Japan E-mails: August 26, 2001

(Retrospection) (Edit slightly to reflect full name rules)

This first e-mail was a message to Media Mouse. They had sent out a mass e-mail that name dropped me briefly:
"Media Mouse needs you because we have some stuff to do!!!With record low attendance (is it because Joel Swagman has left us for greater ambitions???)...."

Well, I did have a pretty good attendance record back in the day, if I do say so myself, even if I was just a bump on the log with nothing useful to contribute for most of those meetings.
Anyway, I took advantage of their opening to send back my own report about what I had been learning about Japan so far. It is fairly long and self indulgent, but this was in the days before school had started, and I was still trying to kill 8 hours every day at the board of education.

Dear Media Mouse,
Hello, and greetings from your fellow correspondent. Glad to see from the last message that I am not forgotten. I thought I'd write in and tell you what I've been up to. Sorry in advance for filling your inboxes with a long and rambling e-mail, but for those of you who couldn't care less about what follows, just hit the delete button.

Well, here I am in Japan. I'm a bit cut off from activism at this point, although while I was staying in Tokyo, apparently there was a protest against the new textbooks (for those of you who have been following that story) and a leftwing Japanese group bombed the author's office. I was completely oblivious to all of this while it was happening. (Tokyo is a big city, and besides sometimes its hard to find English media.) Instead a friend e-mailed me about it afterwards, and I read about it much later on CNN's website.

Now that I'm in a rural area very far from Tokyo (on the Island of Kyushu) so very removed from anything political. (Although I guess it doesn't matter anyway, because as an employee of the Japanese government, and a foreigner as well, I have to watch my step very closely). School hasn't started yet here, but I have to come into the office everyday because that's just how they do things here. I need to show I'm part of the team.

Anyway, my supervisor was worried I would get bored, so after I told him I was interested in Japanese history, he told me to write down which areas of Japanese history I was interested in, and he would help me find the sources. Naturally my first inclination was to say I was interested in the Japanese Anarchist movement (and Japan did have a decent Anarchist movement during the first quarter of the 20th Century, until the militarists came to power), but I was a little nervous about revealing an interest in anarchism, so instead I said I was interested in the Japanese Peace Movement (which seemed liked a non-threatening way to get into Japanese anarchism) and the Japanese student movement.

Activism (as we well know) is currently undergoing a revival in Europe and America, a revival which has yet to hit Japan. However during the 1960s the Japanese student movement was much more active than the American student movement that we are familiar with.

After WWII, during the allied occupation of Japan, the United States followed some interesting policies. Because China had just fallen to the Communists, the US was nervous about the same thing happening in Japan. MacArthur instituted the "Red Purge" which meant anyone with leftist ties in the newly constituted Japanese government was dismissed. Of course it was the Japanese left that had fought against the imperialism of the fascist government, but because of typical cold war thinking the US tried to jail the leftist dissidents and allow the fascists to creep back into their former positions. (This was also true in other parts of Asia, but that's another story). During the 1950s, the CIA even secretly funded the Japanese rightest political party.

Also, after the devastation World War II had caused to the Japanese people, the Japanese government proposed to outlaw war in their constitution. The occupation was worried about this, because they wanted a strong Japanese military as a counter-weight to Communist China. The US pressured the Japanese to set up a small self defense force instead of abandoning their military all together. The US has continually pressured Japan to increase its military ever since, especially as memories of WWII grow dimmer. Today Japan has the 4th largest military in the world.

There was a demonstration against US imperialism in Japan on May Day 1952, but the big demonstration came in 1960. One of the former militarists, Kishi, became prime minister, and the Japan-US security treaty was up for renewal, signalling even stronger military influence in Japan. Tom many students it meant their government was creeping back towards fascism. They staged a huge protest, some 330,000 people strong. They forced their way into the Diet building, and smashed many cars. The Japanese government was forced to cancel Eisenhower's visit because they could not guarantee his safety, and Prime Minister Kishi resigned.

The incident had a strong influence on American students. Clark Kerr, who was unfortunate enough to be President of Berkeley during the Free Speech Movement, later remarked that the American student movement was inevitable given what was happening in Japan. Later, during the end of the 1960s, the Japanese government supported the United States during the Vietnam War, and a second wave of student protest began. Japanese students engaged in violent struggles with the police in which both students and police were killed. Japanese radicals barricaded themselves in the Universities, and the University system was shut down during the academic year of 198-69 while police cleared the radical students out of the buildings.

Anyway, it turns out my supervisor, being a student at the time, was very sympathetic to the goals of the movement. He had studied in the United States, so had not taken an active part himself besides occasionally participating in demonstrations. However, Tokyo University was organized into dormitories according tho the prefecture the students were from. I live in Oita prefecture right now, and apparently Oita dormitory was a haven for radicals. So much so that the Governor ended up shutting down the dorm and dispersing the students. This means that 1) my supervisor had connections to many people who were involved in the student movement and 2) probably many of the people I will be working with in Oita prefecture had radical pasts. For instance I am told that some of the principles in the schools I had teaching at had been involved with the zengakuren (the Japanese student federation) and I'm also told that the superintendent of the Board of education had been arrested 5 times in the past for political activities.

