The fallout from 9/11 includes many values that no longer seem
viable, for instance, to world peace activists who own up to the
implications (1). But how are the same events viewed through different
culture-colored glasses, as influenced by a consensus interpretation
among the media? Internet sources in English indicate, by comparison,
that some literate Arabs in the Mideast still wish to believe
that conspiracy theories involving Jews are the salient issue.
How do Japanese people view 9/11? If that is phrased "Japanese
individuals," it will be more difficult to generalize beyond
anecdotes. But sources including the Japanese language media are
often in support of these perhaps surprising interpretations.
Except for the pornography of death, terrorism is a nuisance to
Japanese people, yet another uncontrollable force from the outside
that threatens the safe and stable domestic scene among Japanese.
So they see a clash of two civilizations unrelated to Japan but
just impacting on Japan and forcing Japan to react diplomatically
(in both senses of the word). The rhetoric of "civilisation
versus terrorism, east versus west, freedom versus evil doers"
is utterly foreign to the Japanese way of thinking, which identifies
neither with the East nor with other civilizations of any sort.
There is an old Japanese fable about frogs in a well croaking
among themselves and thinking that the little circle of light
above is the whole sky. However, this Japanese fable may have
some universality as well. In any event, this is the country that
remembered Hiroshima but forgot Pearl Harbor until the movie came
out. In other words, popular sentiment about WW2 has been that
Japanese people were victims. Frequent sudden disasters such as
earthquakes had also led to a historical feeling that major events
could not be helped, so a safe and predictable life was the best
to be hoped for. Media biases reinforce attachment to time-worn
values.
Most passers-by interviewed in a youth mecca of Tokyo showed concern
that Japan or they personally could be harmed by terrorism, but
considerable apathy was expressed. A mature woman said, "I
have stopped travelling by plane and worry this terrorism will
spread to the rest of the world." But a 36-year-old man said,
"In no way, really. I was interested after the U.S. attacks
for a few weeks but my life and business are not directly affected."
An 18-year-old woman said, "No. I have no interest in the
events" (2). On a BBS I predicted with black humor that Muslim
veils would become a fad, not realizing that Muslim scarves were
already the rage. That shows how some young women were able to
gain ownership of world events.
There have been signs that the media in Japan are out of touch
with changed realities, and that the public is influenced to hold
attitudes very different from those of Japan's ostensible allies.
This could be because the post-War pacifist ideology has served
Japanese people so well that they cling to it even when it is
no longer viable. The day before the fall of Kabul the vernacular
daily Asahi newspaper with a circulation of about eight million
demanded that the U.S. stop bombing and send in food. Of course
that would have given the Taliban a new lease on Afghanistan.
A cable news network in Japan decided to offer the Al-Jazeera
channel for free, just when the U.K. was considering banning them
for inciting hatred. Nightly news broadcasts have tended to focus
on the innocent Afghan victims of American bombing, and the tug
of manipulated emotions was noticeable to this viewer.
Few mentally healthy humans are eager to change their values,
as it is one's world view rather than the actual world that brings
a sense of stability. Similarly, in the U.S. there has been controversy
surrounding peace activists who remained true to their values.
Rightly fearing instability, people tend not to change their values
until incontrovertible evidence mounts that their outlook must
change for survival.
Multiculturalism has flourished in recent times with the growing
recognition that cultural diversity is enriching, yet now the
complete transcendence of racial profiling can appear to be a
luxury of political correctness that a besieged country cannot
afford.
Japan has been privileged like the U.S. in recent decades, not
having to dirty its citizens' hands in direct warfare. The rumor
that Japan was asked by the U.S. to "show the flag"
has been widely criticized by Japanese media commentators. Yet
on both sides of the Pacific many individuals and businesses have
in effect displayed a white flag, by canceling trips, laying off
workers, and so forth.
East Timorese Nobel Prize winner Jose Ramos-Horta provides some
realism, saying that intervention in his country stopped the genocide
by Muslim-dominated Indonesia. Saddam Hussein was the first leader
to use biological weapons -- on fellow Muslims in Iran. The "al
Qaeda fighters are actually mercenaries" (3).
Japan was the first country hit by chemical terrorism with the
Tokyo subway sarin gas attack by the Aum cult, but memories are
fading back to inchoate fatalism. Japan's most popular novelist,
Haruki Murakami added Aum non-fiction to his previous characters
with a dark underside (4). Murakami's "Underground"
has become literal in the case of caves and tunnels sheltering
bin Laden's foreign legion from the deserts of the Mideast and
Africa to the Central Asian mountains. The English-language daily
Japan Times reflects on a rift between traditional and modern
culture that can lead to extremism, which is true in the Islamic
world and elsewhere as well as in Japan. Religion led to terrorism
by highly educated believers in both Aum and on 9/11 (5).
Terrorism jolts national self-absorption. A foreigner in Japan
may not wish to go back to 9/10 when the front page news was usually
domestic and the Internet provided the main window to the outside
world.
