
Photograph by Tomohiro Oshima. Used by permission.
Sister Maria Lê Thị Lan fled Vietnam by boat in 1989 and, after being shipwrecked in a typhoon, was rescued by a Japanese cargo ship. A Catholic sister, she now serves at Sinapis Home, a refugee-support shelter in Ikuno Ward, Osaka, cooking for people who have washed ashore from Vietnam, Myanmar, Africa, and China.