Job Discussion Forums

[lajzar]

Today I was showing a video aboutr my home country to my classes. Bercause ww2 played such a large part in its (Malta) history, this naturally got a mention.

Now, the first half of the video was all history (in chronological order), including the ww2 bit. Up until that bit, the homeroom teacher was quiet and listening attentively to the video. Once ww2 was mentioned, she looked like she had just sat in something soft and squidgy, and was desperately trying to get me to stop the video, saying it was too difficult.

So it seems, at least to one Japanese teacher, that even mentioning that a war was going on anywhere on earth in the nineteen forties, is verboten. fwiw, this video made no mention of Japan wrt ww2, and I dont think even Germany or Italy is named in that section. The video purely concentrates on Malta's status as a victim nation wrt ww2.

Hmm, maybe Malta has something in common with Japan after all...

[shmooj]

Interesting experience lajzar.

But her reaction probably shows an awareness of history as opposed to a lack of knowledge as the title of your post implies.

Also, she is in a difficult position and I'm not sure you can judge her too harshly for that. You were showing the video to her whole class. If, as you suggest, the whole issue is verboten on an official level, no matter how she feels personally, she would want to stop the video if she values her job. Can you imagine what would happen to her if word got round that she had allowed them to watch this stuff? Not a pretty thought.

After being here for a while too, I'm beginning to wonder just why it is that us foreigners are so insistent that the Japanese in Japan all talk about the war anyway. Not saying it's wrong but it's just that I was shocked to find that I hadn't even considered the question until a year or so ago.

Just some thoughts...

[Wolf]

[denise]

[cafebleu]

I always keep completely off the topic of World War 2 when teaching.

Not because I think that it is past history and it doesn`t matter - it does, when you have so much ignorance and denial of Japan`s genocidal activities in countries such as China - but I think it`s not in keeping with my job as an English teacher to try to educate the Japanese about those very real things that their government and education system censor so heavily.

I never bring up the topic of World War 2 although if a student does I am very tactful. On occasion I have listened to older students mention World War 2 but I never make any statements that judge Japan or imply that I am judging Japan.

As a person I am disturbed by the denial of history here as it is so ignorant and is leading Japan down the path of a new openness to right wing propagandists. Such as Ishira and that joke of a so called university professor who claims that the mass killings and rapes of women and children, as well as the killings of men in Nanjing `could not have happened` as the Japanese soldiers` diaries did not mention anything about such activities in Nanjing before or after the events. Yes, and the Holocaust never happened either - remember the Nazis said `evacuation`, not `extermination` at the Wanansee Conference.....

Unlike Denise, I have found that the Japanese know enough about the Nazis and the Holocaust. It does not have the effect that one would hope for - to draw a parallel between the military dictatorships of Germany and Japan that plunged their own people into genocidal wars against so called inferior peoples and brought disaster upon the heads of the German and Japanese civilian population.

Instead I have heard high school students talking about the movie `Schindler`s List` and saying how bad the Nazis and German people were. Some high schools in Japan have shownthat movie to their students. Japanese who are not school students have also seen that movie.

I`ve always wanted to ask them if they would be
just as ready to see a movie about the `Good German of Nanjing` who saved many Chinese lives from the Japanese army, if Hollywood or another country`s film industry made such a movie. But I have always kept quiet.

It`s simply a fact of life in Japan that the Japanese people do not have to look at their past, especially the recent past. Other
countries have done this in order to understand their past and why such negative practises as discrimination took place. But it is asking too much of the Japanese to do this. The school students are brainwashed through Monbusho textbooks and in private schools through revisionist, right wing textbooks in some cases and are taught to point the finger at other countries` past injustices.

Distasteful and pathetic as this is, we cannot change it. I see this denial as indicating a sickness in Japanese culture
when you have a society that is so much into lying,putting on a face and resisting the expression of truth as part of cultural norms,
it will inevitably have dire consequences for public life.

[april]

It really annoyed me I was in Japan and non-Aussies kept on bringing up the refugee/boat people situation and basically accused me of being unhumanitarian by letting it happen "Well it was you who voted at the elections!". And then of course, there's the White Australia policy which is another topic that the smart-arses love to bring up every so often.

So I can totally understand why Japanese people clam up at the mere mention of WWII. It's really annoying to sit there and listen to someone rave on and on trying to force you to justify something that you don't understand yourself.

And agreed, there does need to be more education about Japan's involvement in WWII. And I think Australian textbooks need to be less bias as well. Every time I read about our involvement in WWI, it's about the tragedy of Galipoli, no mention of the fact that we actually invaded Turkey.

[denise]

[cafebleu]

I agree with both April and Denise.

I am tactful about the Second World War and will avoid making judgements about it to Japanese people, but I am not averse to making polite points if a Japanese person starts talking about how Americans, Canadians, the English, New Zealanders and Australians discriminate. A Japanese person I know started on a progaganda kick by saying that all these western groups stereotype the Japanese as monkeys.

I asked her why she said that and she told me she read it in a book. I said the author`s thinking was way behind the times and it was most likely he was doing the stereotyping. I pointed out that all those countries have multi-cultural populations and are used to seeing different faces such as Asian ones. Sure, there are racist individuals but let`s look at racist laws. Let`s look at citizenship rights for a start.

I asked her if I could become a Japanese citizen with full rights the way a Japanese person could become a citizen with full rights in my home country after a few years of residence. She said no. I asked her if I had a child born in Japan with my partner (my partner is not Japanese but Asian), would that child be considered a Japanese citizen?

She said yes but then I referred her to the Japanese laws regarding citizenship and it was clear that my potential child would not be considered a Japanese citizen. I pointed out that the Japanese laws regarding citizenship and legal rights are centred in the notion of blood - Japanese blood.

I pointed out that in western countries, residents let alone citizens enjoy rights that foreigners could never enjoy in Japan, even if born in Japan.
In the UK for example, refugee status was granted very easily until now, maybe too easily given that individuals such as Mullah Omar who was allowed to live in the UK and live off benefits paid for by UK citizens, used his position to maintain active links with Bin Laden influenced groups.

In the western countries I mentioned and also in non speaking western countries, refugee status, residency status and citizenship are given generously. I pointed that out.

I did not say this truth - in Japan what is essentially a racist definition of citizenship based on blood in the national constitution is something that the Nazis are quite rightly despised for but continues to be the norm i n Japan and some Asian countries. For want of a better word it`s a notion of Asian supremacy at work.

I mentioned all these facts nicely to that woman and in a way she could understand. Her response? `But we Japanese are unique. We are unmixed unlike you.` I could have given her a history lesson about Pacific peoples, Mongolian, Korean and Chinese peoples mixing to make up the Japanese `race` but I decided against it. Her attitude is too prevalent in Japan and it`s scarey - it reminds me of Meiji propaganda let alone World War 2 Japanese propaganda.

How will Japan ever find its way out of its economic morass if it refuses to broaden its thinking? The sad thing is I don`t think it will. Japan badly needs new ideas and new ways of looking at the world to spark an economic revival but again the culture of deceit is working strongly against that.

[april]