Interview With Tetsunao Yamamori

MJ: Dr. Tetsunao Yamamori, thank you for joining us today.

TY: Thank you, Mark, for inviting me to your show.

MJ: Well, thank you for coming along. We're here in Arizona, at the

headquarters of Food For the Hungry. Tell us about this organization, and

what you do here.

TY: Food For the Hungry is an international relief and development

organization, working in about 35 countries, at any given year, with a

staff of thirteen hundred full time. And then, not only do we respond to

the emergency situations - disasters, natural or man made, but also we will

be involved in the long term development assistance, such as water resource

development micro-enterprise, small business loans, primary health care,

and educational programs.

MJ: And what is your role here?

TY: I serve as the president of Food For the Hungry International.

MJ: People have an idea of this type of an organization, that you simply go

and take food to people, but it seems like it's much more than just that.

Can you tell us about that?

TY: No, the key in assisting people is that in the disaster situations, you

have to do everything, to deliver food and clothes and medicine, but relief

operations are not the answer to the long term, chronic hunger problem. In

the chronic hunger situations, where you have, in various parts of the the

world, it's not simply the disaster that brings the problem, but it's a

long term need that exists. In order to really lift themselves up, we have

to be involved in long term development assistance.

MJ: This is a difficult question, but are there certain types systems, for

instance governmental systems, that almost breed hunger, or make it

difficult for you to do your work?

TY: Well, of course, when you go into various third world countries,

corruption is high, the government restriction in terms of what we can do,

what we cannot do, but in the main, we do receive good cooperation, because

governments know that they need assistance from outside. So we enjoy a good

relationship. But in some cases, we do encounter some problems, in terms of

bureaucracy, in terms of some individual government officials dictating

their own wishes on us.

MJ: Do you find some countries that don't want to have you participate,

they don't want to admit that they have a need for help?

TY: There is a country or two that we have encountered, that it is almost a

shame for the government to admit that there is a need, but in various

places where we work, this has not been the main problem.

MJ: Can you tell us something about your background, why you decided to get

into this line of work?

TY: Well, I was seven years of age in 1944 or 45, and of course, I was part

of the Shudan Sokai which is elementary school students going away from the

city of Nagoya, which was very heavily bombed, and we were living in a

Buddhist temple, to avoid such a heavy bombing, and of course, famine is

defined as temporary depletion of foodstuff in a given geographical period,

geographical area for a short period of time. And money, even though you

may have money, you can not purchase it. We were in that kind of situation,

in Nagoya, where money doesn't buy, didn't buy food. We were involved in

very much of a struggle in the sense that we were eating bugs, we were

eating leaves of the potato, and just surviving. And naturally, there

wasn't enough nutrition in these foodstuffs, and I was very heavily

malnourished, and I was almost given up by our doctor... family doctor when

I returned home. And so that experience really incurred in me a desire to

do something about the peace of the world. And that's the way I went into

the study, and eventually wanted to be a diplomat for the government, in

order to deal with the situation in various parts of the world, but

eventually I decided that the real answer to this kind of a problem would

be to really deal with one-on-one relationship, with people-to-people

relationship, from non-governmental aspects, and so when I was faced with

the opportunity to join Food For the Hungry after 18 years of college and

university teaching as a sociologist, I took advantage of it, and I joined

Food For the Hungry about 15 years ago.

MJ: So you were growing up as an ordinary Japanese youngster in Nagoya. How

did you end up here in the U.S. with the very people who were bombing you

at the time?

TY: Well, when I was in high school, I competing in the English oratorical

contest, and I was very successful at it, and I won the Minister of

Education award for the nation, and in order to really reach there, I had

to ask a lot of American friends to coach me in the pronunciation of words,

as well as just the English language as such, and oratorical mannerism, and

so I met an Air Force Chaplain, the minister who worked with the American

Air Force, who happened to come from Oregon, and I was led to Christ at

that time, and then wanted to study in the United States, not only the

Bible, but also I wanted to study sociology in order to understand how

people actually live. And so that's the way I came to the United States and

I stayed on. I visited Japan frequently, but essentially I made my life in

academic teaching as a sociologist.

MJ: Did you have any sort of anger at Americans or at the troops because

they sort of, in a way, caused some of the suffering you were going

through?

