DON'T DISCRIMINATE HATE

Education can be surprisingly controversial.  

What should be taught?   Did dinosaurs exist, or did life begin with the Word? Is the universe heliocentric? Is the earth round or flat? More than that, who should be exposed to this information?  Can whites and blacks go to school together? Should women be allowed to attend school, or university?  Should the lower classes be afforded the same access to knowledge as the upper levels of society?

For some, education is a dangerous business.  It's why Gutenberg's printing press was a threat to the Church and the ruling class, and book burning was in vogue during  parts of the 20th century.  The dissemination of new ideas led to the executions of Socrates, Giordano Bruno, and Jesus, and some schools and libraries have banned works of literature as disparate as Lady Chatterley's Lover and the Harry Potter series for fear of the effect they could have on young minds. 

The Internet was supposed to change all that.  Barring government censorship, anyone in the Information Age could share any idea, no matter how subversive or far-fetched, with millions, if not billions, of people.  And yet the stakes of free speech are still high; just because you have something to say doesn't mean everyone has to like it.  Disagreements over content on the web can lead to online harassment or worse, such as hacker groups that target individuals by making their personal information public.  This vigilantism is troublesome, and anyone with an online presence is vulnerable.  Miki Dezaki, an American teaching English in Okinawa, learned this the hard way.  

Dezaki, who has lived in Japan since 2007, was shocked to find out that his high school students thought that racism and discrimination were unique to countries like America.  He was particularly mystified by this ignorance given the history of relations between Okinawans and the rest of Japan.  During World War II, the islands of Okinawa were considered vital to the Allies, who hoped to use them as the site of an air base from which to launch attacks on mainland Japan.  The Japanese military fiercely resisted the Ally invasion at the Battle of Okinawa, and a staggering number of casualties resulted, predominantly civilians.  Many of these deaths stemmed from shudan jiketsu ("mass suicide"), where Okinawans were ordered by the Japanese military to kill themselves for the glory of Japan.  A working paper from the Japan Policy Research Institute states: 

According to Masaiye Ishihara, professor at Okinawa International University and an authority on Okinawan war memories, the Japanese army was suspicious of Okinawans' loyalty to Japan and considered them potential spies for the enemy. Because of the labor shortage, however, the army drafted Okinawans for work on the fortification of the island. As a result, many Okinawans became familiar with the structure and quality of Japanese defense arrangements. 

In order to deny the enemy the possibility of acquiring information on Japanese defense secrets from Okinawans who might surrender or be captured, the army undertook extensive propaganda to prevent such an outcome. The army terrified Okinawans with tales of extreme enemy cruelties and manipulated their minds and feelings in favor of killing themselves in the event they faced the danger of surrender or capture.

The Japanese government does not deny that these deaths took place; however, the Ministry of Education has been squeamish about allowing textbooks to be printed with this information.  There have been several instances over the years in which the ministry has requested that passages related to the army's treatment of Okinawans be redacted, creating a furor in Okinawa and elsewhere.  Relations between Okinawa and mainland Japan have also been tense over the issue of the U.S. military base located on Okinawa.  Many Okinawans resent the presence of these soldiers and the havoc they sometimes wreak on Okinawan society.  However, despite extensive efforts lobbying for the relocation of base, the national government refuses to budge.  As a result, some Okinawans feel that their desires are not considered with the same respect as the requests of mainland Japanese. 

In light of this history and other examples of racism and discrimination* in Japan, Dezaki crafted a lesson designed to make students think more about their lives and their society.  By his account, the lesson was a great success, not only with his students, but also with his school.  Then Dezaki made the following video explaining the lesson.  

A few days later, Dezaki started getting nasty messages, and eventually at least one death threat.  He is now being pursued by the netouyu, or conservative Japanese netizens who troll the web looking for postings that could be perceived as critical of Japan.  They put his personal information online, even going so far as to call the school where he works to complain.  Despite the threats, Dezaki has refused to take down the video.  

