Zen Odyssey by Janica Anderson & Steven Zahavi Schwartz

Author:Janica Anderson & Steven Zahavi Schwartz
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wisdom Publications

A FORSAKEN SOJOURN AND A STRANGE MARRIAGE

Ellis Island–Fort Meade, Maryland–New York–Little Rock, Arkansas–New York, 1942–1945

Ellis Island. He had never been here. It was not the gate through which he had entered America.

It was his first prison. He might be released immediately after his hearing. Or he might be forced to live out his days here, a prisoner in the shadow of Liberty’s torch, within view of his city, which he might never walk through again.

Not that he was up for walking at the moment. Getting to the latrine forced him to trudge through mud to the far end of the next building — much too far for anything resembling comfort. He had not really recovered from his operation. It hurt just to move.

He wrote to Ruth: “I have dreamed of Chaka, golden eyes looking at me from among the weeds in the garden. I sleep well these nights, but I don’t look over the sea from my window, for the shadow of the city aches my heart.”

Ruth was beside herself. Could they have anticipated this? Could they have prepared? They had talked to those government agents willingly, openly. How many times had they been taken aside and questioned — a dozen? They had not hidden anything. There was nothing in Sokei-an’s life or work that merited this indignity. It was absurd that anyone would need convincing at all, but she would convince them.

The day of the hearing arrived. She was prepared. She had consulted her lawyer, who thought there should be no problem. There was no evidence against him. He had not been in contact with Japanese forces, military or political or really anyone at all, apart from the papers and journals to which he sent material purely for the entertainment of the readers.

There were questions from the panel. They did not sound like questions.

“He writes about America.”

“True, America and Americans have often been his subjects. For entertainment.”

“He writes in Japanese.”

“Yes, that is his first language and the language in which his audience is able to read.”

“In his writings he has criticized the United States. He is a Japanese propagandist.”

“He has no political affiliations.”

“We suspect there may be coded messages.”

“There are no coded messages. He has no political affiliations whatsoever.”

They pulled up a piece, a Nonsense column he had written in 1936. It made reference to war between Japan and the United States. The prosecuting officer had determined that it was advocating war, a call-to-arms from the writer to his countrymen: that Japan should attack the United States. The column was written by Shigetsu Sasaki.

“Do you recognize this name?”

“Of course.”

“He is an ordained minister in a Japanese religious institution. May I remind you, we are at war with Japan; they are our sworn enemies.”

“He loves America. He is absolutely not an enemy of America.”

“His religion is the religion of Japan.”

“Buddhism in Japan — if I may explain — Buddhism is not the state religion. It is no longer commonly regarded as even particularly important there.”

“Madam, you have lived in Japan?”

“I have.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.