‘I Will Never Turn Anybody Away’

Genichi Kadono can’t turn down someone in need.

Recently, Kadono, an avid moviegoer, was about to enter a theater in Universal City with his wife when a group of frantic Japanese sailors approached and asked if he spoke Japanese. “Of course, no problem,” he replied. Could he call them a cab so they could return to their ship in San Pedro? “No problem.” But the sailers had to be on board in less than 45 minutes or be in violation of a ship-imposed curfew.

“Big problem,” Kadono said, shaking his head at the request. “Impossible.” But he knew he would help them. So, he and his wife forgot about the movie, piled the sailors into their car and sped off for San Pedro, making the ship with less than two minutes to spare.

Kadono, a gregarious man, refused to take any money from the grateful sailors.

“The sailors now send me postcards from where their ship stops,” Kadono laughs. “I just got one from them in Spain.”

*

Last week’s devastating earthquake in the Kobe-Osaka region of western Japan, where the death toll is approaching 5,000, would have overwhelmed the resolve for charity in most people. But Kadono, a native of Japan turned confirmed L.A. lover, didn’t even blink. He worked harder and harder at trying to help out.

Kadono operates a Japanese-language assistance service in Hollywood that caters to Japanese businesses and tourists. It could entail everything from finding a Japanese-speaking physician for an ailing visitor to talking a befuddled hotel guest through the mysteries of an American bathtub.

The 24-hour service, the Japanese Assistance Network, also acts as a backup for calls made to the Japanese consulate in Los Angeles when it is closed.

It’s a growing business that keeps Kadono and his 15 staffers busy, fielding as many as 100 calls a day. Usually, the company gets paid by client hotels, rental car agencies and others based on its work.

But the killer quake changed that.

Any call that came into the network office was handled, no questions asked. It was just Kadono’s way of responding to a disaster. Some in the office grouse privately that Kadono is too helpful, shrugging off payment instead of demanding a check.

“I say I will never turn anybody away,” he says.

With the local Japanese consulate closed last Monday in observance of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday--ditto for the consulates in San Francisco and Chicago--the calls came in fast and furious at Kadono’s company, jamming the lines for days. “It was real crazy here,” says Brad Burlingame, the company’s vice president.

Everyone, including Kadono, fielded the hundreds of calls, dealing with the smallest question about whether a certain part of Kobe had been spared the devastation. When all else failed, including placing a call to Japan for the latest information, they simply listened and offered an encouraging word.

Office manager Chizu (J.J.) Nishikawa fielded a call from a Japanese exchange student in North Dakota who worried about his family in Kobe. “I just listened to him for about 20 minutes,” she remembers. “In the end, I told him to call me back. I think he found out that his family was all right.”

An L.A. woman called frantically, wanting information about her sister who was visiting Japan, and Nishikawa talked soothingly to her, trying to let her know she was concerned.

In the end, the woman cheerfully rang off.

The deluge of calls in the quake’s aftermath also brought news reporters and cameras who had learned of Kadono’s company and good deeds. That, in turn, prompted another flood of calls. Even officials at the Japanese consulate told callers: “If we don’t have an answer for you, call Mr. Kadono.”

*

Kadono seemed genuinely surprised that people want to repay him for his generosity. In his cluttered office, he told how he once helped a tourist from Tokyo get a physician for his son while vacationing in Key West, Fla.

Good deed done, the man insisted on the telephone that Kadono come to the hotel’s front desk so he could personally thank him. What the caller didn’t know was that Kadono was in L.A. The persistent man wanted to show his gratitude and eventually sent Kadono a check for $300 when he arrived back in Japan.

“Can you imagine?” the incredulous Kadono asked.

“Sure I can,” I replied. “Grateful people will repay kindness. And there are a lot of people like you in Los Angeles.”

I don’t want another earthquake. But if one does hit, I know where to call.

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