NO.179
2001.9.12
Now I Think of the UNESCO Spirit, Impatiently
On a roadside I came across a boy of five or six, crying "Ouch! Ouch!"
I stopped my bicycle to ask the reason. He said, "I found a dead cicada
in the grass nearby. I reached over to pick it up, but I cut my finger
on a leaf." I saw a one-centimeter cut in the ball of the finger,
from which blood began to ooze.
I didn't have any adhesive bandage, which I usually carry in my handbag,
and since he said his house was nearby, I told him to go back home to tell
his mother. However, he said, "My parents are not at home, they are
working in their offices" looking up at me with an expression which
seemed to say, "Please, help me", not caring that I am a stranger
to him. When I looked around, I saw a gas station a short distant away,
to which I ran to explain the situation. I returned with an adhesive bandage
in my hand. The boy, who was on the verge of tears, suddenly beamed, watching
me winding it around his finger. He said, "Thank you very much",
very politely.
Now, I am engaged in an activity through which I have contact with boys
and girls. One of them is a girl of seventeen, who has been working part
time at an eating and drinking house in Shinjuku since graduating from
junior high school. Although she has parents, a little brother and a little
sister, she never goes back home. Instead she stays at one friend's place
or another. After several talks with her, a sad picture came into my mind
where she was having a meal alone in her home.
Another boy I contacted is a fourteen year-old junior high school student,
who is in a detention centre. At the end of our talk, he muttered, "I
wish I could have every supper with my family."
During the current recession, parents are busy making a decent living,
believing their children understand the situation. Decades ago, any child
could be cherished enough and grow up strong somehow even without their
parents' care. However, in an urban community where a nuclear family is
common and they do not even know their neighbour, a child might be helpless.
The problems of the above mentioned children would not be resolved just
by having supper with their family members. However, it seems to me that
such an ordinary practice could be more important than we think, because
it may provide an opportunity to come in close contact with each other.
The boy whose finger was cut might have just wanted to tell somebody what
had happened to him, rather than complaining about his pain.
It came to my mind that years ago, child as I was, I felt happy when every
foreigner who passed by smiled at me in my hometown Kobe. I also recall
that when I was older, they said, "Excuse me" or "Before
you" when they passed by me from behind. These days I seldom see Americans
do so, and I thought it is due to the economic problem. But I was moved
when I heard a friend of mine who came back from New York talking about
the same experience I had in Kobe, saying that people there do not behave
as they do in Japan now.
This time of the year marks the anniversary of the end of the war, so it
is time for us to renew our pledge that we never launch into war again.
I cannot think of a concrete way to tell children and young people the
spirit of UNESCO, which says "since wars begin in the minds of men,
it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed."
I would like to start with catching people's feeling, and look forward
to the day when people smile more at each other again.
Junko Ashida Chairperson of the International
Support Activity Committee
179-2へ