Japanese official pays respects to his friend, the late
Zenichiro Uchida
Gilroy – Zenichiro Uchida’s message of bringing people together has not been forgotten.
On Friday, Japanese official Nobutaka Machimura, the former Foreign Affairs Minister, visited the home of Uchida’s son, Ted, to pay his respects to a man he called “amazing.”
“I personally very much respect him and his family for bettering the area and U.S.-Japanese relations,” Machimura said. “I think he was a phenomenal man with a frontier spirit for a new world.”
During World War II Zenichiro served as a second lieutenant in the Japanese Imperial Army and surrendered to the American troops in the Philippines. He was surprised by their kindness and returned to convince other soldiers hiding in the mountains to do the same instead of dying there.
He was sent to California on a cultural exchange program in 1953 to learn American farming techniques. The experience inspired him to immigrate to the U.S. and upon returning he convinced others of the opportunities abroad.
He started a letter writing campaign to the U.S. Congress that eventually made hundreds of visas available to Japanese immigrants.
Ted said his father brought about 325 immigrants from Japan to America. One of those immigrants was Bob Uemura’s father, Hamakichi, who sent for Bob and the rest of his family in 1960, a few years after Hamakichi had arrived in America. Uemura said that all the people that Zenichiro brought over were like his children.
Machimura, who was on his way back to Japan from a trip to Washington, D.C. to talk with Condoleezza Rice and other American officials, called Zenichiro Uchida his friend and said Zenichiro’s death, in March of this year, was a tragedy.
Zenichiro, he said, is not just respected by those in America, but also by the Japanese, which was made clear when he received the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Rays medal from the Emperor of Japan – the highest civilian honor possible.
Machimura said that Zenichiro did a lot for U.S.-Japan relations and added that Uchida was a man who brought people together. In some ways, Machimura said, he tries to do the same.
“As a member of the parliament I try to do my best,” he said while sitting in Ted Uchida’s home. “But it depends on personal relations (between the two countries).”
Ted Uchida said his father always went by the mantra of what is good for the other person is good for you and that we are all human beings and life is about getting to know each other.
“My dad said you always have to work for peace,” Ted said. “If you get content in conserving peace then you will lose it.”
Uemura said Zenichiro did wonderful things throughout his time in America.
“To me, he’s a special man,” Uemura said. “I always said he’s a person who could move mountains. He did things ordinary people could not do.”
Uemura said the awards and accolades that Zenichiro received were deserved but much too late.
“He should have been given them earlier when he was alive so he could have enjoyed them,” Uemura said.
Although Zenichiro is no longer with the family, his son Ted said there is no way to forget what his father taught him. He is trying to pass on those messages now to his own son’s.
“(My father) says remember to help people because those people will help you in return,” said Jeff, Ted’s son and Zenichiro’s grandson.
“Just try to remember what my father taught me,” Jeff said his father tells him, “and that is to be good to others.”