The reactions of the netouyu are not terribly surprising; one only has to look as far as the Prime Minister to find a Japanese nationalist with a questionable grip on the country's history.  According to Foreign Policy Magazine:

He [Prime Minister Shinzo Abe] has long been a supporter of efforts to revise history textbooks to minimize Japanese responsibility for World War II.  He has denied that Chinese and Korean women were forced into prostitution by the Imperial Japanese Army during the war (the "comfort women" controversy). And he has questioned the legitimacy of the Allied war crimes tribunal that sentenced several Japanese leaders to death after the war. He has paid many visits to Yasukuni Shrine, the Tokyo site that honors the memory of Japan's war dead (including 14 top-level war criminals). When Abe unveiled his new government in January, The Economist described it a "cabinet of radical nationalists."

The revision of history textbooks in Japan is a long-standing controversy.  An article from 2007 (during Abe's first term as prime minister) observed: "So the fresh denial of the military’s responsibility in the Battle of Okinawa and in sexual slavery — long accepted as historical facts — is likely to deepen suspicions in Asia that Tokyo is trying to whitewash its militarist past even as it tries to raise the profile of its current forces."  This is an interesting connection, particularly as Abe currently continues to try to expand the powers of the military.  The only difference is that today China's more aggressive stance unnerves its Asian neighbors and makes them more willing to unite with a strong Japan and overlook the legacy of its military, at least for now. 

Unfortunately, racism and discrimination run a gamut in the ways they manifest.  There are  subtle forms, such as microaggression, which is defined by social psychologists as "the brief and everyday slights, insults, indignities, and denigrating messages sent to (visible minorities) by well-intentioned (members of an ethnic majority in a society) who are unaware of the hidden messages being communicated.”  A lot of foreigners who come to live in Japan experience some form of microaggression.  One JET told me that despite having lived in Japan for over 3 years, at every enkai one of the office ladies watches her eat and asks if she can use chopsticks as she is using them.  Another friend was walking through his neighborhood and said good morning to a passing elderly woman; she gave a yelp and scuttled to the other side of the street.  

I've had a few moments that have given me pause at school.  One of them concerned a second year student.  She was working on a project, and in order to illustrate a scenario she wanted to describe in English, she drew me a picture of two white people clearly being menaced by a muscly individual with dark skin.  I asked her who the dark-skinned person was.  "Bad man," she said.  I asked her why she had drawn him that way.  "I don't know" was her answer.  This was one of my few teachable moments in the two years I've been a teacher, to explain to this girl why it was wrong to have made this drawing.  What I'm really curious to know is how she inherited this prejudice.  Is it as simple as associating people with non-white skin with the lower classes?  This may sound rather antiquated or silly, but it's still a factor in Japan.  One of my JTEs is a young guy, very handsome, charming, athletic, etc.  However, he looks perpetually tanned (not surprising given that he coaches soccer), and the students make fun of him for it.  They call him "black" and "Will Smith," and there's a rumor that he's from the UAE.  This teacher has told me stories where he has been stopped going into a bar or a club and asked to show his identification, all because the bouncer doesn't believe he's Japanese.  It bothers me, but he laughs it off.   

As Dezaki points out in his video, no country is perfect, and nearly every culture has some point in their history in which they were either a persecuted minority or an abusive majority.  Leading a discussion of race and discrimination would be an audacious lesson plan almost anywhere.**  Still, I can't help but question the wisdom of ignoring certain chapters of history, lest they repeat themselves.   

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*Dezaki also mentions the burakumin, the equivalent of the "untouchables" from the Hindu caste system.  The burakumin were at the bottom of the social pecking order, forced to do "dirty" jobs like remove sewage, slaughter animals, etc.  They weren't allowed to live in the same areas as people of a higher social class, and so they set up their own communities away from the rest of society.  Today descent from the burakumin is a source of shame, and in extreme cases can cause people to be denied jobs, or have engagements broken off if they are found to be descendants. 

**There are certain topics that JETs are warned to avoid in class, most especially World War II.  During the application process, some candidates are asked how they would respond to questions concerning the war and the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.  

