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Sakae Jinnouchi: [a letter in an envelope reading: To the family - read when the time comes, from passed away granny Sakae Jinnouchi, read in her voice] To my family. // First, take yourselves a deep breath. Crying and carrying on doesn't help anything. Make my funeral arrangement a simple affair, just our close friends, and then go back to your day-to-day lives. I don't have anything to leave you in a way of an inheritance. That said, I'm sure my old acquaintances will keep an eye on Jin'nôchi family. No need to worry, my dears. You've always been hard workers, and I know you'll keep it up. And grant me this. If Wabisuke should ever make his way back home... He's been gone ten years and counting now, so who's to say if that day will ever come... But if he does, I'm sure he'll be hungry. He never took proper care of himself and probably weren't even eating right. So, let him have as many vegetables from the fields as he wants. And the grapes and peaches, too, he always loved those the best. I remember the day we first met. Even now it's clear as a bell, his little ears look just like my husband's. Definitely, his father's son. We walked through the field of morning glories and I told him he would be our child from that day forward. He didn't say a single word, but his hand wrapped all the tighter around my finger. I was so happy to be giving him the family he needed. I like to think he could feel the happiness radiating off of me. Never turn your back on family, even when they hurt you. Never let life get the better of you. And if you remember nothing else, remember to find time to eat together as a family, even when times are rough; especially when times are rough. There's no lack of painful things in this world, but hunger and loneliness must surely be two of the worst. Thanks to you, my precious family, I didn't know a moment of either of those the last ninety years. // Love you all. Good bye.
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Ri'ichi Jin'nôchi: ...You have to protect others in order to protect yourself.
Tasuke Jin'nôchi: At the Self-Defence Force motto?
Ri'ichi Jin'nôchi: Not exactly. I just lifted it from Seven Samurai.
[highly appreciated Japanese film from 1954 by Akira Kurosawa]
Sumire Morohoshi
Extended Reading
