Shi-ro-hig-e, this more or less is the sound of the word for “Whitebeard” in Japanese. Shirohige is portrayed as a man of great honor in One Piece. He was the leader of the Whitebeard Pirates, one of the strongest pirate crews in the world of One Piece prior to his death, and was proclaimed to be “the strongest man in the world” in the anime. The place in the story where we see the most of Shirohige and his crew, and where he ultimately passed on, is at the island of base operations for the Navy (the world’ most elite military group of the World Government), Marineford. He arrived in Marineford to save his son (what Shirohige calls his crewmates), Fire Fist Ace, Luffy’s brother, from being publicly executed by the Navy-Marines.
In these episodes at Marineford, Whitebeard displayed forgiveness under direct betrayal by a son, but did not forgive betrayal under another one. In the first case, Whitebeard was caught off-guard and stabbed through the chest by one of his fleet captain named Squardo because Squardo was lied about Whitebeard’s fidelity to him by another character. Upon being stabbed, as the blade was still in Whitebeard, who is much an infallible man in the manga, he reached down (Whitebeard being a much bigger person than Squardo) and, instead of crushing Squardo’s skull with his over-sized hand (which is what Oda visually set up to make it appear like before the following happened), Whitebeard actually reached down to hug Squardo, unfettered. This was moment that, when I first saw it, I almost fell back out of my chair. What Whitebeard was more upset with, after hugging and forgiving Squardo, was that someone would actually lie about Whitebeard betraying any one of his sons. As the story progressed, we learn that Whitebeard became the strongest pirate in the world, with a matching crew, not because he was motivated to obtain the world greatest pirate treasure (the so called “One Piece”) or to be the most fearsome pirate on the seas, but because he wanted the one thing no one ever much gave to him as a boy growing up:
A family.
We learned he was one pirate who would pick up all the misfits who had no where else to stay and made them (if they wanted) a permanent part of his “family”. This was true pretty much except for one, and the reason this one was, we could say, “disowned”, was precisely because of Whitebeard’s heart and commitment to his family, in many ways. Blackbeard, or /kurohige/ in Japanese, was the son Whitebeard did not forgive. The reason? Kurohige killed fellow “brother”. Kurohige was waiting under the protection of Whitebeard for a particular object to show up, one that would give him great power, and when it was found by Thatch (a Whitebeard crew member/captain), Kurohige killed him, left the crew and ship, and set off on his own to gather his own crew to take over the seas.
Later on in Marineford, Whitebeard faces Blackbeard, and when Blackbeard asks him for forgiveness after he is pinned down in battle, Whitebeard pummels his face. The leading concern here is, as exemplified by Whitebeard and Blackbeard’s story, is of your crew, your followers, your children, family, USING you, USING your protection, for their own gains to the detriment of others ALL in the group are supposed to treat as family, as one group.
There is a fear I’ve come to know after reading about employee relationship in the world of work and business, and it’s that the person in charge should never prepare for any of the people below him to meet or exceed the leader’s skills, because he or she might just then leave to start off his own ventures. This seems to terrible a thought and implication, because if this maxim holds true, it almost suggests necessarily holding the majority of power in your own hands for fear those under you might shake themselves from the group, or, worse, end up hurting the original group by their (whether accidental or intentional) own initiatives.
Well, what about Luffy and his crew (to keep focus on One Piece)? He is very much like Whitebeard, though most crew members are about his age, and a few are just a bit older than the rest (Whitebeard was quite old compared to his crew). I recognize the dynamics differ, but I am concerned over just how much power is good to give to your people? Or does there always necessarily need to be an power imbalance?
(I realize I’ve reached my limit, so I will close for now, but will likely return to these concerns in a later post). Thank you.