After reading the grim recollections from student nurses in the Battle of Okinawa, I got pretty depressed. All of the reading we’ve read so far is depressing. It’s unfortunate that the battle had to end the way it did, I wish the Japanese had just surrendered. Of course, if they had, would this carnage have been avoided? Would a worse fate have befallen them if they had? It’s impossible to say.

The testimonials included some terribly vivid images. One that particularly stuck with me was the account about soldiers being incredibly hungry and their only food when in the hospital was other soldiers’ amputated arms and legs. The mass suicide orders reinforced the idea for me that the soldiers were horribly low on food. Lighten the load? Barbaric. As the nurse said, however, “that’s war.”

When the nurses were disbanded, they shouldn’t have been forced to leave the caves. Over 200 dead from the 216 that went in, and the loss could have been completely prevented. The morale was low, though, and in the War Memorial museum that we went to today, I saw in an exhibit that the Japanese military would murder soldiers who were too weak to recover by giving them milk laced with cyanide. That isn’t following the Hippocratic Oath. The Japanese suicide tradition is one that I hope died with the end of the war.

On top of being caught in the middle of a warzone and being denied basic water and food, the student nurses weren’t really treated all that well by the Japanese soldiers. In the student nurse museum I read a few quotes about the soldiers being ungrateful for the help that was being offered, probably due to the pain that they were in. There weren’t enough pain-killing drugs to go around, and thus the soldiers suffered unnecessarily during procedures. The descriptions of the soldiers in testimonials described that they were covered in lice, and one nurse was described to have maggot infested wounds of her own. The American soldier who captured her was cutting away all her clothes and behaving as if he enjoyed torturing her. No matter what side of the battlefield you were on, it seems that monsters existed.

I’m glad that the war memorial includes the names of all who died, not just the Japanese. It has been called by some authors the decisive battle that helped to end not only the war, but the entire style of high-casualty warfare, but its terrible that it had to end like this. At least respects can be paid at the memorial and at the various museums. If we arm ourselves with knowledge, it should help to stop history from repeating.

The day began early. At 06:45 I was up and enjoying a Japanese breakfast. Alright, I think I might have eaten a bowl of unflavored yogurt that may have been cream cheese by how it tasted, but I’m a tourist, I guess I don’t know everything yet.

We took the monorail everywhere and went to a スーパー and got some food. There were other departments but they weren’t open.

We saw the snake snakes in the sake bottles as well. You can’t make this stuff up, but here’s a photo in case you think I did.

Next we went to lunch. Had とんこつ、a pork dish. It was pretty healthy and cheap.

We visited Shuri Castle later in the day, and got ラメン for dinner. Jet lag started to catch up with me, so I decided I’m going to bed early. Until next time!

… it’s time to live it. (Starting out a blog post with lyrics from a Blackalicious song, yep.)

Passenger’s log:

Stardate: 2012年5月14日

5/14, 02:00:
おはよございます！（ーー；）zZz

Find out more, keep on reading! (alert: looooooong)

04:21
At the airport. Nobody is here. Aight.

04:50
On my way to security. Passport, photo ID and boarding pass in hand.

06:48
This flight is supposed to land at 6:53 AM… Why are they serving drinks? Oh wait, time zones.

5/14, 06:00 (-1):
Right-o. Every time a time change occurs I’ll include the date (and time difference if I remember.)

11:36
Boarding! I can’t wait for those in-seat TVs!

12:00
Apparently that’s a first class only feature. Looks like movies will still be played, though we don’t get to choose. Not like I got time to watch TV, gotta sleep. ‘night.

14:48
My first meal is arriving soon. I got 3 choices, though they say it’s limited by what the other passengers chose. Hope it tastes like chicken!

15:11
Nope, outta chicken, but instead I got treated to vegetarian! Quite delicious. They got the rice and the lettuce and the carrots and the strongest, bitterest tea you could imagine. Just how I like it!

15:13
Before you ask me when 15 o’clock is, I’m on 24-hour time. (its standard in some countries too) We haven’t crossed over the international date line yet so I’m sticking with Chicago time since I don’t know where we are right now. I was hoping this plane would have TVs in the back of each seat, but it turns out the 747 is an older model, despite being one of the largest in the fleet. They’ve updated this one with flat-screens, but I was expecting a bit more from a 12 hour flight. Eh, guess I don’t need anything more than a seat and a tray table. And a phone to take notes.

15:25
All the windows in the plane closed in the 2 minutes I was in the lavatory. Guess everyone decided it was time for bed. I wish it felt like bedtime.

15:26
My passport is in my backpack. I saw my passport in my backpack. My passport was verified to be in my backpack. Wait up, I’m going to check once more.

15:27
Yep, everything is here. Can’t check too many times though.

