May 29, 2020: Neva Nowak – In this Corner of the World

By: Neva Nowak

This Friday, our class discussion centered on the manga In this Corner of the World, written and illustrated by Kouno Fumiyo, and the corresponding film. The manga is a rich, complex piece about a young woman coming of age and persevering in and near Hiroshima during the Second World War. Of the stories we have examined in class, this is the first that features a female main character. As the protagonist, Suzu navigates an arranged marriage, moves to a new town, and sustains her new family during times of war. I feel it would have been easy for the story to become a common one of female struggle and oppression. However, In this Corner of the World never stooped to the level of simplistic or stereotypical. Instead, it remained, always, a story about resilience, loss, and life through a female lens. 

Even secondary female characters in “In this Corner of the World” receive development. Though Suzu’s sister-in-law is originally characterized as cold and nagging, here we learn about the hardships of her past.

The film version of In this Corner of the World remained faithful to the art of the manga, and at more than two hours in length, the movie incorporated quite a lot of the original story’s content. Therefore, our discussion dealt much more with the common content of the film and manga rather than what was gained or lost in the process of adapting the story for the screen. One of the points I found most interesting in our discussion was the idea of “survivor’s guilt,” originally brought up by Lela, that Suzu may or may not have felt in the aftermath of various traumatic events that happened in the story. For example (spoilers ahead, be warned), Suzu’s niece, Harumi is killed in a delayed bomb explosion that also destroys Suzu’s right hand. It is clear from Suzu’s tearful apologies to Harumi and her mother that she feels deep remorse. Coupled with the loss of her hand — another devastating blow, given Suzu’s love of drawing — Suzu remarks that she doesn’t know what there is left to be glad about. However, when the atomic bomb is dropped in her hometown of Hiroshima (where Suzu had, until the last minute, planned to return), leading to the eventual deaths of her parents and the illness of her sister, so little time is left in the story to explore the effects these events had on Suzu’s psyche that many of us agreed it left us wanting more. Professor Uchiyama suggested that perhaps this choice to leave this topic unexplored is an intentional choice of the author’s and that many things may be said about the topic of grief by leaving some things unsaid. I do agree. However, I can’t shake the feeling of longing for further insight — which is, perhaps, the mark of a successful story.

Here, in the aftermath of her injury, Suzu reflects on Harumi’s death and the loss of her hand.

Friday’s class also included a quick check-in about the status of our research projects, the proposals for which were also due Friday night. Though my research partner, Lupe, and I originally intended to focus on the topics of modernism and nationalism present in postwar film and photography, our in-class examination of various animated film/text sets (including Grave of the Fireflies, Barefoot Gen, and of course In this Corner of the World) inspired us to shift our focus to the topic of animated and live-action versions of postwar texts. In our proposal, we detailed a plan to compare the 1988 animated Grave of the Fireflies to the 2005 live-action Grave of the Fireflies and the original short story by Nosaka Akiyuki. In this project, we will ask: to what extent do the live-action and animated versions of Grave of the Fireflies change or preserve the intimate details of personal memory present in Nosaka Akiyuki’s short story, and how do these films transform this memory into new cultural entities that shape generational memory of war?

Kamikaze Pilots and “The Wind Rises” – May 27, 2020

By: Keenan Goo

Historical photo of a departing kamikaze plane

Wednesday’s class covered the sobering topic of kamikaze (Japanese for “divine wind”), the division of the Imperial Japanese Navy whose defining characteristic was the pilots’ death by collision during their attack. By this point in the course, our class was familiar with the ultranationalist mindset that enabled such an egregious war tactic. However, this was our class’s first time delving into the realities of Japanese veterans (particularly undeployed kamikaze pilots) after the end of World War II. Overnight, those signed up to be kamikaze pilots but were never deployed devolved from Japan’s greatest heroes to living manifestations of the nation’s failure. They were even branded with the title tokko kuzure (Japanese for “kamikaze degenerate”).