TY: Well, at the time... Right after the war, and during the war, as a boy

of seven years of age, I didn't know anything about what was going on. The

kind of big picture that created the war. But essentially, I did not have

any such grudge. The military people who to came to the United - to Japan

right after the war as an occupation army were very kind to us, and though

we were suspicious, but still, they were very kind, and then that feeling

prevailed in my life, as I was growing up.

MJ: When you decided to come to the U.S., did you feel like you were

leaving your country or your nationality behind, or was there a sense of

that at the time?

TY: When I took that last voyage of Hikawa Maru which is now in Yokohama,

as a restaurant and hotel, previously it was known as the ship that carried

Japanese students to study in the United States. And I really felt at that

time that I would never see Japan.

MJ: It was a long trip back then? How many days.....?

TY: Well, 21 days. Of course, two or three days in Hawaii, and a couple of

days in Vancouver, Canada before we docked in Seattle. But I really felt

that when I decided to really study in America and then do something for

the desire I had to contribute to the peace of the world, I really didn't

think that I would ever return to Japan, but nowadays I go to Japan four or

five times a year in conjunction with my work.

MJ: What did your family think about this at the time, when you were

leaving?

TY: Very hesitant about my leaving, but essentially I'm very pleased with

my father and my mother, and my family who had backed me about my studying

in America.

MJ: Now, when you were at university, you attended Duke?

TY: Yes, I did.

MJ: Did you study hunger related issues, or what did you study while you

were there?

TY: Well, I studied sociology for my Phd work, and there, of course, one of

the areas of study in sociology is third world development. And third world

development programs of course introduced me to the issue of world hunger.

MJ: And from there did you..., you were teaching after that?

TY: Yes, I taught in several schools. I stayed at Duke for a while and also

went to Milligan College in Tennessee, and also Macmillan University in

Texas, and Biola University in California. I really wanted to move from one

school to another while I was still young, trying to understand the

American people in different parts of the United States, because there are

many cultures within the United States, and as a sociologist of course I

was very much keen on wanting to learn about the way people live in

different parts of the United States, and they are all different, you know.

MJ: Well, what did you learn? Tell us while we're here.

TY: Well, I just learned that people were the same everywhere, except the

ways in which they live, they way they love things... in the North Carolina

- in the part of Tennessee where we lived It's what they call...

"Hillbilly" type of expression is used to describe those people. They are

very proud people, even when their poverty really led them to the kind of

lifestyle that was not acceptable in other parts of the United States. Not

all of them, but in some areas. Severe poverty is still existing in that

part of the country. But they are very proud. They don't want outside help.

At Christmas time, college students and I used to put together Christmas

packages, but they were very resistant at first, even to receive any such

expressions of Christmas love. But they were very resistant, but

eventually, year after year, as we tried to befriend them, they were able

to receive such assistance. But they are very proud people. And then you go

into the urban context in the United States, like Los Angeles and

thereabouts, the culture is quite different, and so it was very interesting

to me to see American people in various circumstances.

MJ: It seems to me that a lot of these types of organizations are sort of

church based. Is yours church based, and what is the connection?

TY: We try to follow the compassionate nature of Christ and his teachings

in terms of loving other people. There are many non-governmental

organizations, not only in this country, in the United States, but also in

Japan that are based on some religious group. The reason is, most of the

religions do teach people to love and to care for other people, to show

compassion. And so it is very natural that religiously motivated people

come to the aid of those in need, first of all. And, so, I think it is a

good thing.

MJ: Now, both in the U.S. and Japan in recent years, we've seen religions

doing a lot of damage in various capacities. What are your thoughts on that

in relation to what you do?

