I had a phone call one day from a Japanese woman, who is an Esperantist and has been living in Hamburg, Germany for more than a year. I had met her only several times before, however, I easily remembered who she is. I forget men's names very easily, but I have a special skill to remember women's names. I asked her why in Germany, then she answered, "Because, Germany is near ..., after working for the World Esperanto Association in Netherlands". She also replied to my question about what she does in Germany, "I am making bad conduct.". In fact, she is a student and now back in Osaka, Japan for summer vacation. She suggested that the Osaka and Hamburg Esperanto Society, who have a relationship to exchange their society organs, should join and do something for the programs that would be made by the two governments of Osaka and Hamburg to commemorate the 10-year relationship as sister cities. She is indeed an active and intelligent person such as to leave Japan by herself.
The people who have put themselves in different cultures are interesting without exception. I myself have never lived in a foreign country, however, I have made a month trips to foreign countries almost every year for the last 25 years. Years ago I met the hippies who had been wandering around the world for years during my trips and I was surprised by and at the same time admired their way of life and philosophy of life or the world Some of them often reached Japan after spending all the money during the trip from Europe to South-east Asia via India and made money for another trip in Japan. I met those hippies also in Japan and the half of my young brain cells filled with pure Japanese tradition were polluted by their freedom and idealism. As a result I lost the blind docility required for all the Japanese and finally became a bad boy. I believe this kind of personal relationship has stronger influence and is more effective for the mutual understanding and the peace of the world than inter-government cooperation such as G7 or ODA.
It's been more than a hundred years since Japan opened its door to the world and a long time has also passed since the administration of Osaka City advocated that the City should be also opened more to the international society. As the authority usually tends to think grandness is the best, Osaka Municipal Government decided to hold the Olympic Games for its internationalization and this spring organized the Department of Olympic Invitation. Only God knows if the invitation in 2008 will be successful or not, however, at least the commemoration festival with Hamburg will be realized next year. On this occasion the Osaka Esperanto Society, with the idea that the international friendship should be on the basis of citizenship, is thinking about doing something commemorative by means of the mutual communication and cooperation with the Hamburg Esperanto Society.
In May next year Mr. Gerald Roemer, one of the commissioners of the Hamburg Esperanto Society will visit Osaka in private or as one of the official delegates of the City of Hamburg to take part in the sister city festival. He is an urban planer and environmentalist. So, in order to make a contribution toward if possible or at least to make public of our movement, the Osaka Esperanto Society is planning to ask him to give an address on his specialties in Esperanto as an official program and to interpret his address. Besides, one of the young members of our society will participate in the same festival in Hamburg in September next year. We want to strengthen our mutual intercommunication among the members of both the Osaka and Hamburg Esperanto Society. Maybe we won't be able to make a big job, however, we intend to play a role in a part of the grass-root movement.
The peace of the world must be sustained not by an abstract concept, but by the concrete relations among individuals such a relation as "I have a really good boy friend or girl friend in that country". In foreign countries and also in Japan, I have met lots of respectable foreigners and have learnt a lot from them. To these friends I would not able to aim a gun even if I faced them in a battle field. The grass-root movement, in which independent individuals take action, might require more time than the policy by the authority to realize our purpose, but I think it certainly bears rich fruit.