Tetsuo Fukuyama

Escape to America Tetsuo Fukuyama

I stayed in the USA from 1989 to 2008. However, my purpose of moving to the USA was a little different from ordinary Japanese people going there.

Today, it is said that there are many cases of depression in Japan. In the 1980s, I was suffering from severe depression myself. I didn't even know it was depression at the time, but I still remember how I was horrifyingly distressed day after day. With the cold eyes of people everywhere, I couldn't help becoming conscious of suicidal thoughts.

In those days of agony, in order to escape reality, I decided to say goodbye to my old life in Japan and start a new life in a foreign country. As a result, I headed for New York and ended up staying there for nineteen years.

In the new setting of a strange country, I frantically went on living everyday without being able to give a thought to my illness. Then before I knew it, I was not only free from my deep depression but was happy with everyday life and had regained the joy of living.

Since coming back to Japan, I have come to miss my life in the US and cherish the memory of it. As I'm getting older, I am determined to organize these experiences into a book for fear of forgetting them and my deepest gratitude to the people I met in the US.