Whether because of this societal rejection or because of the devastation of their unbeatable nation’s defeat, many kamikaze veterans ended up turning to destructive lives of crime or ending their lives altogether. In one insightful discussion, we compared World War II veterans in Japan with Vietnam War veterans in the United States. In both cases, it took time before the nation’s view and treatment of veterans improved from one of total disgust and disrespect. One of the modes through which this perspective shifted was through media and museums. Noble depictions in films and museum exhibits of soldiers’ letters to loved ones helped to humanize these historical figures and elicit sympathy from the public. Understanding that both media and museums played an important role in public memory, our class analyzed the relationship between these two factors. Neva insightfully pointed out that a topic covered by both types of education is accessible to more audiences. Furthermore, media and museums can establish a mutualistic relationship where they can derive content from each other while also consolidating and sharing the audiences they appeal to. In an ever-increasingly technology-dependent society, it is not difficult to see how this relationship could continue to grow.

Promotional poster for Hayao Miyazaki’s film “The Wind Rises”

Between the relevant films “The Eternal Zero” and “The Wind Rises,” our class chose to watch the latter. “The Wind Rises” was written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki who is well known for his anime films including “My Neighbor Totoro” and “Spirited Away.” This film follows Jiro—the designer of the Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter plane which was later used by kamikaze pilots. Despite being the main event happening at that time, we were shown nothing of the actual war. As a civilian and not a soldier, Jiro lives an arguably normal life of falling in love and pursuing his dream of making beautiful aircraft. The mantra of the film is repeated throughout the film, “The wind is rising! … We must try to live!” We see Miyazaki portray this in two ways. Firstly, Jiro chases his childhood dream of building planes despite his knowledge that they will likely be put to destructive use. Secondly, he courts and marries a girl diagnosed with tuberculosis with full knowledge of her imminent demise. Our class agreed that Miyazaki’s film focused on life in the midst of one of the greatest life-disruptors in history. This contrasted with our previous anime film, “Grave of the Fireflies,” which primarily focused on death. On the topic of comparing these two films, Sam made the observant comment that the age of the protagonist was significant in each film. Jiro in “The Wind Rises” grew to be a fully independent adult and member of society who was able to choose what he did with his life, including his contribution to the war effort. This is quite different from Seita in “Grave of the Fireflies” who remains a child with little to no control over his world or the war. Life simply happens to him and his sister. It is safe to say that both films are powerful in their own ways and offer different valid viewpoints in Japan during World War II.

Screenshot from the movie “The Wind Rises”

In regard to my research project, I feel that I am making satisfactory progress. Tokko kuzure was actually the topic I was originally planning to research. However, I feel that most of my questions were answered by our readings for this class on kamikaze pilots. Additionally, I developed an interest in what is now my new topic: The effect of war memory on the Japanese Self-Defense Forces (JSDF). I have already identified some primary and secondary sources I plan to analyze further that will provide valuable insight into JSDF public relations in light of the discredits done by the Imperial Japanese Army.

Lela Ni 05/27/2020 Blog

By: Lela Ni

The topics of today’s class were the 1954 film Godzilla and the fourth game in the Metal Gear video game franchise, Metal Gear Solid. We examined these two pieces of pop culture through the lens of Japan’s post-nuclear anxieties as a society and nation as well as the parameters of their own art forms. Neva kicked off our discussion with a question about the latter: Why use movies (and other art forms such as literature and video games) to examine historical events? This is a question our class has deliberated on during previous classes, and it was especially topical today because many of the readings related to Godzilla try to move beyond film criticism and examine the movie from a historical perspective. The articles by Igarashi, Anderson, and Noriega offer several different ways we can read Godzilla. Igarashi, for example, introduces the idea that viewers can see Godzilla as a metaphor for the United States and the atomic bomb, and can understand the monster as a projection that helps Japanese society and individuals contend with the events of World War II. Anderson ties this latter interpretation with the concept of the “Other”–people cope with horrific events by casting them into external (and sometimes tangible) things. 

