Japan Blog

Japanese don't like to talk of negative things.

If you lived in Japan for a while you might have sense this. Japanese tend to walk away from negative or unpleasant things. It's not about right or wrong or guilty -innocents, it's about not wanting to confront. A good example is when someone is dying. Normally in other countries, the family, friends and others are contacted to let them know that a person is dying but in Japan no one is contacted. Not that they are trying to keep it a secret - everyone is contacted after the death for the funeral - they don't like to go over and over talking about how a loved one is going to die. I think the culture in Japan tries to avoid pain by acting like it's not there. Another good example is the Fukushima earthquake and tsunami. No one talks about it even years after. Even in blame issues like the Comfort women - japan is silent. Japan has strong argument that the government wasn't involved in slavery or blackmail and so could have campaign as strongly as the Koreans but they don't. They'd rather walk away and not deal with the negativity then fight for the Nations image. My own personal experience is with my uncles death a few years back. My uncles got cancer and died in a year. They told us since we are in frequent contact but our relatives in Japan were not told until after he died. This rings up another point - sympathy is looked upon as a negative in Japan. This is odd since sympathy is generally a positive in America.

So ,if you live in Japan, don't be negative or talk about negative things, people will avoid you if you do.

Some Truth about American WW2 Prapoganda

I'm probably the only person in the world who knows about this. It's something I discovered while at the Pomona University.

In a history class we watched a WW2 Newsreel film about Japan. The video below is NOT the one I watched but is an example of the type of film we watched.

Apparently, they played these at theaters before the movie.

Anyway,at one point, the film showed a SEA man who was severely suffering from malnutrition. He wore no shirt so you can clearly see his skin was stretched tight against his ribs. He was smiling holding a ho. The narrative said the US had captured this work camp where the Japanese forced the natives to work under horrendous conditions as can be seen by this man. The Japanese often used slave labor to mine raw materials needed to fuel their war machine. This man was starving but, now he is smiling because he is so happy that the US military had freed him from the clutches of Imperial Japan.

Later, do to class schedule problems I ended up with 2 hours between class, everyday! I did all kinds of things to kill time. One was to spend hours in the library. I was in the microfilm department browsing around when I came across a box labeled something like "Japan xx/xx/19xx arch, US gov prop". It was film footage taken by the Japanese government to document the war. Many clips were joined together showing all kinds of random scenes from around SEA. This was raw footage not a film, it had no story, narrative, subtitles or sound - it was silent footage. On one clip, the camera pans slowly around a wire enclosed field about the size of a football field. As the camera is panning, it stops on a man holding a ho. It's the same footage I saw a few months ago in my history class! The footage lingers on the man for a few seconds before continuing panning when shortly a second man appears. This one is a Japanese soldier with an open shirt with a rifle strapped across his shoulder also smiling - the American news reel didn't show the Japanese soldier. It lingers on him for a few seconds then continues it's slow panning to cover the whole area then it goes on to a different clip.

Several big deceptions reveal themselves. This was not footage taken by American film crew embedded with the US military. This was Japanese footage meant to document the war. The US cherry picked snippets from it and created a story and narrative to make this propaganda film. Since they got the film from the Japanese, they must have confiscated it after the war or seized it during capture of one of the SEA islands near the end. In any event, it couldn't have been taken during the liberation of a work camp so the man wasn't smiling because of the Americans; he was just smiling being filmed by a Japanese film crew. Also it was not a mine, the original footage showed a small agricultural field - it still might have been a work camp since it was fenced off but I doubt it because the fence didn't have barbed wire on top so it would have been easy to climb over it. The man was plowing the field, that is why he had a ho. Finally, the Japanese soldier was also in a state of malnutrition though not as bad as the native man. This could mean that the Soldier did eat better than the native but not by much. It could also be simply that Japanese people are slightly fatter than SEA so he had more reserve putting him in a better condition temporally. In any event, the Japanese soldier was cut out because it killed the illusion of the Japanese starving the native people while they themselves ate high off the hog and also, it would destroy the story line that the native was smiling because the Americans had liberated the work camp. They even cut out the field footage because it would that the area was clearly not a mine and probably not a work camp either - most likely a vegetable field where the native was tending as an employee of the Japanese government.

