Stories: Hakodate
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| While kobetsu-ing one night we came across an older woman who immediately let us in. It was late so we gave a brief introduction and set up an appointment to come back with a Sister from the ward. We returned a few days later and taught the first discussion. It was a really good lesson and the spirit was really strong. She was in her late 60's and insisted that we have some Mugicha before we left. We stayed and had some, not wanting to show disrespect.
As we were drinking our tea she looked at my gaijin face (my companion was Kubota choro so I was the only gaijin) and started to tell me her experience as a little girl in Hiroshima during WWII. She had lived on the outskirts of Hiroshima and had witnessed the atomic bomb. She talked about how it had changed Japan and the way the Japanese people think. She then began to cry and thanked me over and over again for bringing an end to the war. I was speechless. She fell to the floor and hugged my legs. I felt really inadequate to be there.
I always excepted the humility of the Japanese as purely cultural, but after this I began to think more and more about the eternal mission of this people. I will never forget her and the experience she gave to me. |
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