US Navy Training Film From WW2

Man, I don’t know what part of amurica you live in, if you do indeed live here, but lemme know because I’ll move there immediately. Are you sure you’re not in Canada? Or someplace called Denial, WA or something? A great many people on the east coast that I’ve encountered (especially in my hometown) are cloistered as hell and mired in ignorance, which is a good breeding ground for racism. A few years ago I wasn’t shy about announcing my plans to move to Japan after college, but after a few years out in the public, closer to “home”, I’m usually prepared for a comment ranging from “[patronizing]Noooooo. Why would you wanna go to Japan?” followed by a curt smile to (and yes someone actually said this to me once) “You know they were our enemies 50 years ago.” Wow. The latter commenter was called a bigot and a racist to his face and then subsequently laughed at derisively, because although he was old, he could’ve scarcely been 10 when wwII was going on. An example of the parent-fed tripe-eating drones that populate the area. How long are you going to hold a grudge? In fact, there was an article in the local paper recently about how the market is “softening” to buy Japanese cars and that locally people are still reluctant to buy them and older people still have world war II grudges and they won’t buy anything Japanese. All I have to say is that I’m sure that a lot of places aren’t as racist as here (and this is I think the #1 most livable city in the country right now?) but I think a lot of people are still way cloistered and ignorant even if they don’t mean to be. The irony to this is the fact that when I was younger I met a few WWII vets and I was going to Japan around that time and in idle conversation (at work, these were customers at the job I had in HS) it came up because I was more “innocent” about talking about such things then, and the people that were there are the ones that aren’t the bigots, the few I met loved it, thought it was beautiful, etc. I’m sure that their position varies now from back then, they see it that way now, but prolly had the stereotypical view back then to a degree, but still. It always makes me laugh that in this day and age people can still be so ridiculous. In general, not even in total relation to Japan, I think that the closer we get to each other via information sources and such, the more a lot of the masses hate each other. They see the spin and the surface information they want to see and think “that confirms my preconceptions, I have a justification to be a bigot now that I’m minimally informed” only not in words that intelligible. If you read the book Samurai William, it includes a lot of William Adams’ (a British sailor, average guy, that sought to open up trade for the India Trading Company and Britain) journals and how even the mighty British Empire back then when they were a conquering nation, saw Japan as an equal and revered the culture and life of the Japanese. And then you have americans hundreds of years later being total bigots even before WWII. And I can’t say that I’d be surprised if I knew nothing of america and then read the history in chronological order. A country founded by shame-based religious zealots that thought they were doing “god’s work” by using savagery to eliminate the indigenous “savages” of the land? Doesn’t surprise me that they think little of anyone else. Now I’m not saying Japan is innocent by any means, experimenting on “Pokopen” and thinking they’re racially superior to the Chinese, Koreans, etc. I went to college with a Chinese kid that had this hatred of Japanese passed down through generations, accidentally triggered by a well-meaning but ignorant mutual friend introducing me as “the kid who likes Asian stuff, especially Japanese stuff,” expecting us to get along. But as far as I can see, americans have changed so little, even outwardly, in regards to tolerance and humility. I think that variety is the spice of life and people are people. I’m thankful I was born in an era where this great nation was an economic superpower. I’ve naturally since I was little always viewed racism as a strange thing because it just eats happiness away and drives a wedge between people, who wouldn’t want to enrich their lives with variety? And I grew up in a horrible household for that, so I knew what NOT to be early on I guess. I’ve always had a fascination with Japan since I can remember, and since I was there the very first time I’ve loved it regardless of the fact that I may never be fully accepted even if I spend the rest of my life there. How’s that for irony? I hope to assimilate and be well-liked regardless. =) Sorry for the book if you actually read this whole post.

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