TY: You know, there are aberrations in anything, including religious

practices. But they are not the main, the core of religious practitioners,

they are the aberrations, and we need to remember that. But in what we do,

there are people who are Christians, non-Christians, civic leaders,

ordinary people. We receive a lot of help from these, as well as from

churches, and synagogues, by the way, because they are concerned about

those people who are suffering. The crucial thing here is that

organizations like ours do deliver what they say they will do. In other

words, we have to do a professional job in terms of delivering the

assistance that we say we provide to those who are in need, rather than

simply going around the world, spreading a few dollars here and there. We

have our people on the staff who are on the ground. Therefore when people

ask, "Does your food get to the people in need? Does your system actually

really stretch to those people who actually need to learn from you in terms

of long term development?" we say "Yes." Because unless we have the

assurance by providing our own staff, working with the people in need,

cooperatively, together, we would not even launch any programs. And even

when we had the 1984-85 Ethiopia famine, we deployed about 300 staff

members there. We have brought in our own vehicles from Sweden. We flew

Scandia trucks, about three of them. And then various vehicles we brought,

some of the best vehicles are from Japan - Land Rovers and others. And we

had our own transportation capabilities, we had our own people on the

ground, so when the ship docked at the port in Ethiopia, we were there with

our vehicles, so it didn't pile up on the port, as it had been the problem

there. We had our people delivering the food in the emergency situation,

and our own staff was trained for working in various parts of Ethiopia in

terms of long term assistance.

MJ: Can you give us an idea, as explicitly as you can, about some current

projects that you have, maybe in particular countries?

TY: Yes. In terms of disaster situations, we have been working in Rwanda,

Zaire with our staff. We have been shipping commodities to

Bosnia-Herzegovina and C.I.S. countries, the former Soviet Union republics.

We have been heavily involved in assisting them. But long term programs are

in areas that you have heard of having problems, like Ethiopia. Mozambique,

for example. Mozambique is our biggest operation country. And of course,

Kenya. The northern part of Kenya is always a problem. We work in Cambodia,

Vietnam, Laos, Thailand in some parts is very much in need. In Latin

America, Bolivia is a heavy operation for us. In the "alto plano" regions,

the high altitude regions, and we work in 35 countries, so some of those

are more prominent, but the moment you feel like you have things under

control in some disaster situations, others break out, and so we are

constantly on the watch in terms of the needs that exist.

MJ: When you are traveling around to these types of countries, I'm sure you

have a chance to meet young children who are in your position. What are you

thinking when you see them? Are you seeing yourself in those little

children?

TY: You know, the way I came into Food For the Hungry, was the experience

on the Thai border in 1980. I took about 57 nurses and nursing faculty from

Biola to work that summer, during that summer, in the refugee camps. And of

course, Cambodians in battered situations and terrible physical conditions

came and crossed over the border into Thailand, and they were housed in

refugee camps. And Food For the Hungry was working there. And so I was in

charge of 57 nurses and nursing faculty and logistics personnel in working

with Food For the Hungry in refugee camps. And there, when we were

attending to the most vulnerable of all these refugees -namely the

children, under the age of five, they are the most vulnerable people- and

we were attending to them, our nurses were in charge of their patients. But

many of them died, because their conditions were so bad that no help could

really improve any conditions, and many died. And I was making rounds in

order to see how the nurses were doing. And of course, after the months...

the summer, well, toward the end of the summer I was going through these,

and clearly in my mind's eye, I began seeing my own face on the faces of

these dying children. And after that, I just couldn't concentrate on

teaching. I had had 18 years of college and university teaching by that

time, but returning to the campus, I couldn't focus on teaching, though I

did manage to teach, but my heart wasn't in it. And eventually, six months

later, Food For the Hungry's board of directors issued an invitation to me

to succeed the founding president, Dr. Larry Ward. That's the way I came

in, but as you say, children are the most vulnerable, no matter where they

are in the disaster situations or chronic hunger situations. And so my

heart goes out to children, and I often remember my own experience and that

grabs hold of my heart in wanting to do more than what we are doing.

MJ:Have your views on human suffering changed over the years since you were

a young boy growing up in Japan til today?

TY: Really, no. One of the things in our trade, so to speak, many people

enter with enthusiasm but after several years they burn out, because it's a

hard reality. The suffering is something that you either are exposed and

be able to survive yourself or you will be overcome by suffering, prolonged

suffering that you are exposed to. In our situation it's not simply

humanitarian"do good" attitude that we attempt to these suffering

situations... personally, I have a very strong conviction about Christ's

own suffering, and His desire to assist people who are in suffering and we

just keep on remembering and I keep on remembering such an example in my

life. So somehow we survive because we remember the example in Christ that

we too need to be involved and that saves me and saves many of our

colleagues working at food for the hungry and other organizations from

"compassion fatigue," so to speak or being overcome by continuous exposure

to suffering.

MJ: We were discussing children, you have children of your own, can you

tell us about your family?

