ONOstalgia

Nostalgia has a negative connotation from being homesick, to melancholy, and longing. When I hear the word nostalgia I think of someone who is depressed and will not move on with their life due to their past experiences. I’m going to contradict myself here. Nostalgia can be a good thing, as long as there is purpose to the reminiscing of the past. Like catching up with friend you have not seen in a while, or traveling to a foreign country and noticing how things are different from one country to another.

Nostalgia can be dangerous if you believe your life was better in the past than it is in the present. Dangerous like a divorced woman that is still single because they have not gotten over their previous marriage, all they can do is focus on what went wrong in the past. Or in Ono’s case not moving on with his life because he his scared of change.

A pleasurable memory was when Ono said “my pupils seemed to share a fascination for hearing about this early part of my career- perhaps because they were naturally interested to learn what their teacher was doing at their age” (72). He misses the attention that he was given. His students woulded look up to him for guidance and inspiration. Remembering that past experiance would make anyone nostalgic, who does not want to inspire and to be cherished. Ono remembers multiple momements  that made him happy, mabe his life was better before the war.

Another pleasure that Ono gets when at Mrs Kawakami’s place where he spends most of his evenings recalling the good times he had. “The other night after we had been laughing over just such a set of reminiscences” life could not be better (75). Ono still enjoys going to the bar, talking, remembering the good times and how things used to be. People come together and remember what times they had together, it’s a celebration.

Ono did not remember a conversation about an important poster that Shintaro made. Ono said “the China crisis? I’m afraid I don’t recall our quarrelling, Shintaro” (102). This is a great example of forgetting the past that was negative. In his nostalgic way of life how Ono prefers to remember the good times and have the bad slip away from his mind.

Nostalgia is an interesting concept of remembering the past. Living in the past is not healthy and potentially dangerous. Ono has it half right, remember the good and forget the bad. When it should be remember the good and learn from the bad, especially the past that you don’t want to remember otherwise history tends to repeat itself.