Podcasts from Celebrating Protest series

Finally, all podcasts are on-line!

Noriaki Imai (Student, Environment and Peace Activist)
“Why I went to Iraq: Three Years Later”　

Tari Ito (Performance Artist) and MASA (Jazz Saxophonist)
“Rubber Tit”

Hitomi Kamanaka (Film Director)
“Q&A with Director Hitomi Kamanaka”　
- panel discussion on Director Kamanaka’s film, “Rokkashomura Rhapsody,” with Kamanaka, Judy Hoffman (Film Director,Cinema and Media Studies), Michael Raine (Cinema and Media Studies/ EALC) and Norma Field (EALC)

Michiko Nakajima (Lawyer)
“The Fifteen-Woman Lawsuit against Self-Defense Forces in Iraq”
Discussant: John Comaroff (Anthropology), Translation: Norma Field (EALC)

Emi Koyama
“Colonialism, Militarism, and the Political Economy of Transracial Adoption”　

Emi Koyama (Director, Intersex Initiative)
“Intersex at the Intersection of Queer Theory and Disability Theory”　

Yoshifumi Tawara（Sec. General of Children and Texbooks Network 21)
“Japanese Education and Society in Crisis”　
Translation: Norma Field (EALC)

Nostalgia..

All of these posts about Nori and RubberTIT/tari&MASA make me wish that it were still the beginning of this quarter! It was awesome getting to know Nori a lot better when we were showing him around campus. I can’t believe he’s gone through so much at such a young age… To think that there is only a few years between us is crazy!

MASA’s saxophone performance during one of our class dinners was a definite highlight. I was so blown away by her playing! And then a week or so ago I went to the university’s Jazz X-Tet performance and watched them perform. They had a female trumpet player and she was great.

Overall, the Celebrating Protest Series brought in amazing speakers… And it was awesome to meet people who have done so much and are so passionate about what they have fought for and do for a living.

I really enjoyed Kiku’s presentation on techno and post-techno in class. That was truly a treat… I remember my jaw dropping the entire time because it was all so new to me.

Emi’s visit was great, too. We all remember the snail mating story, don’t we? Haha.

And, of course, Beryl & Addie. American otaku unite! That was a very fun class period as well.

Emi Koyama’s Visit: Class visit, and Her Lectures on International Adoption and Intersex

We were lucky enough to have Emi Koyama visit our class, and give two really interesting talks for the Celebrating Protest Lecture Series. I first met her when she visited our class and gave a introduction to intersex, and it’s common misperceptions. Emi is a really great speaker, she got our entire class hooked as soon as she shared with us her infamous snail story. Snails apparently dance around each other for hours, circling each other before they mate. Eventually when they decide they like each other, they swap by the neck and both parties are impregnated. These snails are what hermaphrodites are, never humans. She spoke of the mistaken identity of intersex people, mainly intersex children. I had not much previous knowledge about intersex and found her class visit very informational. She shared with us major shojo mangas and boy mangas that now feature intersex. They seemed interesting and hope to read them some day.

Her activist writing on children of intersex was really interesting. Until I read her articles, I had never thought about the negative impact the medical community could potentially have on intersex children. Because I studied biology at this school, and work at the University hospital, I only have views of the medical community as doing anything they can to help people. It was unusual for me to hear her speak on the negative impact medicine could potentially have on these children. The reason she sees this is because these children, due to their unusual physical appearance, are often times examined by an entire medical team. It is sometimes referred to as a “public stripping” where the children must undress in front of a team. Sometimes pictures are taken of their naked bodies. I am a bit torn on this issue, as it makes sense that the medical team’s purpose is to pursue further medical knowledge of intersex so that more can be done to help intersex children. However at the same time, the way things are done currently seem to be a bit extreme and very careless of the children’s emotions. Hopefully improvements can be made for the future.

Tari and Masa’s Visit and “Rubber Tit” Performance

The very first part of Tari and Masa’s performance was very interesting. You see Tari in the ‘closet’ playing with the microphone in her mouth and Masa’s saxophone sounds making wind noises, and the nightvision camera showing us her ’secrets’ projected onto the screen. The sounds, the lighting, the moving, all combined created a very dramatic feeling. It gave a very mystified feeling. The Masa’s saxaphone gave the performance more flavor, increasing the dynamic of the act. Eventually Tari came out of her crate and inflated a rubber tit. As the rubber tit inflated, she freely moved around the room wiht it. I could not help myself from laughing at some points when the gigantic rubber tit was bouncing around the room. It was especially funny to me when she just jumped into the Tit, as well as when she jiggled the Tit up and down. I think it’s great that Tari gets to act out her coming out experince in such a creative open way as well as for Masa to play her music that replaces her words. The performance was definitely worth watching.The best part of the performance was that the entire act was open to your personal interpretation. From the discussion we had about the act in class, it seemed that everyone had their own interpretation of what was going on, and what Tari and Masa was trying to tell us. The video we saw in class about the documentary on Tari was also really interesting. It showed us other examples of her performances. It was interesting to see a glimpse of the act where she worked with her own mother, and it looked like she was rolling a ball of yarn with her mother across the screen.