COSTUMES FROM THE TOKYO MARATHON

The Tokyo Marathon, which takes place in February, is as much a testament to fashion as it is to fitness.  In addition to those runners attired in traditional shorts or tights and sweat-wicking fabrics are men and women in creative getups ranging from silly hats to full-body costumes.  As I look through the pictures, all admiration is banished by the persistent question: How do people run in this stuff?

Here are some highlights.  

The completely impractical:

From suradiolive.com

The lightsaber is a nice touch.  From archive.rebeccablacktech.com

From blogs.wsj.com

The guy with all the Apple gadgets:

From www.macworld.com.au

Traditional Japanese clothing:

From uk.eurosport.yahoo.com

From ani.me

Cross-dressing: 

From www.corbisimages.com

From www.flickr.com

From www.flickr.com

And the blasphemous: 

From http://goyrepublicezine.blogspot.jp

From http://www.flickr.com

Congrats to Dennis Kimetto and Aberu Kebede, winners of the men's and women's races, respectively!  Both wore standard running togs.  

SHAME, SEPPUKU, AND JAMES BOND

GOMEN

And now for a scandal that has rocked the world of Japanese pop music.  Recently a member of girls group AKB48 named Minami Minegishi was found to have a boyfriend, in direct violation of her contract.  To make matters worse, she was caught embarking on a  walk of shame from her boyfriend's apartment early one morning.  Hours later, she did what any penitent person in the public eye would do: she shaved her head and issued an apology on YouTube.  She shaved.  Her head.  

Minami's coiffure in better days.  From www.news.com.au

She's really, really sorry.  From abc.go.com

This may seem old hat to some who remember a similar stunt performed by Britney Spears a few years back.  What sets Minegishi apart, however, is that her new 'do is not an act of rebellion, but rather of abject shame.  Which just goes to show that Japanese guilt surpasses any other kind, whether white, Jewish, or Catholic.  Sure, the Catholics have hair shirts and self-flagellation, but those pale in comparison to practices like seppuku, a form of ritual suicide popular in the days of the samurai.  Perhaps the most famous tale of seppuku is that of the 47 ronin from the early 18th century.  Ronin are samurai who have lost their masters, and by some interpretations of bushido (the samurai code of conduct), the death of a master was reason enough for a samurai to commit seppuku.  However, the 47 ronin are infamous for having avenged the death of their master, and then committed seppuku as punishment.  Their actions came at a time when the chivalrous values of the samurai were perceived as disappearing, and so a mass demonstration of faithfulness to bushido garnered a great deal of notoriety and respect, with the burial place of the 47 ronin becoming an almost sacred site.  Today the legend lives on, and this year "47 Ronin," a movie starring Keanu Reeves, will be released.  Because clearly there is no greater way to honor these fallen heroes, these mythical figures, than by having one of them portrayed by the enigmatic Keanu Reeves.   

From keanulover.wordpress.com

In modern times, seppuku has become mostly a thing of the past.  However, there are still instances of seppuku being employed as a form of political protest, most recently in 1970 against the Japanese government.  A businessman also committed seppuku in protest of a corporate restructuring in 1999.  These incidents are sad, not to mention scarring, even in an age where violent media abound.  However, it's clear that in Japan, a simple apology for transgressions will not suffice the way it might in the western world.  There must be atonement and sacrifice, whether it's forfeiting your own life, or being humbled by a buzz cut, like Minegishi.  

Minegishi has been relegated to the position of "trainee," allowing her to sing and dance another day for AKB48.  Which left me with the big question: what, if anything, happened to her boyfriend?  Minegishi's sweetie, boy band member Alan Shirahama, is still with his group, Generations.  Interestingly, though he has received no official slap on the wrist from his agency (who said his private life was his business), he's endured a lot of flack from Japanese fans, who were distressed that he didn't show more concern for his girlfriend's plight.  This article from The Atlantic highlights the disparity between genders in Japan, saying: 

Minegishi's apology and the idol culture that allowed it to happen are reflections of a Japan shifting more and more to the right, with gender issues especially changing. As people buzzed about this drama over the weekend, Americans focused on their own big musical happening Sunday night. Beyoncé performed during the Super Bowl halftime show, and at one of the country's most traditionally macho events, she wowed with all-women backup and her own charisma and talent, putting on a great show. Japan has had performers like that in the past—pop stars like Ayumi Hamasaki and Koda Kumi, who were fiercely independent and inspiring. But today they lack that. Instead, their pop stars are corralled by the backwards demands of their conservative fans. 

