Fitting the Pieces Together

Shadows Cast Upon the Shôji

Myths only work for those who grow up with them, because the imagery that makes them believable is closely tied to our immediate social surroundings and natural environment. Moreover, they are taught to us piecemeal in an easy to digest format such as song, tale, and poetry, when we are young, so that they appear logical, natural, and inexorably correct. As we grow older we find these same images repeated in every manner of expression and representation, so that their meaning becomes ever more complex, obscure, robust, and difficult to unravel. They become deeply embedded in our individual psyche and are shared with others in ways too numerous to mention. Included in this imagery are our values, codes of behavior, manner of thought, and general disposition towards ourselves and the outside world. We revel in their display, take pride in their expression, feel anguish in their disfiguration. They are the basis for our national and ethnic identities and make us feel at one with others who can appreciate them as do we. Those who come from the outside find it difficult to appreciate them as do others who have not grown up with them. Those who know them well can use them to manipulate our conscious awareness. Though "outsiders" are not able to appreciate them as well as "insiders" and often feel left out, whenever they are employed, neither are they fooled by them or by those who use them to fool others.

Although Japan's rise to power was well noted in Asia, it went largely unnoticed in the West until the attack on Pearl Harbor. Certainly, those Westerners who were active in Asia were well aware of what was going on, but communicating that awareness to others back home was a difficult task. We tend to ignore things about which we have little idea for fear of becoming involved in the unknown or appearing ignorant unto those who truly know.

During the war Japan was an object of hatred and fear, rather than curiosity and attraction. Indeed, other than a defeated enemy, whose empire USAmericans crushed, little was known about Japan until long after the war, when Japanese automobiles and electronic equipment began appearing just about everywhere. With the sudden appearance of so many Japanese products the US and even European business communities began taking note and started exploring new business opportunities. Unfortunately, rather than large national markets eager to purchase new and exotic goods from the West, what they found were tightly controlled business associations, impenetrable distribution channels, and a Japanese public generally hostile toward foreign investment. These experiences likely ran contrary to those of tourists attracted to Japan by its reputation for being a good host. Accordingly, the conflicting reports coming from Western governments, business communities, and tourists trade must have peaked the interest of the Western intellectual community. As a result, it was only a matter of time before nihonjin-ron would come under the gun of Western observers. By this time, however, nihonjin-ron was already well-embedded in Japanese postwar thought, and the reinforced cultural and linguistic barriers difficult to penetrate.

The popular images that Japanese held out to foreigners, may have been swallowed up by tourists who barely touched the surface of Japanese society, but anyone who remained behind and bothered to look beneath this highly polished, thick veneer could see that these images did not square with the facts. Of course, convincing naïve foreigners about the existence of nihonjin-ron was one thing, convincing Japanese of their own self-deception would be a very different matter. So long as Japanese were content with their condition, they had little reason to challenge this intricately constituted body of theory. So long as foreigners were kept at arms length, they too would never come close enough to unravel the images that comprise it. Nevertheless, the security relationship between Japan and the United States was simply too important to allow these contradictions to persist. A new tug-of-war was in the making, but this time an intellectual one.

Although the mist that blurs the vision of foreigners and the thunder cloud that hangs over Japan and casts a dark shadow upon Japanese society have similar origins, they are fundamentally different -- ­ thunder clouds do not disappear as the day wears on, and they are not easily blown away by high winds.