The most active force internationalizing Japan was Ichiro. Until
New York was broadsided by regular tourist carriers, Tokyo pedestrians
would not have been asked how they were affected by events abroad.
Prior to 9/11, with Japan's traditional attitudes labeled racist,
Time magazine's online Japan correspondent agreed with me that
what Japanese people want is economic recovery without having
to change their values (6). For when they do come out of their
self-absorption, the post-War generation faces various accusations
about WW2 that they do not fathom, yet they do not want to let
go of ongoing Japanese ways that define them and satisfy their
needs for safety and affiliation. It may work better to lay low
vis-a-vis the outside world, focusing on economics and uncontroversial
trivia, not showing their true feelings but projecting a time-tested
persona.
In perspective, however, all citizenries could be described as
self-absorbed to a degree. While U.S. media saved money pandering
to domestic issues like who did Monica's hair, the U.S. government
was caught flat-footed and uninformed despite recent events in
the Mideast and Africa. The U.S. might rank below Japan in self-absorption
but above some countries that are decidedly multicultural and
multilingual.
Since Plato, Western systems are ostensibly based on the rule
of law, with location of birth often determining nationality.
In an extreme manifestation, confrontational individualism exploits
unbridled freedom to work the system to one's advantage through
litigation. Whereas crowded East Asian societies have learned
to avoid confrontation in elaborate ways. In a rule of men more
than laws, blood determines nationality more than location. Middle
men buffer the domestic business world against victors and vanquished,
with compromise for mutual survival. The system can be worked
more effectively by connections and behind-the-scenes consensus-building
than by the conspicuous assertion of merit, principles, criticism
or lawsuits. Given such differences in common sense, judging Japan
by what is currently PC in the U.S. is simplistic labeling. Working
the system of international trade and remaining self-absorbed
are both self-protective. Avoiding the possibly accusing eyes
of foreigners altogether may be a way to hold onto a jittery sense
of security. Thus the cultural gulf remains, and the relatively
few Japanese who become fluent in a foreign language tend to be
seen as crossing over. Nonetheless, they vastly outnumber the
fluent non-native speakers of Japanese.
Unsung heroes of our time are those who risk cultures going back
millenia to privilege English as the world's lingua franca. Then
let English be a neutral tool without presumptions of cultural
superiority, and let the enrichment of East-West communication
be mutual (7). So Japan represents a magic mirror to the U.S.,
responding unexpectedly and showing that doing things even the
opposite way can work, like driving on the left side, or owning
a car but not using it to commute. Japanese responses will continue
to confound outsiders, but a change in world views to make sense
of world events has been sped up by necessity, and traditional
pragmatism will find a way.
Also in a positive vein, few foreign students left NYU and other
American universities, though parental pressure to return was
especially strong from "safe" Japan (8). That is evidence
of critical thinking by nonWestern individuals that can make them
safe from conforming to destructive influences. The free flow
of multilingual information and education through the Internet
may be the best long-term protection for lovers of peace.
ENDNOTES
(1) Warshauer, M., "Bin Laden tape, media wars, and strong
horses"
Papyrus News (WWW document from e-mail newsletter, 13 December
2001)
http://members.tripod.com/vstevens/papyrus/2001/pn011213a.htm
(2) Kobayashi, T., "How has the terrorism in the U.S. affected
you?"
Japan Today (WWW document [BBS, so the URL may change], 16 October
2001)
http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=popvox&id=146&page=5
(3) Transcribed online chat, "Jose Ramos-Horta:
Achieving peace amid Muslim tensions"
CNN Access (WWW document, 11 December 2001)
http://asia.cnn.com/2001/COMMUNITY/12/10/ramos.horta.cnna/index.html
(4) French, H., "A Japanese Writer Analyzes Terrorists and
Their Victims"
New York Times (WWW document, 15 October 2001)
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/15/books/15MURA.html?ex=1004116749&ei=1&en=f00f
32de6823b4d4
(5) Matsubara, H., "Extremism fills intellectual void?"
The Japan Times (WWW document, 11 December 2001)
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20011211b5.htm
(6) McKillop, P., "Letter from Japan: Can of Worms"
ASIANOW - TIME Asia (WWW document, 12 May 2000)
http://www.time.com/time/asia/asiabuzz/2000/05/12/
(7) McCarty, S., "Cultural Liberation: East-West Biculturalism
for a New Century"
University of Virginia Multicultural Pavilion International Project
(WWW document, March 1998)
http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/multicultural/papers/mccarty.html
(8) Heins, C., "Exchange students in U.S. plan to stay"
Daily Yomiuri On-line (WWW document, 11 December 2001)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/newse/20011211wob1.htm
By the same author:
"Japanese
Perceptions and Reactions to Terrorism: Q & A"
Center for Global Communications, International University of
Japan (July 4, 2002)
"The Taliban's Twin Towers"
New York University: Online Journal of Education, Media and Health
(September, 2002)