Heroes

人間は考える葦である Man is a thinking reed.~ Pascal.
I am still not sure what exactly that means but I've noticed something lately about the austere beauty that simple expressions have.

So, the simple question is why even bring up Pascal after naming your post "Heroes"? Well, Pascal, just so you know, isn't my hero. He's cool and all, but there is someone who was influenced by Pascal that is rapidly becoming my hero. Actually, let me phrase it this way: If you were to have asked me what Japanese person, living or dead, it was that I looked up to, about three years ago, I would have probably told you Fukuzawa Yukichi.

For those of you who don't know, Fukuzawa Yukichi-san is essentially the father of the Japanese school system, but that is most certainly not what makes him cool. Having read his autobiography, I can tell you that it was something about his pursuit for knowledge and his unquenchable desire for it that caught my attention. Far more important though was how he dealt with and eventually became infatuated with the West during his studies post-Meiji.

I have recently found another figure, a certain Takashi Nagai with whom I am far more enamoured. Nagai-san was not only a doctor like Yukichi-san and therefore dealing with the wave of medical changes brought in by the west, but he had a role to play in the aftermath of the bombing of Nagasaki. It was through his experiences with the victims of that tradgedy that led him to write The Bells of Nagasaki (長崎の鐘）. Having not either read the book nor seen the movie that followed, I am quite enthralled with how he sought to bring the people of Nagasaki a sense of forgiveness.

Addendum to this post
Zombieland Rule #17. Don't Be a hero.