"Though Japanese I Am"
He made a desperate appeal to her: "Though I am Jewish, you love me, don't you? Won't you?"
She, who had been aware that he was Jewish from the beginning, said calmly, "You are exceptional, for you are different from other Jews."
Mr. Peter Frankl, a Hungary-born French mathematician and now resident in Japan, gave her up eventually, and lost a motivation forever to return and settle in his home country Hungary, thus seriously thinking about tragedies induced by difference in races and religions.
He could not reside permanently in France because he felt like an alienated individual, though he speaks French fairly well and loves Paris and unique French culture.
He often worked in the U.S. where he has the best senior associate for his profession, but as he could not adapt himself to worship of money seemingly spreading in the US society (and in addition, he doesn't like to drive a car but loves cycling), he decided not to live in the U.S.
In Japan, people were, in most cases, kind and polite to him and actually accepted him, though they looked at him sometimes as if he had been a kind of menageries, since in those days an encounter with Westerners were not so common for ordinary Japanese citizens in their daily lives.
He however decided that he would stay in Japan, for people welcomed him; "If I am regarded as a kind of menageries, it is far better to live in Japan," he mused.
Now, the very successful mathematician and street performer, to our surprise, Mr. Peter Frankl is busy writing books in Japanese, appearing in various TV shows, and traveling all over the world, while teaching and studying mathematics in Paris and Tokyo.
* * *
Until I recently read a book, published in 2003, he wrote in Japanese, I did not realize he is a Judaist origin.
But, thanks to Mr. Peter Frankl, I got very valuable information on conversations actually happening somewhere in the world.
* * *
Mr. Peter Frankl was raised as an atheist. Therefore, he might not like to be called a Judaist (Jew). If so, I am very sorry for him.
But, now, you know that there is such a man who is a son of Holocaust survivors and has been living happily in Japan, though he thinks he is an atheist.
* * *
I may say someday to a beautiful and intellectual blond girl: "Though I am Japanese, you love me, don't you? Won't you?"
("Your God is my God who is exactly the God of Abraham, Moses, Jesus' followers, and a certain great Arab as well as his followers.")
"TO THOSE WHO ARE CALLED 'NOT-MY-PEOPLE'"