Where You Plant Your Feet 696

For what it's worth, I live in Hiroshima, which is at the eastern and southern edge of the region.
Because of that, stories that are 'typical of Hiroshima' reach me more than they do in other areas.

Last year, it was in the news that a steel mill had closed in Kure, a town next to Hiroshima City.
Following the closure, the news was flooded with micro-level topics like 'What will happen to the jobs of the people who worked there?' but... I always feel that the context before and after the news—the 'why did this happen?' and 'what happens from here?'—is surprisingly rarely conveyed.

Now, news about turning that site into a military base has started to be heard on television.
This is the 'after' part of the news.
Even for someone like me, a layperson who has no interest in the Kure Yamato Museum, I could smell that 'the aftermath is coming...' even before the news broke.
If even a layperson can see it just by looking... it makes me think that the news we are hearing now was something that had been prepared even before the news itself.

Well, I don't want to talk about the distortion of that situation.
What I question is, does something called a 'military base' fit a city that repeats 'Peace City Hiroshima' every single day?
By the way, I don't want to talk from the angle of 'because it has the word military in it...' this time either.

I once heard a quote, perhaps from Mother Teresa or Gandhi, that said, 'I will not participate in an anti-war demonstration. I will participate in a gathering that speaks of peace.'
One can infer that both the words 'war' and 'peace' would be heard frequently at such a gathering.

But an 'anti-war demonstration' and a 'peace gathering' are different.
What is different is the 'place where you plant your feet'.

This is probably a small thing, but it's a story with a huge impact—a story about the foundation.
If that is different, the path that follows will surely be different.
Like roads branching out radially, even if you travel the same distance, the scenery you see is completely different... that is the kind of story I think this is.

That reminded me of the story of Tsuruhiko Kiuchi, who passed away last year.
Previously, an elderly woman who had been given a terminal diagnosis attended one of his talks, and someone who accompanied her asked Mr. Kiuchi to 'please say something to her.'
When he ended up talking to the woman without knowing what to say, he reportedly asked, 'How do you want to live from now on?'
When she couldn't answer clearly, he asked something like, 'Would you rather live in your current state, or live like that (pointing to a nearby poster)?' and when she pointed to the poster, he told her, 'Then, decide to live like that.'

Whether it was a few months or a few years later (my memory is not certain...)
During one of his own lectures, there were several staff members supporting the venue, and at the end of the lecture, one of the young women approached him.
She said, 'I am the person you told to decide to live (like the poster) at a previous lecture. Since then, I decided to live that way, my illness went into remission, and I am now able to attend your lectures.' When he thought, 'Wait...', he realized...
He was very surprised to learn that the woman he thought was elderly at the time was the young, vibrant woman standing in front of him now.

You might ask, what does the remission of an illness have to do with peace? It looks like an approach to a problem, but I think it is actually about the 'place where you plant your feet'.
'Trying to solve a problem = trying to cure an illness' and 'deciding to live like that' are not about the 'destination,' but about the 'place where you plant your feet' being different.
(The way of releasing wishes toward a destination, or the process, also seems different... but let's leave that aside.)

Does 'anti-war' mean the same thing as 'peace' no matter who says it?
Where are you planting your feet... isn't that the point, and doesn't that make all the difference? That is what I think.

I remembered one story that seems to be evidence of this.
It is the story of how, in Hiroshima after the atomic bombing, the mayor at the time rejected a bridge and a monument designed by an architect of mixed Japanese and American heritage because of his background.
A Japanese architect who was an acquaintance of the designer slightly rearranged it and submitted it as his own work, and it was accepted. It still remains today and is spoken of as a 'symbol of peace'...

Where is this footing?

And where is the footing of me, who is writing this story?
When I think about that, I realize how often I easily land on the 'demonstration' side, and unfortunately, I can also accept that this is what creates the world...
That was the kind of wavy yet quiet afternoon I had while thinking about such things.