Creative Response 1

Dear Mr. Donald Nakahata,

First and foremost, I just want to say that I am truly very sorry for everything that you have been through – for everything that this country has forced into you and your family’s lives. In fact, I cannot say it enough. However, I do realize that while such apologies may help to alleviate some of the pain and suffering that have been so prevalent in your life, they are not band aids that will help the scars to disappear. I understand that while material compensations may seem sufficient in our eyes, they will never be comparable to the physical and emotional damage that you and your family have suffered.

I cannot even begin to think about how you must have felt, as a twelve-year-old, being told that your father was going to leave your family to help others in need. It is impossible for me to even know how fearful that experience must have been for you and your sister. It saddens me to think about the void that his absence left in your family and how that affected your lives in the years to come. I resent the fact that you and your sister, at such young ages, who should have been worrying about how to spend the afternoon playing outside were instead fearing their father’s state of health. I do not understand, and will never, the reason why you had to go through such an unbearable experience. I cannot make any of it go away.

But there is one thing I can do very easily and without any doubts – I can reassure you of the pride that not only you and your family must feel for your father’s actions, but that every person feels after they learn about him and his story.

I know how proud you must be of your father. It is very easy for me to envision the number of people who have celebrated his life and appreciated the many goals he accomplished. I can only imagine the gratitude of the many people he helped by sacrificing the safety of his own life. I can easily think about the several people he comforted and in whom he tried to instill hope and optimism.

The very reason he left on that sad day in December was to try to make someone’s life easier. He had to leave the ones he loved without knowing whether he would ever see them again. He set out on an unknown journey that he knew would not be easy. He put others before himself. Essentially, he sacrificed his life for the opportunity to try to help those who were in need at a time when others were too afraid to do the same.

Now Mr. Nakahata, I don’t how many of us, if any, can say that about our loved ones. I can’t even guarantee if one of us would be able to commit such a selfless deed. You must never forget to have pride in that. You must never forget to celebrate that part of your father’s character that made him so genuine and unique. And please don’t grieve too much about the place of his death for I do believe that he is in heaven. I hope that the following quote can comfort you for it truly describes the extraordinary sacrifice your father made in helping others: “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). Your father is greatly revered and will never be thought of as otherwise.

And once again, I am very deeply sorry for everything that you have been through, but please remember that we have not forgotten forget your father’s heroic act and will never lose sight of all the sadness that was created as a result of our country’s inhumane actions.

I just pray that nothing like this will ever happen again. I hope that our country will never lose sight of the values and beliefs upon which it was founded.

Sincerely,

Oriana Kachaochana