From: ntetsuya@lamar.ColoState.EDU (Nishimura)
Subject: Re: Not a Myth at All
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1992 02:51:22 GMT
Organization: Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO  80523

In article <EfBeXee00iV0449lsu@andrew.cmu.edu> Rikiya Asano <ra01+@andrew.cmu.edu> writes:

>
>Again, thanks for the reference. But, this is not a tradition now.

	You're welcome.

>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. 

 	You missed a lot of points.  Would you please cite where I said there
	was no racism in Japan?

	I say racism exists in Japan.  Some are quite similar to those found 
	here in the US, and some are IMHO quite unique to Japan or to the 
	Japanese.  But I say the buraku mondai has nothing or few things to do
	with racism because of the following points.

	*Buraku was formed in fairly closed society of feudal Japan when almost
	 any foreigners were technicians or highely skilled people and therefore	 respected (thus foreigners were not discriminated very much in a sense
	 of racism).

	*Burakumin consist of exclusively Japanese while there are slight 
	 possiblilities of consisting of descendants of Korean or Chinese immi-
	 grants who came to Japan as technicians.  (I think in this way because	 	 basically Japanese and other East Asians share many characteristics 
	 such as colors of eyes and hair.)

	*Ancestors of many of Burakumin today were discriminated not because 
	 their race or education, but because the jobs they engaged in; the 
	 jobs which were considered "fujo^" (not clean/not pure) from the point
	 of Buddhism.

	*Such discrimination was intentionally "created" by the ruling class at
	 the time, samurai class, as a safety vent that compensated the 
	 frustration from the lower classes of the feudal triangle.


	
	If you say Buraku mondai is racism, that's fine for me.  At least I 
	think racism is a discrimination as well as Buraku mondai.

	I do not want to say Buraku mondai is our tradition though, sadly it is 	still one of the problems to be solved in current Japan.

	In some schools in Japan, students will learn about the issue, which has	been called "Do^wa mondai" for a long time now, but in some they don't 
	learn even the word.  I myself had not learned anything about the issue 	until I took teachers training courses in university.  It is still the
	case today in many parts of Japan.

	A friend of mine who taught as a senior high school teacher in Ibaraki
	told me a story like this:

	In the record of each student, there is a box it indicates this student
	is from Buraku if marked.  This indication is not to discriminate the 
	student.  This is to help teachers identify the students from Burake and
	pay special attention and care to what teachers say or do to the 
	students (IMHO this is also a discrimination).  This "custom" started,
	according to my friend, because there were not a few cases in which
	the parents of the students from Buraku complained about ANYTHING they
	thought to be discrimination even if it is a mere scolding the student
	for not doing his homework.  Sometimes those parents asked some Yakuza
	to do it for them.  Thus schools started to pay extra attention to the
	treatment of any student from any Buraku.

	In another example I know, there is a part where *ALL* houses are 
	exactly the same.  They are built on the same size or land, in the same
	construction, and painted in the same color.  This was intended not to
	make *any discrimination* in the area, though, consiquently it makes 
	clear distinction of the area from other *ordinary* areas where is no 
	Buraku.

	As you said, Mr. Asano (or whoever you are), Buraku is a discrimination.	It is wrong.  It must be changed.  But in my opinion, it is not a 
	racism.  That's the only difference we have in our opinions, isn't it?

	Let me ask you one question, Mr. Asano (or whoever).  What have you done	to make a change in this issue including racism?  Myself?  Well, taking
	advantage of being a teacher, I did *lots* to my students.


					Tetsuya Nishimura

Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan,soc.culture.usa,misc.consumers