Densho Digital Archive - Eddie Owada Interview (denshovh-oeddie-01-0025)

<Begin Segment 25>

AL: We... I would love to talk to you all night. I know we're down to the last few minutes of tape and you're down to the last few minutes of your time. But I wanted to ask... I mean, this, this interview is gonna go in an archive and will be around for many, many years, long after all of us are around. And I'm curious what, if anything, any lesson or message that you would like to share with future generations, you know, people who may not even be born yet. What, what you would want them to know about your life or your experience?

EO: Yes. One thing that helped, I can probably say, at that time -- well, I know today it would help me -- the philosophy I carried for years. The religion that I, my wife got me into -- she's Caucasian -- is Nichiren Shoshu, Buddhism, it's a Soka Gakkai Buddhism that in many ways, because it got so strong politically in Japan, a lot of the folks kind of look down upon. But the main thing is to remember, which I remember, is in English... in Japanese it would be, well, in our Buddhist language it was Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo which literally translates into -- in speaking English, "Devotion to the law of cause and effect," which is a law of "As you sow, so shall ye reap." Scientifically speaking, the law of cause and effect. They all kind of, all go together. And if we remember that, you would not hold a grudge against anything, or try not to. Because you know if you hold a grudge against something, you're going to reap that later. And that'll come back like seven times seven, seven times seventy, seventy times seventy. So I can probably give notion that always keep your chin up, look at the bright side, and just remember, as we sow, so shall we reap. So sow good and we will reap good. And that way it'll help with world peace, help everyone in world. Even if they may be bad to us, we don't want to be bad back to them. 'Cause you'll be creating bad karma, which is other thing that many people heard of, karma. So, keep it up. If something is tough, remember, shigata ga nai. Yeah, Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo.

AL: That's wonderful, Eddie. You mentioned your wife is Caucasian, what is her name?

EO: Her maiden name was Irlene Ann Zimmerman, and she was from Kansas, folks were from Kansas. They had a farm out there. She ran... very interesting thing. I covered part of the way I met her, did I? Yeah. Oh, I was looking for the people that threw trash, you know, turned the signs around. I covered that? But she had a rice ball when I went to see her, she hid it. She had served a year in Sanai House and Michio Kushi's Macrobiotic House in Boston, Massachusetts, learning macrobiotic cooking. I had learned the same from Herman and Cornelia Aihara on the western, western U.S., in macrobiotics. And they all knew each other. So we had something in common. And when she knew, or learned that I had known Herman, she didn't worry about it, so I saw her rice ball.

AL: How... what year did you get married?

EO: We got married in, let's see... it was 1974, I guess. '74.

AL: Is she still living?

EO: Oh yes.

AL: She's a macrobiotic cook, she's probably... you'll both live to be five hundred then. You'll be so healthy.

EO: Yeah. She, she uses a modified form of macrobiotic because I eat like natural meats, organically grown, fish, salmon, wild fish. I like lamb, because of my weightlifting I need the strength.

AL: That's great.