Glimpses of Shoko Part 2: Silent Movies and Shoko

I like Shoko a lot, and she’s an intelligent girl with an inquiring mind. She’s always eager to learn new things, and her brain remembers new facts very well, so that I seldom have to repeat myself when I’m explaining things to her like American politics or government.

That said, it’s amazing what she doesn’t know. Like the time she expressed confusion over the origins of World War II. “You Americans attacked us first,” she once said.

“No we didn’t. You Japanese attacked us. Haven’t you ever heard of Pearl Harbor?”

She had heard of it, but thought that happened after the war had already begun. “No,” I insisted. “That was the start of the war. You attacked us first.”

“Really? But why would we do that?”
I had actually done a report at college entitled, “Japanese Reasons for the Attack on Pearl Harbor”, so I was able to field this question somewhat, but it just seemed like a bizarre conversation.

(I later read an article in the Japan Times that said the whole debate over controversial history textbooks in Japan misses the point that most history curriculums don’t even make it to World War II before the end of the year anyway, and the younger generation is primarily educated by television specials).

I was again shocked at Shoko’s ignorance when we watched the video of “Phantom of the Opera” together. I mused that I thought the musical was only so-so, but that, in my youth, I had been a big fan of the 1925 silent movie version.

“What’s a silent movie?” Shoko asked.

“It’s a movie without sound,” I explained, thinking at first that the misunderstanding was only due to the language barrier.

“Well, then, it’s not really a movie is it?”

Again, I thought maybe this was because of the language barrier, or confusion over semantics. “Sure it is. The Japanese word for movie, “eiga” dates back to the turn of the century before movies had sound in them.”

Turns out she was unaware that there was ever a time when movies didn’t have sound in them. I was amazed. “You’re telling me you have no idea what I’m talking about? You’ve never seen a silent film? You have no idea that silent films even exist?”

“How would they tell the story without words?” Shoko asked.

“By acting and gestures mostly. Sometimes written words would appear on the screen. And there would be a piano in the movie theater, and there would be a musical score that went with the movie, and when someone was tied up on the train tracks, someone was always getting tied to train tracks in silent movies, the piano music would be real fast and exciting.”

“Now you’re just making stuff up,” she accused me.

In my determination to convince her that there really was such a thing as silent movies, I started to get a bit emotional. “Really, it’s appalling that you don’t know any of this.”

Because I don’t know the Japanese word for “appalling”, I had slipped into my English. She didn’t understand, so I looked up the word “appalled” in my Japanese-English dictionary, and began listing off Japanese synonyms. “Mukatsukaseru. Unzarisuru. Aisougatsukiru…”

“Okay, okay, I get it. But why is it so bad that I don’t know any of this? It should be a point of pride really. It shows that I do other things with my time besides sitting in front of the TV all day like you do.”

I (still slightly worked up) blurted out, “It’s not just that. It’s that you Japanese don’t know anything about anything. You know all about ‘Hello Kitty’ or ‘Pokemon’ or video games, but you have no clue about anything that’s not animated or a comic book.”

Shoko responded that Japanese people have a lot longer history to keep track of than us Americans, and can’t be expected to remember everything. I eventually calmed down. Shoko, when pressed, did seem to remember something about once seeing a Charlie Chaplin movie without sound. Eventually, we decided to set aside our differences, and watch “Phantom” together in peace.

Link of the Day
Put this down under: the things you find when you have nothing better to do but search Google for your own name.
I don't know this guy, but appearently I inspired him to start his blog. Ah ha! I do have some influence after all.