Oulimata Gueye, age 27, graduate student.
Drs Mrs Kiyo-oka,
My name is Oulimata Gueye.
I am a foreign student from Senegal and have now been living in Japan for 8 years. I will soon graduate and start working in Tokyo.
My life in Japan has been nothing but a never ending learning experience. I have had the privilege to live in Tokyo, Osaka, Gunma and Chiba. I have visited Hiroshima, Nagoya, Sapporo and Okinawa. Each and every day has been an opportunity to learn about the world, about the humans I am surrounded with. And yet, nothing has impacted me as much as reading your testimony did.
I first approached the letter Mrs Aizawa Shouko wrote to you as just a text to translate. I was just going to read a sentence, and put it in its best English version. Little did I know I would become so invested, I almost wanted to express my own emotions in her words. Thankfully, I was given the opportunity to write to you as well.
I too, believe that your strength and determination are those of heroes. The courage it must have taken to revisit such painful memories is something not all of us are capable of, and you did it beautifully. It is a privilege for our generation to have access to such honest and emotional depicture of events. In war free zones, the majority of people are unfortunately desensitized to the true impact of wars on life, and wake up calls such as your story are the perfect opportunity to make us think deeper. Beyond political and economic scopes, none of us ever really stop and think about the millions of individuals whose lives take such a drastic turn in a matter of seconds, hours, every time a bomb is launched.
My country fought alongside France during the same war, and I had heard stories about soldiers traveling to France. Now that I think about it however, it seems as if it was mostly glorified. It made me realize than lessons on wars as taught in school, are always about the why, the how, the when, and the WHO (as in countries involved, and never about the “who”, the millions of individuals whose lives were changed forever. The victims are nothing but a number. And so most of us forget about it all, once we leave school. We take our comfortable lives for granted, not realizing how much had to be rebuilt, and most importantly how vulnerable we would be.
I was very shocked to read about the lawsuit verdict. It never crossed my mind that leaders saw citizens as collateral damages in wars. In my innocent mind, I believed it was their highest priority to avoid wars at all costs, and if they didn’t succeed, to compensate and assist them once it was over. The idea that it was your duty as a 21 year old young woman to endure war losses, is new, painful, and upsetting. “Is it so for every citizen of the world?” I asked myself. My own ignorance on the subject became obvious to me as I read your testimony, realizing I had no idea where I stood as a foreign citizen in Japan, or as a citizen in my own country. It made it an even bigger honor for me to be offered the chance to translate Aizawa Shouko letter’s to you, and it is my hope that it will reach an even greater number of young individuals and spark their interest and curiosity like it did mine.
Similiar to Mrs Aizawa Shouko, I too sometimes feel overwhelmed by life in Tokyo. I have caught myself thinking that I was too burdened, that I was not up to handle all that came my way. Just like her, I hope that every time such thoughts cross my mind from now on, I will remember your story, the way you overcome all these obstacles and it will inspire me to keep moving forward. I will also be telling my friends and family about your story, so that they can be as inspired as I was.
I would like to end by saying how deeply sorry I am for your loss, and I wish you the happiest days in the future.
Sincerely
Oulimata