February 9th, 2006
Update
- Jay Navok
Greener Grass, Part 2:
The Cost of Cool
In late December I wrote an editorial on the
relationship between animation and the charms of childhood (read
it if you haven't), and the quote
that kicked off the article said that the charm of Japanese
life was that of childhood. I commented that there was an inherent danger is
equating Japanese life with that of childhood.
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Kami MacArthur towering over the Emperor |
Here’s an example of the thin line on which we’re
walking. Its spring of 1951 and Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander of the
Allied Powers, has just been removed from his position as head of the
American Occupation in Japan (after comments made about wanting to use
nuclear weapons in the Korean War.) He leaves Japan as a hero to the people,
with hundreds of thousands literally in tears as he goes, many wishing him
congratulations, and some thinking of him as a god.
At a joint committee of the United States Senate on May
5, discussing what he'd accomplished during his reign in Japan, MacArthur tells congress that the Japanese nation was like a twelve year old
child.
If they’d have taken approval ratings in Japan back
then, he’d have gone from hero to zero in just one day.
MacArthur is decried in all the Japanese newspapers,
those who thought him a god were probably far fewer in number, but he’s made
his point to the senate.
This comment wasn’t a personal foible on the part of
MacArthur, propaganda during the war had labeled the Japanese as immature,
childish, the naughty offspring of Perry’s black ships who stepped into the
arena of global warfare a few decades too early. Both sides engaged in
dangerous rhetoric that was fueled by generalizations of the opponent’s
societies, but we need not get involved into that debate. For our purposes,
just recognize that the argument of Japan as childish played a significant
role in propaganda.
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Sometimes the animals come to life and they have adventures fighting her
arch nemesis "Subway Molestro" |
When we consider what some have called the “Cult of
Kawaii” in modern Japan, remarks related to a country of children tend to
surface. How else can one explain a society in which salarymen can be seen
sporting bulging-eye’d frogs on cell phone straps or grown women who sleep
with Hello Kitty bed sheets?
Indeed, I myself have often wanted to resort to this
overly simplistic analysis of a childhood obsession for the often-times
ludicrous display of kawaii I’ve found as I make my way through this
country. But it gets more complicated.
Consider what’s thought of as the widespread Lolita
complex found in Japan, where pedophilic manga can be readily purchased, or
the ‘prize’ of underage schoolgirls, who have a highly sexualized media
image. “Women are meat in this country,” an expat once told me, and the
Japanese like their meat as fresh as it can get.
(I’m not even going to get into the analogies of the
popularity of raw foods, suffice to say that someone tried to convince me
last week to eat raw horse meat. “It’s a delicacy!” my ass.)
One book I read a few years back quoted a Japanese
source which stated that perhaps the Lolita complex, and its connected trend
of kawaii fashion, were related to an inclination toward living life through
nostalgic childhood. (He further complicated the argument by saying that
this was due to most Japanese having stressful childhoods because of exams.)
I’d like us to transcend the discussion of Japan and
childhood. Don’t fall victim to statements made by fans who try to justify
their fandom of Sailor Moon, a children’s show, by making an excuse along
the lines of even though we think it’s for children, it’s really not in
Japan. That is bullshit. Are there adult Sailor Moon fans in Japan? Yes.
Would they be considered odd by the rest of the population? Yes.
In any sweeping generalization there will be situations
in which they are incorrect (which is why you shouldn't make them to begin
with.) Observations on “Japanese life” are often made
on a highly selective assessment of what is charming in Japanese life, which
is in turn relative to individuals’ tastes. What’s charming to one person
may not be to another.
It is true that- as I said last time- Japanese pop
culture, which is infused with the ‘life’ of its origin country, often
relies on childish aspects or childhood nostalgia to draw in its readers.
Looked through that lens, Japanese life can be seen to hold the charm of
childhood. But lenses are not eyes; they show you only what you want to see,
and not the whole picture.
There is a danger in anime fandom to have a greener
grass syndrome, to believe that on the other side everything is better than
it is 'here.' This results in misguided fan believing that Japan is a nerd’s
Mecca, where they can sit around and chat with someone on the subway about
the latest episode of Pretty Cure or find a girlfriend who’s an even bigger
giant robot geek than they are.
I think most of our readers are mature enough to not
believe this. But recognize that it’s out there, and it fuels grand
misconceptions of Japan among younger people that I’m concerned about. When
I was in the states over Christmas break I went to the dentist; when I told
him I lived in Japan, he said to me, “My son would probably love to meet
you, he’s fascinated with everything Japanese- he thinks it’s the coolest.”
That is just one of many examples of this phenomenon.
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A
WWII Propaganda cartoon showing the Japanese as childish. Quality is
poor since I took a photo of a book but click for full size |
It’s mainly innocent, but what it’s creating is another
generation of stereotypes. During the war years there was the stereotype of
the Japanese as immature, as ruthless killers, and as animal people. You may
be wondering how such seemingly disparate notions could come together but
let me ensure you, it was a most glorious in its absurdity. Then there was
the view, after the economic miracle, of the Japanese as cutthroat
businessmen who engaged in odd practices. To quote a reporter in a
recent Newsweek article that a forums
member linked me to, “My head was filled with lingering images from the
Japan-bashing 1980s, and Japan was still widely cast in the West as unique
and alien.”
The 80s are long over and Japan may currently be
basking in its position of having a “culture of cool” but I’m concerned what
kind of message the country is sending as the premier exporter of cartoons and comics, of a pop culture
shipping either its addicting cuteness or overt violence, depending on which
advocacy group is clamoring to the newspapers.
The fact is, the odds of the girl sitting next to you
being into giant robots may be slightly better in Japan than in the states,
but that’s probably because it’s had more exposure here. It's still
miniscule. While you may see
advertisements for Evangelion Christmas figures in a train station, that's not necessarily mainstream. Maybe the term is “geek chic.”
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The current youth will one day think back and remember this as what
Japan had brought them. |
Most of us from the 90s generation of global Japanese
pop culture, we who grew up on Dragon Ball Z or Sailor Moon, have either
gotten over them and stopped caring or continued our interest in Japan and
expanded it to stuff like manga. I clearly fall into the latter, and when I
think back on Sailor Moon, I still see childhood
But the bombardment of Japanese pop culture didn’t
really hit until Pokemon (at which point I was too old.) Things were very
different for this generation. They're far more aware of the origin of what
they're consuming, and they take in a much greater amount.
10 or 20 years from
now, when the dentists’ kid is grown up, how is he going to remember Japan?
That magical land of his childhood? That place of dreams, dragons, and
pocket monsters? At least the Japan of the 1980/90s was merely exotic- it was
strange, but it was real, and I remember it being taught to me that way in
school. The new image of Japan is in some ways fictional.
When MacArthur said Japan was like a twelve year old
child, although he’d meant to say the country had matured under his help and
had a long way to go, it was still considerably derogatory, and we can see
that now even if he could not. The new form of Japan as child, in its
cartoons and its kawaii, is perhaps
more benign but still a double-edged sword, and we’d do well to remember
that.
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