JAPANESE, WHO DESPAIRED OF MASTERING FORK, IS HONORED

Shigeaki Nimomiya walked the strange streets of Seattle, hungry, peering into every restaurant window for signs of the dishes he knew in Japan.

At the immigration station he had slept on the floor and had been given a bitter drink called coffee. He wanted to get to a restaurant where he could get his Japanese tea instead of that distasteful brown stuff.

He entered a restaurant and ordered meat, a rare food at home. But no chopsticks came. The waiter brought him an ominous-looking knife and fork.

"What crude and barbarous people these Americans are!" he reflected. "Do I have to risk stabbing myself with those bare prongs when I eat?"

He didn't enjoy that meal.

That was thirteen years ago, but the incident is still clear in the memory of Ninomiya, now an honor student at the University of Washington.

The diminutive Japanese student is winner of the 1929-1930 Nakata scholarship of $300, awarded for the second time to the graduate student in Oriental studies with the highest scholastic standing. After receiving his master's degree from the University this year, Ninomiya expects to go east to study for his Ph.D. before entering educational work.

But he uses a fork now, and he expects to remain always in America.