For Japan

It was my first thought to do my weekly feature "International Eats" today and showcase another American culinary standard and how it is interpreted in different parts of the world. We're going to skip that for today...

Minami Soma, Fukushima prefecture 3/12/2011

I just can't do it. I wasn't like this for neither the Haiti or Chilean quake, and I feel a measure of guilt for that. Even though the devastation was so much worse, and the human toll so much more staggering, I didn't feel then as I do now. Why? I've certainly had issues with the Japanese govt. and it's arrogant disrespect for the world's ecosystem. Issues to the point of activism in fact. As a member of the Rainforest Action Network in college, I once handcuffed myself to the front door of a Mitsubishi dealership in Orlando, Florida as part of a mass protest of their clear cutting of the Malaysian Rainforest. I have been an active and supporting member of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society since 2007, and I see Japanese "research" whaling as genocide. No gray area there for me, genocide. The great whales are not "animals", they are "beings" just as self aware as you and I.

And yet, my heart is broken for people of Japan. And as they still race to assess the damage and prevent the worst case scenarios from happening at their nuclear sites, I feel as though I am helplessly watching a close friend fight for their life. It's like I got a late night phone call about a good friend involved in a hit and run, and I am too far away to get to the hospital. Why? What makes Japan so different in my heart than Haiti or Chile? Both of those places are in my own hemisphere, and my country has never been at war with either of them. Neither country are anywhere as rich as Japan, so the humanitarian crisis was even worse. How was I able to go about my day those two times and not now?

Original Japanese woodblock print of Admiral Perry (center) and his officers

It starts with my country's relationship with Japan that began with the visit from Commodore Perry in 1852. They were an isolated nation who lived in a virtual time capsule of medieval feudalism and only had limited trade with the Dutch at the time. Historians from both nations continue to argue the veracity of Perry's "friendly" motives in opening trade. But irregardless of motives, Japan then quickly became an industrial powerhouse through the raw determination and cleverness of it's people. They were catapulted from the Iron Age to the Gunpowder Age and then to the Industrial Age in the span of just a few decades. And with this swift progression came a lesson that humanity cannot afford to miss....

When a culture's technology advances faster than it's social progression, liberty tends to take a back seat to nationalism. Nationalism can best be described as patriotism's blind and drunk asshole cousin. When that sense of nationalism festers into a sense of entitlement or "manifest destiny", wars begin and humanity gets to see just how deep in the stupid we can sink. This was the case for Japan. They had been a warrior caste society for almost two thousand years, and had never lost a single war in their history as a nation. Now the sword and bow were replaced with repeating rifles and battleships, and the spirit of the Shoganate was still quite alive and well. The Russo-Japanese conflict, the invasion of Manchuria, and their subsequent attack on the United States are remembered as some of the most horrific events in modern history.

Could these events have been prevented if Japan was not forcibly yanked out of their isolationism? Who can tell? Second guessing what could have happened is pretty useless. But something happened to Japan that made them finally stop and pause. They lost their first war. And for the first time it it's history, the conflagration of war that they had so liberally inflicted upon their neighbors was visited upon them, on their own soil. That's when the natural brilliance of the Japanese people finally kicked in. And from 1945 on up to this very day, Japan has become a model for peaceful nations everywhere.

The Japanese commitment to the weird is one of their most endearing traits.

And this is the Japan my generation (Generation X) knows and loves. The clever and industrious society that never ceases to amaze the rest of the world with it's uniqueness. They have been one of the meccas for nerd culture since Godzilla let out his first roar as a symbol of the horrors of atomic devastation. They are the ultra modern, deeply pacifist, and yet still traditional people who deserve their front seat on the world stage. All of their ecological indiscretions aside, I love the Japanese people with all of my heart and I now weep for their beautiful cities and cry for the thousands of stories that have ended in the blink of an eye...

I end this post with a challenge to you, the reader. Get involved. Even if it's not financial, go to the various streaming news sites like wwiTV.com and just give them your eyes and moral support. The result we want with this is going to be a long term thing. It means that with every disaster and event that comes in the future, each of us will feel it as whole just a little bit more. And in the end, it will be our empathy that saves us as a race and a species....

Today, We Are ALL Japanese