TY: Yes, we have two children, a daughter 26 years of age, is going to be

a police officer, she studied criminal justice and so she will be involved

in that. And also our son who has studied political science in the

university, but he has desired to start a new small business and he has a

karate studio, he is a karate expert and he has been a champion, an

international champion in his division many times over, so he has just

started about 2 weeks ago this karate studio and he already has a large

number of students working with him so I am very pleased and proud of both

of them.

MJ: Was there any pressure on your children to follow in your footsteps in

your work?

TY: My wife and I have never pressured them and in fact they are very

free. As you can see, they have chosen different courses of life and they

may still change, but we have never applied any pressure on them. I had

thought that... when they were born maybe one of them would go into

academic life, but they have not shown any such inclination and we are

happy with whatever they like to do and as long as they feel the sense of

meaning in their lives and both of them have been wanting to help people;

in karate it's a discipline, respect, and others, and the police officer in

the town he's having his studio came to and asked him to cooperate with him

in terms of helping those juvenile delinquents who are detained in jail

that whether or not he would be involved in helping them. So there is a

tremendous on both of our children, to really want to help people in

whatever field they choose, so we are very pleased with that.

MJ: How do you spend your time, in a typical, if there is such a thing as a

typical day. How do you spend your time?

TY: Well, I am on the road a lot, traveling extensively, because we have

not only 35 countries, but also I make a lot of protocol visits to various

heads of states, United Nations units, and because we are collaborators in

terms of some of the refugee work with the United Nations High Commissioner

of Refugees in Geneva. We... Our main office is in Geneva, Switzerland for

Food For the Hungry International. We have an Arizona office, which is the

U.S. office, but I am the president of both the U.S. and International,

but I have to live somewhere, and I live in Arizona, because we have to

raise money for Food For the Hungry International to be able to operate

around the world. And so I am involved...

MJ: What are your goals with the organization? Where would you like to take

it in the next ten to twenty years?

TY: Actually, we do have a plan for the next five years, until the year

2000. Our motto, the goal of "Two thousand by the year two thousand." Which

simply means that the successful development of programs in two thousand

communities. We now work in thirteen hundred communities around the world,

and we want to expand that to two thousand communities where we are doing

very good development programs that really actually help people who are in

need of a level of accomplishment in their lives, that they can manage on

their own, without outside intervention. That's the kind of success profile

that we have in our minds, and I think we are moving ahead. We will

increase our staff by another five hundred to seven hundred people by the

year 2000. So we'll have two thousand, two thousand two hundred by the year

2000. And so these people are mostly college graduates mostly. Some hold

Phd degrees in various areas of agriculture management and health fields.

Some people have water specialization; digging wells and constructing dams.

And so we have an army of people who desire to serve those people who are

suffering and try to do just even a little bit in their own lives and

through their lives to help these people. And we have a bunch of good

people on our staff.

MJ: Now when you are traveling abroad, is it primarily raising funds, or

actually being on site, or what is your role?

TY: I try to do both because we... Food For the Hungry International has

partner offices in Japan, the U.S., Canada, Korea, Norway, and the U.K.,

the United Kingdom. And these are the countries that are providing

personnel for us, they are providing commodities, they are raising funds in

order to help the operations of Food For the Hungry International, and then

we do have about thirty countries, approximately thirty countries in the

Third World countries where we operate, and so what I need to do each year

is attend the board meetings of all the partner offices. And that enables

me to visit Japan three or four times a year for the board meeting, and

then on the way to southeast Asia, and on the way back from southeast Asia

fields where I visit my staff, I drop in in Japan, so it's very convenient

for me, and to say hello to my family in Nagoya. But mainly I visit the

fields, I visit the partner offices on fund raising issues. I visit the

leaders of the state, various states, countries, the United Nations heads

in various branches, and so just a protocol visit, and also it's part of

my travel schedule.

MJ: As a sociologist, and an expert in hunger, is poverty more than just

hunger? Is it something deeper than that, or how do you define it?

TY: It's... If you are getting to whether or not poverty is limited to

physical hunger, it isn't. Hunger, in general, requires a very deep

understanding, a thorough understanding of the totality of the human being.

Hunger affects not only psychologically, physically, and spiritually,

socially. It is... Really, hunger really is an interdisciplinary field for

us to comprehend.

