Obama’s Hiroshima Speech Critiqued by Japanese 9th Graders – SEOYEON

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Hiroshima, MUSIC, Obama, view from Japan, WAR

This is one of seven papers written by my 9th grade students describing how they feel about President Obama’s visit to Hiroshima and the words he spoke there.  I will be posting the remaining six over the weekend.  This Independence Day weekend is an excellent time to post these kids’ thoughts — to remind us that America can find greatness not in making war, but in working for peace.  

President Obama’s speech in Hiroshima was very meaningful for two reasons. Firstly, he showed the feeling of mourning for the victims who were killed by atomic bombs during World War Two. Secondly, he talked about the contradiction in mankind that makes people destroy each other and how morality has not advanced along with technological advancement. He gave the three examples of religions, nations and science.

He told us that “Every great religion promises a pathway to love and peace and righteousness,” but then he says that some people use their religion as a reason to fight wars. He gave the example of how, “Nations are telling a story that binds people together…,” but people go to war for national pride. And, finally he explained how “Science allows us to communicate across the seas and fly above the clouds,” but technology is also used to make weapons of war.

But while people were developing these things they only thought about standing at the top of the world, and they forgot their moral mind and because of this, so many people have been killed. I wish a moral revolution had occurred side by side with the scientific revolution. People should not be tempted by immediate fortunes or profits and we should not be selfish and we shouldn’t lose our moral mind.

SEOYEON L. (15) – Adachi Ward, Tokyo

Obama’s Hiroshima Speech Critiqued by Japanese 9th Graders – CHIKA

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Hiroshima, Independence Day, Obama, view from Japan, WAR

This is one of seven papers written by my 9th grade students describing how they feel about President Obama’s visit to Hiroshima and the words he spoke there.  I will be posting the remaining six over the weekend.  This Independence Day weekend is an excellent time to post these kids’ thoughts — to remind us that America can find greatness not in making war, but in working for peace.  

President Obama’s visit to Hiroshima became a big topic in Japan. I think it was an important sign of the mutual understanding between America and Japan. I can tell you the reasons for my opinion of his speech.

The biggest point was that it was the first time an American president visited either of the two cities that were destroyed by atom bombs. Also, in the very first part of his speech he expressed his condolence to the people who died there. He didn’t actually say any apologies about the nuclear attack, but I felt his sympathy.

He also spoke of specific examples of hibakusha (atomic bomb victims). I think he tried to show us his thoughtfulness and create a close feeling with those people. I guess it must be difficult for an American president to interact with Japanese hibakusha, I was impressed by his amicable gesture.

President Obama came to Hiroshima and he prayed for peace all over the world. We mustn’t forget this meaningful occurrence. I want to always keep his words in my heart.

CHIKA M. (14) – Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo

 

HEALTH CARE DEBATE EXPLAINED TO THE JAPANESE

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GREED, Health Care Reform, Obama, OBAMA-CARE, view from Japan, YUJI DIALOGUES

Dane: So Yuji, what’s with this yuai thing Hatoyama keeps talking about?

Yuji: Who knows? I ‘m not interested in Japanese politics. It’s boring.

Dane: Usually I’d agree with you, but this time it looks like it’s getting interesting.

Yuji: Yeah, maybe so. I might have an answer for you in a week or so. Right now I’m really interested in what’s going on in your country.

Dane: Oh, you mean Ichiro!

Yuji: Ichiro? Forget-about-it! I know all I need to know about the Mariner slugger. What I don’t understand is this crazy stuff about health care. What‘s going on with that?

Dane: Obama is trying to improve it.

Yuji: What’s wrong with it?

Dane: It’s one of the worst of all the advanced countries. W.H.O. ranked the U.S. No. 37.

Yuji: I thought America had the best medical treatment in the world.

Dane: They do. The rich get the best treatment in the world, the insured get decent service, but the poor and uninsured are lucky to get any treatment.

Yuji: So what’s wrong with the system?

Dane: It’s pretty confusing.

Yuji: Make it simple for me. What is health care reform?

