Meaning in Pain

Japanese cemetery

I suppose by now that you've all heard the news about Japan's Self Defense Force hostage situation. With death tolls rising in Iraq and explosive carnage around the world daily, it is, after all, old news. Here in Japan, however, a nation virgin to the horrors of war for fifty years, the "hostage crisis," even ended, appears to be a non-ended matter of national concern.

The day the kidnapping occurred, the atmosphere in Tokyo was vaguely reminiscent of a somewhat subdued September 11th. Every five minutes during the duration of the kidnapping, television stations would tune to the news just to tell wary viewers that no, indeed, the hostages had not yet been released. When the hostages were returned, almost every channel cut to news and repeated the message for hours afterwards-- "They were freed!"

Now the morning talk shows, the news channels and the political analysts are all talking about and reviewing the footage... including previously unreleased clips of the hostages being threatened and abused at gun and knife point... in order to analyze what exactly the hostages were thinking, feeling, saying and especially if the situation they were in was somehow THEIR FAULT.

According to my host father, the families of the victims, incensed at their plight, blamed the government and asked for reparations of some kind. Now that the hostages have been returned to Japan but are asking leave to go back to Iraq, Japan is attempting to paint them as some sort of careless victims in order to make itself look better.

For a country so unaccustomed to war, this makes sense. In a way, the naivety of Japan is refreshing but, more than anything, it is terrifying. Of course the hostages-- and any member of the SDF-- should have (and probably did, as volunteers) known the risks of going to Iraq, but so should the government. If such a large "scene" is taking place over the capture and release of three unharmed individuals, I dread (anticipate?) the uproar when someone is killed.

More American soldiers die every day, many without the luxury of negotiations for their release. If we dedicated the television broadcast time that the Japanese have to the torture and death of our own soldiers, there would be no space for even the most well-paying advertiser to run a 30-second commercial. But no one wants to watch that... we're all too numb and distanced anyway. Americans, I think, are overcome by a feeling of helplessness at the costs of war.

I want to shake Japan and scream, "Hey, this is how it is!" but by doing that I might give away my own fear that I can do nothing and make no difference until it is far too late. In an insensitive way, I'm glad that the Japanese SDF is in Iraq so Japan can learn what's so shitty about the world today. I have nothing against isolationist policies that involve common sense (like, say Canada's). But the Japanese government doesn't seem isolationist (or anything) of their own will. Rather, the governmental policy of Japan seems to be the result of social and international herding and a vast unawareness about the reality of the political connundrums overseas and the danger that Japan may itself face someday soon.

My Japanese expressed her views to our class on why she thought the hostages were released. She said, "perhaps the captors realized the hostages they were good people and that they Japanese were not enemies." She thought that the petitions signed by the Japanese people and the plea of the captives' parents touched the hearts of the guerillas. Yeah. Right. I can't say that her opinion is predominant but I have a sinking feeling that it may be.

Returning to reality: There is no reason for the Special Defense Force to be in Iraq. As a reparative force, they should be sent if and only if Iraq is ready to be given humanitarian aid. As deaths have increased daily over the past few weeks, I think it's plainly apparent that now is not yet the time for whatever reparation the SDF can offer. This war was officially "begun" and "ended" without any understanding of what beginning or end meant.

While Koizumi faced a definite Catch-22 in sending the SDF, especially concerning American/Korean governmental policy as a lever, I nevertheless see him as a spineless coward. I understand the connundrum of withdrawing the SDF (giving in?) versus remaining stationed but as the SDF never should have gone in the first place and can accomplish nothing where they are now, except as further leverage for terrorism, I think withdrawl would be the best case.

I can only imagine Bush as glad that this Japan, perhaps in the very state the US government envisioned at the end of WWII, is ready and willing at his beck-and-call.

But so undeniably internationally na?ve is this nation that in a state of "high terror alert," the best they can do is put a handful of unarmed police in Shinjuku station during rush hour and put paper over the trashbins when five feet from the papered over trashbins (which have usually been opened anyway), there are five dollar lockers that would easily fit a bomb big enough to level the station. On the platform itself, no one has bothered to consider the conveniently placed "bottle recycle" containers next to the vending machines as dangerous.

And what necessity do these posted officers serve? Occupied every second with giving directions to or conversing with passer-bys, they offer no more than placid reassurance to a placid people. Who are they looking for? What do they think a terrorist looks like? Would they stop a white man? A black man? A middle-eastern man? Would they stop me if I look "suspicious"? I see nervous and agitated people, crazy people even, go through that gate every morning and evening and in the flow of thousands of people, no one ever looks twice. Some days my bookbag is half my size. If it were a bomb, would they expect it to be ticking?

Would I rather they had metal-detectors installed at every station gate? X-ray machines? Armed military? No, certainly not. I don't even think it's logistically POSSIBLE for the Japanese to protect the train system given any danger. On top of that, I think American security is superflous and unnecesarry. I'd even go so far as to say it's ineffective and simply another form of terrorism by a conspiracy-bound government. But given the possibility that something *might* happen in Japan, I'm nevertheless amused by the futulity of these measures.

As I said before, in a way this naivety is refreshing. I'm glad to see a people who remain unterrorized by their own government. But I'm also wary that someone, terrorist or otherwise, might take the incentive to show the Japanese the error of their security measures. Then where would Japan be? Just another America?

One missile costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, one short existence as a hunk of metal as expensive as a public school, perhaps slated to explode over that very type of building. War is expensive but somehow the lives of people are not. Japan has a lot to learn, yes, just as America has a lot to "unlearn." I'm afraid to say it but this country needs to be woken up... and that awakening will most certainly take a death to inspire. Spain had the balls to "pull out" and I can only pray that Japan will do the same when the time comes. What is coming is coming soon and I hope that everyone, both here and overseas, is ready.