Fuocoammare

The world has seen a massive wave and flow of migrants and refugees, millions of people, especially in Europe. Can you define migrants and refugees?  A migrant is someone who chooses to resettle to another country. A refugee is forced to flee his or her home country. The distinction is significant because it could determine whether the migrants are subject to deportation or eligible to stay.  I spent over 20 years in San Diego, a border city and port of entry from Mexico. The major highways along the border had caution signs warning motorists to avoid immigrants darting across the road.  It pictured a man, a woman and child with pigtails, running hand in hand. Apparently they are undocumented aliens who didn’t come through U.S. Customs. I believe those signs are gone now, but my memory returns to me whenever I’m reminded of the Mediterranean migrant crisis, shipwrecks and loss of lives

Fuocoammare is the title of my speech tonight. It is an Italian word “Fire at Sea”, a documentary film that won the Golden Bear in Berlin last year and nominated for an Academy Award this year.  However, Fuocoammare did not win the Oscar. I haven’t seen the film but I understand Director Gianfranco Rosi expresses his compassion through a 12 year old boy Samuelle of a fishing family, at Isola di Lampedusa, an island halfway between Tunis and Sicilia in the Mediterranean. Samuelle loves to hunt with his slingshot. The name Lampedusa, nothing but sea oysters, hit the recent world headlines, as the first port of call for hundreds of thousands of Africans and Middle Eastern immigrants hoping to make a new life in Europe.

While Googling Lampedusa, I found a letter of appeal written by the island mayor to the EU. “If these dead are only ours, then I want to receive a telegram of condolences after every drowned person I receive, as if he were our son drowned during a holiday”.  Her call for help went unheeded. However, the Italian Government started to direct funds to rescue refugees monthly. From the fishermen to housewives, from activists to coast guards, everyone on Lampedusa has a role in making it a paradise island for newcomers. Rosi commended the islanders who said they accepted all that came from the sea.  Rose dedicated the prize and money to the people of Lampedusa. 

Haru Reischauer - Part 2

In early 1990, Dr. Edwin and Haru Reischauer finally settled in La Jolla, the home they bought when they were around age 80 for retirement but used as their summer home after the purchase. The house purchase has been the culmination of their efforts to fulfill their ultimate dreams, l) to enjoy the ocean view, 2) to have a Japanese garden, 3) be in close vicinity to Edwin’s daughter. Since suffering a stroke in his 70’s, Edwin was frequently hospitalized. Sadly, he passed away in September, the year they relocated from Belton, Massachusetts. He was buried at sea using a chartered plane, conducted per his will to help and support the U.S./Japan relationship.

I met Haru-san on several occasions, including my first visit to her La Jolla House, to seek her contribution for the Minato Gakuen’s Bridge magazine (see Part 1). It is fairly close to the tall hotel building (now Hotel La Jolla), entering from Torrey Pines Road to La Jolla Shores Drive and turning to Paseo Dorado. The entrance hall is in the back with the living room, kitchen, guest dining and drawing room to the right, and garage, guest bedrooms, main bedroom to the left.  It was well designed to provide views of La Jolla Shores from every room, except from the main bedroom.  There are some level differences.  The spacious drawing room, three steps up from the kitchen, has a 180 degree ocean view including the palm-lined Torrey Pines Road slope curving toward La Jolla Cove on the left. The CC&Rs (Covenants, Conditions & Restrictions) in the hilly La Jolla retreat are very strict in regards to ocean view. The house benefits most from being on the lower part of the hill as a single story house with the hacienda style backyard for family get-togethers or a small garden party and the front courtyard is a landscaped lawn.

My son, upon getting married, was a La Jollan living in a condo near Mt. Soledad before moving to New York. He reminisces about the sunsets viewed from La Jolla as magnificent and unforgettable. On July 4th, the Cove attracts onlookers for the fireworks.

In 1986, Haru’s non-fiction book, Samurai and Silk was published by Harvard Press. I had skimmed through it in a Mission Valley Bookstore in San Diego. Recently I read the translation by Wakako Hironaka. Here’s my thoughts after reading it:

1. Ryoichiro Arai (1855-1939)

Haru-san’s maternal grandfather, Ryoichiro Arai, arrived in New York after a two-week Union Pacific train ride in March, 1876, four years after the Meiji Restoration. The Japanese residing in the U.S. then were either Government bureaucrats or scholarship students. Ryoichiro sought his lodging in Brooklyn, $5 per week with breakfast and commuted to Manhattan by ferry. His workplace was 97 Front Street and he walked to save his carriage fee. I was unable to find Front Street around Battery Park or Greenwich. In 1878, his silk business got off to a good start, so he relocated his lodging to East 55th and 9th at $7 per week including breakfast.

I was a New Yorker myself in the 1960’s, arriving in New York City close to 90 years later than Ryoichiro, and my office was also in downtown Manhattan. I also walked around in the civic center area. The difference is that I checked into the uptown Hotel Paris, a long term stay hotel, used by many transitory Japanese, at West End Avenue along the Hudson River. I commuted to downtown by subway. (The subway system in New York opened in 1904.) I don’t remember my monthly hotel rent but I recall the $100 monthly garage fee for a car. Upon the arrival of my family, I rented an apartment in Forest Hills, Queens. Settling in a foreign country requires a challenging spirit and much patience. I noted Ryoichiro was the proposer of the New York Nippon Club. I belonged to the Club for about 10 years while living there and shared the great benefits as one of its members.


2. Masayoshi Matsukata (1834-1924)

Haru-san’s paternal grandfather is Masayoshi Matsukata, one of six Genros, an elderly statesmen who served the Government since the Meiji Restoration. Masayoshi, a 7-time Treasury Minister and two-time Prime Minister, is less familiar than the other five Genro because of the missing career of his younger days. Silk & Samurai had the details of how he stood out during the tumultuous Meiji Restoration and I felt closer to him as a Kyushuan after reading his story.

Masayoshi, serving often as an usher/guard to Lord Shimazu, Satsuma Domain, faced historical incidents, such as the Richardson Case (known as Namamugi Jiken) and Boshin War, and was involved in orderly duties between Kagoshima and his travel assignments. He happened to be in Nagasaki, when Tokugawa magistrates fled there with money. He not only retrieved it, but used it for the sake of Nagasaki citizens and appeased foreigners in distress. Toshimichi Okubo, his Kagoshima clan senior who was in the Meiji Government, was impressed with Matsukata and sent him to Hita (now in Oita), another country under Tokugawa’s direct control where commotions were reported because of the vacuum formed without Tokugawa. His tenure in Hita as a governor is about tow years but he proved his governing skills, ranging from an open door policy, land and tax reforms, to promoting businesses such as wood products, brewery, citrus planting and hot springs, while popularizing Sumo as a local sport. Outstanding was his creation of orphan homes, prohibition of bribes and counterfeit notes in the neighboring countries. He extended his rein in river management to Beppu and initiated Oita Harbor construction. His contribution to the Meiji Government in the treasury field and foreign trade promotion through Paris Exhibitions became legendary. Haru-san saw another last Samurai in Masayoshi.

Both Nagasaki and Hita are in northern Kyushu. Hita, in particular, is very close to Kitakyushu, where I live. However, there’s no direct highway for vehicles because of mountains. If you walk the direct route of 75 kilometers, it takes 16 hours. By vehicle, you have to travel 130 kilometers, which will take one hour and 45 minutes. Last year I took a highway bus via Fukuoka City. My 9 am departure from Hikino bus stop brought me to Hita before lunch time. I didn’t know that Hita, a tiny country, was an independent prefecture when the Meiji era got started.