At first, after I watched their performance, I was a bit baffled at the reasons she did things the way she did. I was not sure why the Tit had to be rubber, why it was so big, and why she used the projector. But after meeting Tari and Masa, asking them many questions, and watching Tari’s documentary, it helped me understand a lot better of where their reasons behind their act originated from. She chose the Tit for universality (and she loves the Tit!), the projection was used to show us that she was letting us peek into her secret in the closet, and she did not preplan her actions – instead she took one action at a time inspired from each moment.

I learned so much from them, and they were a pleasure to talk to. I was really suprised at how shy Tari was! Especially when we watched her documentary, she kept laughing and blushing at watching herself perform. After her live performance I thought she would be the most energetic, loud, aggressive activist, with so much courage to put on a show with a big rubber Tit. The courageous part is definitely true, and as well she is energetic, loud, and agressive but through her special pantomime medium. Rather than strong words that could be easily overheard or miscommunicated, Tari uses her performance skills (and her awesome latex, paper mache skills) to communicate her ideas to the world. I think it is amazing that one person can make such a big impact. It seems that many people are catching on with the feminist movement and I really appreciate all the work both Tari and Masa have done. I hope to see another one of Tari’s performances in the future.

I was truly inspired by them to speak out if I want to be heard!

- Miho

The Funny Uncle

In the face of readily available data and facts to the contrary, those who have a weighted say in the development of the nuclear waste reprocessing plant at Rokkasho insist that it comes as a benefit to the community. It is just too hard to believe that they could willingly or unwillingly, wittingly or unwittingly be so blind. Kamanaka’s documentary film travels as far as the western coast of England to document the fatal effects a nuclear waste reprocessing plant can have on the community that surrounds it—in this case a community with a leukemia rate ten times the global average. The effects, moreover are not just contained within the immediate community, but can also be felt miles away as the waste and byproducts of the plant are flushed into waters that will travel to other coastlines. Given the increasingly global nature of the food economy, one has to wonder just what potential disaster awaits the global food supply with every added plant. The polluted crabs caught by the citizens who call the Isle of Man home do not come to rest there but travel to dinner plates in locations as distant as Holland and Spain.

Despite all of this Rokkasho’s plant is touted as a benefactor to Rokkasho-mura. Japan needs energy, this is true, and without plentiful natural resources like oil, natural gas or coal, the plant is meant to take steps to address this issue. Rokkasho’s plant, it is said, has and will continue to stimulate the economy of the surrounding small fishing and farming villages. From a superficial glance, it would appear that it has as it has provided jobs where there were less. Just how sustainable it will be as industry and job provider is another question. Some have suggested turning to more sustainable enterprises with less adverse health effects, such as tourism, but how many would be willing to visit an area stricken with the health problems of a nuclear plant? I wonder what will become of an area activist who makes much of her income from the tourism the tulips she grows invites. Already, a small organic rice farmer has received letters that with the beginning of the plant’s operation, customers will no longer, out of confidence issues, buy her produce.

Furthermore, through what some might call “dirty dealings” and various forms of coercion, farmers came to sell their land—land that served as their only sources of income, leaving them little other choice but to work on the construction of the plant. When construction stopped there was no other viable place to turn other than the plant for continued employment. The manner in which the plant has interwoven itself into the very body of the Rokkasho existence can only be deemed as genius, however negatively so. A citizen on the Isle of Man referred to the plant polluting the waters in which he fished as a “funny uncle,” that person in the family who is slightly off kilter, yet no one can ask to leave. Watching the way so many in Rokkasho-mura seem to thow themselves at the prospects of the plant with apparent reckless abandon, like the cleaners who hope to conduct all the plant’s uniform washing/mending business, I see little hope that the family ties will be severed any time soon.

