JAPAN
The Thing about
Being Strong
Stage 2
Story by Yufu Kondo
Translated by the CLA Editing Team
Illustrated by Monica Uyenha
Dear Mom,
Since that day, my height hasn’t doubled, but my age almost has. I have grown a lot. Of course, I am studying hard, and I’ve also made some friends. I’m enjoying my life, so don’t worry about me. I still miss you and everyone a lot. But I’m “the alive one,” so I will try to be strong.
Chapter 1
Yo was strong. From the first time I met her, she has been the one who is capable of expressing her own thoughts in a direct way. Compared to me, who was indecisive, Yo had a strong personality that people naturally follow.
“Mihoko? Are you still there?” said the voice on my phone.
“Yes, I’m listening.” I answered.
“Mihoko, you always zone out. I wonder if you are listening in your classes.”
“Well, I do work hard in class, and I got good grades as well.” I responded.
“Isn’t that thanks to your friend? Yo, is it? You’ve mentioned her before.”
Yo was not only “strong ,” she was also good at studying. She even helped me with classes that she hadn’t taken before. As she was the top student in school, I wondered how she handled everything.
“Why don’t you learn from Yo a bit?”
“Okay, if there’s nothing else you’d like to talk about, can I hang up?”
Yo is strong. I like Yo for who she is, but being compared to her makes me feel like a loser, and I hate myself.
Chapter 2
This year’s goal for the seminar that me and Yo are taking is to hold a photo exhibition. It has been 10 years since the earthquake, and we hope the disaster won’t be forgotten. We are planning to rent a space where we can show photos taken over the past decade. The photos are about the progression of the rebuilding and how people started their new life.
She answered me with a smile,
“It’s fine. I cried enough when this town was almost swept away and what is left to us is to just smile. ”
Her words made me feel that she was strong.
My friends and I went to Tohoku several times for this exhibition. We went to Tohoku to figure out what we wanted to say through the exhibition instead of just showing photos. The people there live a peaceful life, continuing their work in the sea.
That day, this calm sea destroyed everything.
“Why and how could the sea have done this to us?” I wondered.
“Don’t you blame the sea and aren’t you afraid that everything might be taken away again?” I asked an old lady who was living in the town.
I have no connection with the earthquake, yet I burst into tears whenever I see the videos of that day. I can’t imagine the pain that people went through.
This old lady, laughing in front of me, had a strong mind and endless strength.
Chapter 3
Only a week is left till the photo exhibition. Yo has been busy, so she couldn’t join our trip to Tohoku, but she is preparing with us by reading the reports we have written and viewing the photos we have taken. The wall of the photo exhibition will be decorated with the messages of the “victims.” We are asking people from different towns in Tohoku to write down their current feelings, and we are also gathering 300 more messages on the Internet.
We are attaching those colorful papers to the wall.
“Thank you for your help.”
“Hope to bring happiness to many people.”
“I want to become a firefighter.”
“I’m doing my best in baseball.”
“Welcome to this energetic town.”
“I like this town.“
“I miss my family.”
This is the message this one man who was the same age as us wrote. He was a man who cheered the people in town with a smile. It seemed like he had overcome all of his pain.
However, when he got the pen and paper, he asked, “Can I write something negative? I wonder if I am being negative, but I still suffer, “Why did I have to lose my family? Why am I the one who survived?” he asked.
The affected areas in the town recovered and people built new homes. However, the scars of the victims weren’t fully healed. The man showed us the picture he had taken with his family. Everyone was smiling in the picture, and I surely could see their good relationship through the photo.
I wondered what would happen if I lost my family.
Chapter 4
“Your phone is ringing.” said Yo.
“It’s my mother.”
I thanked Yo for noticing and then put my phone in my pocket.
“Why?” she asked.
“What?” I answered.
“Shouldn’t you answer?”
”Huh?”
This was the first time Yo commented on my personal life. I didn’t want to fight with her, so I replied with a smile.
