Japanese Boy: The Story Of Taro (1963)

[Music] at [Music] [Music] noee might [Applause] [Music] for har [Music] the little poem says how beautiful are the mountains now the spring has come in the springtime almost every school child in Japan travels to a place of beauty to know the joy of beholding a mountain or a rushing stream [Music] we think it is very good for children to be always happy for it is most beautiful to be a child it is like the springtime Tero is a very shy girl but it is good for Japanese girls to be shy inside the rice ball mother puts always a surprise sometimes fish or meat fruit or ground [Music] beans Isa is the best reader in the fifth grade Yos does not read so well but he can sing very loudly these boys are both called Taro both are firstborn to their families in Japan the oldest boy is often named Taro it is of this Taro Taro Morata I will tell [Music] you tar thinks he will be an artist one day there are many things he says he might be but I think he will not be an artist he does not draw well I know I am his teacher after the picnic this time T runs home to talk of a day in the mountains the house of Taro Morata like most in Japan is made of unpainted wood shoes are never worn inside because we think it is not clean to do so it is not polite to be late for supper and politeness is most important to learn but mother understands that this was a special day and has kept the rice warm [Music] Uncle ETO comes to help when there is much work in the fields there is no father in this house it is sad that Taro cannot remember his fine father lost at sea nyaki he is the great true friend of Taro naraki Yamamoto is a student from another island of Japan who lives with the Morata family and attends a small colleage in this town for supper There is rice which is the main food for the people of Japan for all meals there is rice which we like very much and eat with chopsticks for supper There is usually fish too and vegetables When Crickets sing good friends study and talk together one day naraki will leave this place for it is his great wish to attend a university in Tokyo T talks always of the watch the watch of nyaki so much he would like to have such a thing for his own the father of nyaki also gone received this watch from the emperor for being very brave in war nyaki says someday you Taro too will be brave someday someone will say Taro Morata deserves a watch because he has much courage and has done something very hard very well after study friends go to beds prepared by mother the quilts are put on the tiami the clean straw mat which covers the floor of Japanese houses Japanese people do not like much furniture they prefer to have only space tonight there will be dreams of watches and of universities in Tokyo in the morning Taro joins friends on the long walk to school all children must go to school for at least 9 years Japan is a very rainy country we need the rain for the race but it makes the streets so muddy children like to come early to school to play before classes begin baseball is very popular only in Japan and in the United States of America is baseball so much enjoyed children also play old games like sumo there a boy who pushes the other outside the socer [Music] wins in school also children do not wear shoes as they leave boots and shoes by the door as they wear instead clean a school slippers in my class reading comes first most of the time in the first eight years of school is spent in learning to read and write only all Japanese people learn or are able to read and write we read the characters or idiograms from the top to the bottom of the page starting on the right side and moving to the left side in writing class it is necessary first to prepare the ink the art of character writing is practiced with a brush students learn at least 1,800 of the more than 10,000 characters in the Japanese language the writing must be both clear and beautiful each character may be either a word a group of words or an idea this kind of picture writing is called Ki it was brought to Japan from china, 1400 years ago in arithmetic class children learn to use the Abacus we call it saraban the soran is used to add subtract or multiply and divide after classes children stay to clean the school building and grounds this tle he talks more than he works I think some days he runs home too early but he does not go straight home I know where he goes to the temple there are many beautiful Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines in Japan most Japanese follow both the Buddhist and Shino [Music] religions T sometimes makes offerings to the Gods [Music] he thanks God for good mother and true friend nyaki and prays that one day he will have a watch like the watch of nyaki 500 years before Christ the great Lord Buddha founded the Buddhist religion in India he taught the ways by which people can find peace and happiness in life stones in the temple yard stand in memory of departed ancestors the dauki Morata Brave samurai warrior is a favorite ancestor of [Music] Taro for Buddhist priests also ancestors would look more honorable I think in new robes [Music] at home our Japanese boys are not often asked to work as they work at school and this we think is enough but a spring is a very busy time on a farm and tar helps with the chores the silk worms are fed mberry leaves several times a day they are difficult to raise as they must be kept warm and dry and they are very particular worms they will eat only fresh tender malberry leaves or they will not eat at all and Dy June is a month of the silk worm and for this month the worms are kept in the house when the pile of malberry branches has reached nearly as high as taro's head the worms spin their their cocoons of pure silk and are killed Japanese farmers are very hardworking people Taro thinks he will not be a farmer when the rice seedlings have grown taller and stronger they will be transplanted one by one to the fields which now grow wheat the wheat must be harvested and the land prepared for the rice before the summer rains begin T brings tea to the fields to his mother and many relatives who help with the work in Japan every foot of land must be used there are many people to feed and we have little land it is because as many mountains that there is so little land for raising food we must use even the mountain [Music] sides on yday and Sunday friends have time to walk through the golden fields and Green Mountains to talk of Japan of one day seeing Tokyo the largest city in the world friends talk of what they will be maybe [Music] scientists or teachers doctors or Engineers or May maybe ship Builders there are many things one might be in an industrial country like [Music] Japan always nyaki speaks of going to the university in Tokyo but tar does not like to hear of [Music] this the city of kofu where tar lives looks much like any one of aund other small cities in Japan there are open markets which sell fruit and vegetables department [Music] stores barber shops hundreds of small shops which sell anything you may wish to [Music] buy there are markets which sells the fish which is eaten at nearly every [Music] meal emotion pictures are very popular both Japanese films and American [Music] also many things enjoyed in America are also enjoyed [Music] here from the hillside of seven rocks comes the sound of gunfire I worry for this boy Taro Morata because I know a great sadness will come to him this friend nyaki is like a brother and a father for a boy who has no real brother and no father soon nyaki will leave this place and no longer will there be gunfire on the hillside of seven rocks in the evening along the narrow streets of the town and Villages you will see people in kimonas and wooden shoes on their way to the bath first wash and mince then sit in the warm bath very warm but too heart for Taro for Japanese people a long bath with friends and family each evening is a most happy [Music] experience this day nyaki has learned that he will be admitted to the university in Tokyo and now Taro knows too that friends must [Music] part it is often so that when life brings Joy sadness comes also I do not know why this is so It Happened One Morning in September nyaki had said it would be best this way [Music] [Applause] [Music] PA a [Music] [Music] someday someone will say Taro Morata deserves a watch because he has much courage because he has done something very hard very well I [Music]