“You’re a Buddhist, right?” George asked in his unmistakable but unidentifiable accent. We were on a break last week during a meeting of the Northwest Association of Book Publishers, of which we are members.
I nodded.
“What does ‘roshi’ mean?”
I told George it was a title used in Zen Buddhism, but I wasn’t sure what it meant.
He then explained the reason for his question. The explanation here requires some background, which centers on George’s experiences during World War II.
George Sidline is the younger of two sons born to East European Jews. His story, though, has nothing to do with what one may think when European Jew and WW II are mentioned together. George was born in Kobe, Japan, where his father owned a small store. He was seven years old when Japanese Navy planes bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941. In 1945 George’s own house was firebombed – with him and his family inside. He’s alive to tell about it because the incendiary bomb that crashed through his roof didn’t detonate. He tells the whole story in his book Somehow, We’ll Survive: Life in Japan During World War II Through the Eyes of a Young Caucasian Boy.
George’s modest home in Kobe – before the bombing – was next door to a mansion called Marks House. During the war, it’s American owner, Mr. Marks, was deported and the house confiscated. The mansion was used as an internment camp for prisoners of war – American prisoners of war – which is getting to the point of this story.
As George explains in his book, the guards were fairly lax in their duties, and the prisoners would often climb the fence during the night and cut through the Sidlines’ yard on their way into town. Sometimes George and his brother would chat with the prisoners from atop a shed built against the fence.
Asking about the meaning of “roshi” was not the only reason George had brought up the subject. Knowing that I had read his book he wanted to tell me had learned that one of his former neighbors of Marks House is a roshi and is very ill.
Two days later I came upon this blog post, which in part says:
Robert Aitken Roshi is one of the earliest Western teachers of Zen still alive today. He was exposed to Zen while in a Japanese internment camp in Kobe, Japan after being captured as a worker in Guam.
Aitken Roshi at 91. Photo from aitkenroshi.org.
I’m not a Zen follower, but this name is a familiar one in Western Buddhist circles. Knowing George and having read his book, I felt an interesting connection with two people, one of whom I do not know. And the coincidence of my encounter with George followed quickly by my reading about Aitken Roshi was just too uncanny.
Click here for a photograph of the Marks House prisoners. According to a comment in a string of email correspondence with Aitken Roshi and others that George shared with me, Robert Aitken is third from the right.
Of Prisoners of War and a Roshi Next Door
“You’re a Buddhist, right?” George asked in his unmistakable but unidentifiable accent. We were on a break last week during a meeting of the Northwest Association of Book Publishers, of which we are members.
I nodded.
“What does ‘roshi’ mean?”
I told George it was a title used in Zen Buddhism, but I wasn’t sure what it meant.
He then explained the reason for his question. The explanation here requires some background, which centers on George’s experiences during World War II.
George’s modest home in Kobe – before the bombing – was next door to a mansion called Marks House. During the war, it’s American owner, Mr. Marks, was deported and the house confiscated. The mansion was used as an internment camp for prisoners of war – American prisoners of war – which is getting to the point of this story.
As George explains in his book, the guards were fairly lax in their duties, and the prisoners would often climb the fence during the night and cut through the Sidlines’ yard on their way into town. Sometimes George and his brother would chat with the prisoners from atop a shed built against the fence.
Asking about the meaning of “roshi” was not the only reason George had brought up the subject. Knowing that I had read his book he wanted to tell me had learned that one of his former neighbors of Marks House is a roshi and is very ill.
Two days later I came upon this blog post, which in part says:
Aitken Roshi at 91. Photo from aitkenroshi.org.
I’m not a Zen follower, but this name is a familiar one in Western Buddhist circles. Knowing George and having read his book, I felt an interesting connection with two people, one of whom I do not know. And the coincidence of my encounter with George followed quickly by my reading about Aitken Roshi was just too uncanny.
Click here for a photograph of the Marks House prisoners. According to a comment in a string of email correspondence with Aitken Roshi and others that George shared with me, Robert Aitken is third from the right.