JAPAN
The Thing about
Being Strong
Stage 1
Story by Yufu Kondo
Translated by the CLA Editing Team
Illustrated by Monica Uyenha
Dear Mom,
I have grown much taller since then. I want to see you and everyone. But I am still here, so I will live strong.
Yo was strong. She was also smart. My mother would compare me with her to complain about me. I like Yo so much, but I hate being compared.
This year, our seminar planned to hold a photo exhibition about the Great Tohoku Earthquake.
I went to the Tohoku area a few times. The earthquake and tsunami had killed many people, but people in the area still worked at the sea and looked fine.
One grandmother told me, “We cried. So much so, we just smile now.”
At the exhibition, we put messages from people in Tohoku on an entire wall of the last room.
I want to make people happy, as many as I can.
I am working hard on baseball.
Please visit our town. We are well now.
When we collected those messages, a young man asked us a question. “May I write something different?”
He showed us a lovely family photo and wrote:
I want to see my family
My phone rang.
It was my mom again.
I did not take the call, so Yo said,
“Why do you not take it?”
“It’s not your business,” I said. I felt annoyed by my mother.
Yo said, “Talk to your mother while you can. To tell the truth, I am from Tohoku. I wish I could meet my family again.”
I remembered the grandmother.
She and Yo had to be strong to stay alive.
The day before the opening, Yo stood in front of the wall.
She looked small, facing so many words.
She wrote her message in bold letters and put it on the wall:
Live
My mother came to the exhibition. I had sent her an invitation letter the previous day.
She held me tightly and said, “Thank you for being alive."
She was crying.
I felt a little embarrassed,
but Yo was smiling, looking at us from afar.
Dear Mom,
The exhibition will begin. I learned about the strength of people in Tohoku. I am not that strong, so I sometimes have difficulties with you.
However, thank you for being alive, mom.
I am happy that I am your daughter.
THE END