Dane: Very simply, it’s a plan to make medical care available to all Americans.

Yuji: What kind of health insurance do Americans have now?

Dane: Private insurance companies, mostly through their work place.

Yuji: What’s wrong with that?

Dane: If they lose their job, they lose their insurance and they can’t get health care.

Yuji: Can’t they buy it on their own?

Dane: Yes, if they’re rich enough.

Yuji: But people who have insurance are OK, aren’t they?

Dane: No. The insurance companies charge a lot and they cut payments.

Yuji: What do you mean, cut payments?

Dane: They have something called “pre-existing conditions”.

Yuji: What’s that?

Dane: They won’t pay for anything you had before.

Yuji: What are you talking about?

Dane: For example; If you had a serious cough when you were a kid, and now you get pneumonia they refuse to pay for your treatment.

Yuji: How do they know you had it before?

Dane: They have lots of investigators who look everywhere for that information.

Yuji: If they don’t find anything they pay, don’t they?

Dane: It depends. They only pay what they think it should cost, not what the hospital actually charges.

Yuji: Who pays the rest?

Dane: The patient. And… they can stop payment any time they think your treatment is getting too expensive.

Yuji: What happens if you can’t pay?

Dane: You die. And that’s the situation for people who have insurance!

Yuji: How many people don’t have it?

Dane: Forty-seven million.

Yuji: 47,000,000? Since when?

Dane: Since forever. Several presidents since Teddy Roosevelt have been trying to make a law guaranteeing medical coverage for everyone.

Yuji: Since World War Two?

Dane: Not that Roosevelt. Theodore Roosevelt, in 1912.

Yuji: Good God, that’s a hundred years! So what’s the problem?

Dane: Every time they try to make a new law, congress kills it.

Yuji: What kind of monsters would be against health care?

Dane: The insurance and medical industries, the Republican party and the Rednecks.

Yuji: Who are the Rednecks?

Dane: Low income, white, radical Christians, mostly in the countryside.

Yuji: Most of the people I saw protesting on TV sure looked like Rednecks.

Dane: Yes, those are the Town Hall Meeting mobs.

Yuji: What’s a Town Hall Meeting.

Dane: During the summer, congressmen go to their home districts and meet the people at town halls. This year they’re explaining Health Care Reform.

Yuji: Why would poor people be against it?

Dane: What do you think?

Yuji: Cost? They don’t want to pay more taxes.

Dane: Yes, that’s one reason.

Yuji: But if they’re poor they don’t pay much tax anyway. I can maybe understand why the rich people would be against it; but these guys?

Dane: Yeah, that’s the crazy part.

Yuji: And what are all those slogans?

“Down with Big Government”?

Dane: They don’t like big government. But they do support a large military.

Yuji: “Don’t Mess With My Health Care”?

Dane: They don’t trust the government to do a good job. Quality will go down.

Yuji: Pictures of Obama dressed like Hitler or Stalin?

Dane: Obama is trying to take away their freedom with health care reform.

Yuji: “Stop Socialism”? What’s wrong with socialism?

Dane: In America socialism and communism are the two great anti-Christian evils – like Islamic Jihad.

Yuji: What’s Health Care Reform got to do with socialism?

Dane: They agree that government police, firefighters and military are all democratic institutions, but for some reason they believe government health care is socialist.

Yuji: “We Won’t Support Slackers”?

Dane: Hard working taxpayers (whites) would have to pay for lazy welfare people (blacks).

Yuji: “Terrorist in the White House”?

Dane: Barack Hussein Obama is a Muslim.

Yuji: Pictures of Kim Jong Il?

Dane: First government health care, then something else, and then one day America will be just like North Korea.

Yuji: “You lie!”?

Dane: That’s what a redneck congressman yelled out in congress when Obama said there would be no health care for illegal aliens. Heckling the president in congress is a big taboo.

Yuji: “Obama Baby Killer”?

Dane: They say Christians would be taxed to pay for abortions.

Yuji: “Death Panels”?

Dane: Obama wants insurance to pay to consult with the doctor when a patient is near death.

