The Japanese zeroes littering the sky is something new to him and he is not mindful of the imminent danger that comes with it.
“I was oblivious as a child. I didn’t understand the inherent danger,” says Sapuro Rayphand.
Born on Aug. 6, 1941, Rayphand was barely five years old when World War II came to an end.
He tells Variety he saw bombs dropping from the sky and into the ocean.
“I don’t know if it is just my imagination but I remember bombs dropping to the water creating a big splash — like a geyser,” says the now 70-year-old educator.
But what gave him the fright were the military vessels out at sea and American soldiers coming to shore with their Amtraks.
“I do remember being scared,” he says. “My brother and I ran seeing strangers with red faces.”
Like recalling a crisp memory of yesterday, Rayphand narrates how he saw his brother fell and hit a barbed wire. “I remember seeing his face — with the pointed stuff. It was scary.”
He also remembers how the American soldiers provided immunization to the islanders.
Despite the fear stoked by the war, he says their islands were not as heavily bombed as the others.
Where he lived, Lukunor, is one island in the Mortlocks between Pohnpei and Chuuk.
He says he’s the second of five children born to his father who worked for a Japanese company called Nanyo Poiki Kaisha or South Sea Company engaged in import and export of tuna.
His mother, he says, was a homemaker.
Asked how he ended up with a Japanese name, Rayphand says he was named after his father’s coworker.
Living on Lukunor, “is pretty darn good.”
He describes that there’s so much freedom — where children can be free from unnecessary stimulation like television.
Despite the lack of electricity, Rayphand says he appreciates rustic living — charmingly simple ways.
Save for the traumatic war, there are so many things that Rayphand is thankful for during his childhood.
He values his upbringing by his parents who taught them respect for the elders. He also says their family puts a high premium on education. “Go to school and study as hard as you can and be somebody,” he says.
He remembers they would have a family gathering almost every Wednesday night to review what they have done over the weekend and what they could do to be better.
When he was younger, he says, he remembers swimming and fishing as two of his favorite recreations. He also enjoyed listening to the elders talk about survival skills.
What motivated him to study and excel in school, he says, are the compliments and encouragements he received from his parents, especially his mother.
His mother was never stingy with compliments often showing appreciation for her son’s achievements, whether big or small.
For Rayphand, what perhaps drove him to become a teacher was his admiration for Fr. William Rively, his own teacher.
“I think he was my role model,” he says.
Through teaching, Rayphand says one can touch someone’s life and help him better understand the world.
He went to Chuuk Intermediate, then Pacific Islands Central School, then University of Guam where he earned his bachelor’s degree in elementary education.
He started teaching at Marianas High School in 1969.
He went to the Western State University in Fullerton, CA from where he obtained his law degree in 1980.
He also worked as an assistant attorney general in Chuuk in the 1980s and unable to withstand the politics he left Chuuk and came back to Saipan where he returned to teaching at MHS and Northern Marianas College.
For Rayphand, he chose to teach than practice law. “Being a teacher allows you to touch somebody else’s life.”
For him, nothing compensates for the inexpugnable joy he gets out of teaching, seeing how his students learn and become better members of the community.
He says practicing law isn’t his cup of tea. “It’s not what I really like. It’s not my passion.”
To this day, he clearly remembers the pieces of advice he was given when he was young and the same ones he gives to his children and students. “Be good and pursue whatever is in your heart. Make sure that you do something worthwhile.”
If it were not for his intelligent, kind, and engaging teacher Fr. Rively, he would not have become smitten by the same profession that most people regard as the most sublime.
Teaching and learning are two lifelong processes which Rayphand says he doesn’t see himself retiring from.
