Civil rights icons’ giving minds

When retired Japanese business owner Seiho Tajiri first came to San Francisco, he was leaving behind a Japan fresh from World War II. He also was leaving behind, or so he thought, discrimination and racism he experienced from American and allied troops occupying his home country.

But Tajiri quickly realized racial enmity can follow you anywhere and even more so in the U.S. It was in the Black community, however, where this descendant of Japanese samurai found friendship, respect and something that he truly loved for the remainder of his life: soul food!

Among his many high-powered friends, two stood out: U.S. Rep. John Lewis and the Rev. C.T. Vivian. Tajiri said both Lewis and Vivian possessed a special quality known as “ocean mind”: a value, attitude and belief system that is receptive, appreciative and embracing of all the differences human beings represent. Most people do not have an ocean mind. But Lewis and Vivian did. “They are like the ocean,” Tajiri would say, “they can touch all shores, all countries and all people — evenly and the same.”

As the world honors these two great men after their passing, I also remember Tajiri. More than that, I think about how this country and the world need what Lewis and Vivian had — an ocean mind.