A Legend in a Legendary Town
"Hey, do you know what time is it now?" A fairly normal-looking elderly man casually asked the author as he was walking down the backstreets of Nagasaki. Given the time, the elderly did not simply walk away. Instead, he pointed the author to the nearest streetcar station (without the author's prompting), and motioned the author to walk with him as he was heading toward the same direction. The author was a little hesitant at the beginning as he was eager to head to the next major scenic spot in the scenic port town, but little did he know that he was about to speak to one of the most legendary figures from a legendary time.
The story begins with the elderly man's further questioning of the author's background. He was quite surprised, shocked even, to hear that the author comes from the US, considering the town's foreign tourists tend to be exclusively Chinese or Korean. He started conversing in his fairly proficient (if occasionally broken) English, noting that in the immediate post-war days when Nagasaki had an American military base, he had to converse with the GIs to get whatever he can from them. To survive the atomic bombing in itself was difficult enough in a city that lost more than half the population and was short on every possible supply.
Yet, to think he was a mere bombing survivor was the author's underestimation of his background. He spoke of pre-war jobs as a younger teenager. First, he worked in the Nagasaki Shipyard, famous as the main construction site of the Imperial Japanese Navy's once powerful battleship fleet. Then, as the shipyard received extensive bombing, he volunteered to become a member of the Navy's Special Assault Force, more commonly known as the kamikaze bombers that wrought destruction in the Battle of Okinawa. Fortunately, he was never sent on a suicide mission as the war came to an end before his training was finished.
The post-war years proved to be even more difficult for the young man who already survived the bombing of his hometown and escaped death in the military. Jobs were scarce and the government was in no position to support as it faced both structural and ideological collapse. Out of desperation, the young man attempted to take his own life, right in front of his parents, by taking 200 sleeping pills at once. While immediate hospitalization saved his life, it did not save his relationship with his parents. Running away from home, he went up to Tokyo, where he started out with construction jobs, eventually ending up a business owner.
Decades of running a car dealership and owning a cram school gave him savings that he did not have as a poor teenager, but did not give him a peace of mind. He found himself cold and out of touch with other people, and decided to start giving away his small fortune to NGOs that work on improving lives for rural folks across Southeast Asia. He mentioned that he used to donate exactly 10,000,000 Yen (or roughly 100,000 USD) annually to NGOs, and was happy to share all the pictures of the projects completed with his donations sent in from the NGOs to which he donated.
Happy to hear that the author is heading to Africa for NGO work, the elderly man summarized his tumultuous life in a few sentences as he led the author to his house for tea. He mentioned the fear of being noticed by others for the work he has done and is doing. Fame, he points out, makes a man selfish to a point that he becomes motivated simply by the ambition of getting more, greater recognition. It defeats the entire purpose of his current charity work. He says the same about money, mentioning that hoarding money only motivates a person to earn more money for the sake of earning more.
It is not worthy to judge the rather blend and over-generalized self-reflection of the man's tumultuous life. Given the narrow-minded and short-sighted nature of many Japanese, influenced largely by media portrayals, it is remarkable how the man can still think and talk so openly and frankly about the sensitive issues of the war, the bomb, the American occupation, the history of kamikaze pilots, among others, to a complete stranger from another country he met on the road a few minutes ago. Moreover, the author found him highly receptive of new ideas from the author during the long one-and-a-half-hour talk.
Indeed, as he directed his wife to cook lunch for the author, he was enthusiastically discussing with the author on the problem of aid dependency in developing countries. It is highly unexpected for someone who has donated so much cash over the years. But then again, given the many ups and downs in his life, his mental adaptability is far above the average human. His last words to the author reflect this flexibility the best, "don't date Japanese girls because they are too closed-minded...and oh yeah, I am 85 years old already, so see you in my next life!" The author is also keen to befriend him again, perhaps in the next lifetime.
The story begins with the elderly man's further questioning of the author's background. He was quite surprised, shocked even, to hear that the author comes from the US, considering the town's foreign tourists tend to be exclusively Chinese or Korean. He started conversing in his fairly proficient (if occasionally broken) English, noting that in the immediate post-war days when Nagasaki had an American military base, he had to converse with the GIs to get whatever he can from them. To survive the atomic bombing in itself was difficult enough in a city that lost more than half the population and was short on every possible supply.
Yet, to think he was a mere bombing survivor was the author's underestimation of his background. He spoke of pre-war jobs as a younger teenager. First, he worked in the Nagasaki Shipyard, famous as the main construction site of the Imperial Japanese Navy's once powerful battleship fleet. Then, as the shipyard received extensive bombing, he volunteered to become a member of the Navy's Special Assault Force, more commonly known as the kamikaze bombers that wrought destruction in the Battle of Okinawa. Fortunately, he was never sent on a suicide mission as the war came to an end before his training was finished.
The post-war years proved to be even more difficult for the young man who already survived the bombing of his hometown and escaped death in the military. Jobs were scarce and the government was in no position to support as it faced both structural and ideological collapse. Out of desperation, the young man attempted to take his own life, right in front of his parents, by taking 200 sleeping pills at once. While immediate hospitalization saved his life, it did not save his relationship with his parents. Running away from home, he went up to Tokyo, where he started out with construction jobs, eventually ending up a business owner.
Decades of running a car dealership and owning a cram school gave him savings that he did not have as a poor teenager, but did not give him a peace of mind. He found himself cold and out of touch with other people, and decided to start giving away his small fortune to NGOs that work on improving lives for rural folks across Southeast Asia. He mentioned that he used to donate exactly 10,000,000 Yen (or roughly 100,000 USD) annually to NGOs, and was happy to share all the pictures of the projects completed with his donations sent in from the NGOs to which he donated.
Happy to hear that the author is heading to Africa for NGO work, the elderly man summarized his tumultuous life in a few sentences as he led the author to his house for tea. He mentioned the fear of being noticed by others for the work he has done and is doing. Fame, he points out, makes a man selfish to a point that he becomes motivated simply by the ambition of getting more, greater recognition. It defeats the entire purpose of his current charity work. He says the same about money, mentioning that hoarding money only motivates a person to earn more money for the sake of earning more.
It is not worthy to judge the rather blend and over-generalized self-reflection of the man's tumultuous life. Given the narrow-minded and short-sighted nature of many Japanese, influenced largely by media portrayals, it is remarkable how the man can still think and talk so openly and frankly about the sensitive issues of the war, the bomb, the American occupation, the history of kamikaze pilots, among others, to a complete stranger from another country he met on the road a few minutes ago. Moreover, the author found him highly receptive of new ideas from the author during the long one-and-a-half-hour talk.
Indeed, as he directed his wife to cook lunch for the author, he was enthusiastically discussing with the author on the problem of aid dependency in developing countries. It is highly unexpected for someone who has donated so much cash over the years. But then again, given the many ups and downs in his life, his mental adaptability is far above the average human. His last words to the author reflect this flexibility the best, "don't date Japanese girls because they are too closed-minded...and oh yeah, I am 85 years old already, so see you in my next life!" The author is also keen to befriend him again, perhaps in the next lifetime.
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