This is particularly interesting when you consider that the most highly regarded western music idols in Japan are women like Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Avril Lavigne and Beyoncé.  None of these women have allowed themselves to be dictated to by their fans, whether in their music or their private lives.  Gaga champions gay rights and wears bizarre costumes; Lavigne earned fame for her angry music and her refusal to look like the nice, sweet girl you'd bring home to Mom or bake cookies with after school.  Rihanna has created the biggest waves lately as she got back together with her ex-boyfriend, Chris Brown, who beat her to a pulp a few years ago.  Back then she was applauded for showing the world what he'd done and ending their relationship, and the fans who supported her in the aftermath are outraged that she's gone back to him.  Their disapproval hasn't deterred her one bit, and she's been seen publicly with Brown, most recently at The Grammys.  This proverbial airing of dirty laundry is almost unheard of in Japan, probably because celebrities stand to lose too much by breaking the rules.  Unlike in the west where scandal can heighten fame and spur someone's career (Kim Kardashian and her sex tape, anyone?), in Japan it can kill it.  And when the transgression is something as relatively tame as having a secret relationship with another consenting adult, ruination seems like a high price to pay. 

GHOST ISLAND

The latest installment in the James Bond franchise, Skyfall, features a scene where Bond is lured to an abandoned island to face his nemesis for the film, played by Javier Bardem.  The location was inspired by Hashima Island, also known as "Battleship Island."  During the industrialization of Japan, the Mitsubishi Corporation bought the island and began digging for coal.  As the endeavor grew, the corporation set up what amounted to a civilization separate from the mainland, with huge concrete apartment buildings, temples, graveyards, markets, schools, etc.  At one point, 5,000 people were living on the island.  That is, until the coal ran out in 1974 and Mitsubishi shut down production.  Workers were told that a limited number of them could find new jobs with the corporation back on the mainland, but they were to be distributed on a first come, first served basis.  Thus, thousands of families scrambled to get off the island as quickly as possible, not bothering to pack their belongings, move their furniture, etc.  The island has been left mostly as it was when people lived there in the 70s, lending an eerie quality to its decay, and prompting the new name "Ghost Island."

This documentary from 2002, though perhaps not award-winning, provides a glimpse into how Hashima Island looks today, and a little about its history.  

SCHOOL LUNCHES

WaPo recently ran what amounted to a love letter to school lunches in Japan.  The highlights: Japanese kids eat some of the most nutritious and best lunches in the world!  Obesity levels are remarkably low in Japanese child and adolescent populations! Parents even seek out recipes to duplicate at home!  And most importantly: if you or your child are not eating Japanese school lunches daily, you should go cry in a corner, because you're probably going to get fat and die young.  Or at least younger than a Japanese person, who will live on average 83 years.  

I should preface this by saying that I have never eaten kyushoku, or school lunch.  Kyushoku ends after junior high school, along with compulsory school attendance.  However, some Japanese people express nostalgia over school lunches, particularly baby boomers, for whom kyoshoku was perhaps their one substantive meal of the day.**  It's also not uncommon to see JETs post photos of their food on Facebook, or giddy status updates like, "OMG it's curry day so excited!!!"  Still, not every meal is a hit, and there is the occasional complaint.  One JET who read the WaPo article posted, "Hey WaPo, my Japanese JHS students hate school lunch and complain about it every day. They'd all rather eat the bento mom will make them every morning."  

Yet some schools, particularly primary schools, ban home lunches.  Bento making has approached an art form, and thousands of websites offer tips on how to make food more aesthetically pleasing.  Of particular importance is how cute the lunch is, and there can be hurt feelings, particularly among elementary school students, if their lunches are not as kawaii as their friends'.  Oh how far we've come from the days (at least in my generation) where kids would proudly flaunt their processed Lunchables snack packs as proof of their mothers' superior love and care.  Now mothers are spending hours upon hours prepping ingredients, cutting foods into shapes, and artistically arranging them for consumption.  

