{"id":11542,"date":"2013-06-05T14:24:29","date_gmt":"2013-06-06T00:24:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=11542"},"modified":"2013-06-10T09:44:19","modified_gmt":"2013-06-10T19:44:19","slug":"my-japan-times-just-be-cause-col-64-jun-4-2013-by-opening-up-the-debate-to-the-real-experts-hashimoto-did-history-a-favor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=11542","title":{"rendered":"My Japan Times JUST BE CAUSE Col 64 Jun 4, 2013: “By opening up the debate to the real experts, Hashimoto did history a favor”"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hi Blog. Here’s my latest column for your comments. Thanks to everyone who read it in print and online! Arudou Debito
\n\"justbecauseicon.jpg\"<\/a>
\nJUST BE CAUSE<\/strong>
\n By opening up the debate to the real experts, Hashimoto did history a favor<\/strong>
\n BY ARUDOU Debito<\/a><\/strong>
\n The Japan Times June 4, 2013, version with links to sources<\/strong>
\nCourtesy http:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/community\/2013\/06\/04\/issues\/by-opening-up-the-debate-to-the-real-experts-hashimoto-did-history-a-favor<\/a><\/p>\n

Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto has been busy making headlines around the world with his controversial views on Japan\u2019s wartime sex slaves (or \u201ccomfort women,\u201d for those who like euphemisms with their history). Among other things, he claimed there is no evidence that the Japanese government sponsored the program, and suggested these exploited women were (and still are) a \u201cnecessary\u201d outlet for a military\u2019s primal urges. (Sources here<\/a> and here<\/a>)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I will say something for this idiot\u2019s provocative behavior: He brought this issue out for long-overdue public scrutiny. He has also presented us with a case study of how to keep people like him in check.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

For a person in power, Hashimoto has behaved unusually candidly. Generally, after Japanese politicians or bureaucrats burp up ignorant, bigoted, sexist or offensively ahistorical comments, they backpedal by claiming they were somehow misunderstood (which Hashimoto did), or even try to excuse their remarks by saying they were \u201cfor a domestic audience only.\u201d (They seem to think they live on an isolated debate Galapagos, and that the Japanese language is a secret code.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Then Japan\u2019s media plays along by ignoring or downplaying the events or, if pressed, lobbing the ideologues a few softball interview questions. Most reporters lack the independence (due to editorial constraints and incentives not to rock the powerful press club system) or the cojones to hold elites\u2019 feet to the fire.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

However, when their statements make the foreign media (particularly the BBC or New York Times) they get serious domestic traction, because now Japan\u2019s international image \u2014 vis-a-vis countries Japan\u2019s government actually cares about \u2014 is being tarnished.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In the bad old days, blunderers would then tentatively apologize and tender a snap resignation \u2014 without effecting any real change in how Japan\u2019s elites \u201creally think,\u201d or sufficient debate on the issues they resuscitated. It feels like lopping off one of the heads of a hydra \u2014 you just know more noggins will pop up shortly.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Nowadays it\u2019s worse, because the hydra often stays unlopped. Bona fide bigots (such as former Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara; see JBC, Nov. 6, 2012<\/a>: If bully Ishihara wants one last stand, bring it on<\/a>) remain boldly unrepentant or tepidly sorry, hunker down at their posts and wait for the public to swallow the issue before the next media cycle begins.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The result is a toxic aftertaste regurgitated in the region: Japan seemingly rewrites a pretty awful colonial past, and former colonies see this free pass from historical purgatory as a product of Japan\u2019s special political and military relationship with hegemon America. Asia\u2019s acid reflux thus sours other international relationships.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This time, however, Hashimoto is doing something different: He\u2019s actually cooking up an international debate. A marathon press conference at the Foreign Correspondents\u2019 Club of Japan last week exposed some juicy bones of contention.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Hashimoto reiterated his denial that the government was \u201cintentionally involved in the abduction and trafficking of women\u201d but, more indicatively, he said: \u201cIt would be harmful, not only to Japan but also to the world, if Japan\u2019s violation of the dignity of women by soldiers were reported and analyzed as an isolated and unique case, and if such reports came to be treated as common knowledge throughout the world<\/a>.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

