Yuji Murayama
Auditor, All-Japan Association of Joining Hands Child-raising Groups

1. The birth of Parents’ Groups

I would like to introduce the history of All-Japan Association of Joining Hands Child-raising Groups (formerly Parents’ Groups), of which I have been a member for about 40 years until the present.

In 1952, when signs of stability were slowly starting to appear in each person’s life in the midst of the post-War devastation, the Joining Hands Parents’ Group was formed in Tokyo as the result of a call by three mothers.

The third daughter of one of these three mothers, Chikako Kato, was disabled, what was known at the time as “retarded”. She commuted from Omiya City (now Saitama City), Saitama Prefecture, where she lived, to Jinryu Elementary School in Kanda, Tokyo, which was equipped with a special education class.

2. “As Heaven commands me”

Ms. Kato was the Chairperson of the Joining Hands Parents’ Group at the time of its launch, and was also the first Chairperson of the Saitama Prefecture Joining Hands Parents’ Group when it was formed the next year.

Ms. Kato wrote a special contribution entitled “As Heaven commands me” for the 50th anniversary publication of the Saitama Prefecture Joining Hands Parents’ Group in 2002. In this piece, she talked of how she learned about the dire situation in which “mentally retarded” children were placed at that time when she enrolled her daughter in Jinryu Elementary School. Only a handful of children were able to enter special education classes like this one. The majority of children were abandoned: one was used by bad adults and committed crimes, another was tied up inside a dark room like a dog or cat. This was an era in which the parents of children with disabilities shrank from the cold stares of society, and some, worried about what the future held, chose death, taking their children along with them.

The more she learned about this situation, the more anguished her days became as, convinced that she had to do something, she worried about what she could do to save these children. One day, when she heard from a doctor whom she knew about the process by which the movement to prevent tuberculosis was achieving success, she had a sudden revelation. The only way to help all the children in the country was to start a movement for their protection which aimed at passing legislation on education and applying the welfare laws. She was convinced, she wrote, that this was the mission that Heaven had bestowed upon her.

Ms. Kato related that her campaign after the foundation of the Joining Hands Parents’ Group became a severe trial which changed not only her own fate, but also that of her family. In the midst of day-to-day campaigning, having pushed herself to the limits of her strength, she was laid low and on the verge of death on countless occasions. For the sake of this campaigning, which involved going back and forth between central Tokyo and Saitama several days in a row, she sold her house and land, and whatever else she could. Even when the rented house to which the family had moved became decrepit, she was unable to repair it, and they always lived in extreme poverty. For these reasons, she said that her children had to go through harsher, more miserable experiences than she could ever know.

The activities of Ms. Kato’s Parents’ Groups over the 40 years from 1952 were truly an epic day-to-day struggle. Even reading about them now, I feel my chest tighten. How many parents have been encouraged by the figures of our predecessors like Ms. Kato?   

3. A rebuke from the kindergarten head was a wake-up call

Around 1975, when I was living in Chichibu City, an area of Saitama Prefecture where the population was declining particularly rapidly, I was already worrying about the issue of starting school for my eldest son, who had turned five. I had already taken him for check-ups at various medical institutions, and he had been diagnosed with autism and developmental disabilities, issues which were just starting to be taken up by the mass media.

Autism is also called an “emotional disorder”, and a specialist in this field advised that educating him in a class for children with emotional disorders, rather than a special education class for children with disabilities, would be most effective. Feeling as though I were clutching at a straw, I called for the establishment of a class for children with emotional disorders at an elementary school within the school district in my city, petitioning the city council. However, there were many things of which I was unaware, such as that there needed to be at least five eligible children in order for a class to be set up, and that the teacher in charge needed training lasting a year. Nevertheless, the head of the Board of Education responded positively, and so I immediately made individual visits to each of the parents of children who potentially had autism or developmental disabilities like my son’s, doing my best to get them to understand the situation, and submitted a list of five children to the Board of Education. 

There is a reason why I, who had only just turned 30 at the time, was able to be so proactive. It is because I was provoked by a rebuke from the head of the kindergarten which had looked after my disabled eldest son until then. It was on his graduation day, after he had been going there for two years. I, who stubbornly believed that bringing up children was the mother’s job, took part for the first time in place of my wife, who was getting ready for the birth of our eldest daughter. I was called out by name in front of the 50 or so parents of the graduating children: “There is only one of the graduating children whose subsequent educational path has not yet been confirmed. This is not because the child has a disability, but because his father used his work as an excuse not to think seriously about him.”

The headteacher went on to say to me, “When the graduating children are playing in a group, take a good look at what your child is doing”. While the other children acted out their roles in the group in an orderly manner, my son alone stood out, doing something different. Until then, while accepting his disability, I had believed that he would catch up someday, holding onto an unfounded hope. However, watching this scene, I was confronted by the reality, and the shock felt like a blow to the head. For a while, I was overcome with remorse and could not stop my tears. Everything that the head of the kindergarten had said was true. This was the moment in which I decided, as a father, to confront my son’s disability.

Based on my experience of serving as the representative of this group of the parents of the five children, I joined in PTA activities proactively from the time when my son enrolled in a special needs school, eventually serving as head of the supporters’ group and of the PTA. For me, this was a natural progression.

Then, while I was head of the PTA, I learned of the existence of the All-Japan Association of Joining Hands Parents’ Groups which I introduced at the start of this piece. I founded an organisation based on the group of the parents of the five children in my hometown, Chichibu, which I mentioned earlier. The organisation joined the prefectural and national organisations as a result of our wishes and decisions. Throughout my eventual roles as Chairperson of my local Parents’ Group, Chair of the Board of the Saitama Prefectural Joining Hands Child-raising Groups, and Deputy Chair of the All-Japan Association of Joining Hands Child-raising Groups, I was inspired by the words of many of my predecessors, including Chikako Kato and Kazuo Itoga, founder of Biwako Gakuen school. 

In the words of one father who wrote a piece for our publicity magazine, “If parents take it easy, it seems to me that our children’s happiness becomes more remote.” These words brought me to the conviction that if I do not work so that everyone can be happy, my child cannot be happy. I believe that such thoughts have been the driving force changing systems, society, and people.

4. To the young people who have the responsibility for the welfare of disabled people

Through the activities of Parents’ Groups, I have learned by watching many predecessors at work. At the same time. through study meetings and related publications, I learned the name of “Kazuo Itoga”, regarded as “the father of disability welfare”. I encountered Kazuo Itoga’s words “To make these children the light of the world” along with his philosophy, and they gave me an inexpressible urge, a feeling which shook me to the core.

Unfortunately, I was unable to see him or hear his voice in life, but I was able to see that the many “Sayings of Kazuo Itoga” which he left behind do not simply confine themselves to the realm of disability welfare, but lead to trust in human society and a society filled with peace and joy.

I would like to pass on the quotation which had the greatest impact on me to the young people who aim to be leaders.

  “Become the aware people in the world. The aware people are the people with responsibility.”

Conclusion

In 1992, my eldest son died of an illness at the age of 21. However, if I have been able to approach these words of my predecessors even a little, I believe that this is probably the wish of my deceased son. As I approach my 80th birthday, I have been given the opportunity to work at a social welfare corporation managing support facilities for people with disabilities in my hometown.

I intend to continue to do my utmost for the transformation of community life into one which everyone can live ordinary lives in their local societies, whether or not they have a disability.