Keiko Hirata - Japan: The Paradox of Harmony

Copyright 2014 Keiko Hirata and Mark Warschauer

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hirata, Keiko.

Japan: the paradox of harmony/Keiko Hirata and Mark Warschauer.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-300-18607-9 (cloth: alkaline paper)

1. JapanCivilization1945 2. National characteristics, Japanese. 3. Harmony (Philosophy)Social aspectsJapan. 4. Japan-Social conditions1945 5. JapanEconomic Warschauer, Mark. II. Title.

DS822.5.H548 2014

952.04dc23

2014007284

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For Danny, Mika, and Noah

Contents

Note to the Reader

Japanese names can be written in English in various ways. In this book, we have followed the convention of first name first, family name last (e.g. Shinzo Abe). If only one name is listed, it is typically the last name for authors or public figures (e.g. Abe) and the first name for ordinary citizens used in descriptions of everyday life (e.g. Kenji, the student in chapter 6). In addition, though macrons are often used for long vowels in Japanese words or names, none are used in this book.

When converting yen to dollars, either we use the rate of 100:1, which was the approximate exchange rate in January 2014, or we simply state the amount of yen or dollars listed in the original source without converting. As for weights, Japan uses the metric tonne, equaling 1,000 kilograms (about 2,240 pounds), and that is the term we use throughout the book.

Introduction

After the March 2011 tsunami and earthquake, the world looked on in awe as the Japanese people displayed the resilience and respect they are famed for. With the subway system shut down, millions of commuters walked miles from their offices in Tokyo to homes in the suburbs. There was no reported looting. People stood in lengthy queues to buy food and drinks at convenience stores. Some bought bicycles to get home. Tokyo was packed with scared and exhausted pedestrians walking at a snails pace without shoving, fighting, or arguing.

In the days that followed, the people of Tokyo lined up uncomplainingly for hours in stores to get bottled water or food for their families. Even after they had waited for hours, when items ran out they walked to other stores and waited at the back of the line. There was virtually none of the conflict or chaos that disasters like this often bring to other countries in the world, rich or poor.

Japans collective resolve was even clearer in the coastal areas most affected by the earthquake. The coastal town of Hadenya was devastated, which led to many deaths and casualties.information. The shivering survivors sheltered from the freezing cold in a hilltop community center, amid an apocalyptic landscape of ruined houses and crushed vehicles. With little fuel or food, they immediately organized themselves roughly along the lines of their original community. Those men who had prominent jobs in the community assumed leadership and quickly started assigning tasks. Women boiled water and prepared food, while other men scavenged for firewood and gasoline.

Although they were cut off from the rest of Japan, the Hadenya survivors made contact with five other nearby centers sheltering another 700 refugees. Representatives from the centers met daily to swap supplies and assign tasks.

It took nearly two weeks for the authorities to construct bridges to reach Hadenya. According to the first reporters on the scene, tidy perfectionism ruled the day, with immaculate toilets, cups, and soap neatly lined up, and boxes of supplies stacked in orderly rows. By all accounts, the rapid resumption of order, hierarchy, and a strict division of labor helped Hadenya survive.

Hadenya was not unique. Throughout the Tohoku region, people gathered in schools, community centers, and any other salvageable building. In Rikuzen Takada City, about a thousand evacuees gathered at Daiichi Junior High School. This was one of the largest evacuation centers, and it even appointed its own public relations person to deal with international reporters from CNN, Al Jazeera, and elsewhere. The daily log of the centers activities illustrates the attention to organization. They found an abandoned computer and began logging evacuees 600 on the first day. They built dozens of makeshift toilets out of wood over the course of a week. They formed teams to find and distribute food from local convenience stores, and others to make and serve three meals a day of rice balls and bread. They recruited teams of elementary and junior high-school students to help with babysitting, formed groups that regularly cleaned the makeshift toilets, and held callisthenics sessions set to national radio broadcasts.

Not Losing to the Rain

Such social solidarity is nothing new in Japan. With harsh terrain and little farmland, few natural resources, and more earthquakes and tsunamis than any other place on earth, the people of Japan have always had to come together or perish. Concern for the collective is part of the Japanese cultural DNA. It is encapsulated in one of Japans most famous poems, Not Losing to the Rain, discovered after his death in the suitcase of the famous Japanese poet Kenji Miyazawa, who died at the age of 37 in 1933 in the same Tohoku region that was ravaged by the 2011 earthquake:

not losing to the rain

not losing to the wind

not losing to the snow nor to summers heat

with a strong body

unfettered by desire

never losing temper

cultivating a quiet joy

every day four bowls of brown rice

miso and some vegetables to eat

in everything

count yourself last and put others before you

watching and listening, and understanding

and never forgetting

in the shade of the woods of the pines of the fields

being in a little thatched hut

if there is a sick child to the east

going and nursing over them

if there is a tired mother to the west

going and shouldering her sheaf of rice

if there is someone near death to the south

going and saying theres no need to be afraid

if there is a quarrel or a suit to the north

telling them to leave off with such waste

when theres drought, shedding tears of sympathy

when the summers cold, wandering upset

called a nobody by everyone

without being praised

without being blamed

such a person

I want to become

That remarkable sense of collective resolve has allowed Japan not only to survive, but to thrive. After the Second World War, the nation was devastated. Some 3 million people died in the war seven times as many as in the US, which had twice the population. Millions more were injured, missing, or ill from nuclear radiation. Much of Tokyo and other cities had been leveled by firebombing. The countrys postwar GDP fell to less than $1,500 per capita, well below that of most Latin American countries.