17:00
Well, it’s still light as heck outside. I’d better get used to the idea that today will be the longest “day” I’ve ever physically experienced. Not bad actually. I decided to read “The Stand” for the last hour or so. Glad I’m not the main characters. Also, filled out the customs form.

17:04
It’s been a good flight, and I bet we’ll be landing anytime soon. Any time in the next 8 or 9 hours.

17:06
Any time now.

17:07
I think I’ll go to bed. Nighty night.

17:24
Still working on that sleep.

18:56
Guess I got that sleep. The flight attendant woke me up, and it would have driven me bananas except that she gave me a banana! Snack time! It’s still sunny outside, as it should be.

19:07
Ginger ale is pretty darn good. Good for you, good for your health. At least that’s what the old rumors say. I’m having my third can. They’re pretty good about offering beverages every hour.

19:13
Gotta drink it quick else you’ll be stuck with it until they come around for trash again. 12oz of soda is meant to be enjoyed, not chugged (-｡-;

5/15, 09:58 (-10):
Alright, I don’t know where we are, but I’ll assume we’re pretty close to changing time-zones. I know we’ve changed a few, so I’ll go on Tokyo time from now on. It’s now freaking morning. Rise and shine, and I got a full day’s worth of travel ahead of me. Aren’t I lucky! Still on the same plane. To be honest, this is all pretty exciting so I’m not really peeved about it, I’m just getting tired! I got a layover in Narita, then by late at night we’ll be getting into the hotel! I can’t wait. No jet lag yet. Bring it on! (We’ll see if I end up eating those words later.)

10:12
They’ve stopped displaying the airship’s voyage over the telescreen. I may never know where we are unless the captain announces it over the PA or if these in-flight commercials ever cease. How’s that for a different writing style? Meh, back to rambling.

10:16
This is why Twitter is better for microblogging. I guess this is more of a live blog without many photos. A dog is eating a slipper on the inflight entertainment right now.

10:35
Countdown to touchdown: 04:35
Well now, the video monitor is showing GPS data again. Finally! Now I now how long it’ll take. We’re well past Alaska and almost there on the map. Guess “almost there” just means we’re 8 hours in. Least I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and it’s saying that it’s the middle of the day rather than 9:38 PM Eastern time. -57 degrees Fahrenheit out there, I’m glad I’m in here (^ ^)

14:32
I awake from a nap to the thought “Are we THERE yet?” also, to a delicious turkey sandwich. Mine eyes be itching with the sting of no sleep in nearly 24 hours, but it’s still sunny out there. Is this day going to end?

14:45
Countdown to touchdown: 1 hour
The captain says they’re experiencing some turbulence and will be turning on the seatbelt sign in 5 minutes. I think he’s being nice in that regard since half the plane is standing up in preparation for landing.

14:53
Countdown to landing: 52 minutes
Eyes are burning, ears are starting to feel the pressure of a 30,000 foot descent, customs form is fully completed, it’s sunny outside. Feels like I’ve got a cold. I’m not as anxious to disembark the plane as I thought I’d be though. My phone has been holding up miraculously through all of this at just under 50% right now. (49% if you must know) Hopefully we’ll be on the ground soon. From how my eyes feel I probably shouldn’t try to take any more easily interrupted naps.

15:03
Starting to sneeze. It’s also time to land. G’bye for now…

16:00
Landed at Narita! Got my bags and went through customs. Their system was down and they had to reboot it. Windows XP, classy. I’m recalling from Chicago like it was a day ago. I guess it really was, though it feels like not. I’m actually pretty energetic right now. Don’t feel tired in the least.

18:32
Went through the Narita Airport and got $80 exchanged to ¥. The exchange rate is better for them than for us.

22:30
No wifi anywhere! I wish I knew if calling voicemail was charged per minute, but I can’t look it up! Am I useless without this phone? I gotta to to bed.

The chronicles of Edward Fowler’s experience in Japan during the 80s and 90s were so interesting that I hardly wanted to put the book down. San’ya Blues makes a lot of important points through the stories within its pages, but the one that stuck with me the most is the trouble with abusing alcohol. The book focuses on poor construction workers (Yama men) who live in the San’ya district of Tokyo, a rundown district that is heavily controlled by gangs, and is known for its less prosperous population. Most of San’ya’s residents are men (many who have left their wives and families or have been disowned by their parents) and are down on their luck. The main source of employment for residents (and transients) in the town is a large gathering, every morning, in which gang-approved recruiters will hire the men for various construction jobs around the city. Work for the young and able-bodied residents is easily found, and pay is relatively high, though wages tend to be spent mostly on alcohol. There is one bank, the Welfare Credit Union, that residents frequent, but many walk around with their life savings in their pocket.

