A Letter From a Japanese Boy to the Emperor
by Mars Cacacho
After the calamity a boy named Mark wrote to their Tenno (Emperor) which show an innocent child’s interpretation event and kindness of a young one’s heart. The letter was then answered like a message from a father to a son. In a way that would make the child understand what was happening without crushing his beliefs and little heart, saving him from pain and ordeal he went through. Making it clear that everything is going to be all right. There are true heroes out there, those who risk their lives for others, those who lend a hand, those who share and supports, and now he knows.
Dear Emperor,
I heard from the news that there had been a strong earthquake and that a dreadful tsunami followed it killing thousands of your constituents. I’m glad that I was just asleep then and never felt anything because if I would have been awake, I would have run on our backyard and might have fallen to the pits like my dog Bruno. My parents are always astonished every time we see in the news the building pieces falling into humans and giant waves engulfing cars. Then we also heard that a nuclear reactor is at the brink of devastating a humongous part of the land. I also heard from the news that the cloud of dusts that the reactor vomits would emit radiation and that it stays in the area for a long period of time. My parents talked about half-life and I honestly don’t understand a bit of it but all I know is that it really takes years for that to dissipate. I wanted to switch the channel to my favorite anime TV shows but my parents said that they’re not available right now and they’re busy helping the needy. I waited for hours and days over the television news and have seen not a single character appear. Is Ultraman dead now? Why wouldn’t they let Naruto and Gundam get on the way? Why haven’t the Power Rangers stop the tsunami and the earthquake when they have the sophisticated instruments to pacify it? Why did they let all those kids die? Should I also give up hope now and not watch my anime heroes? It pains me that they just leave their enemies as well as natural calamities helpless when they combine or bring out their ace weapons and superb ninja techniques in the episodes I watch.
My elder brother taught me to pray these words during an earthquake: “Lord God, please grant Ultraman the strength to vanquish the evil monsters so that the trembling of the soils would stop now”. He also taught me to pray this during a storm: “Zeus, please tame the thunders roaring and the blazing lightnings. Kisame, please pacify the raging waves. Aira, kiss the zooming winds”. I even cried Detective Conan’s name to seek for help when I heard that my puppy was lost. I’m so terrified and I’m starting to believe that there are no heroes at all.
Truly yours,
Mark
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Dearest Mark,
I already asked our heroes to help us. Sleepless as they are, they’re helping out those who are in need. You might not have seen them in the television at all because that’s how true heroes help out. They wouldn’t want any attention or recognition for what good deeds they do even if it costs them their lives. Don’t lose hope because the same set of heroes helped us stand from stumble and woke the slumbering patriotism of Japanese when we caught the Atomic Bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki last World War 2 when we paid our debts for initiating a war. Bounded by faith, culture and blood, we managed our ascend. The world became our witness when we perfected technology without using the Universal Language as our means of communication in our daily lives.
You’re still too young to understand though that the heroes you were searching for is within you, within every single Japanese. Heroes rise when needed like Spiderman and Batman, they lend their hands to the needy. Heroes are born during calamities such as this, in every fireman and policeman. In every scientist dealing with the meltdown. In every reporter that gives us news at ground zero. In every family man rescuing his loved ones. In every mother taking care of her kids. And in every kid praying for the present and the future.
I hope every single Japanese kid would be as attached to the real world as you are, for when you grow up, I know you’ll take care of the environment well because it’s what Captain Planet taught you, take care of animals well because you deem them as Pokemons and sympathize with the weak because like Batusai you witnessed yourself that it’s not just mere “survival of the fittest and elimination of the unfit”. Kami gives us tests and it’s up for us to believe in ourselves and like Yusuke, weave our own destiny.
Sincerely,
Tenno
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Note: All story characters in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
To help you can go to this article – Lend A Hand: Help Japan
