I’ve been told numerous times that I’m a “bad American” because I’m not a baseball fan, I don’t like apple pie or eat hotdogs and I strongly feel that guns should be illegal. If those things indicate that I’m not loyal to my country, then so be it. I’ve always felt that I was born in the wrong era and in the wrong country anyway.
Not long ago, I was given the opportunity to spend four months living in Japan; a country that I had never thought twice about and had no particular desire to visit. These four months turned out to be the best of my life and proved to be the most amazing experience I’ve had thus far. Here I was, in a foreign country where I couldn’t understand anyone, where I couldn’t read the street signs or the food labels in the store and where I was performing a duty that made the Japanese media label me as a terrorist, yet nearly every single person I encountered was beyond friendly.
I come from a country where, as a woman, I automatically tense up and fear for my safety when I pass a group of men on the sidewalk. I come from a country where I’ve learned that the first thing I need to do when I get in my car or inside my house is lock the door. I come from a country where people are shot on the freeway, stabbed in the streets, raped in alleys and have their identity stolen like it was a 10 speed bicycle that was left sitting in a driveway. But this is how I grew up and fearing for my life every time I step out into society is a natural daily occurrence.
Never did I dream that a country existed where even people that are considered terrorists are treated kindly. My time living in Japan showed me that kind-hearted people aren’t only seen in the movies; they are a reality and now those people that were so kind to me are experiencing horrendous suffering due to a very unfair natural disaster. For those of you whom are claiming that this is Japan’s “karma”, shame on you. You are a stain on society, a black mark against the human race. My time in Japan was spent trying to stop a very small group of men from killing dolphins and granted, these men were the cause of negative feelings toward their country, but this does not in any way justify the disaster that is causing so much suffering. Should I die because of the bear hunters in Alaska? Should the elderly man that always sits alone in his living room pay for the sins of the wolf poachers in Yellowstone National Park? And should the 12 year old girl that lives down the street from me experience indescribable suffering because the farmer in the next town over beats his pigs with a metal rod? Each country is guilty of so much horror and inhumanity and to say that Japan deserves what is happening is truly a sickening thought and I’m ashamed for the people that would even think it.
I have friends in Japan that I was never able to communicate with beyond a few words. However, I feel so much more of a connection with them then I do with people I have known for the majority of my life. The women that worked at the hotel I lived in, Kyoko and Sumia, are prime examples of pure goodness. At 2am on Christmas Day they were in the lobby, quietly decorating a tree so that when we came down in the morning we would be surprised by a Christmas tree. On New Year’s Eve, Kyoko made us each a cup of sweet bean soup, a treat in Japan. In each restaurant, we were greeted by smiles and laughter and upon our departure each time, we were encouraged to “come back often”. At one point, we had a translator with us and she informed us that the locals claimed that we “brought happiness to the town”. I have so many stories of locals being warm, kind, friendly and downright good to us during the four months I called Japan home. However, during the 30 years I have called America home, I can only recall a handful of stories that involve friendly strangers.
I have been home from Japan for nearly three weeks now and it has felt like the longest and loneliest three weeks of my life. Yesterday, while downtown in the city I live in, a drunken man tried to open the driver side door of my car while I was at a stoplight. An eight year old boy accidentally shot and killed his mother while he cleaned his pistol. A child was kidnapped, which resulted in the freeway being shut down and a woman threw her children from a bridge into the frigid waters of the river. If this earthquake, tsunami and resulting devastation are Japan’s karma for being hospitable, hardworking and dedicated to family, then I fear the day the Western World sees its karma.