The era was such that very few women went to abroad. However, Ms. Kazumi Duran went to live in Italy and to Palau.

She says that she “floated like a coconut in the sea”. We asked her story how she had ended up in the shore of the United States and sprouted up her roots.

 

My father was an artist. Soon after the war, being an artist was not a suitable occupation to feed a family, but he persisted. He was a difficult man, very awkward to fit to the society. I didn’t like him. I didn’t want to be like him. However, I was good at drawing and ended up attending an art college.

Someone passed an air ticket to Italy to him. He gave it to me. The time was different from now. One could go to a foreign country with a one-way ticket and somehow could survive there. In Italy, I studied restoration of old paintings. Five years later, a family situation brought me back to Japan.

At that time, a person who could handle both languages, Italian and Japanese, was a rare commodity in Japan. As soon as I came back to Tokyo, I was hired by the Italian Government office. I worked for the Italian office for eight years, busy traveling back and forth between Tokyo and Italy. Creating art work was far from my mind. Then, my parents passed.

Scuba diving was suddenly a big hit with the young generation in Japan. I was totally engrossed in it. I visited beautiful seas in the tropical countries for diving trips, and it opened my eyes. I realized there was a world where you don’t need to know about Renaissance and still you are fine. I saw myself for the first time that I had been living in a terribly one-sided view point. I felt a strong need to learn a different world with new values. I obtained a language credential, got a job and flew to Palau.

 

The place where a rootless coconut found its home

 

I was already 40 years old when I was headed to Palau. I was quite sure of myself at that time why I needed to do this relocation. I wanted to release my big-headed past. I didn’t even bring any art materials. I met my future husband, an American, in Palau.

Since I had a full-time job in Palau, I couldn’t do many diving as much as I liked. However, I spent one month on a deserted island playing Robinson Caruso. My experience on this island, later, had become my short story “Banana Island” in my Web (kazumiduran.com).

Anybody who lives in a foreign country would come to a decision making point to decide to stay or go back. After four years in Palau, my fiancé needed to go back to the US. I chose to go with him to his country where I had never set my foot on even in a sightseeing trip. 

A long time had passed since. I’ve never wondered “if I stay or go back?” in the US. I was a stranger in Japan. I had been always a stranger all my life. After all, I was a black sheep as my father was. This country, the US, let me do and think as I like. The first time in my life, I can ease my mind. 

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Recently I took interest in the cycle of nature, studying the system of water and soils. I was a runt when I was a child. Now I am an instructor of Tai Chi, and of my own exercise class designed for seniors. One can change in a life. These years, I often feel my father’s influence in me. I can’t say I liked him as a human, but he showed me an abundantly wealthy world when I was a child.