Yuji: So, what’s wrong with that?

Dane: They say he wants to decide who can live and who must die.

Yuji: But that’s all crazy talk! Except for maybe the government not doing a very good job.

Dane: Exactly!

Yuji: How many Americans are against reform?

Dane: Probably about half. 45.6% of voters chose McCain.

Yuji: Do you think Obama can get it into law?

Dane: Not unless he stops trying to reason with madmen.

Yuji: Are your boys OK? Do they have medical insurance?

Dane: No, but they have a good ambulance system that guarantees them affordable health care.

Yuji: Ambulance? What kind of ambulance?

Dane: A 747 Jumbo jet that will fly them straight to Japan if they ever get sick.

© Dane Degenhardt, Monde Dane, 2009

JAPAN’S SPRING OF DISCONTENT

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militarism, North Korea, view from Japan

Japanese spring 2009 is full of the usual signs: young salarymen with pollen-proof white face- masks spreading blue plastic tarps under sakura trees to mark corporate sake parties, earthbound rainbows criss-crossing country fields and city parks, hand-hoed bouquets decorating miniature family gardens and young girls shedding polyester-fur trimmed parkas, revealing their aesthetically enhanced curves.

A far less familiar and less innocent sign of spring fever this year is the enthusiastic call for military action against North Korea’s aerospace aspirations.

I have never heard such bellicose rumbling from the Japanese public – not even during the Russian territorial dispute or the Korean hostage crisis. Could it be a side-effect of the economic depression (what else can you call such a drop after a ten year recession).

Ever since the rubble of the B-29 devastation was cleared off the streets, the Japanese have been preoccupied with building, and then reviving their economy. Any international event not connected to trade was little more than a distraction, a topic to liven up the evening news, never urgent enough to challenge the smug conservatism of a trading nation committed to a pacifist constitution. Even the noise racking Patriot Party seemed content to drive around in their para-military parades, playing the role of village idiots promoting neo-nazi nostalgia.

I recall a pretty piece by a naive New York Times correspondent who, after interviewing a handful of Tokyo college kids and getting a negative response to such mystifying questions as, “Would you be willing to give your life for your country?” surmised that the young generation was totally cured of its militaristic past and had not one iota of belligerent patriotic blood. That was in 1974, as Japan was basking in its new role as economic super-power. I wondered if she had bothered to glance at any of the violent SM manga these boys read on the trains, or the regimental structure of every gathering from elementary school picnics to factory worker exercise drills.

My thoughts then were that the revival of the Japanese martial spirit would inevitably follow the demise of the Japanese economic miracle. The sub-prime crisis could well be the beginning of the end of that Japanese pacifism.

As an American, I can hardly decry national chauvinism or public saber rattling (staples of every US political campaign) or military solutions to international disputes (executive policy from FDR to Obama). In fact, my national heritage should condition me to accept these things as a natural expression of national pride. But I am one of those Americans who has come to hear the dissonance in every Sousa march.

Japan is sometimes noted for its inane materialism; the silly, self-indulgent culture of manga, J-Pop and Cosplay. But, immaturity can be best if becoming a mature nation means giving up child-play for war-play.

THIRTY-FIVE YEARS TO HOPE

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change, Nixon, view from Japan

My alien registration card shows  January 19, 1974 as my date of entry. On that date I began my Rip Van Winkle existence. Unlike the Dutchman of lore, I was conscious for at least most of the ensuing years.

The fatherland, never forgotten, became a place to admire, to criticize and most of all, to observe. The view from here has always been clear, and the vistas spread wide open with the coming of the Internet, Youtube and Google Earth.  Being far enough away from the trees to see the forest gives a feeling of liberation that I imagine the eagles must enjoy.

In 1974, I left the dark world of Richard Milhouse Nixon only to watch a series of mediocre or malevolent men lead the nation through continued malaise.  Now, at last the clouds are beginning to lift, giving the shores a white glow that radiates across the wide Pacific. At this moment, thirty-five years on, I like what I see on this eve of change – the first glimmer of hope.