Nobuo Hara speaks his mind

Compiled by Judit Kawaguchi at The Japan Times (10.09.2007). Quotes :

When being hit is normal, not feeling much gets normal, too. We got hit a lot. Our teachers in the Navy all carried a thin, flexible bamboo stick and slashed the center of our forehead with it. My buddy got hit, and as I turned, I could see the giant red bump growing on his forehead. I started laughing, got hit instantly, and so did my buddy, again. Then I noticed that the second bump was forming on top of the first. That was just the funniest thing I have ever seen. Every day was like this. We were kids and it was fun.

Playing jazz literally nourished us. It meant that we could drink beer and eat sandwiches. I was 20 and it was 1946. I was back in Toyama when I received a letter from my Navy buddy inviting me to audition for the symphony orchestra at the Teikoku Gekijo, or Imperial Theater, in Tokyo. I took the train up and bumped into a flautist friend at the entrance. He also got a letter. He told me that we couldn't eat on doing classical. Only jazz had a future, and we wanted a part of it.

There is a culture vacuum for mature people. The minute that people think of us elderly, the topic turns to welfare, nursing homes, bed sores and diapers. Yet I see so many healthy and powerful elderly like myself who are still very much part of society and life. What we need is more dancing, more music and less concern about us from the younger generation.

His name cannot be found in Wikipedia (English or Japanese).