Kaoru Kanetaka was a Japanese ambassador of sorts, certainly a woman of great ability, ambition and energy ("Kaoru Kanetaka, travel reporter, dies at 90," in the Jan. 10 edition).

She's a role model for young Japanese women of today. Kanetaka helped the world to see Japan as a more friendly and peaceful nation during her travels so soon after World War II. Her adventures would have been unthinkable in the late 1930s right through the early 1950s given how the world perceived Japan as a military aggressor and a terrible threat to world peace. She really was a pioneer in the best meaning of the word.

ROBERT MCKINNEY

TAMA, TOKYO

The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.