Good afternoon, everyone. Please look around this room; right now, we are witnessing the living history of our community. Here stands the legacy of the “Issei” pioneers, alongside you—their Nisei, Sansei, and younger descendants. For those of you who grew up on this Brazilian soil, the reserved demeanor of your Japanese parents and grandparents might have always seemed like a deep mystery. You may have often wondered, “Why were they so incredibly strict?” or “Why didn’t they share their feelings with us more openly?”

This stern attitude could easily be perceived as coldness or emotional distance, perhaps making you feel that you weren’t truly understood by them. Today, however, allow me to interpret the silent hearts of these pioneers for you. It was never coldness. First, as we know well, there was a significant language barrier. But beneath that layer lay something far more profound: they carried the deeply rooted spirit of an era in Japan, from Meiji to the end of the war, where discipline prized a character that might seem strange today—the unyielding spirit of the Samurai.

It was a culture where love was not spoken with sweet phrases, but was instead demonstrated through quiet strength, absolute honesty, and an unshakeable posture. Here, in an unfamiliar wilderness, that very rigidity became their most extreme expression of love to ensure your survival. When the pioneers first arrived on this land, there were no guarantees or external aids. A single moment of weakness or over-indulgence could put the survival of the entire family at risk. To protect you, they had to shield their hearts, making them as hard as granite. They firmly believed that making you strong enough to survive on this earth was the greatest and only love they could offer.

If they maintained a solemn silence regarding the tears of their past or what they left behind in Japan, it was not merely due to a struggle with Portuguese. It was because they desperately wanted you to look toward the future in this new country, rather than dwelling on the past. Had Japan been a perfect paradise, they would never have boarded the ships to Brazil. They held a deep pride in their homeland, yet they placed their absolute faith in your future on this new ground. The testament to their sacrifice stands right here: this beautiful Nikkei community they carved out of the wilderness. Our comfortable lives today were built upon the foundation of that silent ideal.

Times have changed, and the deep devotion they guarded in silence for decades is now newly shared and understood by us. As a minister who has journeyed from Japan, I carry the solemn responsibility to preserve and transmit this historical and spiritual legacy. From this day forward, I ask that you view your Issei parents and grandparents not as distant or severe individuals, but as noble souls who, within that quiet gaze, carried a deep and desperate love for you. This temple is a sanctuary that preserves those silent hopes of the pioneers and carries their mission forward. Buddhism possesses a vast and precious eye that gazes across the continuous flow of time, uniting past, present, and future. This is why the Issei could finally rest their hearts, confidently entrusting the future to you. They carried the Meiji values and were as strong as samurais. Yet, on those quiet nights when they gazed at the moon alone, they too must have swallowed their tears and loneliness, enduring everything in silence. Let us continue to cherish this deep gratitude that binds all generations together.