Raj Feridun wrote:

> On Sun, 23 Nov 2003 21:37:15 +0900, Eric Takabayashi
> <etakajp@yahoo.co.jp> wrote:
>
> >Scott Reynolds wrote:
> >
> >> On 11/23/2003 9:08 PM, Raj Feridun wrote:
> >>
> >> > Because I get very VERY sad to think that I'll never go home again no
> >> > matter how nice life here is. Dorothy SAID there's no place like home.
> >> > She's right.
> >>
> >> Well, then you should be aware that most of the people you have been
> >> calling ignorant, elitist, racist (etc., etc.) are here for the long
> >> term, many probably permanently. (I include myself in this group, BTW.)
> >>
> >> But then again you gave yourself away with your "if you don't like it,
> >> go home" comment. You don't seem to understand that for many of the
> >> regulars in this group (and, specifically, for the ones you have been so
> >> busy insulting) Japan IS home.
> >>
> >> And what Ed wrote is what all of us have felt at one time or another. To
> >> pretend that the coldness of the Japanese toward others in public
> >> settings, and the shocking lack of compassion or even consideration
> >> toward strangers, is some sort of "racist, elitist" lie is simply to
> >> deny reality. It surely is the least attractive aspect of this country,
> >> and it does get to you sometimes.
>
> >> Are you seriously trying to tell me that it has never bothered you?
>
> >I can believe that in a rural area with a more traditional sense of
> >community, he might actually be sheltered from the problem, and be allowed
> >to have his view that problems he has never seen or experienced are merely
> >a way of life, and someone else's problem.
>
> Thank you, Eric. For one thing I never saw Scott's direct reply for
> some reason and would have missed it but for your quotation of it.
>
> Thank you also for the defense even though I think it was a bit
> tongue-in-cheek.

It is not, nor is it a defense. I see such ignorance or denial among Japanese
all the time. Even killings take place in Fukuyama, yet people will claim it
is not a problem. There is a rifle store (which advertises a shooting club) in
the neighborhood across the street, yet people claim that there are no guns in
Japan and that I must have seen model guns. I guess all the gun related crimes
(including in Fukuyama) are imaginary, as well.

> My whole point from the very beginning of this was
> not that the problem did not exist but that it is racist to label the
> entire Japanese with that unkind, uncaring stamp of disapproval.

It would be a problem if it meant the entire Japanese.

> This place I'm in too is Japan.

Yes, but such a minor part of Japan, with an apparently insignificant problem
for you and others not to notice. I prefer hearing from people with experience
or to find out firsthand.

> I don't think its someone else's problem
> either. I've got a problem with anyone who is unkind and void of
> compassion for others, period.

How about those "caring" people who do nothing, who are part of the reason the
problem continues, though they may not be the cause themselves? Do you realize
there is a problem with them (and the ignorant), as well?

> Scott, sorry if you think I'm all about insults. That's not it at all.

I don't believe you are about insults. I believe you are ignorant or in denial
like many "people" I know, about 99% of whom are Japanese.

And not kind.

> To answer your final question no, it never bothered me because IT is
> not something I am very familiar with.

You are not required to be familiar (have experience) with something for it to
bother you. You don't care that it happens elsewhere, or to anyone else? For
some reason, posters think I must have personal experience with some problem
to have such strong views on them. No, I do not. I can have strong views, and
also act, on problems which have nothing at all to do with me or anyone
related to me.

> This place I'm in is very small
> and very closeknit and warm and if they ARE cursing this "dirty
> gaijin" behind my back I never hear about it. That's all I'm saying.
> That's all I was saying to begin with. Open yourself up to the
> possibility that yours may not be THE universal experience

"My" experience is not the universal experience (though it corresponds rather
well on a smaller scale), and also why your experience where you claim not to
see homeless at all is rather irrelevant. But what is happening to others
elsewhere does better represent the universal experience, which is why I care
about people who have nothing to do with me.

> and by
> doing so understand where I'M coming from when I hear you guys spout
> off about the "Japanese", case closed.

We understand that you are sheltered, and I believe numerous people have said
so. Now spend more time in more urban areas, where the vast majority of
Japanese live and where problems may be more obvious or on a larger scale, and
people believe or behave differently. Realize that modern Japan, even a city
or town much smaller than Fukuyama, is not typified as "very small and very
closeknit and warm". Even the island I used to live on with four towns and
maybe 40,000 people in total, could not be called that. Maybe a traditional
neighborhood could be called so.

> I'm not saying your experiences
> are false. I'm saying those are just f'in a-holes you're dealing with
> and the fact that they're Japanese may not be THE problem.

The problem is not because they are Japanese. I say Japanese because they
simply are Japanese. If I had a problem with fellow Americans and only
Americans, I'd tell you they were all American.

> I've got evidence to the contrary in the form of very kind and caring
> Japanese
> people all around me.

How would you know, when you do explicitly say you not ask, and do not see the
problem? Would you be foolish enough to claim, for example, that the reason
there are no visible homeless in your area, is because there are enough good
paying jobs for all, that government support is sufficient, or that people
take in the poor themselves?

Should I send the Fukuyama homeless, or any of the hundreds of unemployed
people I know, your way to get what they need? I am quite serious.

> Japan is my home too and has been for the past 10 good years.

Rural Shikoku is your home, and life there does not seem characteristic of
Japan, in the same way rural Hawaii is not like the rest of America. Fukuyama,
however, does share a number of features with larger urban areas, though on a
smaller scale.