Sadako Ogata: Japan's bright face
Tokyo (AsiaNews) Last month's riotous anti-Japanese demonstrations in China deformed and stained Japan's image in the world. as this was happening, 78-year-old Sadako Ogata, former head of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) was in London, a guest of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, for the release of her book The Turbulent Decade: Confronting the Refugee Crises of the 1990s.
The book "should be read by all politicians and officials involved with issues of international peace," writes Hugh Cortazzi, a former British Ambassador to Japan and currently a writer with The Japan Times. "It is a searing account of a series of humanitarian disasters that show that the capacity for man's inhumanity to man has not changed since the tragedies and slaughter of two world wars."
In it, Ms Ogata is both scholar and committed defender of refugees, and presents a Japan with a clear and bright face.
Born in Tokyo in 1927 in a family of diplomats, she spent her earliest years in China. After she returned home she had the good fortune of attending Seishin (Sacred Heart) Catholic School, the same school where the current Empress, who is younger by a few years, also studied.
During the war, young Sadako was puzzled by her parents' reticence vis-à-vis the gung-ho nationalist spirit of the time. Her eyes were opened with Japan's surrender.
Since then she has dedicated all her intellectual and moral energy to understand the causes of war within the context of international relations.
After graduating from prestigious universities in Japan and the United States, she started teaching in two Christian universities in Tokyo, one CatholicSophia University, the other ProtestantInternational Christian University.
In 1982, the Japanese government named her Japan's representative at UN Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR).
Eventually, whilst most people start to think about retirement, she became a household name around the world when in December 1990, the UN General Assembly appointed her to the post of UN High Commissioner for refugees, a post that was supposed to last three years but stretched out to ten after the General Assembly twice renewed its confidence in her.
This was the most difficult period for the UNHCR since its inception in 1950. During this decade the refugee problem became more complex as its numbers increased into the tens of millions, including millions who were internally displaced as a result of domestic ethnic and religious strife.
In her book, Ms Ogata focuses on four international crises that marked her tenure as commissioner (1991-2001): Kurdish refugees after the 1990-1991 Gulf War, the Balkans, the Great Lakes in central Africa and Afghanistan.
As UN Commissioner, she led rescue operations from the field and not from her Geneva headquarters. Dressed in ordinary clothes, she went wherever there were refugees or displaced people who needed encouragement and understanding.
Known as the 'angel of refugees, she played the role of catalyst for many a religious group, missionary, NGO and government agency. Thanks to her efforts, millions of refuges and displaced people were able to go home.
Her humanitarian action was informed by her intelligent analysis of the underlying political, cultural and social causes that generated refugee crises. Thus, governments listened to her and relied on her to chair international meetings on security.
In 2000 when the UNHCR celebrated its 50th anniversary, she wrote to the Holy Father. John Paul II wrote back and ended his letter on a personal note, saying that "your presence and activities have left an indelible sign on the history of the UNHCR . . . You have performed your important duties with discretion and sensitivity towards the political, philosophical and religious circumstances of the people and states you had to deal with. At the same time, your personal commitment and devotion to the great humanitarian causes of the UNHCR cannot be seen as something separate from your witness that promoting the welfare of man and society is intimately tied to living our faith in Jesus Christ".
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