Honda Ichiro’s “Godzilla” (1954)

One particularly interesting part of our discussion was Lupe’s insight. Because the movie’s big moral conflict about the A-bomb was distilled into an interpersonal drama between human characters, the movie absolves the larger nation (Japan) from its real-world culpability in World War II. The movie overlooks the fact that such a bomb would realistically require a very expensive and perhaps national effort, and thus Japan as a political entity feels absent from this film even as the film is flooded with images of Japanese people, life, and culture. 

This “erasing” of Japan also occurs in the Metal Gear Solid game, but in this case, it is the ethnic markers of Japan that are removed. Several people brought up good points to explain this: Neva mentioned that video games, unlike films, became prominent during a time of increased globalization. Professor Uchiyama stated that if Metal Gear Solid was too explicitly Japanese, the game’s critiques about American foreign policy would be more difficult/controversial to pull off. There’s also the fact that perhaps the video game creators wanted to make their audience as wide as possible and thought white-washing the Japanese elements would make the game more accessible to non-Japanese players.

Metal Gear Solid – Video Game Franchise

Our class also had a lively discussion about the ontology of video games and how they are so experientially different from films. Whether or not video games (or any other medium or art, for that matter) are an effective means of delivering messages/lessons about the real world is a debate that’s still up in the air, but as Professor Uchiyama stressed in class, it is still important to study the intentions behind these things. Perhaps that is the value of studying fictional historical expressions–the choices involved in the process of creating them can be just as important as the products themselves.

An update on my research project: I’ve decided to go the creative route for my research project. I would like to write a short story in the form of an epistolary, or letters. I’m drawn to this form for this project because letter writing often features the first-person point of view, and this narrative closeness that I will have to develop to the narrator of my story will force me to inhabit her world and circumstances to a degree that a more distant narrator (an omniscient third-person point of view, for example) needs to a lesser extent. I’m not yet sure what the diegesis of these letters is going to be, but I do know that I want to incorporate letters “written” during World War II and letters “written” decades afterward. This is another strength of the epistolary form: you can really compress and expand and leap from time periods, which I want to highlight through my story because this class is, after all, about the memory of war. Aside from these details though, I don’t know what my story is going to look like. My writing process is also a process of discovery, and often I don’t know what I’m really writing about until I begin putting actual words down, so I try to go into a story as blindly and as openly as possible.

Lupe Mota “A Grave of Fireflies” / May 22, 2020

By: Guadalupe Mota

This Friday, we were tasked to read Akiyuki Nosaka’s short story “A Grave of Fireflies.” The 15-page story is an autobiographical piece that reflects the life of its author during the 1945 air raid that occurred in his home town of Kobe, Japan. Nosaka, much like the main character Seita, had his entire life shatter in front of him in moments during the raids. Both of his parents died and was left as the sole guardian of his 16-month old sister–unlike the story and film, Setsuko who depicts the role of his sister was 4-years old. This heartbreaking piece begins with the deaths of Seita and Setsuko who died months after the raids. Nosaka’s story tells of their journey of survival but also inevitable deaths. Both the short story and its adapted film interrogate the role of nationalism within the lives of both these children and the livelihoods of Japanese residents. The foreign enemy is never identified in the story, but we are often confronted with the enemy that nationalism plays which further entrenches the suffering of Seita and his sister–with the looming hope that his father, a naval officer, would rescue them. 

