted] Unison Arts and Learning Center. We got advice and information from [redacted] and [redacted] , [redacted] and several Japanese people living in New Paltz. We were like celebrities and got interviewed by New Paltz Times. A Japanese TV news reporter also interviewed me over the phone.

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We went to a church ceremony and a candlelight ceremony in the park. We experienced the six days before 9/11 and the contrastive six days after 9/11 in New York, we had a once-in-a-life-time experience. I will never forget Sep. 11th and the kindness we received from New Paltz people.

Remembering 9/11

March 1920