#28: Harmony – Respectful Care for Each and Every One

The Spirit of harmony is widely considered as one of the most treasuring values in the Japanese culture.
 
Harmony, or Wa in Japanese, also means peace. And its basic principle is For everyone to get along. Wa of people, Wa of family, and Wa of the society. Wa represents respectful care for each other, and cooperative unity of one another. It’s a truly beautiful spirit filled with compassion and happiness for all.
 
The most crucial aspect of Wa is the sense of respectful care for each and every one of us, valuing each person's individuality, striving together for everyone's happiness. Make no mistake – there’s no harmony in a respectful maintenance of a group called Wa while mistreating or neglecting a few. Wa leaves no one behind.
 
It’s called a Negative Wa when a group is respectfully maintained, all the while mistreating or neglecting a few. And this Negative Wa, in no way, is a virtue. In fact, accepting Negative Wa is the same as turning a blind eye to an abuse unfolding in front of our own eyes – that is, doing nothing while others suffer. Such hurtful conformity won’t yield happiness for each and every one of us, because it doesn’t realize the respectful care for each other nor the cooperative unity of one another.
 
We must all be vigilant not to resign ourselves into doing nothing in the name of the Spirit of harmony.
 
July 4, 1776. On this day the US Declaration of Independence was adopted, the founding fathers clearly stated their truly beautiful conviction.
 
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. 
 
Nevertheless, slavery – the most egregious violation of equality and unalienable rights – wasn’t abolished for another 100 years. What’s more, it took additional 100 years from abolition until Martin Luther King, Jr., the leader of the American Civil Rights Movement, momentously advanced the rights of African Americans via non-violent resistance in the 1960’s. At the time when African Americans were deprived of their right to vote, King demanded the government and American people to honor the promises of Declaration of Independence.
 
I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace, which is the absence of tension, to a positive peace, which is the presence of justice . . .  The ultimate tragedy of Birmingham was not the brutality of the bad people, but the silence of the good people.
 
A hurtful conformity of negative peace is a mere cover up of the hidden tension that already exists. The tension brewed over hundreds of years of gross mistreatment and ill will – which is suppressed only to showcase the handsome facade of Order on the surface. To maintain such hurtful conformity, people turn a blind eye to injustices unfolding in front of their own eyes. It’s a Negative Wa, indeed.
 
On the contrary, in a harmony of positive peace, people don’t overlook injustices. It’s because this kind of true harmony respectfully cares for each other, and unifies one another to strive for the happiness of each and every one of us. It’s because a true harmony embodies the spirit of For everyone to get along. In a true harmony, no one is left behind. A true harmony is about forging a cooperative relationship of respectful care through communication and mutual trust.
 
Many White Americans who fought the nonviolent resistance alongside King did just that. Without experiencing first-hand, they were able to come to grips with realizing the pain and humiliation of African Americans by placing themselves in the images of enduring oppression. Even though they themselves weren’t the target of injustice, they refused to accept the hurtful conformity, and instead strove for the true Spirit of harmony.
 
Today, minorities throughout the world still can’t avoid the agony of having no choice but to succumb to the sheer force of numbers. The brutal violence and persecution of Rohingya people by the government of Myanmar. The more-fortunate people born into wealthy nations refusing to take in the less-fortunate refugees, who's lost everything and fled their war-torn hometowns in Syria, Sudan, and Yemen. The dark abyss of stubborn discrimination against African Americans and the foreign residents of Japan. The shameful ignorance of US travel ban based on the place of birth and nationality. Supermajority of Japanese people continuing to force US military base upon Okinawa.
 
These cringing realities do not represent the true Spirit of harmony.
 
It’s because they don’t respectfully care for each and every one of us. It’s because they don’t strive for the happiness of each and every one of us. It’s because they leave some people behind, subjected to mistreatment or neglect. It’s because they don’t honestly pursue – with an open heart and mind – to forge a cooperative relationship by valuing each person's individuality.
 
Surely, it’s not only the minorities. Women, despite representing half of our population, have confronted suppression for over several thousand years. Even in this day and age of gender equality, many women are still exploited and preyed upon. 
 
The Spirit of harmony is to welcome people of all backgrounds and to accept our differences. It’s to cooperate together for the better tomorrow of each and every one of us.

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