Screenshot from the movie adaptation of “A Grave of Fireflies”

I highly appreciated the insights of my classmates–especially those who gave honest initial reactions to the short story. Lela pointed out the interesting form Nosaka wrote “A Grave of Fireflies” in. Along with its difficult content, Lela indicated how visibly dense the actual text was. We could go to a page and not find a paragraph break and often read run-on sentences. However, most importantly, she mentioned how entangled the author is within his writing–an important take away that we should all keep in mind when we continue to read fiction stories or watch films rooted in historical specificity. Lela goes on to tell us that the writer should not be rendered invisible–when we analyze these works, we must also understand the personal and historical moments that these creators and artists are bringing into their work. This is particularly true of literature and film-making that present the audience with a traumatic story. The creative process may allow, however, for these difficult stories to be told. As several people mentioned as well, literature can take on the role of telling these stories that history is unable to–where traditional historical methodologies may not be able to tell the emotional truth of a person’s past or of trauma endured by society’s most marginalized. 

We also discussed the role that the animated film directed by Isao Takahata had on effectively telling Nosaka’s short story. First, Kenan importantly mentioned the role of music within the movie as it highly contrasted the plotline. He felt that the whimsical and beautiful movie was jarringly placed on top of the tragic lives of Setsuko and Seita. Many other of my classmates agreed that animation allowed the filmmakers to tell the story more accurately than a live-action movie could have. They even agreed with the film critic Roger Ebert when he said that a live-action actress would have taken away from some of the film’s most tragic moments including the death of 4-year old Setsuko. Lela also shared two pages from Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud which supported Ebert’s argument. The first page illustrates the heads of four men. As they appear left to right they become increasingly less detailed, and the comic reads: “When we abstract an image through cartooning we’re not so much eliminating details as we are focusing on specific details. By stripping down the image to its essential “meaning,” an artist can amplify that meaning in a way that realistic art can’t.” Thank you, Lela for providing us with this source. 

As for the research project, I am working with my beloved friend, Neva Nowak. Over the weekend, as we drove down Sunset Boulevard, we discussed our mutual love for photography and our intrigue for Japanese films. I mentioned the post-war Japanese photographer Daidō Moriyama whose mostly black and white photographs explore the themes of modernism and nationalism–an academic interest of mine. Neva previously worked on a paper for Professor Uchiyama on the 1971 film Throw Away Your Books, Rally In The Streets–where she explores similar themes. We came to the consensus that we bridge these interests in our final paper where we analyze post-war Japanese films and photography that are themselves critical to modernism and nationalism. As we continue to read and watch sources in this class, we spent about an hour after the lecture discussing our ideas and have begun an outline for our paper.

Black and white photograph by Daidō Moriyama

Ryan Barr’s Blog Post 5/20/20

By: Ryan Barr

Yesterday we discussed collective memory within Japan, specifically focusing on the role museums play in remembering World War II and how they influence collective memory in Japan. Jooyoun Lee’s article comparing and contrasting the Yasukuni Shrine and the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum was incredibly interesting to me. Lee discusses how these two museums are diametrically opposed in the way they portray the war, but both serve to teach a lesson about the perils of war and the prosperity of peace. I found this article to be the most enjoyable for me to digest, as it discussed the role that museums and collective memory have in the field of international relations. As an international relations major myself, this piece was much easier for me to really analyze the article’s strengths and weaknesses, and contextualize it within the broader field of international relations. 

Collective memory is a topic that is not widely researched in other areas of the world in regard to its effect on international relations. Our class discussed why that may be the case and brought up a lot of interesting points. I believe that Japan’s collective memory is studied with more scrutiny because it is very easy to see contemporary, real, long-lasting implications in their relations with South Korea and China as a result of their collective memory. When Prime Minister Koizumi visited the Yasukuni shrine as a private citizen, where 14 Class A War criminals are buried, there was an uproar by these countries who experienced great tragedy at the hands of Japanese imperialism.

The other articles discussed various museums within Japan, and some explained the process for how the museum decides on what pieces were to be put on display. This launched us into a discussion on the role museums play in society, how they are managed, and some ideas we had for the progression of museums into the future. We discussed how museums are given a sense of authority, almost like a scholarly article or textbook, as Lupe pointed out. Given this sense of authority, do they have a duty to provide the most objective, evidence-based information about historical topics? Should there be an outside objective party that reviews museums to make sure they are doing such? These are some of the questions we discussed. Lela had an excellent point about museums being similar to a thesis, where they are making an argument, and the exhibits they decide to show are the evidence to support this argument. This is apparent in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, where they are trying to prove how dangerous war can be, and how important peace is for the human race. 