So where am I going with this long and pointless message? Well here's the thing: if any of you have been to the library recently, and tried to do a little reading on Japan, you'll notice there are books and books on Japanese aggression during WWII, but nothing on the Japanese student movement or the Japanese peace movement. My supervisor was astonished when I revealed to him the depravity of English sources on the Japanese peace movement, and asked me why this was. My best guess is that Americans love to write about WWII because it is important to the American mythology to see ourselves as shining knights defending the world from evil. We are less eager to write about Japanese students protesting American imperialism in Vietnam. So, what I would love to do is collect some stories from people I am working with, and perhaps post them someday on the Media Mouse website. The big problem at this point is the language barrier. I'm trying to learn a little Japanese but it is coming along very very (very) slowly, so I don't know if this is a realistic project at this point, but I thought I would just bounce it off you guys anyway.

Well, sorry once again for the long message. Hope everything is going well. I would love to get personal correspondence from any and all of you. (Except of course Joe L., but I think that goes without saying :) ).

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Actually I haven't heard from Bork or TJ yet. I should probably send TJ a message or say hi or something. I sent a message to the Chimes listserve when I first got here, which I assume Bork got, but I haven't heard back from him yet. How are those guys doing?

Well, I've got a bit of a "dumb American" story for you. I didn't have much going on this Sunday, so I walked into town to buy some chocolate. While I was there I saw a sign that said "Waterfall--12 Km this way." Of course I don't have a clue how much a Km is. I know it's less than a mile, but that's about all. So I thought, "12 Km, that sounds like a nice little walk to the waterfall." Well, two hours later I was only halfway there, my chocolate was melted, and I was beginning to think 12 Km might be longer than I had originally anticipated. Fortunately a Japanese friend was driving by, and he gave me a lift the rest of the way.
[Ed. note: actually given my high school history in cross country, I should have had more of an idea about the length of a kilometer. I think the big problem was the difference between walking and running. I figured if I could run 5 Km in 21 minutes, a 12 Km leisurely walk would be nothing.]

As for our discussion about anti-American attitudes, No, American history isn't pleasant, but you know what I'm discovering while I'm over here? No one's history is perfect. I mean I'm hanging out with a number of British people, and they have a really ugly history of imperialism. And Japan has some dark spots on its history too. And as for Canada they've...they've ah...Well, I'm sure they must have done something nasty in the past.

I think there are two kinds of idiots. The first kind is like the Canadians you described, who think Americans are pure evil. The second is Americans who think they live in the best country ever. I think of the two, the second is more irritating. First of all because there seem to be an overabundance of these idiots at Calvin, and secondly because I think one has a duty to be extra critical of one's own government. After all, all the historic atrocities might not have happened if people hadn't just blindly gone along with it while saying, "Ah, what a great country we live in."

Say hi to those guys for me. Tell Bork not to be mad because I lost his ID. And let me know how your weekend went.

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Well Hannah, if you recall my latest hair cut before I set off for Japan, it's a little on the short side to weave dreadlocks. So I had to buy dreadlock extenders at the Jamaica festival and weave them into my hair. It was a lot of fun at the Jamaican festival, but now I have to brush them out of my face a lot, and it a rather humid climate here, so the dreadlocks are a bit of a pain. I'm thinking about taking them out, but what do you think? And yes, I love Japanese ska. (Although there didn't seem to be much of a difference between Japanese ska and American Ska. The Japanese even sing most of their songs in English.)

No school yet. We start this Saturday. (That's right, I said Saturday. What a country!) I took the car out driving with one of my Japanese friends last week to try and learn how to drive a manual, and I stalled at every traffic light. It was a little embarrassing. (No, it was very embarrassing. Especially since we live in a small town, all the cars stuck behind me at every light were probably all people I knew too.) But I think I'm getting the hang of it slowly.
And no roommate, so I've got the apartment all to myself. It's kind of nice, but there is no one else to blame my mess on. Before I could always delude myself into thinking that it wasn't me, but my roommates who were the messy ones. Now I am faced with the truth. I am a slob.

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yeah, it's interesting how defensive I can get when an outsider attacks America. I find myself defending all sorts of things I would never usually defend, like Southern mob lynchings, the relocation of Indians, the Vietnam War, and the Philadelphia police department. Who knows, maybe I'll have a new perspective on politics when I get if this comes up.

I had an okay weekend. Spent most of the time with my supervisor. Ryan (the other JET in town) had a friend come and stay for the weekend. (Which reminds me, I haven't gotten any visitors the whole time I've been here. I can't believe it). No, just kidding. Actually Ryan's friend was another JET, so she was already in Japan anyway. anyway, I did some sightseeing, we went to a waterfall in Ajimu on Sunday, an African safari on Saturday, and I just did some hiking by myself on Friday. (There are so many places to explore out in the mountains. I'm getting in my fair share of hiking).
Glad you liked the political test. There's a string of disclaimers that really should accompany it, but I think I've talked to you about most of them. Next time I revise it I would really like to change the wording on a lot of those questions. I think it's rather akin to intellectual masturbation, as it uses more big words than it has too, and isn't very subtle on other points.

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Dear Mom,
Sorry I've been a bit lax in communication over here lately. Things are still going well. I get a phone installed this Wednesday and it should be much easier to call after that, so I'll talk to you soon.

Link of the Day
Linda Bilmes on Our 'Three Trillion Dollar War'
And Joseph Stiglitz on Our 'Three Trillion Dollar War'