My high schoolers either bring their lunch or buy bread and sugary drinks from the school store.  Teachers can order bentos from an offsite provider; however, this is no a la carte service.  Everyone gets the same lunch.  You want dressing on the side? Too bad. 

Complete with a fried egg in the shape of a heart.

Lotus root (bottom left) is particularly delicious. 

As a foreigner, my lunch is often scrutinized.  Students want to know what I'm eating,  and sometimes even ask for a taste.  The teachers want to know if I prepare my lunch or buy it.  The other day I brought leftover Mexican food (many thanks to my aunt and uncle for sending me the supplies), and one of the male teachers stopped to hover over my shoulder.  After several minutes, I heard him ask the young Japanese teacher near me, "What is that?" Luckily, she had a ready answer, since she had asked me the same question the day before. "Oh," she replied softly, "I think they are...tacos?"  

**Many people think with particular fondness about the days when whale was served.  After the world wars, when Japan was strapped for resources, whale provided a relatively cheap and plentiful source of protein.  Whaling has caused a furor in some western countries, who regard the industry as barbaric.  Older generations of Japanese respond to this censure with indignation; their attitude seems to be, "We did what we had to do, and we ate what we had to eat." Demand for whale seems to be falling nowadays, however, and I've never heard of anyone being served whale at school.  For a more in depth look at whaling, here's an article by journalist Jake Adelstein.  More soon on him and his fascinating book covering the Tokyo police beat in the 1990s.  

LIFE WITH RINO

LAL directed me to a series of YouTube videos titled, "Rino which eats world various dishes." The premise is simple: Rino is about 4 years old, and her mom makes rather elaborate international dinners, which she then feeds to Rino and films her (exuberant) reaction.  If that wasn't adorable enough, her infant brother occasionally makes cameos as well.  

I have to say, I want to hang out with Rino; she's adventurous and she can really eat, which are qualities I look for in my friends.  Her table manners we can work on; she's not even 5, after all.  Plus, her mom is a great cook (watch her flip this giant okonomiyaki, which has natto in it. Props to Rino for eating anything with natto in it)! 

Rino gives me hope in a world of picky eaters, where some kids pass the first 10 years of their lives consuming little more than chocolate milk, and some adults have never eaten something as commonplace as a banana (seriously, I dated someone like that in college).  There's a whole delicious world out there, and Rino's gobbling it up...literally.  Ganbare!

JESUS IN JAPAN

Last year I posted about a theory positing that one of the lost tribes of Israel absconded with the Ark of the Covenant and wandered from the Middle East to Japan, where it settled and left an indelible mark on Japanese culture.  These rumors have been met with various levels of (dis)belief by historians, scholars, rabbis, and Israeli officials.  However, just like the Old Testament was old news after the New Testament came out, so too does the tale of the lost tribe pale in comparison to reports from northern Honshu, in the prefecture of Aomori.  

On the flat top of a steep hill in a distant corner of northern Japan lies the tomb of an itinerant shepherd who, two millennia ago, settled down there to grow garlic. He fell in love with a farmer’s daughter named Miyuko, fathered three kids and died at the ripe old age of 106. In the mountain hamlet of Shingo, he’s remembered by the name Daitenku Taro Jurai. The rest of the world knows him as Jesus Christ. (from Smithsonian Magazine) 

Jesus Christ: Garlic Farmer.  I guess the village already had a carpenter.  According to the museum in Shingo, Jesus came to Japan in his early 20s to learn about Eastern culture and savor the Japanese way of life.  At some point he returned to Judea to spread his newfound knowledge, until it became clear that he had become persona non grata with the Romans.  Fearing for his life, Jesus went into hiding, and his brother Isukiri took his place on the cross and died.  Jesus then fled back to Japan, taking with him one of Isukiri's ears and a lock of his mother Mary's hair.   As stated above, Jesus married a Japanese woman, had children, and lived a quiet life until his death.  He was then buried along with Isukiri's ear and Mary's hair in an otherwise unremarkable spot.  Oh, and one of the families living in Shingo today, the Sawaguchis, are believed to be the direct descendants of Jesus.  

