Following with courage and hope

Sister Margit Nagy

“What are you going to do in San Antonio with a doctorate in Asian history, Margit? Why do you need to know Japanese?” questioned my family and the CDPs during my graduate studies at the University of Washington in the 1970s. Honestly, I myself didn’t know! What kept me going as a CDP pioneer in the Asia field was a deep conviction: if I really believed in the equality of all God’s children, I needed to learn about non-Westerners through their eyes, not just ours, before teaching history at OLLU. As long as Providence opened the way for me, I had to follow with courage and hope.

Through the lens of our 2011-2017 Chapter Statement I now understand that much of my ministry has focused on “replacing barriers that exclude with bridges that unite.” At OLLU that meant developing new courses on “Modern Asia,” “The Arab World/Islamic Society,” “US Immigration History,” and “Japanese I and II” while also infusing non-Western elements into existing history courses. As Director of OLLU’s Kliesen International Center, and with support from OLLU President Sr. Elizabeth Anne Sueltenfuss, I initiated OLLU’s Kumamoto Student Exchange that gave OLLU students a year-long study tour in Japan while Kumamoto students came to OLLU. I also worked to make all of OLLU’s international students feel more a part of OLLU.

In the SA community my academic training in the Asia field, Japanese language ability, and focus on bridge building led to my election as the first woman President of the Japan America Society of San Antonio. That position provided unique opportunities like coordinating the San Antonio volunteers for the 1989 Kumamoto Fair at the SA Convention Center/River Center and then the binational 75th Anniversary Commemoration of the Japanese Monument at the Alamo. Each event brought together people of diverse cultures who would ordinarily not interact in settings that fostered mutual understanding and appreciation.

Two past experiences for me most clearly spelled “Providence at work.” My first year at OLLU the SA Chancery, which had heard from Sr. Charlene that I spoke Japanese, asked me to prepare a woman for Baptism in Japanese. Living with Japanese women religious during my two Fulbright stays in Japan, I had the Japanese-language materials with me to do just that. The second was giving the Keynote Speech for the opening of Kumamato City’s Center for Women and Culture in Japanese.

This May I said “yes” when invited by the Texas General Land Office and the Alamo to plan and carry out the November 5, 2014, Centennial Commemoration of the Japanese Monument at the Alamo. With conflicts dominating the news daily, I see the Centennial Commemoration as an opportunity to recall that World War I did not deter the donor, Dr. Shigetaka Shiga, from offering his goodwill monument honoring the qualities of loyalty and self-sacrifice, qualities of heroes honored by the peoples of all nations. Neither did the anti-Japanese hostility on the West coast prevent San Antonians from welcoming Dr. Shiga and accepting his gift. Not just a past event, the Centennial is a reminder of the potential each has, even in times of conflict, to envision new ways to build bridges of understanding across the differences of countries and cultures