This picture has been kept in the album for over 70 years approximately, so old that uncle’s face is almost not recognizable. Standing on the far right is uncle, and the one next to him is my father.
Uncle was tall and handsome. In addition to the good looking appearance , he had good sense of humour and was pretty talkative. I knew stories about uncle mainly from my mother. Aunt did not like to mention about uncle. If she did, it was about the bad side of uncle.
Why aunt was so unhappy with uncle? The story began with the fact that uncle had left aunt and their five kids in Taiwan during world war II, and he himself went to Japan to seek for a better living. But this arrangement resulted in a virtually termination of their marriage life. What had happened was that a Japanese widow was in mad love with uncle and would not let uncle to leave Japan. Aunt knew this problem through family friends whose husbands left for Japan as well. They came back home to see the families every a couple of years.
Although uncle did not come home to see aunt until 18 years after his second journey to Japan, he really worked hard in Japan to earn money, and frequently sent money home for aunt and the five children to live on. He firstly worked as salesman for a pharmaceutical company for a few years. He then used his saving to set up his own pearl jewellery business. He bought pearls from pearl farmers, polished and processed them, and sold them to tourists. Business grew rapidly and he employed two workers who were a pair of sisters, both were very beautiful.
Working with a tall, handsome, humorous and talkative Taiwanese employer, the older sister loved uncle so much that they lived together before long. The younger sister loved uncle, too, but her older sister was in the way so she said a lot of rumours about her sister to uncle so as to damage their relationship. The younger sister finally won the battle and replaced her sister’s position living with uncle.
This Japanese aunt was a good woman because she attended uncle with great patience and care during the long period when uncle was in serious illness. Her tremendous caring moved uncle so much that when Taiwanese aunt blamed her for seizing other’s husband, he stood up to defend for his Japanese wife.
Uncle did come back to visit his Taiwanese family in 1968 for the second time since his immigration to Japan. I could imagine how aunt felt upon meeting with this long-time-no-see husband. Aunt was good at singing when she was young. I remembered during my childhood I often heard her singing songs relating to love sickness. But when she talked about uncle, she often cursed him with hatred. Poor aunt had lived with her youngest daughter’s companion. This cousin, Chaishia, was tall and beautiful but she pledged to stay single throughout her life. My father, mother and aunt all had been urging her to get married when she was still young. But Chaishia always argued that how could she left her mother without someone’s companion, and what if she married to someone who ended up to be another example of her own father. Chaishia’s filial virtue is indeed respectful. She is 64 years old now, still single.
Aunt died in 1984. Uncle came back to attend the funeral. No one saw him shedding tears. He commented on his relationship with aunt, “Our relationship can go only so far in this life. The love feeling has to remain natural”.
Uncle died in 2006, aged 93. News about his death sent back to Taiwan saying that he was baptised to be a Christian in the bed by Sumi’s husband, his son-in-law, who was a pastor.
Life is like that of the waves in the ocean. Uncle’s stories make me realize that everyone of us is living for a purpose of repaying what you owe to others. In uncle’s example of relationship, both his Taiwanese and Japanese wives had repaid what they owed him. The Taiwanese aunt bore and raised up alone five children for him, and the Japanese aunt attended for his daily living for about 56 years in addition to a daughter.
I hope uncle has united with his Taiwanese wife in heaven merrily.
