From: fsdhp@acad3.alaska.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: USA vs Japan Men's Volleyball in Olympics
Date: 15 Aug 92 22:39:36 GMT
Organization: University of Alaska Fairbanks

Johnny Borders writes:

[several lines from Mr. Borders and Mr. Leon Lee deleted]

> No doubt you could challenge me on this, but.. As long as I've lived in the
> US (since I was born :), I've always noticed that values, morals and ethics
> that are taken for granted in other parts of the world (notably Europe and
> Japan) are virtually nonexistent here. Sportsmanship? Whassat? And arrogance?
> Oh, boy, did you ever pick the right country to call ARROGANT. In a poll
> I still dig up from time to time, 85% of all Americans felt they possessed:
> "A God-given right to interfere and oversee the activities of all other 
> sovereign nations." America is no longer the wealthiest or most industrious
> as it once was.. All it does is bully, complain, and point Uncle Sam's
> finger (at Japan, mostly). 
> Every American I know blames the lousy state of the union on Japan, never
> stopping to think that if they weren't so stupid/lazy/selfish and/or weak,
> the US would still be number one. Then there's that Pearl Harbor thing,
> but it never occurred to them that it wouldn't have happened if the Navy
> hadn't been laying down on the job. They really got caught with their
> pants down.. (my sympathies go to the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
> particularly after this evening, when I watched "Hiroshima, Mon Ami," a 
> graphic and moving French film) 
> The attitude of the US is something else, I'll say that..
> 
>>The wanton behavior of Samuelson indicates all too well that such adolence
>>conduct will not be tolerated by the international community. 
> 
> But juvenile, macho behavior is enormously popular. After all, we're talking
> about a country who sits down in front of the damn TV to be entertained
> with gratuitous sex and violence, day in, day out. 
> 
>>And as fate would have it....the US did not win the gold.  It had to settle
>>for Bronze.  I hope this would have a sobering experience on the US team, for
>>adolecent displays of protest is a poor subsitute for proper sportsmanship
>>conduct.
> 
> Sobering effect? HERE? You must be joking.. Complaining is a trait of 
> American behavior! The US EXPECTED the gold! Hence, they think they should
> have received it. After all, we're the richest, most powerful country on
> earth, right? Only when THAT attitude is changed will Americans grow up.
> No doubt they're still claiming to have been cheated out of a gold or
> that there was a conspiracy of some sort.. Never mind the fact that they
> just weren't good enough.. <ugh>
> Anyone want to trade places? I'd rather move to Japan (if only I could work
> harder on learning the language.. :)
> -- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mr. Borders:

In the first place, you _can_ move to Japan, and quite easily, too. Getting a
permanent status there is another issue, of course. I would recommend, for
example, asking your nearest Japanese Consulate or Embassy about the J.E.T.
Program -- all you need is a Bachelor's degree, a little (very) Japanese,
and an interest in Japan. On the other hand, most life-long Japanese would
_not_ wish to trade places with you (quite a few "returnees" _would_). And
for most jobs, Americans are viewed very favorably, especially for some highly-
skilled and well-paying jobs.

Secondly, please calm down.  This self-hatred on the part of culturally sen-
sitive Americans is most embarrassing for others. A few observations from two
years living in Japan:

-They watch about as much TV as Americans do. And it is not a little but a
 LOT more gratuitously violent.  I don't even want to begin with gratuitous
 sex -- maybe Italy can give Japan a run for its money on gratuitous nudity
 and sex (nude women's thighs used as ear-warmers for panel discussions while
 the camera pans in on their breasts between remarks, a "game show" where women
 rip clothes off each other in a pool, a real lot of rape scenes). Maybe.
 Where do you puritan Americans get the idea your TV is full of sex? Not by
 world standards.  Maybe by Vatican standards or some of the Muslim countries. 

-Japanese _are_ better "sports" at sports and games -- there you have a point.
 In general, politeness is much more of an issue there.  If you live there,
 I guarantee you won't always enjoy that fact (After a while it will grow on
 you). Anyway, the Americans have had a deserved bad rep since the loss to the
 Russians in basketball. But bear in mind not all the US athletes were like
 the volleyball team.

-As for the US not being #1 (and who cares?) it has nothing to do with
 Americans being stupid/lazy/selfish or weak (this last adjective sounds kind
 of Fascistic, frankly). It has a lot to do with an incorrectly developed
 U.S. infrastructure and the Reagan deficit spending. On the other hand, when
 considering the _relative_ positions of Japan and the US, why _not_ point
 the finger at Japan a bit? After all, _every_ other country in the world has,
 and rightly so. Neomercantilism is bad for world peace, world trade and the
 world economy, and for a long time Japan was the leading practitioner in the
 post-war era. It is _not_ only America who whines about this. Live overseas a
 while and you'll see. My experience has been: Americans work harder, Japanese
 work longer.  But the Japanese work so much longer they get more done each
 day. So quit insulting the Yankee worker: he already has enough trouble
 figuring out his health care ;).

-Any American who reads your blame-the-victim analysis of Pearl Harbor is going
 to turn from your post, sickened, and dismiss everything else you say, I
 think. It's one thing to forgive and forget, but _don't_ turn revisionist,
 please (Unless you want to blame the US Navy for the unprovoked attacks on
 British and Dutch holdings in the Pacific, on the same day, and the still-born
 plans to annex Australia and the eastern half of the Soviet Union). As for
 Hiroshima -- I would never have had the moral courage/hubris to drop an atom
 bomb on a mostly civilian target, but in retrospect, lucky for them and us
 (estimated 1M US, 5+M Japanese casualties doing it the hard way) someone did.
 My sympathies for the victims of this realpolitik tragedy are no less, but
 I honestly don't know what the answer was, so let's not feel guilt until we
 know what the guilt-free solution was. Better to forgive and forget everything
 on both sides. It's been fifty years.

-This brings up arrogance.  Japanese arrogance is expressed differently, but it
 is no less than American arrogance. Find out for yourself. Read Japanese
 papers. Talk to other Asians. Individual Japanese seem to me a lot less arro-
 gant and a lot more thoughtful than Yanks, but the society as a whole is pretty
 arrogant.

My point? Japan is a wonderful country, a fine place to visit, live, and work.
But they're no angels there. If you go there with your tail between your legs
you'll make lots of friends, but if you go there with some respect for your
own society, you'll make better friends.

Ontheotherhand, watching the Olympics i felt the American sports commentators
_were_ totally biased and whined and disputed everything everytime America
had anything go wrong.  Japanese TV international sports coverage is more into
play-by-play, almost like radio, with almost no commentary.

Anyway, by all means move to Japan. Tokyo is bad, the nicest places are hard to
make a living in, but there are lots of happy-medium places. But what is great
about being in Japan vs. the States is not that Japan is _better_ just
_different_.

yrs. for accuracy in comparisons,
David Pennell

P.S. I am a native-born Alaskan and have never considered myself an American
other than a North American. I have no strong pro-US bias. In fact, before
the pipeline, we had a fine, separate, multi-source culture here. Between
pipeliners and endless military our culture has been destroyed and
Americanized -- a warning to the Canadians. I am Alaskan Independence and
always vote that way. I have also lived in Europe and enjoyed that -- I
just hate to see anyone, even the Yanquis, get an undeserved rap, even from
their own people.
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