On or around December 7th of each year, I like to take a detour from whatever I am teaching and share a story with my students. It is about two individuals, Richard Fiske and Zenji Abe, who were at Pearl Harbor that fateful day in 1941...on opposite sides of the war. The story comes from a book by Dorinda Nicholson called Pearl Harbor Warriors.
Richard Fiske was a bugler on the USS West Virginia on December 7, 1941. He was on the deck of the ship when the Japanese planes arrived at Pearl Harbor. Before having to abandon ship, Richard saw the face of a Japanese pilot. For years he woke up with nightmares of that face. After ending up in the hospital with ulcers, his doctor told him it was time to let go of the anger that he felt. He and other veterans reached out to the Japanese to invite their veterans to the Pearl Harbor Anniversary festivities.
Zenji Abe was a Japanese pilot that had been at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. He read about the invitation in a Japanese newspaper and came to the 50th anniversary in 1991. There he met Richard Fiske and the two became lifelong friends.
Every month, Zenji would send money to Richard to buy two roses. Richard would take those two roses and his bugle to the USS Arizona Memorial on the last Sunday of every month. He would play taps and place the two roses, one for the Americans and one for the Japanese. He did this every month until his death.
In the story, there is a quote from Richard that I always like to share with my students. He said, "Please remember that you don't have to hate forever.....you can say to your enemy. We fought each other. Okay. But today we are friends and let's build on that."
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