San Jose Reflection-Japan Town

After one week intensive training of computational chemistry, I am now waiting for a flight at San Jose airport. Besides professional materials that I have learned, I also witnessed many other things which I will write as part of my reflection.

Here is reflection #1. History of Japan Town T San Jose.

Japan Town in San Jose had a history more than 100 years. Japanese immigrants replaced Chinese labors (for railroad constructions as well as other western frontier development projects) in 1888 as the Congress enacted a law to prohibit hiring of Chinese labors. Chinese labors were initially imported to work on many dangerous railroad construction projects. However, as Chinese populations exploded, the white settlers felt Chinese as a threat. The 1888 law reflected the fear and the distrust of white settlers on Chinese.

The Japanese were not treated as nicely as the white settlers promised. Initially, only Japanese men were allowed to immigrated, hoping without Japanese women to marry, those Japanese men would eventually die out and would not present a threat to White settlers. That idea did not completely work out as Japanese men can always find Chinese women, or American Indian women to marry. As a result, the Congress gave up that idea and allowed Japanese women to immigrate in U.S. After the Pearl Harbor was bombed, the Japanese American were evicted from their home and were sent to a concentration camp to endure hardship.

Those are the history reflecting human's fundamental fault: fear and suspicion. I hope all of us will learn this part of the history, learning about mindfulness to have a peace on Earth forever.

Young man, you should get married

"Young man, you should get married."

This is the advice Socrates gave to his student who asked the teacher if he should get married. Here is the story behind that advice.

This was a typical gathering in which crowds of his students jammed inside Socrates' tiny house. The crowds were enthusiastic and participative. The discussions, arguments, and debate got louder and louder.

Meanwhile, Socrates' wife was working on the chores in the kitchen. She was annoyed and displeased.

She took a bucket of water, walked quietly behind her husband's back and poured the water onto her husband's head.

The crowds were stunned and suddenly went into silence.

Socrates broke the silence and answer the question a young man asked him before.

Socrates said,

"Young man, you should get married. If you have a good marriage, you will be happy."

"If not, you become a philosopher." Socrates continued.