“My mother calls me all the time, so it’s fine.”
“But you have time now, why don’t you answer it?” she asked.
“Yo, it’s not your business.” I didn’t mean to be rude, but I sounded impolite.
“Sorry, Yo. But recently, I’m not getting on well with my mother. I haven’t gone back home for a long time, and she keeps asking me when I will go back, which is really annoying.”
I tried to change the mood, but Yo kept staring at me without a word. Before we knew it, the phone stopped ringing and the silence hung between us.
“Mihoko, I might not be able to say something like this to you, but you should talk more with your family before you regret it.”
“Yo, you don’t understand. Do you know my family? If you were me, you would feel annoyed, too, and would do the same thing.” I said.
“I might not be able to understand your feelings right now, but I don’t want you to regret it.” She answered.
“Why? Why would you say that?”
“I was born in Tohoku and raised near the ocean in Miyagi.”
Yo’s words instantly brought scenes of the earthquake to mind. On that day, I couldn’t imagine that was happening in Japan when I saw the news on TV. The enormous wave destroyed the town, houses, cars and also people.
Yo was there, literally when everything happened.
“I didn’t get along with my family, either. I was thinking of living alone when I grew up.” Yo started to tell her story.
“I thought it would last forever. I thought that my family would always be there, I thought they would welcome and accept me even if I left home.”
“I didn’t want to say this before. But I really want to meet my family again.”
She was nearly in tears.
Yo apologized to me, but I was the one that needed to say sorry. Yo was as strong as the old lady in the town. Their minds were still powerful after everything was destroyed.
Perhaps they need to keep their mind strong and powerful to survive.
Chapter 5
Yo was standing in front of the wall with those colorful papers. Yo looked weak and small as a child when she stood in front of the paper that said,
“I want to meet my family again.”
Her weakness was hidden inside her strength. For Yo, living alone must be uneasy and lonely.
I stood beside her with a paper and black pen. “Yo,” I called her name softly and gave her the paper and pen.
Yo started writing after she stared into my eyes for a while. Then she stuck her paper on the lower-right side of the wall.
“Live”
she wrote.
Chapter 6
Many people came to our photo exhibition starting from the first day. Behind the wall of messages from the victims, we prepared a similar space for the visitors to leave their comments. We put colorful papers and pens on the table, so that people could write down and post their thoughts and feelings on the wall after they saw the photos and others’ words. From children to elders, visitors put their thoughts on the wall. When writing, some took time, some cried, and some smiled.
“Mihoko”
I heard someone calling from behind my back. It was my mother. It has been over a year since I met my mom, and I found out I was missing her quite a lot when I saw her. It was embarrassing to invite my mother initially. So, I wrote her a letter since I really hoped she could come to the exhibition.
“Hey… mom….”
I was supposed to say, “Thank you for coming.”
But suddenly I found myself being hugged by my mother’s warm arms.
“Thank you for being alive”
she wept out.
I hugged her back and replied,
“I feel the same thing.”
Then I saw Yo was smiling at me from a distance, and I gave her a smile as a response.
Dear Mom,
The photo exhibition that my friends in the seminar and I have prepared for a year is going to start tomorrow. It’s about the Tohoku earthquake. I have gone to Tohoku several times for this exhibition, and I thought I knew more about the disaster.
However, I never thought this disaster was related to me. I was not the one who experienced the Tohoku earthquake, so I thought I shouldn't be sad about anything. Then I found out a really good friend of mine lost everything that day. She was so strong and was a person who lived an honest life, and I used to hope to be like her. However, I was totally wrong. She also had weaknesses, and I wanted to love her entirely, even her weakness.
Mom, I behaved badly. I didn’t listen to you, and I was rude.
I’m sorry. I think I will still get angry and argue with you in the future because I’m not good at handling my moods.
But Mom, thank you for being with me. I am happy that I am your daughter.
THE END