Post by lostthenfound on Jun 25, 2008 11:46:17 GMT -5
A Daruma Wish
This might sound strange to some of you, but I have yet to paint the first eye on my Daruma doll that was given to me back when I was a child. As I saw the world through the eyes of an innocent child, the pain and suffering and turmoil within our Japanese community has prevented me to this day to even address this mystical piece of Japanese folklore with its first painted eye.
Although my Daruma has no eyes to see with, he is not blind to the bureaucracy and discrimination that is lurking behind the shadows within our shrinking Japanese community. The younger generations are continuing to show their lack of interests in their heritage and the once strong and proud Japanese family is becoming a statistic of inter-racial marriages with a higher then average divorce or separation rate in comparison to my parents and their parents before them.
I have seen and traveled the road and as it gets longer the need to educate our young (Yonsei) and sad to say the Sansei still remains to be a bump in the road causing them to detour and journey down another road populated with beef stew, knives and forks, grandma and grandpa and all the other non traditional Japanese cultural clicks. Don’t get me wrong, I too have a liking for the pre mentioned, but I also love my nishime, hashi and Bachan and Gichan!
As a youngster I once asked my fellow Canadian Japanese friends about a New Years day practice called shogatsu and whether or not they were going to participate. They looked at me as if I was an alien speaking a foreign language. But I quickly learnt that they had no attachment to their heritage and likely never will. Called bananas because of the racially labeled color of our skin like that of the outside of the fruit and white on the inside, my friends although looked Japanese on the outside, they lived their lives as hakujin (white) in all other aspects.
How is it that my friends of the same ethnicity had no understanding, knowledge or interest in any of their heritage or cultural background? Even though places like the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre were available to them why the lack of interest?
Their parents were to blame and in many cases the blame can go back even further to the grandparents.
But now I have a wish. Unlike my Daruma Doll who has no eyes to see with, my eyes see plenty! The sadness and hardships that has stricken June and her three children have given me something to wish for.
June, my Daruma stands with his right eye colored in and when the time comes that you and your children have made it through this tragic stage in your lives and you begin to move forward in a positive way, my Daruma will finally have his second eye!
Lostthenfound
This might sound strange to some of you, but I have yet to paint the first eye on my Daruma doll that was given to me back when I was a child. As I saw the world through the eyes of an innocent child, the pain and suffering and turmoil within our Japanese community has prevented me to this day to even address this mystical piece of Japanese folklore with its first painted eye.
Although my Daruma has no eyes to see with, he is not blind to the bureaucracy and discrimination that is lurking behind the shadows within our shrinking Japanese community. The younger generations are continuing to show their lack of interests in their heritage and the once strong and proud Japanese family is becoming a statistic of inter-racial marriages with a higher then average divorce or separation rate in comparison to my parents and their parents before them.
I have seen and traveled the road and as it gets longer the need to educate our young (Yonsei) and sad to say the Sansei still remains to be a bump in the road causing them to detour and journey down another road populated with beef stew, knives and forks, grandma and grandpa and all the other non traditional Japanese cultural clicks. Don’t get me wrong, I too have a liking for the pre mentioned, but I also love my nishime, hashi and Bachan and Gichan!
As a youngster I once asked my fellow Canadian Japanese friends about a New Years day practice called shogatsu and whether or not they were going to participate. They looked at me as if I was an alien speaking a foreign language. But I quickly learnt that they had no attachment to their heritage and likely never will. Called bananas because of the racially labeled color of our skin like that of the outside of the fruit and white on the inside, my friends although looked Japanese on the outside, they lived their lives as hakujin (white) in all other aspects.
How is it that my friends of the same ethnicity had no understanding, knowledge or interest in any of their heritage or cultural background? Even though places like the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre were available to them why the lack of interest?
Their parents were to blame and in many cases the blame can go back even further to the grandparents.
But now I have a wish. Unlike my Daruma Doll who has no eyes to see with, my eyes see plenty! The sadness and hardships that has stricken June and her three children have given me something to wish for.
June, my Daruma stands with his right eye colored in and when the time comes that you and your children have made it through this tragic stage in your lives and you begin to move forward in a positive way, my Daruma will finally have his second eye!
Lostthenfound