Opinion

So far from the U.S. ...

By Joseph LaPenta

It was time for speeches in the English conversation class. Many spoke with detailed knowledge about American movies and music. Others mentioned a trip to Disneyland or a rock concert.

Junko spoke about studying English in the United States. She had made friends with another foreign student, a young man from Taiwan. But halfway through the course, he was forced to return home for military service. He told her that, by Taiwanese law, every young man had to serve in the armed forces. Junko said she had no idea why such a system was necessary, and the young man had never explained.

Since no other student seemed to know, I suggested that Taiwan might feel threatened. Junko was surprised again. "Threatened? Who is threatening Taiwan?" she asked.

One student thought it could be the United States, because it was such a violent country. The discussion continued. Another student said that Japan would never threaten others or be threatened by others because the Japanese Constitution prohibits war. Yet another commented that she did not like U.S. military bases in Japan, but that the United States would protect the country in case of attack.

I wrote the above points on the board and we took a vote. The majority agreed that all were true. Apparently, these university students knew more about the products of a distant pop culture in America than about the political realities that govern their own part of the world.

Besides being naive and poorly informed, they also seemed to be unaware of the contradictions in Japan's the international relations. For nearly 40 years, Japan has been praying for peace while paying for war - paying to help U.S. troops fight in wars in Korea, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf and Afghanistan, while benefiting economically from many of these conflicts. Surveys showed 80 percent of the Japanese public opposed to a U.S. attack on Iraq, but the Japanese government fully supported it.

I was also struck by the wide gap in student comments between what seemed to be two entirely different countries: "America" and "The United States."

Many Japanese admire America's popular culture and powerful ideals. The same people are repelled by the international violence they associate with the United States, except when it benefits Japan. A young Japanese participant in an anti-war demonstration said in a TV interview that he liked America but was against the war. Again came the litany: He loved Disneyland, American movies and music, and even smoked American cigarettes.

His image of the country seemed to be made of very different elements. Imagine cute and lovable Micky and Minnie Mouse, dropping bombs and killing lots of innocent women and children. A former president of Mexico, which shares a border with the United States, once lamented that his country was "... so far from God, so close to the United States!" For many Japanese, the dilemma seems to be: So far from the United States, so close to America!

Shukan ST: April 4, 2003

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