Photos with Kamanaka-san

Little Birds… four years since 2003

The footage of Iraq at the beginning of the US invasion in 2003, and especially the youth that were depicted, reminded me that it has been four years, mostly overlapping my time in college. It made me try to imagine how different four years of education by experiencing war in Iraq, as opposed to classes at Chicago, would have been.

My four years here have felt like a long time, with lots of events and influences on my life. What would I learn if I were in Baghdad for that amount of time? I was getting emotional watching “Little Birds”, and it actually worried me that had I been there–getting bombed, having smug military men occupy the city, seeing children and acquaintances die–I can’t say for sure that I wouldn’t have wanted to fight, or have learned enough rage that I could justify it to myself.

Presentation Follow Up–Frauenkirche

At the outset of Kamanaka Hitomi’s film “Hibakusha at the End of the World,” the narrator tells us that while “Hibakusha” commonly refers to Japanese victims of the atomic bombs, it will be used in the film to refer to all victims of radiation.  I was quite interested in this statement for a number of reasons: it opens the possibility of a biologically based world citizenship, it brings up issues of collective lawsuits being pursued internationally, and it also calls to mind the role of Japan in the international “community of victims.”  In addition to these semi-positive associations and possibilities, the statement also made me think about some of the potential pitfalls of an identity based on horrific victimization.  Indeed, what does it mean to define oneself as a victim?  What does this exclude?  Is victimized subjectivity progressive, or does it prevent an exploration of fact?

Facing Fear

Nori was present on the first day of our class, and by chance I conducted a personal interview with him.  Having met only a few of my classmates prior to the first session, I had no idea that I was interviewing our guest of honor.  He was immediately likable and obviously somewhat nervous about just what he had gotten himself into.  We talked for a good five minutes about his university town, his website, his major, his jobs, and, of course about the fact that Sapporo was even colder than Chicago.   We talked, in short, like two people who were casually meeting for the first time; which is , obviously, exactly what we were.

The fact that the pleasant banality of our first meeting surprised me, I think, deserves some explanation.  Thinking on the matter later, I was surprised not only by how easy he was to talk to, but also by my own surprise.  I don’t know what I had expected, someone larger than life perhaps.  After all, he had been in captivity in Iraq, been subjected to right wing rants in Japan, and was now playing the role of a traveling speaker/activist.  Despite all of this however, he was just a normal person, slightly nervous about the spotlight.

What this experience has taught me, is that people who do amazing things are, in the end, just people.  There is, I believe, not much that can encourage people to stand up for their own believe more than coming to the realization that amazing people are humans, each facing their own fears, yet pushing beyond.

Thanks Nori!

Rokkashomura as Activism

While visiting our class, Kamanaka Hitomi refused to define herself as activist.  Activisism in Japan, she argued, tends to turn people away, for upon hearing that an event such as a film is an activist project, they assume they will be bombarded with ideologically motivated falsehoods.  In order to prevent such a knee jerk reaction to her own film, Kamanaka claimed that she produced her film objectively, giving equal attention to supporters and opponents of the plutonium processing plant in northern Japan.  She desired to erase her own prejudices, thus facilitating individualized reactions to the film

Nori’s talk & Tari/MASA performance are on podcast now!

Finally, the first two events of the series are up on CHIASMOS site.

Noriaki Imai (Student Environmental and Peace Activist) “Why I went to Iraq: Three Years Later”
http://chiasmos.uchicago.edu/events/imai.shtml

Tari Ito (Performance Artist) and MASA (Jazz Saxophonist) “Rubber Tit”
http://chiasmos.uchicago.edu/events/ito.shtml

links to US actions re: comfort women

House Resolution 121 : http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/ca15_honda/COMFORTWOMEN.html
Mike Honda’s statement at the Feb. 15th hearing: http://internationalrelations.house.gov/110/hon021507.htm
Mindly Kotler’s testimony: http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/110/kot021507.htm
Dr. Ok Cha Soh’s testimony: http://internationalrelations.house.gov/110/soh021507.htm
Testimony of comfort woman, Lee Yong-Soo: http://internationalrelations.house.gov/110/lee021507.htm
Testimony of comfort woman, Kim Koon-Ja: http://internationalrelations.house.gov/110/kim021507.htm
Testimony by comfort woman, Jan Ruff O’Herne: http://internationalrelations.house.gov/110/ohe021507.htm
Dai Sil Kim-Gibson: Silence Broken
Japanese War Crimes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_war_crimes_in_mainland_Asia
Comfort Women News Archive: http://comfortwomen.wordpress.com/archived-news-articles/

Emi Koyama’s new blog in English!

Emi, our visitor in two weeks from now, started a new blog in English!
http://eminism.org/

selflessness as “apolitical”

The point that remains on my mind from Kamanaka-san’s visit is the problem of political vs. apolitical that we returned to again and again. I read her insistence on the separation of politics and filmmaking in Rokkashomura Rhapsody as a removal of her own political view from the filmmaking process. Of course, with editing choices and interview subject choices, any documentary is formed by the wishes of the filmmaker. However, Kamanaka-san’s film lacked a voiceoever, as well as loaded, leading questions. Instead she actually listened to her subjects. I think the skill of her open-minded listening resulted in the amazing strings of conversation visible to the viewer. I think of this as a very selfless act.

For me, I have so much trouble reining myself in while talking about things I’m very passionate about or knowledgable of. To withdraw, in a way, in order to be more effective in the long run is very admirable to me. It seems so difficult; obviously Kamanaka-san has strong opinions of the issues of radiation. But in order to combat the people’s dislike of events “smelling of activism,” she made the right choice.

-Lauren

Presentation materials

Sorry for the ‘technical difficulty’ today. Here are the websites that I wanted to show:

1. David Rothauer’s interview film:

http://memoryproductions.org/ourlifetolive.mov

*pop quiz: What does he say about Japanese youth’s interest in hibakusha and his film? Where, in his opinion, is the “real” problem of the way Japanese learn/remember the war?

2. Association of Citizens for Supporting South Korean Atomic Victims

http://www.hiroshima-cdas.or.jp/home/yuu/zaikanen.htm

*see the explanation of how Korean people came to Japan under the “Activities” (in Japanese) –they were directly or indirectly forced to come (yamu wo ezu=unavoidably, necessarily).

*Also, the organization seems to be started and supported by Japanese, not Koreans themselves. I mixed up with another org.

3. Abolishment of the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Directive 402: http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200702070155.html

4. Joseph Gerson (the author of “Empire and the Bomb”):

http://www.peaceworkmagazine.org/pwork/1298/declead5.htm

US Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons: http://www.wslfweb.org/abolition/uswg.htm

Stonewalk Japan 2005:

http://www.stonewalk.org/japan/japan.html

5. Please give me info. about how you learned about “hibakusha” and/or Hiroshima/Nagasaki in highschool.