After the Second World War, the Edo Period became fashionable, as if the bushido samurai code of ethics was necessary to rebuild the country, which the west picked up in the 1980's when all of Wall Street seemed to be reading the samurai classic The Book of Five Rings. Do we value older history more than new? Or perhaps it is political rather than cultural. I begin to think how ironic it is that places with an Edo Period look have been better preserved (a grand generalization in a country like Japan), whereas those from the transitional Meiji have been allowed to fade. Feudal period courtesans once paraded the streets. Like Kinoe, this town too had a pleasure quarter, but of a higher grade. I run into one woman twice, and another one, three times. All the rest is vibrant and alive, the residents actually moving about. There is the usual decay, but here it has a certain beauty, especially the old school, and the crumbling temple nearby. I crisscross the town a couple of times, following the lanes laid-out like the ribs of an open fan. Throughout these wanderings I keep wondering what he saw in his day, and for the first time I find us sharing the same view. I too am lucky to find things unchanged, not only from the Edo Period, but from Richie's visit as well. I approach with some trepidation, worried it had lost the charm that he found here. I would gush about it, but Donald Richie already has, and he dedicates a good number of pages in his book The Inland Sea to the town. Further bridges connect Teshima and Osaki-shimojima. Shimo-kamagari is connected by bridge to Honshu and the two islands are also linked by bridge to each other. Shimo-kamagari and Kami-kamagari are two islands off the Hiroshima coast that are administratively part of Kure. I had a chip on my shoulder.Knowing Tranquility Part XIII: Shimo-kamagari 下蒲刈 & Kami-kamagari 上蒲刈 I said, “Gee, what are we fighting for?” All I got left is in Manzanar and Santa Fe. If Japan is defending them, I’ll fight on the Japanese side.” He didn’t like my answer. is defending them, I’ll fight on the U.S. If they’re all in one camp, I could just see them machine-gunning them. Like we just picture, if Japan were invading, the local population would do anything to kill the Japanese. And if I want to die, I want to die defending the camps.” I said, “It more likely would be the guards that would be initiating gunning the people.” At that time, things were pretty bad. In fact, when I was in the 1800th, the FBI, or intelligence officer, interviewed me and said, “If Japan invaded this country, which side would you fight for?” And I said, “Whoever’s defending the camps. Prove my loyalty? I had nothing to prove. You could always go out and get another job. People weren’t afraid of losing their jobs. It was tough to get labor, and I understood that and explained to people that they need us more than we need them. We would walk out-at the drop of a hat, we’d walk out. We had the highest-the second year I was in office there, we had the highest rate of pay of any UAW local in the Los Angeles area. When they saw you doing it, other people would do the same thing. And you would encourage other people to do the same thing. You never learned to back off from everybody, so you went to work in a union and the foreman told you to go faster, you’d tell him in no uncertain terms, this is as fast as you could go. So I was basically a street kid, and I don’t mean it in a bad sense but in the sense that that’s how you grew up. We’d come home from school we had one pair of shoes, we’d take them off and go play ball in the streets because you didn’t want to ruin your pair of shoes. I spent all my time on the streets, like many of us did. Growing up (in Boyle Heights) and being in the UAW
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