This Japanese article in Chugoku shinbun (a newspaper in Hiroshima area) was shared by a Japanese lady. She messaged me that her heart told her to share the news that her second son was chosen to be one of the Tokyo Olympic torch runners in Hiroshima area. She wrote to me, ” my instinct tells me to do that somehow as your sir name and ours are the same. ”
I met her and her husband at a Japanese community workshop in Auckland a couple of years ago. The purpose of the workshop was to hear and discuss together their Hiroshima atomic bomb experience. Her husband was two years old when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. He told us about what he has experienced on the day. The upstairs of his house brew off, however, he survived as he was upstairs so that he avoided being squashed. I thought he remember that even though he was two years old!? I guess he could as such an extraordinary incident.
The couple survived the bomb, but both suffer from radiation sickness, and the loss of family members and classmates from their childhood. I was shocked to hear that her husband was born in the same year of the famous Sadako paper cranes. I imagined if she could live. She was only 12 when she passed away due to leukemia. As I am studying narrative research. I realise the power of storytelling.
Back to the attached article newspaper, there were many facts that amazed me. She and her husband met at Shinjuku station Tokyo again unexpectedly last Tokyo Olympic 1965 as her future husband went to see the Olympic football game. That was the starting point for their relationship. Now 2020, their Neurologist son take part in the Tokyo Olympic. What a coincidence! It could be fate!?
Another thing is her son and my son’s name start same Kanji letter. I told her about that and she wrote to me how interesting fact by chance! We meant to know each other!? Actually, we met only twice physically, but we sensed each other and kept in touch.
Japanese often use “En 縁” to translate to fate, a fateful encounter or relationship with specific people. I believe “en”, which brought me to New Zealand first back in October 1996.
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