searching for a home

6/24/2004 Hongo, in central Tokyo. I’m now sitting in another starbucks. In fact, I’ve already been here once in the morning when I was sorting out my thoughts before meeting with Prof. Yoshimi. Ok, it’s kind of excessive, and I’ll have to find some coffee houses with more character. But later. Now it’s good enough to escape the heat and humidity. I’m soaked, just like I was in Scotland, when I had to march around in the rain. But this time, it’s sweat, and think I’m getting dehydrated. Tokyo University is cool. Most of the students there are intimidatingly sharp, and I feel kind of autistic. You know? I can barely speak, but then come out with some crazy shit about nationalism, or cultural studies. Out of the blue. Like stutter, stutter, mumble, mumble, then zap, a moment of intelligence. Idiot Savant.

Prof. Yoshimi is pretty cool, and his seminars are quite unlike what I expected. He really tries to draw his students into a discussion, then gives his take on the material. The latter is in fact quite refreshing since most of the profs back in the states are kind of reticent about their own opinions. Today’s topic was ‘Bakhtin on Marxism and linguistics.” No, I didn’t get most of it.

Some random thoughts on Yoshimi and academics. I think there are two very important trends in the world of thought today: reducing the world to language, and reducing it to the operation of power. Bakhtin seems to combine these two by linking language and marxism. . . What I’m trying to figure out is a place for ethics. Tai and I had a long conversation about human rights and law, which made me realize how amoral history is as a discipline. We can say that it happened. We can even guess at why. But there’s also a strangely balanced view that nothing is ever unique. For example, Yoshimi has argued that American hegemony (economic, military) over East Asia is equivalent to Japanese hegemony over the same area before WWII. In terms of power, and the efforts of those in control to maintain their power, perhaps he’s right. The tendency is to ignore the justifications used by America and Japan, in particular, the differences between those justifications. The pervasive, and blasé attitude is that people will say anything to accomplish their aims, that for example, we should perceive the acceptance of the 1960s civil rights movement in terms of its propaganda benefits for the U.S. in the third world. The argument goes that the USSR and China were gaining too much propaganda mileage out of US segregation, and that US interests in Africa were being harmed by it. Disturbing thought isn’t it? Think also of democracy in Taiwan. If the PRC were not across the border, and if the PRC were not (ostensibly) communist, how much incentive would Taiwan have for introducing free elections? Basically, the trend is to regard these “advances” in the human spirit, not as universal, but as strategic actions, intended for particular interests.

> back to the amorality of history <

Japanese hegemony = American hegemony. (agree or disagree?)

If the power (hegemony) cannot be differentiated, and judged on a moral basis, what do we judge? I feel like we’re intellectually left with little option but to judge the specific application of force and coercion in that hegemony. This is where Tai’s perspective was interesting because he’s studying human rights law. Perhaps it’s the degree of coercion and domination, rather than the truth and moral value of ideologies like “The American Way” or (for the case of Japan) “The Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere” that we should judge. So, we return to our disillusionment with ideas. . . perhaps we need to accept that someone will be hegemon and get on with it. And on that point, I wish the American record of violence and coercion in East Asia were better (Noh Gun Ri, My Lai), to distinguish it from the Japanese (rape of Nanjing, genocide in Korea).

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Bass Ale in Sanya? Yup. I’m back at a bar in Sanya where they have bass and internet access too. Weird how gentrification creeps into places like this. I mean, this place is clearly set up for a different socio-economic set than the traditional Sanya resident. But, can’t complain. Mark, an englishman staying at a nearby hotel (Shin Koyo, if you’re interested) was just in here badmouthing Americans. As if the English have any right. . . but then again I badmouth America from time to time too. It’s kind of like badmouthing yourself; it can be therapeutic at times.