What living in Japan taught me | Opinion
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For the past 50 years, my family has received a year-ending season’s greetings card addressed from Yokohama, Japan.
During the height of the civil rights era in 1968, my parents, sister and I moved to the East Asian country. The assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy back home changed the political and social landscape for years to come. At the same time, our young family was exposed to the culture and customs unlike our own, courtesy of a Japanese family that befriended us with open arms.
From this relationship, I learned to respect and appreciate a culture unknown to me, and in return, we introduced them to many of our own Jewish traditions.
We were unofficial ambassadors and we knew our diplomatic role.
It seems some friendships last a lifetime.
Taught to respect the human rights of our diverse world from an early age, I was enraged when I heard about the murder of eight people that included six Asian women during mass shootings at three Atlanta-area spas in March. The incident is among a rash of recent anti-Asian attacks.
If the Asian community ever needed something to cheer about, the time is now.
A hero has come in the form of a Japanese educator.
Toshimi Abe-Janiga, who teaches Holocaust studies at Riviera Beach Preparatory and Achievement Academy, was recently named the School District of Palm Beach County’s Teacher of the Year.
Abe-Janiga’s passion to educate high school-aged students about the Holocaust era, reminded me of the efforts of Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara, who issued transit visas to thousands of Jews fleeing Europe while he served as vice-consul for the Japanese Empire in Kaunas, Lithuania.
Sugihara, who later became known as “Japan’s Schindler,” was honored by the State of Israel as one of the Righteous Among the Nations in 1985, a year before his death.
“Sugihara’s act teaches us the importance of making decisions to commit to humanity,” Abe-Janiga said.
He risked his life and that of his family to save refugees of a culture different from his own.
As the Asian community continues to need our support in these tempestuous times, I’ll be there for them, as I have been my entire life.
Email your thoughts to Editor Alan Goch at algoch@sunsentinel.com.
