Is He a True Friend?

　Asada Jiro, one of the most popular novelists in Japan said last week, ”It’s humiliation to have foreign armed forces in an independent, sovereign country. It’s like asking a neighbor to guard my house.” The audiences laughed.

I think the matter is more serious. The neighbor has always been looking for fights, and caused a lot of fights in the town. Such a neighbor is staying in my house with a knife. I have to doubt the reason of his staying that he is protecting my family. My house is very near to his enemy’s house, so it’s convenient for him to be in my house to watch or attack it. When a fight begins between them, I will be the first to be involved . Even now I cannot refuse his demands; money, food, and everything His knife can attack me anytime. Is he a true friend?

 

My husband found a book titled ‘The Things They Carried’ by Tim O’brien from somewhere in the storeroom we call ‘the library’. It contains short stories about young soldiers in the Vietnam War. They abandoned everything behind and went there. They saw deaths, wounds, darkness, They killed and they were killed. They were destroyed and decayed. How wretched to be soldiers! “ Don’t kill. Don’t be killed.” is a slogan of Mommy’s Organization against wars. I’d like to add, ” Don’t be a soldier”.