Soton

Yoshifumi Tawara on Chicago Public Radio

Yoshifumi Tawara’s interview on Japanese Textbooks Controversy is on Chicago Public Radio’s website. (Trans. by Norma Field)
http://www.wbez.org/Program_wv_Segment.aspx?segmentID=10795
I should have posted this earlier – Sorry!

Nationalism, State Service and School Refusal

Today I posed a question to Professor Tawara about the case of student who are “school refusers” or habitually truants, and then got into an argument with some friends about the nature of the question. Hopefully, this can clarify some of the reasons I had for asking such a question, and what the question was, in and of itself.

Fifteen Women Lawsuit

The talk today was awesome. It gave me several new insights, particularly into the interaction between the Japanese judiciary and the government and to the various civil rights movements occurring within Japan. It’s also heartening to know that there are people within Japan who are interested in addressing difficult issues of reconciliation and apologizing for World War II atrocities. The extent and significance of the movement was however not verbalized.

Professor Camaroff’s lecture also brought up several thought provoking and excellent questions of where mankind was on today and was a sad reflection not so much of Japan as it was the imperial aspirations of the United States. In the Japanese context, Article 9 could theoretically have been one of the most enlightened writings in the constitution, signifying a progressive society based on “positive human behavior.” The fact that this ideal has been compromised in the face of political gain is unfortunately all too prevalent (Singapore being another example also). To expand this further, the need to organize protect our ideals in the face of outside pressure is more urgent than ever.

Nonetheless, while we argue for the preservation of the right to peace, it feels easy to overlook the basis for which the government (who presumably, and as suggested at the court, control the courts) has ceded this right to peace in return for other benefits. Yes, these rights are important, but the question of how much one should give up for one’s ideals, or perhaps what’s the benefit from sacrificing this ideal, is ignored in the process. The question of why the government has done as such is not answered. After all, being in the good books of an economic superpower like America can have tremendous benefits and politics is often an issue of compromise, which runs against the absolute nature of these ideals we verbalize. Perhaps the question we have to reflect on is if the decision was worth it. This is not to say that the actions in Japan were justified, but rather the question we need to if the decision made is in the country’s best interests not just as a human rights issue but as a governing issue.

Rokkasho Rhapsody, another perspective

Well, as I think Miho did a nice job summarising the documentary (though I think that she uses some strong language that I don’t necessarily agree with), I think that I will just present another perspective:

The problem that Kamanaka portrays in the film is definitely something that can be related to in some way, in many parts of the world, as Norma Field noted before the screening, and I think, related to in many different ways. I think, from a global perspective, this film really made me think about the future of the earth in general, with our current energy consumption, and I start to feel more and more like the (scientist? He was shot with a print of Picasso’s Guernica in the background, which I think was quite fitting for this film) man who thought that with our current energy trends, we will always have some sort of problem. (Something like this. I wish I had made better notes. Please correct me if I’m wrong). In a sense, I think that this is true. Because in order to sustain our energy consumption, something must provide the energy, right? so it can be coal, oil, natural gas, wind, nuclear power etc. We don’t have THAT many choices, and with each choice comes a problem (either polution of some kind, or accessability/availability), but if we want to live our “lives of convenience,” then there are certain risks that we must take.

Summary and Thoughts on “Rokkashomura Rhapsody” by Kamanaka Hitomi

The film sets in Rokkashomura in Aomori Ken, where they have built a nuclear reprocessing fuel plant. This fuel reprocessing plant built by Nihon Genen is used to recycle nuclear power by removing plutonium from used nuclear power fuel. This has only been attempted in Japan. The documentary shows us the various lives of the people that live in Rokkashomura and how they are coping with the new nuclear reprocessing plant. One of the people that were shown in the film is a lady that had moved into Rokkashomura, taking after her parents’ farm and pursues her activism in order to stop the reprocessing plant. She grows tulips and other plants to help raise awareness of what Rokkashomura still has to offer. She even held a farmers market and told each customer “these maybe the last organic plants you can buy without any radiation”.

This fuel reprocessing plant has divided Rokkashomura into people for and against the building and usage of the plant. One person for the plant is the Mayor of Rokkashomura. He states at a village meeting that “Reprocessing may become the dream energy of Japan” as he believes in the economic wealth the plant would bring into his village. While an opposing village lady speaks out that “radiation is much worse than war”, it seems that the majority of the citizens that are not fighting against the plant is because they believe it is too late to stop the plant. At the time the documentary was being filmed the plant was still in its process of being built. Yet many people already worked for the plant, helping the creation of the plant and believed it was too late to stop the process from reversing.