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The Blind Man on a Tokyo Train

By January 22, 2016September 15th, 2024Community

 

Visually Impaired

A Singaporean who just came back from a trip to Japan described what he thought was a remarkable scene.

He was taking a train from the airport to Tokyo city centre.  As he was very tired, he quickly settled himself into seat on the train.

Just a few moments later, a whole lot of Japanese who had been seated stood up.  He himself did not stand up, as he did not know what the standing up was all about.

Along came a blind man into the train. Obviously all the Japanese had stood up to give their seat to the blind man. After the blind man found a seat, they all got back into their seats.

To my Singaporean friend, this willingness on the part of so many Japanese to simultaneously offer their seat was a striking phenomenon, as he had not seen a similar reaction by so many people on a train in Singapore. He wished very much that this would happen Singapore in future.

And we have it within us, as was demonstrated when strangers came together to save a man pinned under a truck in Singapore last July – an article and video on this incident can be found here.

Honour is like a muscle – we are born with it, but whether it maintains its functionality and grows depends on whether we choose to exercise and train it. Honour is ours to lose.

May we choose to honour ourselves by never choosing to be blind to the needs of those around us.

 

Photo credit: https://honour.sg/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/d152d-visuallyimpaired.gif