The coming-of-age ceremony is
popular in Japan. We have Coming-of-Age Day as a national holiday. The ceremony
is usually held at a public hall in the celebrants’ hometown. It could be a
kind of class reunion. Most of the attendants might not have seen one another
after graduation from junior high school.
When I was twenty, the ceremony
committee invited me to give a speech at the ceremony. I didn’t know why they
had chosen me. We didn’t have cellphones in those days. The committee called
our home. I was absent. My mother answered the phone. She immediately refused
the offer.
This was my mother’s assertion:
“My son is still just a student. Someone who already works as a member of
society should give the speech. You must find someone else.”
I was not interested in giving a speech.
I didn’t mind that, but she should not have done that. Even if she had a good
reason, she should not have refused an official offer for an adult family
member. She should have kept the message and waited for me to get home. She
could have given me the message and added her wonderful idea. She should have let
me decide that as an adult.
In our coming-of-age ceremony, one
of my best friends, Mr. A, gave the speech instead of me. I loved that idea. I
looked forward to his speech. He was better than me. He was also a student from
a prestigious university. He was popular among us. He was a wonderful, witty
fellow. I still remember his outstanding campaign speech for the student
council when we were elementary students.
This time, however, his speech was
not attractive. He just kept mentioning traffic safety. I thought he was not
enjoying his speech. What was happening? After the ceremony, I talked with Mr.
A personally. He explained the reason. Some policemen had checked his draft for
the speech, and they made some revisions. Finally, most of his speech became
about traffic safety.
I understand why the policemen did
that. Our prefecture, Aichi, was the worst prefecture in Japan with regard to traffic
accidents, with the highest number of people dying every year. The policemen
needed to take care of tragic traffic accidents. They really wanted to tell
young people about traffic safety, but no adult should be forced to revise a
draft for their speech. Even if they have good reasons, it doesn’t mean they can
do anything.
I am older now. I always think our
society should be like this and that people should do this, but I want to take care
not to let big justice trample on small justice.
Picture by osame
No comments:
Post a Comment