Of all the people Fowler described, a few stories stuck with me the most. In one of them, a man speaks of his childhood. This man grew up with his grandmother, and told of how boys were a lot more valued than girls back in the day, and how his sister died of starvation at age 8 since she wasn’t fed as much or as well as he was, and how she would always be denied requests for food from the grandmother because the grandmother didn’t think she was important. Quite a sad tale, and it sounds a lot like what’s been going on in China over the last few years, where girls are left to die on the streets. The BBC did a report on gender discrimination in China in 2007 and found that as many as 100 million girls are aborted due to gender alone. Japan may have been discriminating against women in the past, but are they still doing it today? Unfortunately, it seems that they’re actually getting worse. According to the Christian Science Monitor, Japan was ranked 101st place in a 2010 gender discrimination report. I wasn’t able to find any instances of malnutrition reported in the last few years, so it sounds like at least the worker’s story won’t repeat itself anytime soon.

A large number of the stories caught my eye due to a common theme: alcohol abuse. Nearly all of the workers were drinking during their interview, and some of them had trouble standing, walking, or doing work due to their addictions. As Fowler noted, there is a lot of money being made in the area, but due to the workers’ love of gambling and drinking, most of it goes to waste. The yakuza run many resturants and control the gambling, and appear to make the most money in the end. When Fowler was visiting with some activists who he met during a city-run workshop about how to improve San’ya, one of them was always unruly and kept interjecting comments and interrupting the conversation. He was so impaired by alcohol that he couldn’t complete simple tasks such as dialing a phone. Another of the men in the room couldn’t stand up due to intoxication and passed out. He didn’t even wake up when a lit cigarette was pressed into his nose. Ouch. If you take away anything from these examples, it would seem that the worst thing you can do if you’re down on your luck is to take to drinking in excess.

The most significant aspect of the stories showcased was how… non-foreign they sounded. It’s easy to stereotype foreigners as all being one way or as having some crazy cultural differences from us, and these stereotypes make it harder to empathize or relate to them. What is shown in these stories is a very large variety of people who all have different upbringings and different stories to tell. If you didn’t know these stories were translated from Japanese, you’d think it was any average American describing his/her troubles, which is exactly the point: we Americans aren’t so unique ourselves. The Japanese people interviewed were just as excited about a foreigner speaking Japanese as we’d be about a Japanese tourist speaking English over here. Some stereotyped Americans just as Americans stereotype them, but the stereotypes aren’t entirely accurate. Once you get past the language barrier, people are quite similar.

Overall, I only wish I had had more time to study the book in-depth, and am planning on re-reading it when I have time to take in any details I might have missed. I highly recommend it.

Travelling to Japan for three weeks is going to be quite the adventure. Hopefully not the kind of adventure where I’m lost in Tokyo and need to rely on my 1 year of Japanese to find my way back to the hotel. ホテルはどこにありますか？Then I’d find out I was standing right outside all along and I just couldn’t read the name of the hotel because it was written in kanji. かんじは難しいとたいへんですよ！

I can’t wait for the flight on Monday! I’ll need to get up at 2:30 AM to arrive at the airport at 4:30, so I wonder why I shouldn’t stay up the whole night. I’ll sleep on the plane anyway! I got 13 long hours to catch up on that lost sleep over the Pacific, though it’s healthy to stand up every hour to stop your feet from swelling up like balloons. In theory, at least.

I’ll be taking along with me my Nintendo 3DS so that I can draw lovely pictures of my trip and post them up to this blog, such as the one above. Alright, its bad art, but get used to red and blue, as those are the only colors the system gives me. I’ll also pack my camera for regular photos, and I might even post some too, granted I don’t get punched in the face like the author of San’ya Blues. (I’ll also try to stear clear of the やくざ！)

Okinawa has never been as economically or technically advanced as Tokyo, but why? Is it catching up these days? The years after the Pacific War were rough and from the research I did this week it would seem that Okinawans have a love-hate relationship with Japan and the US. I’m counting the days till I can see the differences in person, not just through Google Street View. I have a few hypothesies about how life is like over there, but they’re probably pretty inaccurate since I’m sitting in South Carolina rather than roaming the streets myself.

When packing for the trip, as I’ve said it’s important to pack the essentials, but I’d better not gold-plate my suitcase. Bringing unnecessary junk with me just means that I’ll have less space for the return trip, and during the off-evenings I plan to buy! Perhaps a Japanese game or two written in kana so I can practice reading, or maybe a Japanese textbook for grade schoolers so I can brush up on some actual concepts. If I’m to become semi-competent in Japanese without taking any more language classes at Furman, I’ll need to start ASAP and strike while the iron is 暑い！

Anyway, I’m super excited!