From: ra01+@andrew.cmu.edu (Rikiya Asano)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: Not a Myth at All
Date: 22 Dec 92 05:34:34 GMT
	<Dec21.182717.41044@yuma.ACNS.ColoState.EDU>
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

Mr.TNishimura writes:

>	As some one in this group pointed out before, the burakumin issue does
>	not have anything to do with racism in general sense.

 This is partly in error. Maybe in the past this have been
discrimination, now however,a lot of Chinese and other non-Japanese are
forced into these Nippon "ghettoes". Nothing is changed with me about
this issue! While your "background report is interesting, I wish
especailly since the buraku are your people-historically. I do however
liked that you responsed about this issue to a international person.
But, I am ashamed to be Japanese by you because you did it in a phony
defense against the accusation as to whether Japanese are racist. I
think that you should not use the buraku(why, by the way did you know
that the buraku community puts out a monthly publication?)as "whether we
are or are not"! 	As I recall, >the basis of the current status of the
issue began in Edo
>	period when the ruling class (bushi, or samurai) made up several levels
>	of social classes to distinguish one level from another, which I think
>	is the system similar to caste systems in India.
>	
>	This system is usually known as "shi-no^-ko^-sho^," which means
"samurai	-farm
>ers/peasants-craftsmen-merchants."
> 
>	Despite the fact that they were ranked the second, farmers/peasants
were	actua
>lly ruled most strictly and were not even allowed to move from one
>	place to another.  This is because, since the wages of samurais were
>	paid in rice, which farmers produced, the ruling class needed not to 
>	make the farmers complain about their treatment by saying that there
>	were two more "lower" class than them.
> 
>	Turining to "sho^," or merchants.  Here again, despite the fact that 
>	they were ranked the lowest in the system, some of them had more power
>	and money than some samurai class people.  The merchants of course 
>	complained about their being ranked the lowest sicnce they lived far
>	better off than the other two classes above them.  To compensate this
>	complaint, the ruling class created new two lowest classes; "eta" and
>	"hi-nin."
> 
>	"Eta" was engaged basically with cattle slaguhting job, which was 
>	considered unrespectful under Buddhism sicne it prohibited eating meat
>	of four-legged animal.  They were not allowed to move for any reason.
>	"Hi-nin," literaly "non-human," worked at execution gorunds and dealt 
>	with the bodies of the executed.  Even people in the three classes of
>	the system other than "shi" sometimes degraded to "hi-nin" because of
>	poverty and criminal acts.
> 
>	My more-than-10-year-old history text shows the percentages of the 
>	classes for a reference.  This was of Akita-han in 1849.
> 
>		class			population		%
> 
>		samurai			36,453			 9.8
>		farmers/peasant	       284,384			76.4
>		cho^nin *		27,852			 7.5
>		priests 		 7,256			 1.9
>		zatsu **	   	15,720			 4.2
>		other			   489			 0.1
> 
>		total		       372,154			
> 
>		* "cho^nin" (towners/ordinary citizen) includes "ko^" and "sho^"
> 
>		** "zatsu (or zo^)" (miscellaneous) includes blind priests, 
>			mine workers, and so forth.
> 
>	Obviously, "other" includes "eta" and "hi-nin."  These people were 
>	prohibited to associate with any other class of people and were forced
>	live in designated places, which were mostlikely outskirts of a town.
> 
>	In 1871, after the samurai society corrupted, the government stopped
the 	syst
>em and canceled all civilian classes.  But the fact is, those who
>	were from "eta" and "hi-nin" were still discriminated by being called
>	"shin-heimin," or new ordinary people, despite others were plain "hei-
>	min."  And this discrimination continues until today especially in 
	marriage, where to live, and occupation.

Again, thanks for the reference. But, this is not a tradition now.
People are hurting. People are denied the basic privledge of a
meaningful direction toward a happy life. I see that my plea to you is
useless! 

It is common for most Japanese to distance themselves away from this
issue because we know that if we were born in a buraku section. We would
not be in the 
position that we are today. We would have be force totake the low-lifed
jobs that no one wants. Don't be fooled! This is a calculated efford by
the US, the Japanese, to on purposely dicrimminate against those that
are less fortunate than us- non buraku. From a legal standpoint, the
buraku are Japanese citizen. But, There is a big loophole in the
constitutlon which inadvertly(I'm not really sure about this word)
porvides for the "legal" discrimmination against these people. Almost
like America's Jim Crow Laws! The Buraku is not a tradition. We
aiways think that if it was in the Samarai days it o.k. This like
feudalism was not, I repeat not o.k.! But, as it looks the citizens of
Nippon are powerless. We have interest in rising above the deprivations
of the feudal system. We can keep a remant. We can keep a body of people
trapped ina life of despair and hardship. Even in America people like
Micheal Jordan, Micheal Jackson, Prince,
Thurgood Marshal, Malcolm X, And so many other of many races have
stuggled to put themselves out of the destitude of proverty and
discrimmination to become some of America's leading and leaders. This is
also one of Americans strenghs.
But, We Japanese say, "No thank you, Buraku"! "We will keep you below us
because that's the way that it has always been"! How can a Mayor in a
city in the state
of COLORADO say to the her city, "Now await a minute! a we're too white,
too upperclass"! Can a mayor in the U.S. out govern the Nation of
Nippon? The buraku
is racism! It is discrimmination! and it's Wrong! In my opinion, it is
the minds of evil men and women who try to conceal this terrible deeds.
The hell with tradition. These people are our own! And, if they weren't
it still would not give us the  right to hurt and mangle these
individuals lives. When we are quiet
and let this go on we are just as guilt. Mr. Nishimura, I'm not angry at you in
specifically. You are probably comfortable with your life right now.
But, if you
or I or anyone in this group for that matter were born in baruku do you
(genrally)know what our lives would entail? Certainly, we wouldn't have
the privledge of communicated of these devices. And, certainly you
wouldn't be
in a state school much less in America and I in a private school all the
more less in America. 
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