Francis Higashiki is on the move, passing through Tokyo's Hamamatsucho on his way to Haneda Airport. He works near Oita in Kyushu, in a home for 35 abused children. "After the war, orphanages were full of orphans. Now most children have parents, but sadly there is so much domestic violence."
Francis is an ordained priest in the Roman Catholic Silesian Order, though today his dog collar lies hidden beneath a Christmas gift: an Aran sweater. He is strongly opposed to the proposed war against Iraq because in his experience it is not the authorities or even the troops who come off worst, but the civilians, especially women and children.
Francis' mother, a graduate of Tokyo Women's University, died in 1950 when he was 11. "First my baby sister died of starvation, then my mother of problems related to malnutrition. That left me and my 9-year-old sister, Aiko, to fend for ourselves. My father had taught at a rightwing school, so we lived in a house nearby in Setagaya."