The sound and the fury
Commentary ( 8 )
TOKYO —
As I write this, it’s approaching Aug 15, otherwise known as V-J Day, the anniversary of Japan’s surrender at the end of World War II. At my local train station this time last year, I was treated to the sight and sound of a man in black fatigues holding a megaphone, angrily haranguing everyone within earshot from atop his little black van. On other days, I also see such people driving around Tokyo, assaulting citizens’ ears at deafening volumes with their supremacist tirades.
The question for me is simply this: why?
What do they benefit from marching and driving around, spouting their vitriol, hate and lies? My glib answer is that they have nothing better to do—it really is that simple. With no hobbies, no friends and no social life, they fill the void where their self-identity should be with the only thing that’s left to them—their race. I don’t imagine many of them have wide social circles and a variety of interests, because if they had lives, they wouldn’t be full-time nationalists.
Unfortunately, there are numerous politicians who will court them, routinely banging on about race and nation to make up for their utter lack of policy substance. Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe built his public profile entirely on emotional grandstanding about the Japanese abductees in North Korea, but by playing to the crowd in this way, he actually set back what little progress had been made with the Kim Jong-il regime. He was just one of a succession of prime ministers who have willfully aggravated Japan’s relations with its neighbors for the sake of indulging nationalist sentiment.
What does it benefit politicians to cozy up to a tiny handful of revisionist xenophobes? I fear that the simple answer is, again, that it gets them some votes, and they’re just not concerned about the other long-term consequences. It encourages the far right, from the ranters at Yasukuni shrine to the whitewashers of history textbooks, and it alienates neighboring countries with which Japan really ought to be strengthening its ties, rather than trashing them. This is something at which the street-level nationalists also excel. When the world sees Makoto Sakurai and his private militia of shaven-headed thugs snarling abuse at a teenage girl, what kind of image does this create of Japan? Not that it’s a welcoming and hospitable country, that’s for sure.
Not that he cares: if he and his kind had any concern about Japan’s overseas image, or its relationship with its neighbors, they wouldn’t do what they do. However much they delude themselves to the contrary, they’re not motivated by a love of Japan. They never have been, and they never will be. They’re motivated only by narrow self-interest, by the need to create an identity for themselves where none exists. People who truly love Japan should be fighting against nationalism and racism, rather than engaging in it, just as people who love Britain should embrace the European Union rather than disdain it, and people who love the USA and the freedom and inclusivity for which it stands should support the Muslim community center in New York rather than oppose it.
This goes also for the politicians, motivated not by the nation’s interest, but only by the need for votes. If anything, my inner conspiracy theorist suggests, there are some politicians who depend on continued conflict to sustain their careers, and who routinely engage in deliberately provocative acts in the name of “defense,” all just for the sake of looking tough.
So, when we hear them appeal to the patriotism of the Japanese, we need to take a close look at what they’re saying and decide for ourselves in whose interest they’re really acting. Only by doing this can we see through the demagogues who use patriotism as a tool to manipulate people’s feelings and advance their personal agendas. Think about where the message is coming from, and who benefits, and chances are it’ll be the same people. We’ve evolved beyond the need to protect our tribe, so to put aside these base feelings and see the wider picture is the best way to support our countries.
Peter Sidell is a teacher and sometime writer living in Kanagawa.
This commentary originally appeared in Metropolis magazine (www.metropolis.co.jp)
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8 Comments
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1
tkoind2
The right wingers of Japan labor under the illusion that Japan's imperialist past was a good thing. They fail to see the fact that Japanese expansionism was doomed from day one. They also fail to understand that the militarists blinded themselves to the industrial and economic realities that would have educated wiser men to avoid war at all costs, instead leading the country to a self-destructive war with only one possible outcome.
Sadly Japan does not have a monopoly on this kind of thinking. The US still has stars and bars flag followers waiting for the south to rise again 150 years after the Civil War. While Germany has her neo-nazis who must have slept through German history and social studies classes. And Russia has both her imperialists waiting for the restoration of the royal line and the Soviets wishing for a return of the era of Soviet power.
I like to call this condition "baka natsukashi-ism" for Japan. In all candor, very foolish people dreaming of very foolish and unrealistic visions for Japan that will never happen, and if they did, would result in unimaginable hardship for everyone including these deluded followers of right wing beliefs.
-1
timtak
"We need to take a close look at what they’re saying" says the author, who yet tells us only that the patriots he vilifies spout "vitriol, hate and lies." (Unless he is refering to Abe.)
"The right wingers of Japan labor under the illusion that Japan's imperialist past was a good thing. They fail to see the fact that Japanese expansionism was doomed from day one." I think that some of them at least, agree that it was largely doomed, but claim, rightly or wrongly, that Japanese imperialism was a large part of the reason for the fall of European imperialism in East Asia and in that sense at least Japanese imperialism was a mitigated success. Another example of vitriol, hate and lies perhaps.
2
Yogizuna
I do see some similarity with the extreme right wingers in Japan, and those in the United States. Both like to hang out with their own race, both use propaganda and lies to further their own cause, and both have dreams of the "old ways" returning once again, no matter how unrealistic that may be.
-2
Marykay Nelson
all I can say is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a real affliction, and tolerance is the drug of choice for those who never had it, or experienced the effects of it; consider yourself blessed..I figure many people were, and are, shell-shocked from the horrors of this event, and others ..
1
Jason Lok
A little context please, who the hell is Makoto Sakurai? Sure we can all google it, but the guy isn't well known and the writer should have told us more about him if he referenced the name.
1
CruzControl
Ummm.... I know that might be a bit passe to you, but a country going into another country to kidnap people is really not too good a thing to just shrug off.
1
Farmboy
Rather sweeping statements. Have you done a survey or something? How do you know this? There seem to be a lot of sweeping statements with little support here. More data, please.
I agree with CruzControl.... grandstanding aside, North Korea's kidnapping of Japanese citizens wasn't very nice...perhaps "setting back progress" (what progress?) should have happened much earlier, instead of denying that it was happening. I don't know many other countries that would have quietly put up with the kidnapping of its citizens.
I don't like the right wingers' loudspeakers or music either, but really, talk about vitriole... where is your support for this statement? Your not liking their politics doesn't give you any particular insight into their motivation for doing what they do.
People in Britain will be happy to know what they should do...
0
Raymasaki
many wierdos here in the US do the same thing. they think its patiotic to dislike other countries. but hey many Japanese don't feel that way & many Americans don't either. being patiotic (to me) is showing your smart & open to other cultures & people. that Helps your countries image. rather than look like an ignorant racist. some people want closed countries & to me thats closed minded.
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