2 weeks ago I went to Hiroshima. It was thanksgiving. I must admit that at first I did not reflect about the meaning of thanksgiving in my life as I traveled to my destination. My mind was solely focused on getting there and making new discoveries. Indeed. On that beautiful and sunny autumnal day, I met Strength in person.
62 years ago, in a city called Hiroshima precisely on August 6th 1945, Ono-chun[1] is helping her mother with some chores in the house. Her younger sister left couple of minutes ago to head to school. Ono is 7 years old. She is thinking about meeting her other friends at school and play with them before being imprisoned in the classroom. Her mother interrupts her thoughts and requests her presence in the basement. The child runs to the basement and helps her mother lift a box. A big explosion. A big noise. She is thrown on the floor. Everything is dark. Nothingness...
When she opens her eyes, everything around her is in disorder, burning. She wakes her mother up. There is blood on her forehead. They walk up of what is left of the staircase and realize that these ruins were a moment ago their house. Everything is gone. Everything outside the ruins is also gone. All little Ono and her mother are obsessed about is finding her sister…
Today, Ono-san is 69 years old. The souvenir she keeps of this day is her sister living the house with a big smile, waiving and saying joyfully: “Ja mate![2]”. The lady does speeches about what happened to her that day. And this is how a black girl met a survivor of one of the biggest horror that ever happen on this Earth.
After hearing her story, my main question was what kept this woman alive. I mean mentally alive. As she narrated her story everyone was transported on this fatidic day. There was no anger in her tone. Only a disconcerting calm and peace aura surrounded our speaker. During her speech she did not focus on the WWII and the bombing. Surprisingly, she talked about other places in the world that are testing bombs such as India and North Korea. She is an active advocate who travels year around to different countries in order to do speeches and take part in citizens’ actions against war and bombs.
Her full time job is to visit universities and talk to youth about the consequences of possessing bombs.
When I asked her in the question period her motivation to live she simply answered:
“Some people live with anger in their heart but I think that this emotion eats you from the inside because it is a dark energy. Some people get trap in the past, but what happened is already done. My motivation to live lies in the hope that Hiroshima’s story never repeats itself. I live with the hope that future generations will learn from their ancestors’ mistakes. I live with the hope that one day their will not be one single nuclear bomb on this planet. I am thankful I am still alive to help in the accomplishment of such a mission.”
It could have been a reflex for Ono-san to let her soul die after such a tragedy. Yet, she decided to stand up and use this event as a trigger to advance in her life. She showed me strength on that day. She taught me to always turn bad situations into positive ones. The same way the city of Hiroshima beautifully resurrected. I came out of the conference room profoundly touched and humble. Despite all that happened to her, Ono-san was still thankful. On this Thanksgiving Day, Ono coerced me to think about my own blessings and the true meaning of this holiday. For the first time in my life, I experienced a thanksgiving to the core. I was thankful I met her.
[1] Chun is how Japanese refer to kids
[2] See you later!
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