The other day, I was invited to the wedding of my friend's eldest son. The reception was held at a Catholic church and had a magnificent, pleasant atmosphere.

I met this friend through work, and we still work together today. In fact, this friend and my family have a long history. In the diary left behind by my father, Tokimitsu Miyamura (who passed away in 1995), there are many accounts of how he was looked after by his grandfather, Grandpa Yoshihiro, when he was still single and working as a dental technician in the city of Santos.

One of them contained the following passage:

Today is my 28th birthday, February 12th, 1942. I felt that I should do something to celebrate, but I knew I couldn't do it on my own, and I was so swamped with work that I ended up just spending the whole day celebrating.

I went to Mr. Yoshihiro's house for the first time in four or five days, and everyone welcomed me with open arms. Mr. Yoshihiro is manly and expresses his feelings clearly. Mr. and Mrs. Yoshihiro also had a very sad look on their faces, saying, "It's fate..." When (the eldest daughter) Mitsuko brought tea, his wife said, "Mitsuko, I hear Miyamura is getting married." Mitsuko replied, "Oh, really?" I thought she was a good wife, and a wise one at that.

I talked with Mr. and Mrs. Yoshihiro about social issues until 12:30. Our Imperial Army is advancing with force in the battlefield of Singapore. Our army enters the city, and Lieutenant General Yamashita issues a letter of surrender to the British commander.

My father often visited the Yoshihiro family at that time. The couple hoped that my father would get engaged to their eldest daughter, Mitsuko. The "fate" that the Yoshihiros were referring to was when my father met and fell in love with my mother, Toshiko, around that time.

Before my mother passed away in 2003, she told me about this time while reading my father's diary together. She said that when she met my father, she had someone else in her heart. It was unrequited love on my father's part. If these circumstances had been even slightly different, my life would have been very different. 70 years later, I became friends with the grandson of Mr. and Mrs. Yoshihiro, and attended the wedding of their son. It is truly a strange coincidence.

Mitsuko was my friend's aunt and passed away earlier this year. Several of Mitsuko's relatives were in attendance at the reception, and I had the opportunity to speak with them. If I hadn't forced myself to read through my father's diary, which was written in hard-to-read cursive writing, I would never have known this fact.

By the way, in the wedding ceremony of the Japanese colonial community, when the master of ceremonies and the representative of the bride and groom give their congratulatory speeches, it is customary to talk about the histories of both families and the couple. However, in recent wedding receptions, as they have become more localized, it seems that information about both families is rarely explained, which is a little sad. Sometimes, the reception ends without knowing anything about either the bride or groom until the very end.

A few decades ago, the daughter of the vice president of a major Japanese company where I worked was getting married to a Japanese man who was studying in the United States, and I was invited to attend the ceremony. The wedding took place at a Catholic church near Consolacão in São Paulo. After the mass, in which the priest celebrated before the bride and groom accompanied by the sound of hymns, members of both families were gathered on both sides of the stage. Usually, at this time, the bride and groom give their blessings to each of the members of both families and those involved, and then hug each other.

However, at that moment, the vice president's daughter quietly came up to her parents, greeted them with a solemn look on her face, and said, "Father, Mother, thank you so much for taking care of us for so many years," before bowing deeply. The guests who saw this were overwhelmed by the solemn scene, which is rarely seen at Brazilian weddings, and at the same time, were so moved that they fell silent.

It was a little strange, and this moment always comes back to me.

Our wedding ceremony in the Catholic Church, surrounded by relatives.

© 2013 Hidemitsu Miyamura