What Would You Do?

My husband and I watch ABC's What Would You Do? togehter every week. The program is to show how peoeple react to certain situations that are endangering other's safety; will people step in to help or walk away???

And I must tell you, this program has made me cry many times. It's maybe easier to say than done, but many people do walk away when they see people needing their help.

One of the segments tonight, they showed three guys lynching a Hispanic guy (thank god, they are all actors) on the street corner. They filmed the incident two days period and more than 90 people passed by. 15 people called police and only 4 people stepped in to break up the lynch. Two of them were female. They were so courageous.

When I see the program, I always ask the same question to myself: What would I do if I see someone getting hurt or in trouble??? And I thought about one incident that I actually helped a girl when I was in Tokyo, Japan.

I was 19 years old and visiting my parents in Tokyo for the summer. I went out with my friend for lunch in Shinjuku district. Shinjuku is where I grew up before moving to Hawaii and has plenty of fun things to do, but is also known to have red light district.

Anyway, I was standing on the street corner waiting for the light to turn green when I spotted a girl (probablly about the same age as me at the time) who was picked up by this scary looking man who was holding flyers to a brothel. He could totally be a soldier for Yakuza (japanese mafia) - he was grabbing her arm and trying to take her to the red light district.

I couldn't take my eyes off her even though the light turned green and it was time for me to walk across the street. My friend asked me, "what's wrong?" and I told her the girl was in trouble. I didn't know what to do, but I could see that she needed a help. Othewise, what's going to happen to her? My friend kept telling me not to do anything. I'm going to get hurt, but I told her, "I am going in..." and I heard her saying, "Stop, don't!!" to my back.

Now, I didn't know exactly what to do or how to defuse the situation, but once I got to where the girl was, the guy looked at me like, "What do you want?"

Me: (to the girl) Hey, so sorry, I was late... (with a huge smile and grabbed her arm)
The guy: What?
Me: Excuse me, she is my friend. She was waiting for me.
The guy: Don't lie (and looked at the girl who's almost in tears)
Me: No, really. Sorry, sir, but I need her back now...
The guy: Are you sure, you know her?
Me: Of course, she is my friend. We're going to have lunch. Are you okay? (to the girl)
The guy: Damn it, then go on..

My heart was pounding fast and I still remember holding the girl's arm so tightly - I was scared to death, too!!!! When I saw my friend looking on, I ran and told her, "walk fast with us and smile!!!!"

Now the girl, me and my friend ran across the street hand in hand until we couldn't see the guy. When we realized it was safe for us, I looked at my friend and the girl. And I said, "well, we're all safe now!" - the girl thanked me like million times and we said goodbye. My friend was pissed though. She told me I did the right thing, but I was stupid to even putting myself in the situation that I could easily get myself either hurt or killed.

Many people may not know this, but there are many bad people who think hurting innocent people are nothing. And messing with Yakuza or their soldiers is the last thing you want to do in Japan.... I told my mom about what happened when I went home and oh my god, she was livid. She taught me and my sister to be kind to others and help people in need, but it was definitely one of those things she would never want her daughters to get themselves involved.

When I helped the girl, I didn't do it to be famous or because I wanted to be a heroine. It was something that I thought I had to do without thinking about the consequences. I might have been naive or clueless with reality, but when you see something like that, you just couldn't live with yourself if you didn't do anything to help.

Thanks God, I haven't encountered another situation like that since then, but I would probablly do the same again.

So, what about you ladies? Have you ever done anything to help someone in trouble or has some stranger helped you when you're in trouble??

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