December - Wingspan

22 Wingspancampus newsDecember 6, 2010wingspan.lccc.wy.eduSpeaker urges peace over warAround the world:Mariko Terasaki Miller speaks to anpacked audience about her life as aJapanese-American during World WarII and the lessons she learned fromthe hardships of war.Seneca FlowersBy Seneca FlowersCo-EditorOn Dec. 7, 1941, the Imperial JapaneseNavy led a strike against Pearl Harbor,igniting a war between the United Statesand Japan. Years later, one Japanese-Americancontinues to speak out against war, just as herfamily tried to prevent it 69 years earlier.Mariko Terasaki Miller of Casper spoketo an overflowing room in Laramie CountyCommunity College Nov. 17 about how her lifeduring World War II taught her about the detrimentalimpacts of war. The event, “Bridge to theSun,” was co-sponsored by the LCCC LuddenLibrary and the Laramie County Library.Next to the lectern, framed photos of Miller’sancestors rested upon a table.She spoke, intermittently sipping water,about how her Japanese father grew to becomea diplomat. She described her father’s educationand love for Chinese history and poetry. Sheadded, “Mao Tse-tung was a wonderful poet, buthe was not wonderful in many other ways.”Her father attended Brown University in theUnited States and met her mother at an embassyin the United States. He pursued her, givingher books, poetry and three yellow roses. Theyeventually married.Miller continued to describe how her familymoved to Yokohoma, Japan, to the teahouse ofher mother’s aunt, where they recently installeda Western style toilet. Miller added, “Which wasa godsend.” The crowd chuckled.Miller said her mother was soon pregnant,and the family moved to Shanghai, China, duringa period of turmoil, while her mother wasstill pregnant. Her father was a diplomat butdid not agree with how the Japanese treated theChinese.After Miller was born, the family remained inChina until she was the age of four. They thenmoved to Cuba. They moved onto the UnitedStates, where she said, “I remember America atthat time; the air was so sweet.”Her father and two other ambassadors fromJapan tried to maintain peace between Japanand the United States. They desperately tried toprevent the war. They attempted to reach thenPresident Franklin D. Roosevelt, but it was toolate.She transitioned sharply by reading a part of“Agamemnon” by Aeschylus.Miller began “he who learns must suffer,” butthen she took a break from the poem and addedher own words. “And there are many students inthis audience that will learn a lot of things thatwill prepare you for this world you’re cominginto. I feel a sense of horror that we have so illpreparedyou, and so ill-informed you and haveso gone to war.”And without missing a beat she jumped backinto the rest of the poem flawlessly. “And evenin our sleep pain that cannot forget falls dropby drop upon the heart, and in our own despair,against our will, comes wisdom to us by theawful grace of God.”Afterward she greeted questions from the audience.One asked how her family felt about thewar, and she answered that “we had no sides; wejust mourned for everyone.” She added, “I beg ofeveryone—let’s not be so quick to go to war.”