Ode to Providence

Jose “Tommy” Kitazaki was one of the most unique people I have ever met. Born in Cuba to Japanese parents in 1925 Tommy grew up as the son of a fishermen. His dad immigrated to Cuba by force after stealing the fishing boat that he and his brother worked on in Osaka, Japan. How you get from Osaka to Cuba via fishing boat is still a mystery that will have to remain so. Tommy’s father had the foresight to send Tommy and his older brother Masami back to Osaka for a real Japanese education in 1932. After this education Tommy spent two years in the Japanese Navy before returning to Cuba at age 19. At this time Masami became the interpreter for the Japanese Ambassador to Cuba. Tommy worked as a temporary interpretor for the Dominican Republic and several other South American countries.

In 1962 due to reason I still don’t know other than being told “once Castro took over I had to leave Cuba” Tommy did just that. He landed in Miami on April 4th 1962 with one American dollar and a piece of paper that contained the phone number of a US State Department official. Masami had given this to Tommy and told him to contact this man as soon as he landed in Miami. The phone call did not go as expected because Tommy discovered from one of the secretaries that Tommy’s contact had been killed in a car crash two weeks prior. He was, however, given the phone number of this man’s wife who had returned to Lumberton, MS after her husband’s death. “If you can get to New Orleans then I will have someone get you and bring you to Lumberton” he was told by the unknown woman on the other end of the line. So he got to New Orleans then to Lumberton which is a town of about 2000 people. Tommy lived in a small room behind Mrs. Legg’s house and taught himself to repair Television via correspondence courses. People to this day will tell you that if you wanted a TV fixed within 30 miles of Lumberton in the 60′s you took it to Tommy. In 1965 Tommy took a job at Movie Star Lingerie manufacturing plant and worked his way up from repairing sowing machines to an industrial engineer. He became very good at making the plant run more efficiently and ended up traveling and making changes at plants all over the south. Eventually Tommy bought a house, married a pretty young seamstress named Nell and at age 47 on December 22, 1972 his one child, Lisa Maria Kitazaki, was born.

Tommy spent the last 46 years of his life in Lumberton, MS. It is a small town life and everyone knew who Tommy was. A Japanese man who speaks Spanish doesn’t move into small town MS everyday. He was surrounded by believers, Methodist, Southern Baptist, Lutheran, Presbyterians. Surrounded by churches. 17 baptist churches alone in a 5 mile radius of his little house on Red Top Rd. Everyone loved Tommy. He was smart, funny, and friendly. However, it took 36 years and daughter to started dating a preachers kid before someone shared the gospel with Tommy. On July 21st of 1995 Jose “Tommy” Kitazaki was born again at the age of 70 in the living room of his house. The preachers kid and his father called and visited several pastors in the area in an attempt to get them plugged into a church. To this day I am not sure why all those Pastors dropped the ball, but it never happened. They never darkened the door of that little house that stood less than one mile from 4 churches in Lumberton. Even when they received a phone call about a man who had become a believer they didn’t leave their offices to try and reach out to Tommy. It wasn’t long after that Tommy acquired Parkinson’s and then Alzheimer’s. Age and disease caught up with Tommy at age 83 for on May 23rd 2008 we buried my father in law.

My dad asked Tommy once how long he felt like God had been dealing with him about being a sinner and his response was “the whole time”. By that he meant his whole life. From Cuba to Japan to Cuba to the US Tommy spent a strange life in strange lands, but he is home today. Thanks be to God.