Susan Gross in Japan 5

Here is another email from Vernon Lee. It describes a poignant moment at the Japan seminar:
Ben,
The Japanese lady who sat close to me asked me a question during the break. A little history first. After the first day my new friend and I were walking to the bus stop about a 4 minute walk from the center. A car stopped and the lady from the seminar asked us if we needed a ride. We said sure. She drove us to the town which was in the opposite direction from her home. She gave us a little tour of the old city. The next day she also gave us a ride to our hotel.
During the break she showed me a textbook. She uses it to teach English at a local school. There was a dark illustration and a sad picture of a young girl holding an infant. On the horizon was the classic dome shaped structure that we all have seen in photos about Hiroshima. The story was about a girl who discovered an infant and instantly tried to be like a mother to the child by singing a lullaby  to comfort the child.
The time frame was just after the atomic blast. As time went by in the story the infant died as well as the girl. To the Japanese Hiroshima was not really connected  to the war like we see it. To them it was just another beautiful summer day and suddenly a bomb went off. This story is in kids’ textbooks in Japanese as well.
My friend asked me, “How do I personalize this story?” I had no words for her. Here we were an hour and a half bus ride from the second city that had been bombed. I had just the day before asked my new friend what the Chinese characters meant engraved on a huge stone at the temple behind the hotel. He told me the exact reading and it was a reminder about the atomic bomb that went off.
I told the lady that the story was so sad and that all I could think of was to compare it to modern Japan. Modern Japan was so different for a young girl about 8 years old. Her life today was happy with all of the good things Japan had to offer. A peaceful prosperous society. That is all that I could think of at that moment.
We have made life long friends at this seminar. Susan did a fantastic job. She silenced all of the critics! They were blown away by her heartfelt love of not only TPRS but of people. It didn’t matter to her if they ate with chopsticks or a fork.
Vernon