"Awakened in Rome" by Akira Odani (Reprise)
– the scene pierced my heart with chilling sadness
A burst of laughter and the joyful cries of children caught my attention.
Akira Odani lives in the ancient city of St. Augustine, Florida. He belongs to Taste Life Twice Writers and the Florida Writers Association. Born in Tokyo, he had written extensively for the Japanese media. Still, more recently, his interest has turned to writing in English and subjects related to his experiences interacting with the two cultures. Some of his work has appeared in the pages of FWA anthologies, The Weekly Avocet, PSPP, Twists and Turns, and Lost & Found. He stays active, meditating, swimming, and playing pickleball.
Author’s Talk
Akira Odani
I looked back on seven decades of tumultuous life—joys, struggles, and tribulations unique to me—while searching for moments of pivotal shifts required for my growth sooner or later. I discovered in the process that I lacked a balanced self-knowledge, blindsided by an all-consuming ambition to succeed materially. As a teenager, my explicit goal was to abandon my unhappy family in Tokyo, which lacked love, comfort, and money. I imagined the exodus to the United States would free me from the constraints and push me toward nirvana. It wasn’t that simple.
Once in the United States, I developed the skills to earn a living. Through college, grad school, and on-the-job training, I acquired the craft of simultaneous conference interpreters between the two languages. The esoteric profession required constant traveling across the globe and satisfied my material needs, except the hitherto hidden longing for a warm family life.
There laid a profound cultural issue in the fabric of my psychology. The gap between the two countries and cultures was far more significant and profound than I understood then. Even though the Japanese must hold loving emotions within, they express them less explicitly to each other than the Americans. The personal relationship in my old country felt cold, subdued, and distant. Having lived in the United States for over a decade, I began to desire the emotional connections the Americans show among their friends and families. Greedy, but understandably, I wanted closeness, warmth, and financial security.
The episode about an evening on the streets of Rome launched me toward self-discovery, pivoted by changing jobs, divorce, struggle over custody, different partners, and countless hours of therapy. The incessant stormy turmoil, brought on by my own making, solidified the ground I stand today.—Akira Odani
Editor’s Note
Happy 99th Birthday, President Jimmy Carter—October 1
One of the two U.S. Presidents for whom Akira Odani served as simultaneous interpreter was Jimmy Carter. I had the honor of meeting and shaking the hand of the future president in February 1971 only two weeks after he had been inaugurated as Governor Jimmy Carter in Georgia. I was receiving an award, at age 20, from the Georgia Highway Contractors Association for some silly reason related to a summer job as I was struggling to get through Georgia Tech. (My encounter is shared in Season 1, February 5, 2020, in the story “Jimmy, Poison Ivy, and a Tattooed Moon.”) In 2015, former US Senator James Broyhill helped me send to former President Carter a copy of my book, “Before They Were Heroes at King’s Mountain” as Mr. Carter also wrote about the American Revolution. I am sure Akira joins me in wishing President Carter a happy 99th birthday with warm regards and respect.—Randell Jones