Professor Uchiyama asked an excellent question which sparked another debate about whether or not we should have museums for those who died in aggressive wars, or died doing what others would deem as immoral or wrong. While I definitely believe that acts committed by Japanese soldiers and Nazi soldiers in the Second World War were egregious and awful, I feel as though it is not my place to say whether or not every soldier who fought on the Nazi or Japanese side were immoral, bad people. It is easy for us to look back now and condemn these people, however context matters. I believe that we are easily influenced by outside factors, especially from a young age. The Japanese soldiers were being fed a certain narrative since they were children, which ultimately led them to follow orders to do incredibly bad things. While it is easy for us to look back on these actions and condemn them from an outside point of view with significantly more information, I do not know if this is the just thing to do. Context should be analyzed and I look towards Hanlon’s razor which states, “never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by ignorance.”

My research paper is going well. I am going to be extending a quantitative analysis that I conducted previously which analyzes how the Japanese invasion can shape how countries react to Japan today. I posit that as Japan’s relative power increases, the distrust of the Japanese manifests itself in a decrease in the amount of imports/exports with countries formerly invaded by Japan, reducing overall trade between Japan and these countries. These countries are fearful of a repeat of Japanese aggression, thus when Japan becomes stronger, they respond negatively. For this class, I will most likely be performing a case study on either South Korea or China to see if this argument holds up qualitatively.

Gabriel Galanti Blog Post 05/19/2020

By: Gabriel Galanti

This was a very emotionally charged week. These are tough stories, with a lot of controversial layers and conversations. I found The Rape of Nanking to be an incredibly thought-provoking piece. Iris Chang’s methodology centers around looking at the multiple perspectives of Japanese involvement in China during World War II. The first perspective is the Japanese perspective — how the breakdown of the army occurred, what orders were given, and how it was possible for the massacre to occur on the Japanese side. The second perspective focuses on the Chinese perspective and victims — the horrors that were experienced, the brutality they faced from the Japanese, and stories of extreme circumstances and unlikely survival. The last, and maybe most heavily weighted perspective, is the American and Japanese perspective. Chang takes the accounts of 3 individuals in the International Safety zone and examines their heroics and role in bringing the massacre to light.

Chinese victims about to be buried alive during the Nanjing Massacre

Interestingly, the structure of this week’s readings played an important role in dissecting the main theme of the week: what does it mean to be a historian and what does it mean to remember? We also read two articles by Daqing Yang that seek to answer these questions and describe what historical nuance means. The Nanking Massacre is a highly charged historical event with a lot of controversies and how we approach it is important. Yang specifically points to Chang’s use of certain sources and her questionable reading of them. While Chang is not a historian, misreading sources and information is important, especially when you consider that this was a New York Times bestseller and a lot of people used this novel to learn about what happened in Nanking. That’s kind of Yang’s point, that accuracy (along with historical judgment) is important. That being said, I enjoyed the class discussion on this fine line between historical accuracy and telling a ‘journalistic story.’

I really appreciated Neva, Lela, and Lupe’s points about how Chang’s methodology is not one of perfect historical accuracy, but rather trying to tell a story, and because of that they are willing to look past some of the murky historical spots in Chang’s book. I completely agree with their viewpoint, the whole of the controversy surrounding these events is always centered on the details, but the most important thing is that we stop and recognize that something bad happened here. I also appreciated Neva’s comments about not comparing two atrocities and simply focusing on scale. If we always focus on scale, numbers, and detail, we forget the emotional pain and trauma caused. It takes away from the historical narrative. That’s what makes it so interesting to properly remember something — there are multiple perspectives, multiple truths, and it’s hard to reconcile everything into one work. That being said, I do agree with Yang, that historical nuance and accuracy are important. The bottom line is that a combination of skepticism, nuance, and storytelling is needed to properly join a historical conversation — but history is an ever-changing and complex conversation — so our understanding of history is always moving and changing towards a complicated and nuanced truth.

