From: dcroz@twics.co.jp
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Not a Myth at All
Date: 26 Dec 92 13:06:21 GMT
Organization: TWICS, Tokyo, Japan


write
 
--Michiaki writes:
 
=}I'm glad to know that you, Mr. "anonymous" dcroz, finally showed guts to 
=}respond to my posting.
 
     I'm not sure what you mean by "anonymous," but I responded to your note
the same day it showed up at my node.  Seeing that your posts have degenerated
into mere invective, I now regret having done so.
 
=}You stated as if many people didn't believe it, but this is the expression 
=}of your ignorance.
 
     Oh, I know that there are many people who "believe it."  That doesn't make
it true.
 
     There is also a large and growing number of people who have wised up. 
Looks to me like "believing it" is the "expression of ignorance."
 
=}Do you call "irezumi okotowari" (No tattooed person allowed) as "racism"?
 
     No, it's discrimination based on something other than race:  the
presumption that people who have tatoos are members of bouryokudan and
therefore frightening to the other customers.  
 
     What the denizens of Yokosuka practice is discrimination based on race.
 
     Unless one is bigoted enough to believe that all Navy personnel are the
sort of drunken slobs described in other notes, the excuses the Yokosuka people
make for barring them are no more valid than any of the racist stereotypes used
to justify Jim Crow in the U.S.
 
=}Your superficial interpretation of Japanese culture
 
     Or rather my rejection of your superficial apologia.
 
=}your one-sided view of Japanese mentality
 
     AKA my stubborn refusal to buy into your interpretation.
 
=}your having an unreasonably hard time in Japan.
 
      I'm not having a worse time than any other ketou who learns to speak and
read the language and finds out, from their own mouths and pens, what the
Japanese are really saying and thinking.  I'm more vocal about it than most
people, but if you imagine that these opinions aren't shared by large numbers
of ketou, you're dreaming.
 
     There will always be a new crop of "tatemae ni damasarareta" ketou to
carol the chrysanthemum club line and lend an ersatz legitimacy to
Japanapologia, and the clueless, the Uncle Toms, and the venal Quislings are
with us always.  But the core of long-term residents and students of Japan
whose opinions resemble mine is larger than ever and growing rapidly.  Pretty
sizeable "support group" here, really.
 
     Japan has been crying for "understanding" (wakaru, with its overtones of
"let me get away with this.").  Well, it's getting comprehension (rikai)
instead, and you'll never be able to stuff the genie back in the bottle.
 
=}Prove it.
 
     Sure, come on over to my house for a couple of days; we've got room.  I
warn you, though, my (four) kids are pretty rowdy (except for the youngest,
who's just noisy).  'Course, the two oldest will be at school on weekdays, and
then there's piano and soroban lessons, and I'm not home that much myself. 
Seems like there's always something: gakko no undou taikai to ka kaisha no
kenshuu to ka kodomo no yobou seishuu to ka shigoto go no tsukiai to ka. . .
 
=}YOU are the one who ALWAYS assumes that "someone," in this case all the
=}Japanese, do indeed have "a biased view based on racism," aren't you?
 
     I'm not *assuming* anything.  I'm formulating and testing hypotheses to
explain a data set.  When I find one that both explains all the data and allows
reliable prediction, it begins to look like there's a high level of probability
that it is accurate.  I then start challenging people to poke holes in it.
 
     Your most substantial challenge to this hypothesis has been, "You're a
jerk, nyaa, nyaa, nyaa."  Can't you do any better than that?
 
=}Your aim seems to be to convince people that not only Japanese in Japan but
=}also all the Japanese on this planet are racists.
 
     Only the ones that were raised as racists by the racist Japanese culture. 
I don't see this as connected at all with persons of Japanese ancestry who
aren't force-fed this volksgeist from infancy.
 
=}Then, how valid is it to say, "I hate all the Japanese. I don't want to make
=}a single friend out of Japanese. However, all the Japanese have to be
=}friendly, supportive and hospitable to me"?
 
     I don't have time to waste on irrelevant hypotheticals.  Why don't you
wait until someone says this (or even makes a statement that can by any
dishonest stretch be distorted into something that resembles this) and then
we'll talk about it?
 
=}Many netters who tried to correct it appear to have already given up. Or is
=}it just because of the Holidays?
 
     I've responded to every related note that I've seen.  It appears that a
lot of notes never make it to this node.  Anybody who didn't get an answer and
really wants one should e-mail me.
 
=}No. I said, "someone." "R.A." is your word. I wonder if you found your 
=}postings have anything in common with R.A.'s?
 
     Ah.  Excuse me, I have made a mistake.  I thought I was discussing an
issue with an adult, but I find myself on the street corner playing the dozens
with a juvenile delinquent.  Not interested, sorry.
 
=}I didn't expect that whiner's guts would last long anyway.
 
    I've never objected to peppering an argument with a little invective (just
for flavor), but I don't think I care to spend time on someone who is
apparently unable to distinguish between reasoned argument and invective.
 
     The prospect of standing toe-to-toe with you slinging insults bores me
senseless.  If it pleases you to interpret that as a lack of guts, fine.

Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan