Chapter 1

“Roger, the major thing you have to remember is not to directly face Nakaya so he can get the full use of both of his arms at once. He’s extremely strong. When he takes hold of your gi, get your own arms up under his so he can’t pull down and in and get leverage. And keep him from pulling you into his chest—use your arms to turn his torso away from the direction he tries to twist.”

Roger Denison was in the locker room, getting some final advice from his coach while dressing for his judo match; suddenly his dad burst into the room.

“Son, she won!”

“She did? Fantastic! How’d they decide the winner? Must have been on the penalties, right?”

“No, it wasn’t; right after you had to leave to get ready for your own match, the officials asked for a rematch since they both had one yuko [fractional point] and one waza-ari [half point]. They wanted a clean decision, so they didn’t use the penalties. Cindy won the rematch with an ippon [full point] after about 90 seconds! The first match must have tired out her opponent and you know how Cindy’s got such great conditioning. So she won the gold for the U.S. in women’s lightweight.”

“Awesome! I wish I could have stayed to see it.”

“I know,” his dad said, “but you need to get yourself ready now; you’re up in about five minutes.”

Roger recalled the scoring rule: the ippon is a full-point throw; an ippon gachi is a “win by ippon.” The waza-ari is a throw having less power and superiority and is treated as a half point; two are needed to win a match. The yuko is a lesser throw than a waza-ari and has a trivial score.

Roger’s upcoming match was for the bronze in the men’s middleweight division; he had been competing against a very strong international field. Over the years, the U.S. had won very few medals in international judo competitions and now there was a possibility that an American brother and sister would each medal in their individual events.

While Roger was finishing his preparations for his match, his thoughts turned to his 17-year-old high school senior twin sister. With her fiery red hair that matched her personality, Cynthia Denison was a consummate athlete. In addition to her world-class judo skills, she loved basketball and played on the girls’ varsity team; at five feet ten inches and weighing 136 pounds, she was a big girl for her age, and she was absolutely fearless. Her aggression, fast reflexes, long arms, and strong legs made her an effective power forward and she was equally good on offense and defense.

Roger mused about his own athleticism. He was a swimmer and his best events were the butterfly and breast stroke; he held the state record in the butterfly. His athletic build, a broad chest and long arms, six feet three inches in height and 195 pound weight, allowed him to propel himself through the water like a sprinter runs on land. He shared his sister’s red hair (there was some Irish blood in the family’s Scottish heritage) but Roger was the younger by just two minutes, a fact which she never let him forget.

But their best sport was judo. Their dad was a Marine. Master Gunnery Sergeant Stuart Denison was now his battalion’s operations chief NCO and his specialty was personal combat. While he was growing up, Roger reflected, he saw how his dad would train his troops in hand-to-hand combat and, at a very young age, he and his sister began to wrestle each other, trying to mimic what they saw, and their father took note. He began to coach them in performing some basic combat moves and noticed that their longer arms, which they had even as kids, would be an advantage in judo, so he took their lessons into that direction.

By the twins’ preteen years, Roger recalled, he and his sister were becoming extremely proficient and had begun to win local and regional judo competitions. The fact that they received much of their early training in Japan, working with some of the best judoka in the world, contributed to their successes as the siblings blossomed in their judo skills. It was in Japan, especially during their father’s second tour there, that they developed the discipline and techniques that allowed them to progress rapidly in the junior ranks, and by age 15, the siblings had achieved international rankings.

The Denison family had arrived in Tokyo in late January with the other members of the U.S. Judo Team to compete in the International Judo Federation’s world championship tournament. They were met at Narita by a bus provided by the sponsors and driven to the Citadines Shinjuku Hotel where they were to stay.

After checking in, they had a free day before the two days of pre-competition training began. Sarah Denison, the twins’ mom, had a sister, Ellen Carter, who lived in Tokyo with her husband Richard, who was an engineer with a major electronics firm. Being childless after several years of trying to have a baby, they had adopted a six-year-old Japanese girl, Ayame Asano. They registered the adoption with the U.S. embassy and thus ensured that she had U.S. citizenship. The twins’ uncle and aunt wanted to allow their adopted daughter to keep her cultural identity, so they didn’t change her Japanese surname. Ayame was now sixteen years old but her parents, both being Americans, wanted to give her the option of going to college in the U.S., avoiding the necessity of her having to take the grueling Japanese college entrance examinations.

The Carter family met the Denisons at their hotel and the twins got to see their cousin once again after about four years of separation. Stuart had been on two tours in Japan, one beginning when the cousins were just over seven years old and another when they were eleven. Although Ayame was about four months younger than Cynthia and Roger, she was at the equivalent educational level; she had completed her high school requirements and had already been accepted at several U.S. colleges. She would be spending the balance of her final high school year going to the twins’ school and either visiting those colleges or meeting with their representatives to make her final decision.

While the older folks were visiting, the teens took the opportunity to spend a few hours together and got to renew their friendship. They had become fast friends during the years that they were together and found that they still cared for each other very much—and it gave the twins the opportunity to practice their Japanese, which had become fairly rusty. And Ayame needed work on her English.

Ayame bounced into the room the twins were sharing. “Let’s go to 温泉 [onsen: hot-spring baths]. I saw they have here.”

Cynthia asked, “Well, do they allow suits there? I won’t go to a naked 温泉 [onsen]. Remember, I didn’t when we were little.”

“いいえ [Iie: no], here doesn’t allow bathing suits—but there’s men side and women side, not together,” Ayame remarked.

“No, I don’t care for that regardless. Why not go to the pool?”

“はい [Hai: yes], I do that with you,” Ayame agreed. “I go to my room and change.”

Together again, the trio walked from their rooms to the hotel pool and took off their robes. Cynthia looked at Ayame.

“Oh, I haven’t seen a suit like that before. It covers you all up! Don’t you wear a two-piece? That looks like an old-lady type bathing suit!”

“Cindy, I do not let boys see my body; ashamed at burn scars. Please, not like talking about that, よね [yo ne: agreed]? Let’s just go in pool.”

They soaked for a while and discussed their lives during the four years they hadn’t seen each other. When they got out, Ayame was excited to show the siblings her new toy.

“Look at something—father’s company makes test 携帯 [keitai] and gives one that works in U.S. too. Have when go home with you. You know how makes all cute electronics things for Japanese teens? Look at one here.”

She pulled a tiny device out of her backpack; it was the size of large wristwatch.

“携帯 [keitai]?” asked Cynthia. “Ah, a cell phone. It’s a prototype?”

“はい [Hai]. That’s the word. This has wrist band to wear like watch or wear on necklace too. It has bluetooth and GPS and obeys voice. それかっこいいね？[Sore kakkoi ne?]”

“Huh? Didn’t get that,” Roger said.

“ごめん なさい [Gomen nasai] ... I mean, sorry ... still get used to English. Said, ‘Isn’t it cool?’ Father says it soon comes to the U.S. but not for year or more. He won’t let me use itself alone though—says must have regular phone and just use this as backup.”

“Crazy!” Cynthia remarked. “It’s like a comic book secret communicator—or like that Star Trek walkie-talkie thingie.”

They played with the device for a few minutes before the conversation turned to more pressing topics like the judo tournament and what U.S. high school life was like.

The next day they had to get back to work and the team went to the tournament site, the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium, where they would spend two days for their final training before the competition began.

This was the twins’ first world championship match and Cynthia had just won the gold medal in her weight division while Roger was battling for the bronze in his class, one of the most competitive weight classes in judo. His opponent, Shozo Nakaya, a Japanese fourth dan, had won the bronze medal at the last competition and was a highly experienced judoka at 29 years of age.