A Chinese woman and man tied to a pole – Nanjing Massacre

My research project is going well! I have teamed up with Samantha Kosai and we are going to look at the depiction and experience of comfort women, how the representations of comfort women differ from place to place, and who is over or under-represented as a result. This paper will be reinforced by the readings in our class and a mix of outside scholarly articles. We will also look at the following movies: “Spirit’s Homecoming,” “The Apology,” “Great Cold,” “Gai Shanxi and Her Sisters,” and “Within Every Woman” and see what is available to review!

The Beginning of a Journey: LAX to NRT

By: Athena Foo

GEA Japan students waiting to board flight

Waiting to board our flight!

One by one as each of us arrived at our departure gate it was clear that, despite our morning grogginess, feelings of excitement and anticipation was in the air as we approach the first step on our Global East Asia Japan adventure. Even though some of us have been to Japan before, we were still ecstatic at the prospect of returning and enjoying new experiences in the country with a research-driven focus. As we waited to board, many of us began discussing with our group members about our research proposals that we would be presenting at Meiji University. Between naps and an entertainment system full of the latest movie releases, who knows how much we could get done? Good thing we have some time after we reach Tokyo to finish up the proposals before they are due.

Airplane with a BB-8 paint job.

Airplane with a BB-8 paint job.

One of the other Air Nippon Airways (ANA) planes at the gate had a paint job mimicking the Star Wars droid BB-8. While I am I little jealous of the passengers on that flight, I do look forward to seeing Japan’s use of a wide variety of characters and mascots to represent products, prefectures, and stores. Perhaps products featuring such characters would be fun souvenirs to bring back to family and friends? The beginning of our trip went smoothly as all 16 students boarded without a problem (which is not surprising seeing how we have all flown on international flights before) and our plane took off without any delay.

ANA grilled mackerel meal.

ANA grilled mackerel meal.

About an hour into our flight we were served drinks and a meal. This is my first time flying with ANA and I noticed a few subtle differences in the drink selection compared to the North American airlines that I’m used to flying on. For example, iced green tea is available and hot tea is served after every meal. Also, Coke is also often referred to as cola, so I will have to keep that in mind if I ever want to order any once I arrive in Japan. As for the meal, we had a choice between a ‘Japanese style’ meal with grilled mackerel and an ‘international style’ with grilled chicken. I chose the mackerel meal and was delighted to see that it came with various side dishes like zaru soba (cold noodles in dipping sauce), potato salad, edamame, eggs, and more. To top it all off everyone got a small container of Häagen-Dazs ice cream for dessert! This meal was probably one of the best airplane meals I have ever had and now I am really excited to try all sorts of different Japanese foods once we arrive from traditional delicacies to strange and unique candies.

Enroute to Narita Airport

So with my belly full, I began falling into a food coma as my eyelids grew heavy and the cabin lights were switched off. Perhaps it was time to rest up for the exciting journey ahead before we landed in Japan.

Japan, Here I Come!

By: Tamia Ejekpokpo

I can’t believe I’m going to Japan tomorrow. When I was told back in December that my classmates and I would be going to Japan in May, traveling to Japan felt so far away. Now it is the night before the trip and it all feels surreal.

I’ve been to Japan before (Tokyo and Yokohama specifically), but this time feels just as special as the first time because I will be seeing new areas like Kyoto and Hiroshima. I can not wait to see these places and learn about their culture and landmarks.

