Alright, let me put this into context. Two weeks ago in my Heiwa wo Kangaeru or "Thinking of Peace" class, we watched a Japanese documentary about the Iraq War called, "Little Birds." The focus of this documentary was about both the casualties and fatalities of Iraqi children and the impact it had upon their families. As you can imagine so far, it was very tough to watch. But it wasn't just because the documentary filmed a five year old girl dying while her father sobbed by her side that made me incredibly upset to the point of tears.
It was the way the American military/government was portrayed. They made them look like heartless monsters who killed children and didn't care about collateral damage. And I'm not just blaming the Japanese documentary for showing American's at their worst. I was pretty annoyed (to say in the least) with the soldiers who smirked at people protesting at them or soldiers being mean and rude when questioned. But at the same time, I know I don't act my best in weird situations - I can't imagine how on edge all those soldiers are in that kind of situation. So, when you're on edge like that, you don't say the smartest things or do the best things either.
I'm sure they found some soldiers with decent answers or at least, didn't sound like ignorant fools in the process of filming, but they only kept those that painted the picture of America the Bad.
Oh, and back to the little girl dying. The guy filming...if I could have, I would have ripped the camera from him and told him off. All throughout the film, they would zoom in on the faces of men, women and children who had nothing but the look of despair in their eyes. Their families are hurt or dead, and the person filming didn't have to the decency to treat them like humans. People are sentient. It's not like an animal you can do these kind things to and the animal won't care. These are people, suffering and you're not helping - you're shoving a camera in their face to make the rest of us queasy. I understand that these stories need to be told, but be more dignified about it Japan.
Okay, now that I've finished ranting about that - for class, we had to write a response paper for it the following week. What I said above is essentially what I wrote (in English, the teacher said it was okay) is what I said. Now this week, the teacher essentially told the American exchange students (there's six of us) that our opinions were wrong.
Unfortunately, my Japanese still isn't at the point where I'm able to catch all of this, but some of the other students understood and told me. The teacher also said something along the lines of "war is bad, always, nothing good comes out of it." Our teacher told us that she thinks that Americans are probably mean. She kept suggesting that we must be war-mongering maniacs that think it's okay to kill innocent people for a greater good (which she doesn't believe in either). So next week, we're having a discussion (which, apparently, she planned on having the not-fluent-in-Japanese-yet American students lead the discussion...but she changed her mind).
But I'm not going. For 3 reasons:
1) I wouldn't be able to defend myself.
2) I wouldn't be able to understand the other students either
3) I'd rather not be insulted...again.
What's worse is that the way she says things is in such a nice tone of voice. It sickens me really.
its sad how people refuse to see things from a different view. i can imagine that the same thing would happen here in a class discussion about whaling in japan.
ReplyDeleteyour teacher is wack (for lack of a better word XD). times like this i appreciate people like professor mason. she encourages healthy, intelligent debate. even if she herself doesnt agree.
Yo, what the hell?! It's always the worst when people don't open discussion for...I don't know, discussion?! We are meant to tackle tough ideas, concepts, and issues in class by viewing other peoples opinions and attempting to understand them. Even if you ultimately decide they are wrong, you should at least take some time thinking about things from someone else's pov. If anything, it will help reaffirm your own opinion.
ReplyDeleteI also hate the idea of "obsoletes." I personally believe there are very few of them and to quote the Bible, "there is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens..." This is one scripture I steadfastly believe.
I do not deny that there are horrible consequences as a result of war and any of the atrocities committed in the duration make me sick. However, there have been several wars where the end result benefited many civilizations, the Civil War for example. Just as there have been several senseless ones, i.e Vietnam War....
I hate when people blanket a whole concept or issue with one opinion. Yes, it's horrible to kill other people regardless of the cause. But the truth is, humans can be violent greedy people who step on and hurt others, other countries and others within their own countries, and sometimes these people are powerful enough that only a war will stop them.
Don't just show one side of the War in Iraq. My brother died in that war and I refuse to believe he had no integrity while fighting there. Don't insult me by saying that shots of a few unethical douche-bag soldiers should represent an entire military force. Maybe those film producers should take their skewed media and reevaluate whether or not they should be documenting history for posterity when they alter the facts. Stop tainting the history books with false information!
Is the Iraq War a justified war? Perhaps not. Is there some other way we could have handled it? Most definitely. Do these questions have any relevance now that we are entrenched so deeply in the Middle East that if we pull out too fast now it will cause irreparable damage to both countries? Not significantly.
Tell your teacher to stop crying over the spilled milk, and instead think about wiping it up with a paper towel.