Today I received a post card from Mrs. Michiko Yoshiki, a hundred and three years old lady (Born in May 18, 1896). She wrote her message herself with a fountain pen. After Mr. Tadamasa Yoshiki, her husband, faded away in 1972, she has been very active as a poetess. She issued a few books collecting her poems and some of the leading newspapers reported her new works.
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Three years ago when I presented her a big bunch of red roses celebrating her 100th birthday, she was delighted very much. But since that time, I could do nothing for her because I was traveling around overseas frequently. The post card written by a hundred three years old poetess will be kept as one of my household treasures. |
This evening one of my friends gave me a copy of my short essay which I wrote for the August 1972 issue of internal household magazine. When I read it, I found that no progress for revitalizing the social infrastructure in Japan had been made. The time machine stopped in Japan 27 years ago. The following is a rough translation of my article.
Although there is a sick America on one side, there is an active America on the other side just the same as in the old days. The sick America suffering from racial problems has been reported fairly well in Japan, I would like to tell a bit about the vivid and active America. The frontier spirit which is the combination of pioneering spirit and American rationalism is kept vividly in every social sector of the society.
For example, at some of primary schools, the so-called elite education is experimentally introduced. The children who has high IQ are selected and assigned to a special class. If a child has a superior intelligence, he or she will be upgraded by one or two years. In Japan many and long discussions on the elite education have been made but they never have been able to start it because it was very difficult to get consent from parents and also from teachers. When can we have such a system?
The day light saving time which was executed only in the limited regions in America has been adopted by all states. The people have been very active to utilize its merit as much as possible. They are now enjoying the summer time. On the other hand, Japan had adopted it more than ten years ago but the government gave it up only after two or three years saying no good effects were found. I think there is quite a difference of people's attitude toward new and rational systems. At the Bay bridge in San Francisco, they charge tolls to the incoming traffic only. And those cars having more than two passengers including a driver are exempted from toll charge. In this way they succeeded in decreasing the number of cars coming into the city. These things are illustrating that American are very flexible for adopting new and rational social systems. Meanwhile Japan lacks such a spirit and has become so stubborn to the evolutional changes that it is left behind the progress of world, though it made a remarkable economic growth during the past 25 years. Even the sick America is eager to jump up to the progress. Japanese must become young in spirit in order to enjoy a comfortable and attractive modern life. (Remarks: I wrote this article 27 years ago, not today.)
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