Before going to Japan, Professor Katada had us read books and watch documentaries that gave my classmates and me a crash course on Japan’s history, culture, and economics so we understood more about Japan. Joe, my research partner, and I decided we are going to write our research paper on the black experience in Japan. The paper is in its preliminary stages but we considered writing about black foreigners’ experiences in Japan, cultural appropriation in Japan (specifically of Black culture), and mixed-race black and Japanese people living in Japan. We initially planned on talking only about black foreigners in Japan but ultimately decided to expand on that because we were inspired by a documentary Professor Katada showed us in class called Hafu. The documentary details the lives of mixed raced Japanese people living in Japan. It was pretty sad to watch the documentary and see that a majority of the kids and adults featured in the documentary have been harassed or treated differently because they were not fully Japanese. It’s been about six years since the documentary was released and I want to find out during my trip if Japanese people have become more receptive to those who are not fully Japanese.

Finding out these type of questions will require me to speak in Japanese.  I’m nervous and excited about practicing my Japanese with locals.  When I first visited Japan over a year and a half ago, I barely knew any Japanese. The most I could muster was arigatougozaimasu (Thank you) and ikura desuka (How much?). After taking three semesters of Japanese, I am nowhere near fluent, but I am able to make basic conversation.

The book on the left is for learning how to write and read Kanji, the book in the middle is a guide on Japanese vocabulary, and the book on the right is about Japanese grammar.

Packing hasn’t been very fun since I have to narrow down which clothes I want to bring.  I am an overpacker and I want to bring every outfit for any possible occasion I may come across. I thought researching Tokyo, Hiroshima, and Kyoto’s weather in May and June would make it easier for me to pick which outfits would be best appropriate for the weather, but Tokyo and Hiroshima tend to be hot and humid, while Kyoto tends to be on the cooler side. So I tried my best picking outfits that would be good for these weather conditions.

My carry-on bag which includes clothes, a portable steamer, and my must-have skincare products.

I hate long flights (anything over 5 hours) because I get bored sitting in the same place for a long period of time. Since this flight is about 14 hours, I’ve been trying to find things I can do to keep myself occupied. I plan on continuing reading Becoming by Michelle Obama. I read some of it during this past December break, but since school resumed, I haven’t had a chance to pick it back up. When I’m ready to exercise a different part of my brain, I will review Japanese terms and grammar.  And of course, I will be watching some movies on the plane. I really hope the 14 hours go by quickly.

From the West to the East!

By: Chandler Zausner

Last week may have been a long week, which was a half of hard work, but we’re finally off to Japan. Since the first meeting in April, we’ve learned so much about government, business and politics- the Iron Triangle of Japan. We’ve watched movies about politicians, on outsiders as well as those of mixed descent. Now it’s time that we step into the shoes of Americans like Commodore Perry and General MacArthur who encountered Japan at various stages, as we make our journey to a new land. It doesn’t matter how heavy the suitcase or how long the line is at TSA, we are determined to get to our destination. Everyone woke up early to get to LAX, possibly woke up even earlier than necessary because of the excitement. At least the sun is up, unlike the Global East Asia China trip students who took off at 4:30 am!

The flight is eleven hours long, but strangely, it will actually be tomorrow afternoon by the time we arrive in Tokyo. I plan to use the time on the flight to sleep, practice phrases in Japanese, review my research, and plan our adventures! I am a visual anthropologist and transmedial storyteller. My interests are in amplifying the small voice of marginalized individuals and communities that are in danger of extinction. My work ranges from documentary essays, both written and film, to narrative fiction and abstract multimedia installations. My research topic in Japan is to explore one of those marginalized communities, to investigate the culture bound syndrome of hikikomori, which is when young individuals, mostly men, shut themselves away in their homes for months or years. I hope to visit local community centers, agencies and newspapers to understand how other Japanese view this issue. I’ll also be exploring how modern culture portrays hikikomori in an increasingly positive light and whether that affects the people themselves or those around them in a positive way. I’ve spent a lot of time watching anime and reading manga- purely research, of course!

