I am Thursday’s Child, Part Two

Thursday’s child hungers for knowledge in a lifelong, never-ending pursuit of learning.

In 1948, my Mom and I joined Dad in Japan, where he had been assigned.  We lived in Kokure and Fukuoka on the island of Kyushu.  Dad, a sergeant, was part of the US Army’s Combat Engineers.  When the Korean War broke out, he and his company were re-assigned to Korea to build roads and bridges for the troops.  And during that time, Mom worked as a secretary for the US Provost Marshal.  This left me home.  However, I was not home alone!

Because Dad was assigned a Japanese house in Fukuoka –- part of the US military’s effort to support the local economy – the house came with 7 Japanese maids, 1 Japanese gardener and, during the Korean War, two armed US military guards (one by day and the other, at night).  Michiko Tanaka was my babysitter.  Her sole job was to take care of me.  After my sister was born in 1949, the oldest of the maids cared for my sister.

This home setting was perfect for a two-year-old toddler to learn both English from Mom and Japanese from the 8 Japanese people in the house.  So began my using two languages at the same time.  My pursuit of knowledge began.

Dad used to tell me about the times he had a short furlough to come home from Korea.  To him, I spoke a blend of English and Japanese.  I would call him at night – “Mesu, My-koh.  Mesu!”  And he would drag himself from bed, get me a glass of water from the kitchen, and bring it to me.  And I would tell him, “No mesu, My-koh.  No mesu!”

I would use the rotary phone to talk to the Japanese operator until Michiko found out what I was doing when I “disappeared” from her sight.  I talked with the Japanese gardener, who would “hide” me under the garden waste in his wheelbarrow to “sneak” me by the guards.  And when I overheard my parents talk about moving to Kokure, I took it upon myself to beat them there!  I made sure I had my little red ball on a string around my neck like it was a necklace and a small, but empty suitcase.  I was ready to go!  And go, I did.

A three-year-old is not known for reading signs or landmarks, but I “knew” the way to Kokure.  Of course, I did!  Of course.

On the way, I passed a Japanese elementary school and talked with the children there – they were out playing in the schoolyard.  A short time later, I passed some Japanese homes occupied by Americans, and one sweet, old lady offered me milk and cookies.  While I ate cookies, two military policemen showed up and wanted to know if I wanted a ride.  Who wouldn’t want a ride?  I knew the military police were like the military guard we had, so I went with them – right back to home!  And to my parents’ relief.

Of course, as a bi-lingual child, I also picked up some of Mom’s English – especially her swear words.  When we returned to the US, I spoke both English and Japanese on the ship until I realized no one on board spoke Japanese, so I was forced to rely on English.  Mom related one incident when I used the word “turd.”  A very heavy-set Chief Warrant Officer –- I remember how heavy-set he was because his belly flopped over his belt -- was talking to my parents.  I walked up to him, poked his belly, and said (with a Japanese accent), “You bit tuurd!”  I repeated “tuurd” several times while poking his belly, and each time he would lean over and ask, “What is that, little boy?  What are you saying?”  Mom said she knew what I was saying and turned red, grabbed me by a hand, and whisked me off!

The last Japanese I recall using after we left San Francisco was at Aunt Fran’s house in Quesnel, BC (I think it was 1951 or 1952).  She was Mom’s only sibling.  As luck would have it, Aunt Fran had a cat.  I only knew the Japanese word “Niko,” so “Niko” was it!  I wanted to play with Niko so much, but she wouldn’t let me.  So, when Niko went behind the stove to hide from me, I’d grab her tail and drag her out saying, “Niko go meow!  Niko go meow!”  I got the most fun out of that cat’s screeching, but Aunt Fran was the most upset that I would pull HER cat by the tail!  She always reminded me – every time we would visit over the next 30+ years – of my pulling HER cat by the tail!

The next time I relied on my Japanese was in 1989, I believe.  My wife and I had gone to the movies to see Shogun. Boy, was I in for a surprise!  Once the movie started, and Japanese characters started speaking in Japanese, I turned to Jonnie and said, “I know what they are saying!  I began translating for her faster than the English words appeared on the bottom of the screen!  We both were stunned! Jonnie, because she did not know I knew so much Japanese; and me, because I had not used Japanese in over 30 years!