Christ's grave.  From http://www.zetetique.ldh.org

Sawaguchi-san, purported descendant of Jesus.  The website where I found this picture called on readers to take note of Sawaguchi-san's "semitic [sic] characteristics," whatever those might be.  From http://www.zetetique.ldh.org

What strikes me as truly Japanese about this story is the failure to understand what could make it so remarkable (and offensive) if it were true.  Shingo markets Jesus as a notorious historical figure, like Napoleon or Genghis Khan, and increase their own importance by exploiting his celebrity (if you want to call it that) and asserting that Jesus settled and died in the village.  It's the equivalent of the photos you see hanging in restaurants to show that someone like George Clooney ate there.  What people in Shingo fail to grasp, however, is the significance of Jesus in some quarters as the Messiah, the son of God and savior of mankind.   If Jesus escaped the judgement of Pontius Pilate and didn't sacrifice himself for man's sins, this would be the devastating end of a millennia-old religion that spans the world.  

The thing is, Japan is fairly ignorant overall of other religions.  My kids don't know what Hanukkah is, much less Judaism. There's confusion over Jesus and Santa Claus.  They seem to recognize the concept of Islam; I'm not sure if that's because Islam has been such a popular topic in the news over the past decade, or if it's because two of the students at the school are Muslim.  Not that the Japanese can be blamed for this lack of awareness.  They are as homogeneous religiously (mainly Buddhist and Shinto) as they are racially.  Moreover, they are an overwhelmingly secular society for whom religion is based more on ritual and philosophy than the kind of faith and belief required by Judaism, Islam or Christianity.   So while the Japanese understand being kind to others and living one's life by higher principles, the tropes of sin, forgiveness, redemption, etc. are mysteries.  

As the BBC put it:

Many Japanese find it hard to make sense of Christianity. Schools are banned from teaching any religion and people are generally more interested in ritual and tradition than theology. 

However, Christian-style weddings are enormously popular. They are often held in hotels which have special chapels, complete with crosses and stained glass windows. 

Foreign students are sometimes hired to play the part of the priest, although the whole event has no official sanction from any church.

Fellow JET DM related to me a story about one of her coworkers, who got married in a chapel.  There were readings from the Bible, hymns*, and a man dressed as a religious officiant who presided over the ceremony.  I asked if her coworker was Christian.  "No," said DM breezily.  "Is her husband Christian?" I asked.  "Not that I know of," replied DM, "I think they're both Buddhist."  "Then why have a Christian wedding?" I asked, thoroughly bewildered.  "I think they just like the image of the Western wedding in white," she said.  

But I digress; back to Shingo, "Christ's Hometown."  There is precious little tangible evidence to support the village's claims; the burial site has never been exhumed, and no tests have been run.  There are apparently some written records of Jesus's existence in Japan, but they haven't been authenticated, to my knowledge.  Even the Sawaguchis make no claim to having descended from Jesus.  "My family are Buddhist, not Christian" said family spokesperson Junichiro Sawaguchi.  Furthermore, whether or not you lend credence to the notion of Christ's divinity (or lack thereof), Jesus always seemed like a real go-getter to me.  Even if he was only a prophet, as believed by Jews and Muslims, I find it hard to believe that he would have run away to Japan and done nothing more than live as a poor farmer.  What, no turning water into sake or healing the blind?  It also seems unbelievable to me that  Christianity would have remained unheard of until 1549, when St. Francis Xavier arrived in Japan.  

Even if its main source of income is based on a shaky hoax, Shingo has a lot to offer to tourists.  If you aren't compelled by Jesus sake, there's always Dracula ice cream, made with local garlic. 

Dracula ice cream.  From: http://99redblumes.tumblr.com

*I recently found out that my lovely Japanese neighbor is taking singing lessons with a gospel group.  No one in the group is Christian, and I asked her how she got interested in gospel music.  "Well, I saw that movie Sister Act, and I always wanted to be able to sing like that," she said.