Opinion

Welcome To God'S Country

By DOUGLAS LUMMIS

Well, the rightists are really starting to feel their oats.

And how should we translate "kami no kuni"? I don't know if Prime Minister Mori knows this, but "Kami no Kuni" is the title of the Japanese translation of St. Augustine's great work, known in English as "The City of God." It means a place where politicians may never lie or take bribes, or have gangster friends.

Definitely not what Mori has in mind.

Probably "sacred country" would be an appropriate translation. But what does that mean? Nothing, since no such country ever existed. But when a government begins to think of itself as sacred, watch out. Whenever some people are designated as "sacred," other people are sure to be designated as "profane." Who will that be?

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara suggested an answer in his April 11 speech to a unit of the Self-Defense Forces (SDF). There are now in Japan, he said, lots of "sangokujin" and foreigners who commit despicable crimes and are likely to stage an uprising. In that case, he said, you in the SDF will have the duty to suppress them.

You foreigners who read this column, do any of you know of any plans for an uprising? It's news to me.

And how should we translate sangokujin? The words mean "third-country people," but that communicates nothing in English. This discriminatory expression began to be used around 1946 to refer to people in Japan who had been Japanese "subjects" when their countries were colonized, but who had reverted to their old nationality once these colonies were liberated.

So who could Ishihara mean? There is no one in Japan today in a similar situation. But vagueness is a characteristic of racist language. Consider the word "gook," originally used in World War II in the U.S. military to refer to the enemy Japanese, but later applied to Pacific Islanders, Koreans, Chinese, Vietnamese and Asians in general. One theory is that sangokujin includes everybody who used to be included in the term "gook," except the Japanese. But I'm not sure: If it means anyone not included in the "sacred country," which, as Mori says, "centers on the Emperor," it could mean any foreigner. Couldn't it also expand to include some Japanese as well? Ainu? Okinawans? People who won't sing the national anthem?

In the speech mentioned above, Ishihara referred to the Japanese Constitution as "that warped (ibitsuna) constitution." In an earlier interview he was quoted as saying that the Constitution should not be amended (which requires a two-thirds majority in the Diet) but rather "destroyed" (which, he says, would require only a simple majority) (SAPIO, Aug. 25/ Sept. 8, 1999).

Mori and Ishihara should be thanked for showing us just what the Japanese right has in mind: the revival of open racism, militarism and the mystical state headed by a semi-deity. Moreover, Ishihara proposes the sacrifice of the rule of law to the interest of state power.

Would someone please explain to me how this differs from contemporary European neofascism?

Shukan ST: June 16, 2000

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