The aftermath of World War Two was a time of great change for many countries, but perhaps those winds of change were already blowing before the war. Our own "greatest generation" struggled through childhood in the Great Depression, and then faced a baptism by war. But that economic depression was world wide, and most nations were also drawn into the war. National boundaries and old ways were in many cases changed forever.

My late father once told of his introduction into the changing "mind-set" of a different culture while he was on occupation duty on the Japanese island of Okinawa. A young Okinawan who was hired to cook for the US Marine pilots explained that he could become a cook because his own father had broken the long ancestral line of fishermen. Even as a child this young man realized that was very different from the culture of honor and ancestry into which his father was born.

The young Okinawan explained to the American pilots that one summer, as a child aboard his grandfather's fishing boat, he had announced his intention to become a cook, not a farmer like his father, nor a fisherman. His grandfather, who hoped to return the generations to fishing was saddened and had asked if the young boy knew why his father had broken the family tradition. The boy had replied, "Father says the sea is unforgiving and so he wished always to stay on dry land."

The old man pondered this and then had said "At last I understand why your father has become a farmer. He does not understand the sea, for it is neither forgiving nor unforgiving; the sea is just the sea." Then, sadly, the old man had said, "Now you will follow a new path,but it is your path to follow," and had given his blessing for his grandson to become a cook.

The American pilots soon learned this young Okinawan was far more than a simple cook, for he quickly adopted the roles of cultural mentor and demanding instructor in the kitchen. Before their tour of duty was over, there wasn't a pilot in the squadron who hadn't learned how to set a table and prepare at least one garnish or entree. These Naval officers often joked that in the kitchen they were all outranked by a cook.

Freed from the restraints of the old ways, this young Okinawan was in many ways a prelude to the changing post-war world.

...jfox...