tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-965824120120454342.post7563494328338468896..comments2023-10-21T11:44:45.588+01:00Comments on ResidentAlien: Changing JapanMary Witzlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06458299046574564155noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-965824120120454342.post-46169140544020765572007-04-26T16:11:00.000+01:002007-04-26T16:11:00.000+01:00Thank you, Kim. When I write about Japan's wartime...Thank you, Kim. <BR/><BR/>When I write about Japan's wartime past I worry that people might take a look at what I have written and assume that I have a grudge against the Japanese. That couldn't be further from the truth. <BR/><BR/>Because I lived in Japan for 17 years, I actually feel as though I am partly Japanese. I'm not under any illusions about ever fitting in; I know I look like a foreigner and seem like one, too, to most Japanese people, but after you spend a certain amount of time in a country, you begin to feel a part of it -- even if you do happen to stand out in every possible way. And given that situation, I feel as though I have a right to criticize things that I don't much like about Japan just as I have a right to criticize things that I don't like about my own country of origin, as I frequently do. <BR/><BR/>I believe that the U.S. cover-up of Japan's wartime atrocities was a war crime in its own right. Too many young Japanese people are blissfully unaware of their country's past history of aggression thanks to this cover-up and Japan's subsequent post-war policy of omitting this from the history curriculum. You could say the same about the young people in America too, but we are a little better informed than the youth of Japan about our own country's misdeeds. I know that plenty of Japanese people would agree with me on this point; they are the ones who told me about all of this in the first place.<BR/><BR/>One of my heroes is a man named Saburo Ienaga (1913-2002) who campaigned relentlessly for textbook reform in Japan, but perhaps I will save him for another blog!Mary Witzlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06458299046574564155noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-965824120120454342.post-18949716014882995992007-04-26T15:48:00.000+01:002007-04-26T15:48:00.000+01:00You know there's something going on when the comme...You know there's something going on when the comments are longer than the post!<BR/><BR/>Don't think I can add much here, but I enjoyed the post (and comments)Kim Ayreshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02656677501116622953noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-965824120120454342.post-59121686332728132302007-04-26T01:56:00.000+01:002007-04-26T01:56:00.000+01:00Hi Mary! Thanks for dropping by my blog. I really ...Hi Mary! Thanks for dropping by my blog. I really enjoyed that post. Interesting stories well told. The story of the caucasian girl gave me a new perspective to consider. I look forward to dropping by often.Wonderwoodhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13118126631519254865noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-965824120120454342.post-40343227732507898442007-04-25T19:21:00.000+01:002007-04-25T19:21:00.000+01:00Please do let me know, it sounds great. I have a m...Please do let me know, it sounds great. <BR/><BR/>I have a mental list of places I'd like to visit and Japan is pretty near the top. The time and the money are all I'm waiting for.Eryl Shieldshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01818102006775827503noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-965824120120454342.post-33759882879724546532007-04-25T14:25:00.000+01:002007-04-25T14:25:00.000+01:00Hello, Eryl. Japan really is a fascinating country...Hello, Eryl. Japan really is a fascinating country, and you should go there if you ever get a chance. Sushi bars and Puccini are great, (I can't say that I loved 'Lost in Translation' personally) but none of those will give you a good idea of Japan, unfortunately. <BR/><BR/>Last year there was a Japanese cultural day in Edinburgh, in early May. I went my with eldest daughter and we had a blast. I'll let you know if anything like that comes up again.Mary Witzlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06458299046574564155noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-965824120120454342.post-50210994227575419102007-04-25T13:45:00.000+01:002007-04-25T13:45:00.000+01:00Japanese culture sounds so fascinating. I've never...Japanese culture sounds so fascinating. I've never been to Japan and before discovering your blog my only experience - if it can be called that - of the way of life there was sushi bars, Madame Butterfly and the film Lost in Translation.Eryl Shieldshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01818102006775827503noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-965824120120454342.post-6781588052421094112007-04-25T09:48:00.000+01:002007-04-25T09:48:00.000+01:00Avocadoinparadise -- Welcome to my blog. I like yo...Avocadoinparadise -- Welcome to my blog. I like your cat, and your name. My father used to grow avocadoes, and I have spent many a long, hot afternoon with a pith helmet and a picking pole, dodging falling avocadoes as I collected them in the pocket of a huge apron.<BR/><BR/>I was an equal-opportunity dater and single for quite some time; I think I've probably covered just about every race and quite a few nationalities. Still, I would tell you to date men for their personalities and not for their nationality or ethnicity. That said, it is amazing how many people react to the sight of a Caucasian woman and a man of an obviously different race -- Asian or otherwise. The other way around doesn't bother people quite so much. In Miami, Florida, I once saw a perfectly respectable-looking elderly Caucasian man spit on a white woman walking down the street with a black man. <BR/><BR/>Brian -- I've met so many young Australians who knew as little about what happened during the war as I did, even though their fathers were involved in it. One Australian WWII veteran told me that he never tried to prejudice his children against the Japanese, that he kept his negative feelings to himself, reasoning that the young people had nothing to do with the war. I think he was right not to pass on his grievance, but I still believe that the young should know what happened during the war. Japan would do well to follow Germany's example.