To paraphrase: Japan did nothing all that wrong because it did nothing unusually wrong. Hashimoto is thus rationalizing and normalizing sexual slavery as a universal part of war \u2014 as if blaming Japan is wrong because everyone else allegedly did it.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Essentially, revisionists such as Hashimoto want a bowdlerized assessment of history. But remember, every country has shameful periods in their past; the trick is to learn from them, not cover them up (as Hashimoto\u2019s ilk seeks to do, all the way down to a sanitized education curriculum).<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

They also want a dishonest tone in the narrative. For them, Japan must not only be seen accurately (as they see it); it must be seen nicely. That is simply not possible when addressing certain parts of Japan\u2019s history.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Why are these people trying so hard to be relativistic? They might actually be so thick as to believe that any government would institutionalize sexual slavery in the \u201cfog of war.\u201d It\u2019s more likely, however, that they simply don\u2019t want their \u201cbeautiful country\u201d to be the bad guy in their movie.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Fortunately Hashimoto\u2019s posturing has exposed this ugly illogic. He has given people who know better (such as historians and eyewitnesses) the opportunity to correct and inform Japan\u2019s revisionists on a national level.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

To be sure, Hashimoto (a lawyer famous for taking extreme stances as a TV celebrity before his election to office) has never developed the \u201ccaution filter\u201d that usually comes with public office, which is why he should return to private practice, where his semantic games would be limited to Japan\u2019s petty courts.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But Hashimoto has also inadvertently shown us a way to blunt the rise of Japan\u2019s incorrigible right wing: Reduce their rants to performance art.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

As historian Tessa Morris-Suzuki sagely notes<\/a>: \u201cThis is not politics by persuasion but politics by performance. The object of the current performance is obvious. It is to provoke impassioned counter-attacks, preferably from those who can be labeled left-wing and foreign \u2014 best of all from those who can be labeled Korean or Chinese nationalists. This will then allow Hashimoto to assume the \u2018moral high ground\u2019 as a martyred nationalist hero assailed by \u2018anti-Japanese\u2019 forces . . .<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThis makes a careful and considered response to the Hashimoto phenomenon particularly important. Above all, this phenomenon should not be \u2018nationalized.\u2019 Hashimoto does not speak for Japan, and to condemn Japan because of his comments would only be to boost his demagogic appeal.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe best reply from those who hope he never will speak for Japan is to allow his words to speak for themselves. Those outside Japan who are alarmed or offended by these words should seek out and lend support to the embattled peace, human rights and reconciliation groups in Japan which also seek a different future, so that their voices too may be heard at the national level.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

So, I encourage readers to understand what\u2019s behind maintaining these narratives. Japan\u2019s Hashimotos want to channel Japanese society\u2019s innate cautiousness towards the outside world (JBC, Oct. 2, 2012: Revisionists marching Japan back to a dangerous place<\/a>) into domestic support for their xenophobic populism. When they make their venomous statements, take them up and calmly point out the illogic and inaccuracies therein \u2014 stress on the word \u201ccalmly.\u201d Use their tactics against them.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a bit ironic, but Japan needs more Hashimotos to make a hash of contentious issues. The clearer they spout stupid stuff, the clearer our corrections will be. And, with sufficient attention and pressure, the shorter their political lives will be.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Debito Arudou\u2019s updated \u201cGuidebook for Relocation and Assimilation into Japan\u201d is now a downloadable e-book on Amazon. See www.debito.org\/handbook.html<\/a>. Twitter @arudoudebito. Just Be Cause appears on the first Community pages of the month. Send comments and ideas to community@japantimes.co.jp.<\/em><\/p>\n

ENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JT JBC 64: Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto has been busy making headlines around the world with his controversial views on Japan\u2019s wartime sex slaves (or \u201ccomfort women,\u201d for those who like euphemisms with their history). Among other things, he claimed there is no evidence that the Japanese government sponsored the program, and suggested these exploited women were (and still are) a \u201cnecessary\u201d outlet for a military\u2019s primal urges.<\/p>\n

I will say something for this idiot\u2019s provocative behavior: He brought this issue out for long-overdue public scrutiny. He has also presented us with a case study of how to keep people like him in check….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,36,50,52,5,26,14,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academia","category-bad-social-science","category-gaiatsu","category-hate-speech","category-human-rights","category-ironies-hypocrisies","category-japanese-politics","category-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11542\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}