Dr Lindeijer,

Here I stand in sorrow, but also in awe and gratitude to the God we both believe in, the God who apparently thinks your mission on the earth, a mission He has entrusted to you, is over and has been accomplished to His satisfaction. My sense of awe comes from my realisation that His Son Jesus Christ, whose advent we are commemorating this time of the year, is capable of accomplishing things which are far beyond our human comprehension, bringing individuals and nations closer together who were indifferent to one another, who were even hostile and hateful of one another. I am grateful to our God for what you have been to me and my compatriots and what you and your life have meant to me and my nation.

Back in March 1997 Ms Erna Prilwitz came to visit me in Oegstgeest, accompanied by you and your mother. That was how we first met and our relationship kept growing since against the background of the hostile meeting between our two nations during the Pacific War. This relationship of ours bore its first fruit in the publication in July 2000 of your father's diary in Tokyo in Japanese. The publication of this book and that of another dealing with a personal history of the late Annie Goudswaard was the occasion for the first conference of the Dialoog Nederland-Japan, now Dialoog Nederland-Japan-Indië.

Together with your stepmother called home two and a half years ago and other Dutch and Japanese colleagues and friends, you have played a major role, you have been a shining spirit as we planned and held our annual conferences, a total of 16 so far. At five of those conferences you spoke, making deep impression on the audience each time. At the second conference you said: "Vergeving is essentieel voor verzoening en verzoening is essentieel voor innerlijke en gemeenschappelijke vrede cq vredesprocessen" = "Forgiveness is essential for reconciliation. Reconciliation is essential for inner peace and mutual peace or movement towards peace". At the twelfth conference your message was summed up with "Zonder het verleden te ontkennen moet er een weg naar de toekomst gevonden worden vrij van haat en wrok. Het begint met het tonen van respect voor de ander als mens, niet meer als vijand" = "Without denying the past there must be a way found for the future, free from hate and revenge. It starts with showing of respect for the other party as a human being, no longer an enemy". In your mother's last letter to your father then in Kamaishi you did not detect a single word of hatred for her tormentors. Your mother's silence in this respect spoke volumes for you. This letter was added to your father's diary in its Japanese version. In 1995 you, accompanied by your wife, made your first visit to the land of your former archenemy, armed with, not a machine-gun or a hand-grenade, but with a still hand-written diary of your father. You met diverse people and spoke at schools, even in Kamaishi, and asked for forgiveness for having entertained hatred in your heart for nearly half a century, a hatred which your mother at her deathbed remonstrated you with: "As long as hatred is in you heart, you can't truly love your neighbour".

This stance of yours, shared by your stepmother, who accompanied you on your subsequent visits to Japan, moved and touched many Japanese people you met and spoke to. Mrs Naoko Kato of Kamaishi tells me that, as she stood beside you as interpreter, she found it quite an effort to control her emotions. You resembled Esau welcoming his younger brother, Jacob (Gen. 33), and the father in the parable of the prodigal son (Lk 15), in both stories the injured party running out, embracing and kissing the perpetrator.

Your fathers diary in Japanese formed the basis of a successful musical staged by pupils of a Kamaishi high school in October 2004. You read some letters written thereafter by pupils who had taken part in the musical. The musical was entitled "Looking at our home town and learning from our local history." It was the first time that they realised their local history was not only about the dreadful bombing by American aircraft and American warships off Kamaishi, the suffering experienced by their forefathers, but also about western POWs, Chinese and Korean forced labourers who suffered in their neighbourhood.

As an adherent to your Abrahamic faith you will no doubt be pleased to realise that your life has been a blessing not only to your wife, children, grandchildren and brothers and sister, but also to other nations. At the start of a new phase of his life God told Abraham: "I would like to bless you and make your name great and it will become a blessing, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed by you". (Gen 12.3)

Both the Dutch and Japanese have received abundant blessing through you, and when a book being written by Mrs Barnhardt Jud is published in English, your life will become a fountain of blessing for peoples round the world.

As Jesus said on the cross, "Mission complete."

Our mission, however, is still far from complete. You will be missed very much. You won't be able to be present in body, but in spirit you will continue to live among us and we shall keep your flag flying. Do sleep in peace.

T. Muraoka

13.12.2013

Translation in Dutch.