<BR/><BR/>One thing I find interesting was that towards the end of the war, Australian soldiers almost hated General MacArthur and his men than they did the Japanese -- with very good reason, as it turns out. I have heard that Australian soldiers got most of the grunt work, particularly when it was dangerous, and a lot less of the glory. MacArthur not only pardoned a number of Japanese war criminals who should have spent the rest of their lives behind bars, he actually worked and fraternized with them, and because of that there are many Chinese, among others, who do not view him as a hero, to say the very least.Mary Witzlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06458299046574564155noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-965824120120454342.post-64568387714612547362007-04-25T04:40:00.000+01:002007-04-25T04:40:00.000+01:00Points well made and well taken , Mary .Any ...Points well made and well taken , Mary .<BR/>Any comments from me would apply to the whole futility of war -- and I have always known that atrocities are committed by both sides . I have heard some horrifying tales from returned servicemen -- some boasting of their vicious deeds . <BR/>The area I live in is becoming dominated by Asians of many nationalities-- and it worries me not a jot. They are generally welcome.<BR/>The economics of it all are tricky in Australia though. <BR/><BR/>patterjackbrianf@ozonline.com.auhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17365273528988879923noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-965824120120454342.post-10116729684793393162007-04-25T04:03:00.000+01:002007-04-25T04:03:00.000+01:00That's so interesting! I just started dating an a...That's so interesting! I just started dating an asian guy, as a typical american girl, and feel all kinds of unexpected judgement. It's like other americans don't like it. And it's making me want to do it more.avocadoinparadisehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07710348855305184932noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-965824120120454342.post-60455302934129881772007-04-24T09:51:00.000+01:002007-04-24T09:51:00.000+01:00As a lot of people more knowledgable about history...As a lot of people more knowledgable about history than I have pointed out, the Japanese involvement in WWII was given a quick air-brushing after the war when it was noted that the emperor hated communism as much as the U.S. Japan was the perfect Cold War ally. Never mind the fact that we had just firebombed their major cities to ruins, forget all that business about the massacres in China and other Asian countries, and forget the Bataan Death March. And the Burma Railway? Did that even happen? I have heard POWs of the Japanese, many starved to half their body weight and riddled with disease, being forced to sign papers stating that they would not speak of what had happened to them to the people back home. And it wasn't the Japanese who were forcing them to do this, but the American military. Many good opportunities for closure were lost in the scramble to secure Japan as a Cold War ally. The fact that many Japanese people continue to live in denial can be traced to this immediate post-war whitewashing.<BR/><BR/>But that was then, this is now. The young people of Japan are as ignorant of all that as I was when I first started studying Japanese. <BR/>Up until quite recently, elementary school teachers could get into trouble for teaching about Japanese aggression in WWII. The whole issue of the comfort women, unit 731, and all the excesses of the Imperial Japanese Army were whisked under the carpet, and though a few brave souls have tried to educate the general public, they have had to combat decades of ignorance and denial. <BR/><BR/>With such an attitude prevailing, I can understand why your neighbor is reluctant to buy Japanese products and still nurtures grievances. It is hard enough forgiving when someone has admitted doing wrong; imagine having to forgive when your enemy has failed to apologize.<BR/><BR/>A Japanese boy I knew went to study in Australia for six months. On one occasion, he ordered a beer in a pub there and when some older men asked him if he was Chinese, he innocently said 'No, I'm Japanese.' The poor lad ended up getting his beer thrown in his face, and when trying to find out why those men had taken such exception to his nationality, he got the education he should have had in school, about the hellships, the Burma railway, POW camps, etc. I am happy to say that this particular boy ended up marrying an Australian woman and settling down somewhere in Sydney, so there was at least a happy ending to that story.Mary Witzlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06458299046574564155noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-965824120120454342.post-20271146557023405692007-04-24T02:27:00.000+01:002007-04-24T02:27:00.000+01:00I fear that though it is declining now , ther...I fear that though it is declining now , there is still a lot of intense dislike for Japan and the Japanese among some of our community. <BR/><BR/>A neighbour ( ex-serviceman ) at our Bay place would not buy anything that could be remotely attributed to Japanese manufacture , Memories of the Burma railway and torture and death marches were strong .<BR/><BR/>On the other hand , tourism has brought a softening of attitude , and it is interesting to see Japanese couples celebrating their weddings here . And they just adore koalas ! <BR/><BR/>patterjackbrianf@ozonline.com.auhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17365273528988879923noreply@blogger.com