Since learning Japanese (no, I do not speak it at all now), I learned rudimentary German in 1955-56 when Dad was stationed at Daley Barracks in Bad Kissingen, Germany.  Doll (my sister) and I attended an all-American elementary school.  I was fortunate as an 8-year-old to have German one period a week.  A German woman taught us basic German, and I thoroughly loved it.  We all learned in quick fashion how many pfennigs a piece of German candy cost, the names of the German candy we liked, and how to say yes, please, thank you in German  (ja, bitte, danke).  You see, across the street from the two apartment buildings housing American families in former Nazi officers’ housing was a candy kiosk!  Every day, after the bus dropped us off, we’d all head to the kiosk and each of us would buy about 5 cents worth of German candy!  We got to use our school German for a real-world experience!  It worked for me.

My learning expanded to earning a BA in English and German, the latter which I am somewhat comfortable with, but I am not an expert speaker.  And I am adding to that some rudimentary Greek so I can read portions of the New Testament as it was written with some degree of understanding.  I had read a book on Christianity and pagans and found myself enthralled with the influence each had on the other and how Christianity won out.  Of course, I came to that book after Pastor Bob Shofner gave a study of the Bible over a year when we lived in Odessa, WA.  I thought I knew some things, but I learned so much more – my copy of the Bible is annotated, notated, and cross-referenced with marginal notes.  I use it about once a week to check on items I had forgotten and for items I want to remember longer. 

I read a lot about the Parables and look up Greek terms to determine how accurate the translation is.  What I have found is that interpreters have changed, subtlely, meaning over time for some words and phrases.  One such change deals with The Book of Ruth, which happens to be my favorite book in the Old Testament.  When the reader or listener is told that when Ruth “uncovered” Boaz’s feet, she was not removing his shoes!  She had sex with Boaz on the threshing floor – she took the advice from her mother-in-law – and Boaz did right by her and married her.  Ruth and Boaz’s son Obed had a son Jesse, who had a son named David, as in King David, an ancestor of Jesus. 

The interesting part to the tale of Ruth is that she was a Moabitess, a foreigner, and thus looked down upon by Jews.  However, her first husband, a Jew, died in the land of Moab; her Jewish mother-in-law, Naomi, told her to return to her home; Ruth decided to stay with Naomi and said those famous words now used in marriages: “Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither though goest, I will go . . .”  This foreign woman would marry another Jew in the land of the Jews, and their ancestor would be Jesus, who took his Father’s word to Jews and non-Jews alike.  Amazing what we can learn when we pursue the desire to know more.

Another change is a very subtle one in Luke 7: 1-10, in which a Roman centurion’s servant is healed.  Unless one understands the time of Rome’s occupation of what we call Israel, one aspect may not even be considered.  The servant is a male servant who is dear to the centurion and becomes ill. The centurion sent friends to ask for Jesus to say the words to heal his servant.  The centurion even sent a message by his friends that he was not worthy to receive Jesus in his home.  This is not just a tale about the differences between Romans and Jews of the day, but it also has another, underlying meaning in this parable. 

The translator attributes to Luke the phrase “dear servant” instead of “male lover,” the meaning of the original Greek.  The centurion was a homosexual, not uncommon among centurions of the day.  He felt he was unworthy to have Jesus in his home not only because he was a Roman, but also because he was gay.  In this parable, Jesus does not condemn the centurion, but rather He heals the servant because the centurion had great faith in Jesus’s word that whatever He said became reality. 

So, in effect, had I not pursued knowing more about the original text and how a translator tries to find an appropriate substitute in his language, I would have missed the sex scene and the understanding that Moab was not a Jewish land. I would have missed the whole point to The Book of Ruth: Jesus was inclusive just as his ancestral grandparents were. And I would have missed completely that the centurion and his dear servant were gay and that Jesus did not condemn them. He accepted both men.  I have been reading the parables closely and looking up the ancient Greek for particular phrases and words to determine if there is a message hidden from us because a translator chose not to be offensive in the vocabulary he used.

My parents encouraged me to read from my early childhood onward.  If I tried reading something I did not understand, they would tell me to set the book aside until I was ready for the book – it would still be there.  And I told our sons the same.  For example, Jeremy wanted to read a Stephen King book, and I told him go for it.  Jonnie and I both also told him that if it was too difficult for him, he could come back to it later.  He read a few pages and discovered that it was too difficult for him.  The following year, he was ready and enjoyed the book.  Books are patient that way, eh. 

Wanting to know more about the world, our country, ourselves leads us all to various sources to satisfy our hunger, our intense need to know more about ourselves.  I doubt that Thursday’s child is the only one with such a need to pursue knowledge.

Next week, Part Three of I Am Thursday’s Child.