Meditation On A Wave

The water crests and curls before it pounds the beach. Its foam spreads across the sand before the effervescent edge of the Pacifi c, rolls back by a few feet and another wave roughly takes its place.

This is Shi Shi. This is La Push. This is Long Beach.

One day in the early part of the 19th century this was Cape Flattery, and not far from this extreme Northwest point of the continental United States, three shipwrecked Japanese sailors found their way ashore after 14 months adrift at sea.

One was Iwakichi, 26. One was Kyukichi, 15. One was Otokichi. He was a mere 14.

They arrived at this place...