A：「カンパをお願いします」
私：「こうして一人一人の教授を訪ねるのは大変ですね。先生方の対応はどうですか」
A：「鼻であしらわれることが多いんですよ」
Hana de Ashirau
(Kuruma-isu no shintai shoogaisha ga kenkyuushitu wo tazunete kite)
A: Kanpa wo onegaishimasu.
Watashi: Koshite hitori hitori no Kyooju wo tazuneru no wa taihen desu ne. Senseigata no taioo wa doodesu ka
A: Hana de ashirawareru koto ga ooi'n desu yo.
(A handicapped person in a wheelchair visits my office at school)
A: Please support my fund-raising campaign.
Me: Itmustbehardtovisiteach andevery teacher in this way. How is their response?
A: Most of the time people just give me the cold shoulder and turn their noses up at my request.
* * *
Hana de ashirau means to give an unenthusiastic response to someone's request; to give a person a cold reception. My office at the university is on the third floor. Four students carried A-san in his wheelchair up the stairs. Considering they were all freshmen, I didn't recognize any of them. Wondering what they might be doing, I inquired. The boy in the wheelchair replied.
A: "Physically and mentally handicapped people undergo severe discrimination in Japan. One mental- ly handicapped girl, for instance, who became emo- tionally unstable during her monthly periods, had part of her uterus surgically removed by the doctors at the institution she was staying at Their excuse was that she was bleeding tod much."
I could hardly believe my ears, it sounded so shocking. This wasn't just a case of discrimination- a person's human rights had been blatantly ignored. As I listened to him talk, I found myself getting more and more angry. He said that he was raising money to pay for a trip to the All Japan Handicapped Persons Con- ference to be held in Hokkaido. At the conference he would make an appeal on behalf of the girl.
One of the volunteers who'd helped A-san up the stairs spoke up: "It would be nice if everyone we met was like you, Professor Sasaki...Hana de ashirawareta tdki ni wa boku made kanashiku narimasu (When people, as it were, slam the door in our face, however, even I feel really sad.)
Me: "Sonna ni hana de ashirau hito ga oi'n desu
ka?" (Are there really that many people who turn up their noses at your request? )
The boy: "Yes, there are many. In one department, especially, there was a professor who demanded to know what qualifications we had to raise money. He wanted us to show him a paper which had our names and titles written on it." A-san, sadness filling his voice, continued,
"But I don't have any qualifications or papers documenting that I'm in some fancy organization.
The only thing I could show was the government-issued Handicapped Persons Passbook that I carry with me."
Me: "Hana de ashirawareta kara to itte ki ni suru koto wa arimasen yo (Just because some people gave you the cold shoulder doesn't mean you should lose heart. ) Please, don't give up. "
I can't help feeling that there must have been more I could have done for them. It seems a shame that all I could give was encouragement.