The Plane to take us on our Fantastic Journey

Although our classroom discussions have centered on “Japan, Inc.,” I’m looking forward to experiencing “Cool Japan.” I’ve signed up for almost every sight to see on the class doc, everything from ancient temples to hedgehog cafes. Ancient Japanese art, literature and culture is something that was not included in this class, but are subjects that I’ve taken in the past, which have exposed me to treasures from The Pillow Book to Bunraku to Legends of the elusive Kitsune. I’m nervous about speaking the little Japanese I know and hope to find safety in the group, especially our Meiji partners. The more I think about it, it feels like a voyage to another planet but I know that we will discover more in common than I know.

Everyone seems to have a range of light and heavy loads of luggage, a of snacks and breakfast are being eaten and our classmates are coming into the airport from a multitude of rides. After meeting in the terminal and passing through TSA, we are gathered at the gate, waiting for our flight to be called, our bags by our sides, and our adventure to begin.

Everyone together

Looking for the Chinese in Japan

By: Sophia Li

When I purchased my roundtrip ticket to Tokyo less than two months ago, I was incredibly excited and grateful for the opportunity to explore a new country, no less one that has developed such a “cool” reputation. Everything from high-tech robots to Hello Kitty has made me want to come to Japan.

A street in Yotsuya.

A street in Yotsuya

And yet, as I was frantically packing at 5:30 the morning of my flight, I felt a little uneasy about engaging with Japanese culture. Both my parents grew up in China, and suffice it to say my mom does not exactly like Japan. The Rape of Nanking was not that long ago, and the fact that there are Japanese nationalists who refuse to own up to Japan’s dark history makes me rather uncomfortable. Of course, the United States has committed its own share of unspeakable crimes, and there are plenty of problems in America currently. Issues in Japan are not worse than issues in the United States simply because I am not as familiar with them, and I recognize that fact. At the same time, I think that in order to be a “critical tourist” as our guest speaker Ryoko Nishijima and Professor Kurashige have instructed us to do, it is necessary to take the good with the bad, and to not let Japan’s wonders blind me from being able to see its problems.

It is not enough to just make observations about Japan; my goal for the next two weeks is to contextualize my experiences within Japan’s political and historical landscape. With all of that being said, I have loved Japan thus far. I love that Japan is so pedestrian friendly. Los Angeles could learn a lot from Tokyo. The hardest thing I’ve had to do in my first couple days in Japan is find places to throw away my trash in public.

"Pedestrian Paradise" in Akihabara.

Pedestrian Paradise” in Akihabara.

Luckily, I’ve been able to get by on the 10 or so Japanese phrases I know. Most Japanese workers know enough English, even if only a few words, to bridge the language gap. Something that has surprised me is I have not yet met or spoken with any Chinese people (that I know of). This is surprising to me considering our Teaching Assistant Yu “Toku” Tokunaga taught us that Chinese immigrants make up the largest foreign population in Japan. I have probably interacted with Chinese workers without recognizing that they were Chinese, but I have not noticed their influence on Japanese society. In comparison, Koreans are a smaller foreign population as far as nationality is concerned, yet their influence can be seen with the popularity of Korean culture and a large number of descendants of Korean immigrants live in Japan.

Japan has exploited Chinese labor through “trainee” programs, which claim to prepare Chinese workers for jobs but in reality just contract out minimum wage work. These programs are three-year contracts, at the end of which Chinese workers must leave Japan and return to China, often with no better skills than the ones they entered Japan with. For example, Toku once interviewed a Chinese trainee who wanted to become a tour guide but her work consisted of inspecting computer chips for several hours every day. At least from what I have observed so far, the Chinese immigrants who work low wage jobs seem to function as an invisible minority in Japan, particularly because many factory jobs are located in rural areas, out of sight from Japan’s metropolitan areas. Even though there are Chinese people who do work in visible places, like convenience stores, I have been unable to find “Chinese” elements in Japanese society other than kanji, Chinese written characters that are used in the Japanese written language.

I hope to speak more with scholars from Meiji University in the next week to get a better understanding of how Chinese workers function in Japanese society.