MJ: Dr. Yamamori, what would you desire from American or Japanese

youngsters? How would you like to see them respond to world hunger?

TY: My real desire is that Japanese or American youth, both of them, are

able to come out prepared to be involved in hunger issues, with the special

skills of development. And there is tremendous need out there, and it won't

go away. And we really need to have people who can serve as ambassadors of

goodwill in helping people to help themselves.

MJ: You know, we meet a lot of people on this program, many wealthy people,

obviously, but I'm trying to get a sense of, when you get up in the

morning, you probably don't make a lot of money in this line of work. What

motivates you? What gets you up out of bed to come here to work and do this

work?

TY: It's the satisfaction that I am making a difference through the

instrumentality of Food For the Hungry International as an organization in

really making even a small dent in this tremendously needy world. There are

so many people. 35,000 people die every day because of hunger, or hunger

related diseases. And that means that if you have heard of... one hundred

Boeing airplanes, 747's, full of children crashing every day. 100 planes

crashing every day, killing 26,000 children out of 35,000 who die every

day it would make a big splash in the newspaper, in television and

everything, but it doesn't. But the reality is, 26,000 out of 35,000 who

die every day are children. And 100 747's full of children crashing every

day. And that we need to remember. Whether we recognize it or not,

somewhere in the world 35,000 people die every day because of hunger or

hunger related diseases.

MJ: Thank you for joining us today.

TY: Thank you, Mark.

QUESTIONS

Dr. Ted Yamamori, thank you for joining us today. We're here at the, in

Arizona, at the offices of Food For the Hungry. Tell us what you do here.

What would you say is your role here?

When people think of organizations like this, they think it's just simply

going and giving food to people. But it seems to be much more than that.

Can you tell us about that?

This is kind of a difficult question to ask, but are there certain kinds of

systems, governmental systems that, you know, breed hunger, or make it

difficult for you to do your work in those countries?

Did you have any anger within yourself, you know, at these American troops

who, you know, in a way sort of caused some of your suffering?

Was there any anger on your part toward Americans or American troops?

What did your family think about this at the time?

How did your family respond to this?

Now, I understand you attended Duke University. Did you study hunger

related issues there, or what did you study in?

I understand you attended Duke University. When you were there, did you

study hunger related issues, or what fields did you major in?

It seems that a lot of these type of organizations are, tend to be church

based. Is that the case with Food For the Hungry?

It seems that a lot of these organizations like yours tend to be sort of

church based in some way. Is that the case with this organization?

You know, recently, both here in the U.S. and maybe even in Japan, we've

seen that religions can do a lot of damage in society. What are your

thoughts on that in terms of what your group does?

You know, recently, here in the U.S. and maybe even in Japan to some

extent, we've seen some of the dam

age that religions can do. What are your thoughts on that in terms of the

work that you do?

Can you can give us an idea, as explicitly as you can about some of the

projects you're involved in in different countries, and what exactly you

do?

I'm sure that from time to time, you have a chance to meet, you know,

youngsters in other countries who are kind of in your position that you

were in when you were seven years old. Are you thinking of yourself? Do you

see yourself in their eyes?

Do you think your views on human suffering have changed over the years from

the time you were a little boy growing up in Nagoya to today?

Well, we were talking about children. I know you have children of your own.

Can you tell us about your family?

We were talking about children, and of course you have children of your

own. Can you tell us about your own family?

Now when you are traveling, is it primarily to raise funds, or are you

actually, you know, working on site, or how do you spend your time

traveling?

As a sociologist, and also a person who deals with hunger, do you see

poverty as something more than hunger?

As a sociologist and a person who deals with hunger issues, do you see

poverty as something just beyond simple hunger, or are there other issues

involved?

You know, on this show, we meet a lot of interesting, famous, successful

people who are often wealthy, but I'm guessing that you probably don't make

a lot of money in this line of work. So what is it that motivates you? What

gets you up in the morning? What makes you want to come here to work and

work on this stuff?

We have a lot of interesting, wealthy, and famous guests on this show, but

I'm guessing that you don't make lots of money in this line of work. So

what is that, you know, gets you up in the morning and makes you want to

come here to work? What motivates you?

Dr. Yamamori, thank you for joining us today.