Takashi's Story
This is the story of Takashi “Thomas” Tanemori, the descendent of a proud Samurai family, who
survived the Hiroshima atomic bomb blast to become a
peace activist, poet and artist, in his own
words ...
My life, since I was eight years old, has been a long struggle to
understand the demise of my home town, the confiscation of my childhood, and
the horrible indignity of a bomb attack that marked the beginning of the
Nuclear Age. It has led me to finding peace in my heart, and becoming a man of
peace.
Long ago I was lifted from the ashes of Hiroshima to find my way in the
world. Before then my Father, a descendent of a proud Samurai family, dressed
in a kimono emblazoned with the family crest, "Maru ni Tachi Aoi," of the
"hollyhock" [Tokugawa Shogunate lineage], taught me patiently to live—the
ancient code of Samurai. How important it was to him to make sure that he
had correctly passed on to me the "Seven Codes of the Samurai", as he insisted
that we must repay our debts to our ancestors—passing on to our children
what we have received. On September 3, 1945 I bade farewell to my Father.
I became a "hibakusha" (a survivor of the Hiroshima atomic bombing) leaving
the charred cradle of childhood with a heart twisted—hatred, for a harsh
journey toward manhood. As a teenager, I immigrated to America, my youthful
mind thinking it my duty to seek revenge for the destruction of my family.
Now a naturalized American citizen, my Father's teaching has become the
touchstone of my life, enabling me to survive and setting me on the "Path of
Peace" to the wisdom of manhood with an open heart of love and forgiveness. I
am now a product of two cultures—traditional Japan, the nation of my
birth—and America, my adopted nation.
Looking back on the last 60 years of my life, my life-journey has not been
what I expected; my final destination not exactly as I had charted it. But I
am neither dismayed nor disappointed. The conflicts of my past shaped and
redirected me. I now honor both the past and the present while expressing my
love for two countries that both wounded and nurtured me. My life is like
embroidery, many different lengths of threads, crisscrossing in many colors,
adding to an iridescent tapestry of human dignity.
Although I was young and filled with anger, after many turbulent years both
in postwar Japan and America, I had to search into the deepest chamber
of my soul in my deepest anguishing hour. I realized that I had not only
survived the bombing of Hiroshima, but that my Father’s teaching of the Seven Codes
of the Samurai had kept my heart and soul intact, preserved the essence of who I
am, and saved me from self-destruction!
On August 5, 1985 I had a personal epiphany that changed my life’s direction.
In a moment of anger, I suddenly
remembered the dream about a white Crane and Butterfly I had the night before
the bombing in Hiroshima.
I would like to share the story of the crane and the butterfly, and my journey
from revenge to forgiveness and peace, symbolized—folding an origami paper
crane and transforming it into a butterfly. This story begins the night before
the bombing, as I sat in a community bomb shelter with my family. I had a
transcendent vision of the crane and the butterfly. In my vision, I was taken
to see the white crane, Senba-zuru, as mighty as a thousand cranes, who talked
to me of loss, survival and transformation. I was shown many of the horrors to
come and also told that the keys to survival were to remember who I am and to
follow the light within. At the end of the vision, I was horrified to see
Senba-zuru perish in a giant fireball. But then, as I lay desolate, sobbing on
the ground, I saw him return as a white butterfly.
In the aftermath of the bombing, I forgot this vision for
forty years until August 5, 1985, while driving to a remembrance rally in San
Francisco—a mushroom-shaped cloud formation in the distance brought
the memory flooding back. A white butterfly flew into my car, gracefully
landing on the dashboard. It stayed there momentarily, a fluttering pair of
iridescent wings, recreating the symphonic melodies that I had heard on that
night of the vision—then it flew out, soaring freely into the blue
sky. At that moment, the weight of the past was lifted from my heart. Looking
back, I realize that the crane and the butterfly had been guiding me like an
unseen rudder through stormy seas of hatred and revenge to forgiveness to
peace.
My spiritual journey, reconnecting with and reconciling my past with the
events of history and applying this experience to the present, for the benefit
of future generations, is my life goal. The message is clear and simple. At
last, I come home to my real promise to my Father, a place called "PEACE
through forgiveness"—letting go of my painful past. I can say at last I
am now a man of "PEACE".
I was finally able to embrace my Father’s teaching, the Seven Codes of
Samurai, which has allowed me, having gone through the darkest clouds of raging
storms, to enter into the “eye of the storm”, where I am now able to see the
world from a different perspective. I set a lifetime goal of helping future
generations live in Heiwa: peace, with harmony and equality. At
the Silkworm Peace Institute, a nonprofit organization I founded, we foster
the message of hope, healing, cultural understanding, attempting to transform
revenge and anger into peace and forgiveness to others.
Related pages:
Sandy Hook Poems, Aurora Poetry,
Columbine Poems,
Courtni Webb's Sandy Hook Poem and Possible Expulsion,
Darfur Poems,
Gaza Poems,
Haiti Poems,
Hiroshima Poems, Holocaust Poems,
Nakba Poems,
911 Poems,
Trail of Tears
The HyperTexts