I think I'm the only person who saw both clips because they are both rare specially the original war footage. I would not have found it if it wasn't for having too much free time in the library. Ultimately what this shows is this is how America operated back then. I'm not saying work camps are a lie - they existed, they are legitimately documented. What I am saying is the US had an agenda and would falsify information to promote it's agenda.

Japanese New Year

In Japan, New Years is a simple celebration. On New Years Eve, Everything is cleaned up to start the next year afresh. A special noddle called Toshikoshi Soba is eaten but otherwise nothing else is traditionally done but in recent years people go out an celebrate New Years Eve much like in America. On New Years day, people go to the temple and pray for a good year. They also visit varies people like their parents bosses and teachers to pay their respects. Children are given gifts of money called Otoshidama. During the next few days a special meal is eaten called osechiryori. Most people watch the special music program, Kouhaku Utagasen while kicking back at home

Japanese food culture that westerners don't know.

Here are common Japanese food trivia that most westerners don't know. 

1) Bread in Japanese is called "Pan" (I believe is Portuguese) but the common use of the word Pan means a treat-bread that is more like a doughnut or a hot-pocket; examples are Meronpan or Karepan.  The normal sandwich bread is called shokupan which equals food/eat + bread.

2) Mochi prepared in  Japanese homes is most often eaten plain and unlike most of Asia, it is used  in savory dishes - The sweet confection types are usually store bought.   Mochi is often cooked plain by grilling but now-a-days pan fried, toaster ovened, or microwaved.   The mochi is often dipped in a sauce of sugar and soy sauce or Kinako powder.   Mochi is used in soups mainly Oshiruko which is azuki bean soup with grilled mochi or Ozoni which is a special soup eaten during new years.

3) Japanese people have many simple foods, usually based on rice.   The simplest is the plain rice ball.   This is just a ball of Japanese rice but usually a small filling is added or the surface is sprinkled with a flavoring agent.   In fact, when nothing is available, Japanese people can eat a whole bowl of rice by sprinkling its surface with a flavoring powder called furikake.   Another common way to eat rice is to crack a raw egg onto it and add a little soy sauce.   This is called Tamagokake Gohan.  Still another way is to pour hot tea over the rice and add any ingredient you wish.

4)  The go to meal during Christmas in Japan is Kentucky Fried chicken.  

5) Although there are many ways to prepare fish in Japan, the most common way is to salt it and broil it.   This is called Yakizakana and is the go to way to eat fish in Japan.

6) Japanese people love a dish called Oden yet this is not usually available in Japanese restaurants America.  Most likely the broth is a bit unusual to foreign tastes.  The dish consists of large cuts of fish cakes, fried tofu, Konyaku, Daikon etc... all simmering in a fish  and kombu stock that is slightly sweet.

7) Many Japanese people eat a slimy smelly fermented soybean dish called Natto.  It is placed over the rice and eaten plain or other ingredients added such as sesame seed oil, green onions or raw egg.   Most foreigners find this dish gross.

8) Japanese people eat a rather plain rice gruel  when they are sick.   Varies ingredients can be added but more or less it's just Japanese rice with extra water added and the simmered until it has a similar consistency as oatmeal.   An extremely sour plum pickle called Umeboshi is usually added.

9) During Valentines day, it is the girls and not the boys that give Chocolate in Japan.  Also, the chocolate is more often than not a form of cookie or cake rather than a chocolate bar or box chocolate.

10) BBQ in Japan is different compared to America.  Japanese BBQ units generally don't have lids to roast large steaks and chickens.   Instead the BBQ units have no lids and are light weight for easy transportation - most people do not have an area in their homes where they can BBQ so they go to an area that allows BBQing like a camping ground, by a river or beach.  The BBQs are shallow for cooking thin meats rather than roasting thick steaks.  People generally stand around the BBQ and cook their own meat and eat it directly off the BBQ or put it directly onto their plates.   This is in contrast to America were there is a single person cooking and the done meat is piled onto a plate and brought to the table.  In a Japanese BBQ, the meat is not marinated in a western style BBQ sauce, but instead is marinated in a soy or miso marinate or not marinated at all.   Often the BBQ is dipped in a Yakiniku sauce.