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The two met on the Karuizawa tennis courts, where few players relished the prospect of facing the crown prince, an indifferent player, and having to choose between winning or clumsily contriving to lose. When players were shy of coming forward, the prince sometimes had his omnipresent chamberlains drum up opponents. Such a summons, impossible to refuse, was given to Michiko Shoda and a twelve-year-old boy. They breezed through Akihito and his partner, 6-1. "Wonderful!" cried the prince to Michiko. "You have overwhelmed me!"
Tutoring in Love. The prince's tutor, Dr. Shinzo Koizumi, who had watched the game, told Akihito he had given a "miserable performance," but agreed that Michiko was "a really nice young lady." From that moment, there is strong evidence that the crown prince was in love. He produced his camera, took snapshots of Michiko. Later he sent her prints of the pictures and exhibited one of them as his contribution to the imperial household's annual art show. Last summer at Karuizawa they were together again. Michiko carried the prince's tennis rackets for him. When he finished a set she would bow and dry the perspiration from his face and neck with a towel.
They played together against the Shah of Iran and his partner, and won. Exulted Crown Prince Akihito: "We beat that Persia all right!" At a small house party the prince asked his ever-present chamberlain to leave the room, and while he was away, Akihito danced with Michiko. He insisted on staying until 11, and joined Michiko and the others in singing Auld Lang Syne. Says Michiko-san of the imperial family: "I feel really sorry for them. They are so confined. I wish they could get around to parties more and meet people who are not Gakushuin" (i.e., from the Peers' School).
Dr. Koizumi, the tutor, loomed importantly in the burgeoning romance. A brilliant man, with a face badly burned when he rescued some survivors trapped in a blazing building after a B-29 bombing raid, Koizumi had lost a son in the war. He is a former president of Keio University, and a political liberal; his appointment as supervisor of the prince's education eleven years ago created a stir because he, like Michiko Shoda, is a commoner. He lectures Akihito on government and economics, but feels that his primary responsibility is to train the young man to be an Emperor capable of "sharing the joy and sorrow of the people." He was very responsive to the prince's desire to choose a bride by "personality rather than heritage."