戦争後の一つのエピソード

エピソード１：

私が小児麻痺（ポリオ）にかかった第二次世界大戦（太平洋戦争終結後、復員した父の世代）が1950年に生まれた、赤ん坊の私がその時はまだワクチンがない時代でした。

その時、私の日本国有鉄道に復帰し勤めていた電気技師の父と、電話交換手の母の両親は、三日三晩寝ずに「神への祈りを捧げました」。

その時代は多くの赤ん坊がポリオ感染で亡くなりました。私は神がその願いを聞いてくれ、命が救われたのです。

私は両親による神への請願という全力の祈りにより、神がその全能の力と慈愛で私の命と引き換えに、右足のポリオによる発育下肢障害が残りました。

父は毎日、東京駅前の国鉄の強電の電気技師である仕事の帰りに、神田にあるヘレンケラー学院という、マッサージと東洋医学の針と灸の国家資格が取得できる専門学校で学び国家資格を取得しました。後にヘレンケラーが来日した時の二人で撮った写真が我が家にはあります。その技術で毎日帰宅後に動かない右足をマッサージしてくれました。当時は皆くみ取り式トイレで、風呂と台所は薪でしたね。電灯の根元から分配できる二股ソケットがナショナルの松下幸之助さんの手柄で、真空館式５球スーパーラジオができて、どの家庭でもラジオが聴ける、みんなものがなくても、融通し合い絆がある貧しい時代ですがいい時代でした。

私も小学生の頃は毎日、赤胴鈴の助などを聞きながら風呂当番で薪をくべていました。近代的なものはなかったけれど、毎日が平和で近所の人と絆がありとても心豊かな時代であったと思います。なぜならば、想像力が研ぎ澄まされあれやこれやと、かってに想像できたからです。子供は近くの林や田んぼ、あるいは川や海、森などが身近にあったからだと思います。

今のように幼稚園から塾や専門家に習うという、善し悪しは別にして、自分の頭で考えることがとても重要だと思います。

失敗も問題も単なる概念であり、それを解決するのが自分の頭で考えることが一番大事なことですが、それができない人がほとんどです。一度の自分の人生ですのでどういう、理想的なシナリオを描いてもいいのです。

私はそれが、デザイン思考であると思います。誰かの言いなりや奴隷になるのではなく、上手くいくか、いかないかではなく自分で自分の一度の人生を、何度、倒されてもまた起き上がり再度挑戦してゆくのが、クールだと思います。

Episode 1:.

I was born in 1950, the generation of my father who was demobilized from World War II (after the end of the Pacific War) when I contracted childhood paralysis (polio), and as a baby, there was no vaccine at that time.

At that time, my parents, my father, an electrical engineer who had returned to work for the Japanese National Railways, and my mother, a telephone operator, stayed up three days and three nights "praying to God.

In those days, many babies died of polio infection. I know that God heard their petitions and their lives were saved.

Through the all-out prayer of petition to God by my parents, God, in His almighty power and mercy, exchanged my life for a developing leg disability due to polio in my right leg.

Every day on his way home from his job as an electrician for the Japan National Railways, my father went to Kanda to study at the Helen Keller Institute, a vocational school in Kanda that offered national certification in massage and Oriental medicine, including acupuncture and moxibustion, to obtain national certification. We later have a picture of the two of us taken together when Helen Keller came to Japan. She used this technique to massage my right leg, which was immobile, every day after I returned home. In those days, we all had plumbing toilets, and our bathrooms and kitchens used firewood. Konosuke Matsushita of National Electric Co., Ltd. was responsible for the two-sided sockets that could be used to distribute electric lights from the base, and the vacuum-powered five-bulb super radio was developed so that every household could listen to the radio.

When I was in elementary school, I was on bath duty every day, listening to Akado Suzunosuke and other music while I lit the firewood. Although there was no modern technology, it was a time of peace and bonding with neighbors, and I think it was a time of great spiritual richness. I think it was a time of great peace and contentment, because our imaginations were sharp and we could imagine all kinds of things. Children were close to nearby woods, rice paddies, rivers, oceans, and forests.

Aside from the good and bad of learning from cram schools and experts from kindergarten, as is the case today, children were able to think for themselves and learn from their own experiences.
Failure and problems are just concepts, and the most important thing is to solve them with your own head, but most people cannot do that. You only live once, so it is okay to draw up an ideal scenario.

I believe that is what design thinking is all about. I think it is cool to not be at someone else's mercy or be a slave, but to live your own life, whether it works or not, and to get up and try again, no matter how many times you get knocked down.

Translated with DeepL