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Carleton University Fall Convocation Address - November 14, 2004
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by Raymond Moriyama Chancellor Garneau, President Van Loon, Honoured Guests, my Fellow Graduands, Faculty members, families, friends and, 'hi', grandchildren, all ten of you here this morning. Good morning! Thank you, Professor Fai, for those kind words! They mean a lot to me coming from you as Director of the School of Architecture. It is a great honour to receive a degree, Doctor of Architecture, honoris causa, especially from Carleton University where our two sons, Ajon and Jason, and our daughter-in-law, Leslie, and many members of our office received their degrees ... a City where we designed the Ottawa Carleton Regional Headquarters, now the Ottawa City Hall, and where we will open a new Canadian War Museum next year. Please come when it opens on May 8, 2005. I believe you will find it unique, intriguing and wonderful. I'm biased, of course. Our joint-venture partner and partner in crime on this project, Alex Rankin and his son, Peter, are here as well as Joe Geurts, Director and CEO of the War Museum, and General Paul Manson, Chairman of Pass the Torch Fund Raising Committee. I'm also very pleased my remarkable, dedicated partner of near forty years, Ted Teshima, and his delightful wife, Ikuko, are here with us together with family, relatives and friends from Toronto, Calgary and New York State. Let me start by giving you a warning! I continue to go to my dental specialist who is installing four implants in my upper. Earlier this week he installed them with a semi-permanent adhesive - semi-permanent. "Nothing is permanent!" he tells me. If I stop suddenly, scream or drop to my knees, those are my implants on the floor. I told him if that should happen, I will shout his name, including his middle initial, as loud as possible at this Convocation. Now, let me tell you a true story. The boy is twelve years old. It is WWll. The boy watches his father being arrested and carried away to a POW camp. The father had resisted separation from his family and his pregnant wife. The boy is told that he, his mother and two younger sisters could be shot if seen outside after sunset. He tries to run his father's hardware store. Inundated by manipulative customers, greedy exploiters and creditors, he quickly loses the store. He sees his mother suffer miscarriage, losing his potential brother, the only one he could have had.
You may ask, who was this boy? ... where did this happen? In Poland? In Germany? No!
The boy was I ... born in Vancouver. It happened to Canadians in Canada. In the internment camp, the four of us were shunted from one location to another, finally assigned a drafty space, 4.25m. X 4.25m. I worked for 5 cents an hour digging ditches and outhouse holes - became an expert on outhouses. I carried water from a lake to a mess hall when temperature dropped below minus 40 degrees, ... and, of course, no father to guide me. Moreover, there were two sets of public baths -- men and women -- and I was recovering from a bad burn that nearly killed me. The taunting in the bathhouse by, not just boys, but adults made me feels that the Japanese Canadian community in the camp a bigger enemy than my own country. At that particular point my self-image was so low, I would have walked happily into a gas oven. However, rather than go deeper into despair, I decided to bath in the river. I started going to a spot on the other side of a heavily forested hill we called 'Little Mountain'. I built a platform. From there I looked out for people. When there was no one coming, I jumped into Slocan River for a bath. It was brutally cold, but it was far better than hot tears. Slowly, I started to see the beauty of the natural surroundings. I noticed that every twenty cm. of ground was different from the next twenty cm. and the next twenty cm. And so on. The insects and animals living together. The sound of nature: whisper of the river, the sound of wind and of night. Nature was beautiful. My world started to change. Slowly that platform turned into a tree house. With just an axe and a borrowed saw and no money for material it was quite a task. It was my first architectural work and a direct experience in economy of material and means. That tree house was magic. It was a place of discovery, a place of learning, a place to contemplate, to think. I discovered the profound beauty of balance in nature that this balance - with the wildest of storms, thunders and snow - was fairer than man's irrational and egocentric deeds, especially those based on bias and ignorant preconceptions. I started to realize also that anger, violent thoughts and irrational actions doing more harm to me and to others. I stated to see possibilities, my place on earth, my future, and a glimmer of hope of greater humanity! The facts that I had decided to be an architect at age four and half was a great plus. When I become an architect, I will be sensitive to people with burns, with physical disabilities. I will do wonderful things to help people. I will be sensitive to people and nature. I will definitely listen and learn. There was hope. By now you're getting bored and asking, Why is he telling me all this? The usual convocation address relates to 'Have a dream and pursue it'. It is true, you must have a dream and you must pursue it vigorously and tenaciously, taking personal and professional risks. But you might ask if this is enough? Ask, what is the intent of true human living? Ask what your wider long-term vision should be? This is not to criticize our neighbour to south, but the recent election shows how manipulative and twisted politics could be, to force a nation to decide its future and the future of the world based on fear, half-truth, innuendo and lies. This, indeed, is a very unfortunate way to decide the future! Graduands, each one of you -- in the arts, architecture, humanities, and social sciences -- you are in an elite group. You are taught to be a professional and to think, to analyze, and to use your intellect, imagination and also your heart. Besides having a personal dream, I would like each one of you to use this important day of celebration to start looking honestly at your own heart and determine a vision of a better world. Yes, pursue excellence in your work. Give the best you have, but also consider trading some of your ego and replace it with the soul of a nation you are serving. Even better, be an impeccable human who embraces the humanistic spirit of the world. Change begins at micro level - that is -- you and I. People change gradually; it's even slower culturally and socially. If each one of us start today with an openness of heart, with genuine generosity - do and say little things, say, 'thank you' and really mean it, help an elderly, speak up for those in need -- you know all the things we were taught to do and say as a very young child. Give others room to grow and to contribute, be more patient, count to ten before answering a 'finger' -- the other party may be right. If each individual in this room take this first step to a more human and humane world today and do it tomorrow, then two more deeds the day after, every day more and more and more and more creatively in a way that suits your own personality, maybe, we can achieve collectively world wide a more perfect world for all living beings in, say, realistically, in about 600 years. I personally feel this long-term perspective and pursuit of humanity is the real creativity and planning for the future. It is a step worth taking. You will find this attitude will help you professionally and personally and gives clarity to your thinking and leadership. Having said all this, graduands, today is your day. It is a day to celebrate your success with your family and friends, take time to savour your achievements and to know that you can and will shape the future of our country and the world. Let me conclude by sharing a gift my father gave me on my graduation - a short poem: Into God's Temple of Eternity
He didn't even ask me to design the temple, just drive in one nail, and one that is gold! To the parents, families and friends of the graduands, this is your day too. Convocation is a solemn occasion, but a happy one too. So if I may, I ask Chancellor Garneau, one chancellor to another, for permission for you to whoop it up. So when your favorite person's name is called cheer, clap, whistle, holler, and even jeer. Have a good time and have a great memorable day! Thank you for this great honour, which I will share with my wife, Sachi, family, my partners and colleagues, my relatives and our ten grandchildren. Without them I will not be standing here today. Graduands, I wish each and every one of you the very best of health, happiness and greater humanity. The future, our hope, of Canada, are in your hands. Again I ask you to take that first step. Start forging a nail of gold and Into God's Temple of Eternity
Thank you! |
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