{"id":11174,"date":"2013-02-22T17:00:05","date_gmt":"2013-02-23T03:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=11174"},"modified":"2013-03-03T15:59:24","modified_gmt":"2013-03-04T01:59:24","slug":"wash-post-us-teacher-in-japan-under-attack-from-internet-bullies-for-lessons-on-japans-history-of-racial-discrimination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=11174","title":{"rendered":"Wash Post: US teacher in Japan under attack from Internet bullies for lessons on Japan\u2019s history of racial discrimination"},"content":{"rendered":"

Books etc. by ARUDOU Debito (click on icon):
\n\"Handbook<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\\"<\/a>\"\u300c\u30b8\u30e3\u30d1\u30cb\u30fc\u30ba\u30fb\u30aa\u30f3\u30ea\u30fc\u3000\u5c0f\u6a3d\u5165\u6d74\u62d2\u5426\u554f\u984c\u3068\u4eba\u7a2e\u5dee\u5225\u300d\uff08\u660e\u77f3\u66f8\u5e97\uff09\"<\/a>\"JAPANESE<\/a>\"sourstrawberriesavatar\"<\/a>\"debitopodcastthumb\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>
\nUPDATES ON TWITTER: arudoudebito
\nDEBITO.ORG PODCASTS on iTunes, subscribe free
\n“LIKE” US on Facebook at http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/debitoorg<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/www.facebook.com\/handbookimmigrants<\/a><\/p>\n

Hi Blog. Here we have a case of cyberbullying by Japan’s nasty Internet denizens who do not wish the inconvenient truth of Japan’s racism (a subset of the stripe found in every country and every society) to be discussed or thought about. It made the Washington Post. \u00a0Comments by me follow the article:<\/p>\n

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/<\/p>\n

American teacher in Japan under fire for lessons on Japan\u2019s history of discrimination<\/h1>\n
\n

Posted by\u00a0Max Fisher<\/a>\u00a0on February 22, 2013 at\u00a06:00 am<\/p>\n

Courtesy\u00a0http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/blogs\/worldviews\/wp\/2013\/02\/22\/american-teacher-in-japan-under-fire-for-lessons-on-japans-history-of-discrimination\/ <\/a>and Medama Sensei<\/p>\n

\"Miki<\/a><\/p>\n

Miki Dezaki in his Okinawa classroom. He says very few students raised their hands at first. (Screenshot by Washington Post)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Miki Dezaki, who first arrived in Japan on a teacher exchange program in 2007, wanted to learn about the nation that his parents had once called home. He taught English, explored the country and affectionately chronicled his cross-cultural adventures on social media, most recently on YouTube, where he gained a small following for videos like \u201cHitchhiking Okinawa<\/a>\u201d and the truly cringe-worthy \u201cWhat Americans think of Japan<\/a>.\u201d One of them,\u00a0on the experience of being gay in Japan<\/a>, attracted 75,000 views and dozens of thoughtful comments.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Dezaki didn\u2019t think the reaction to his latest video was going to be any different, but he was wrong. \u201cIf I should have anticipated something, I should have anticipated the netouyu,\u201d [sic] he told me, referring to the\u00a0informal army<\/a>\u00a0of young, hyper-nationalist Japanese Web users who tend to\u00a0descend<\/a>\u00a0on any article \u2014 or person \u2014 they perceive as critical of Japan.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But before the netouyu put Dezaki in their crosshairs, sending him death threats and hounding his employers, previous employers and even the local politicians who oversee his employers, there was just a teacher and his students.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Dezaki began his final lesson with a 1970 TV documentary,\u00a0Eye of the Storm<\/a>, often taught in American schools for its bracingly honest exploration of how good-hearted people \u2014 in this case, young children participating in an experiment \u2014 can turn to racism. After the video ended, he asked his students to raise their hands if they thought racism existed in Japan. Almost none did. They all thought of it as a uniquely American problem.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Gently, Dezaki showed his students that, yes, there is also racism in Japan. He carefully avoided the most extreme and controversial cases \u2014 for example, Japan\u2019s wartime enslavement of Korean and other Asian women for sex,\u00a0which the country today doesn\u2019t fully acknowledge<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 pointing instead to such slang terms as \u201cbakachon camera.\u201d The phrase, which translates as \u201cidiot Korean camera,\u201d is meant to refer to disposable cameras so easy to use that even an idiot or a Korean could do it.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

He really got his students\u2019 attention when he talked about discrimination between Japanese groups. People from Okinawa, where Dezaki happened to be teaching, are sometimes looked down upon by other Japanese, he pointed out, and in the past have been treated as second-class citizens. Isn\u2019t that discrimination?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe reaction was so positive,\u201d he recalled. For many of them, the class was a sort of an a-ha moment. \u201cThese kids have heard the stories of their parents being discriminated against by the mainland Japanese. They know this stuff. But the funny thing is that they weren\u2019t making the connection that that was discrimination.\u201d From there, it was easier for the students to accept that other popular Japanese attitudes about race or class might be discriminatory.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The vice principal of the school said he wished more Japanese students could hear the lesson. Dezaki didn\u2019t get a single complaint. No one accused him of being an enemy of Japan.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

That changed a week ago. Dezaki had recorded his July classes and, last Thursday, posted a\u00a0six-minute video<\/a>\u00a0in which he narrated an abbreviated version of the lesson. It opens with a disclaimer that would prove both prescient and, for his critics, vastly insufficient. \u201cI know there\u2019s a lot of racism in America, and I\u2019m not saying that America is better than Japan or anything like that,\u201d he says. Here\u2019s the video:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n