hellokttys

[hellokttys]

bibliography

[hellokttys]

a nation of peace - a comic

[hellokttys]

HELLO hello KITTY, goodbye GENOCIDE!

how the japanese government uses cuteness to hide a history of dark crimes- a magazine article

Japanese culture is famous for its cute styles and characters. But where does kawaii culture originate? And how is this influx of “cute culture” reshaping the way we view Japan today?

Kawaii culture originates within the following years of WW2. Japan, once viewed as an animalistic aggressor, wanted to combat racial prejudice. To do this, they refused to sell military technology. However, this was not enough to wipe the stain of crimes committed between 1939-1945.

Then the Japanese government took a new approach. Taking inspiration from Japanese artists, the rapid influx of anime, manga, and video games helped transform Japan from a militaristic aggressor to a cute and cool nation.

The Japanese government leans into this cute culture through a tourist-heavy industry, presenting Japan as the ultimate destination for anime enjoyers and fans of its rich culture. The cartoon ambassador for the country is a robotic cat named Poraemon who teaches visitors the history of Japanese animation. Japanese mascots have been seen in prisons and train stations representing security guards. 

By putting a cute spin on daily life, the Japanese government works to hide their history under a facade. But no matter how many cute mascots and arcades the country presents, can we really forget history?

The Wakayma women's prison is home to an adorable mascot. The “Waka” in her name comes from the former, Wakayama, and “Pi” is the letter P for “prison”. Her head is shaped like the mandarin oranges that are grown locally. Cute, right?

[hellokttys]

DEAR READER,

Known for its cultivated image of anime and sakura trees, Japan is a place of culture that runs deeper than it appears. 25 to 32 million tourists visit the archipelago every year to enjoy its society that emphasizes peace and kindness. Little do they know that Pokemon and Hello Kitty hide a dark past of war crimes such as rape, murder, cannibalism, and human experimentation. In this website, I will explain the ways that the Japanese government works to rehabilitate their image across the world.

To complete this project, I first had to do research on Japanese culture itself. My chosen method was to obtain information from the direct source. I interviewed a Japanese university student, Yudai, who answered my questions and gave a rundown of the Japanese educational system. Yudai told me that the curriculum focuses equally on every event in history, from the Samurai era to modern day life. This gave me valuable insight on the Japanese school system, and how it goes about teaching history.

Then, I contacted a professor, who currently teaches a class at the University of Southern California, about Japanese history and imperialism. The professor, Mr. Uzamaki, gave me important insight on the history of Japan itself; including the crimes they committed between 1939 and 1945. It proved successful to contrast what the average Japanese student is taught in comparison to a well-versed Western professor, gauging what lengths the government has taken to disguise their country’s history.

Next, I researched the modern perception of Japan. I discovered that Japan is considered one of the most advanced countries in the world, thanks to its focus on growth and development. However, many historians argue that the country does an inadequate job of properly teaching history, instead pushing a victim narrative. Through its shrines remembering fallen war criminals, hosting reunion parties for perpetrators of Unit 731, and the popularization of a WW2 victim as a figure of peace, the Japanese government rewrites a narrative akin to victims, attempting to label itself similarly to the European Jews who were targeted by the Holocaust in WW2.

Afterwards, I researched the supposed “cute” culture of Japan. In attempts to rehash their image after WW2, the Japanese government took influence from popular artists, and invested resources into rebranding themselves as a non-threatening, innocent country. The nation focuses detrimentally on peace, kindness and “moving on from the past”, instead of addressing the crimes committed by their own citizens. 

Some claim they do enough, whilst others claim they do not. However, that is your opinion to form as you read.

[hellokttys]

targeting education - a research essay

The Japanese education system consists of twelve years of schooling. The first 9 years of Japanese school consists of elementary school, where the first years of their education focus on establishing good behavior and etiquette. Schoolchildren are taught to respect each other and treat others with kindness. Education takes a turn in their fourth year and focuses more on academics, where students are taught Math, English, Physical Education, and Japanese. Japanese schooling focuses on equality, and students will always graduate to the next grade regardless of their performance.

The educational curriculum for history contains four main periods, which discuss each era of Japanese history. The ancient period, spanning from 500 A.D to 1185, focuses on the introduction of the Chinese language system into Japan, and how education became more easily accessible. It introduces the shift of education from religion to the arts, which include poetry, music, visual art, calligraphy, and dance. Towards the end of the medieval period, which educated warriors on weaponry and horseback riding, Catholic missionaries established institutions that focused on general education which serves as a basis for today's curriculum.

Before WW2, Japan’s education introduced a new, more progressive way of learning. One example was the Shin Kyoiku Undo (New Education movement) that instead focused on the individuality of one's skills. However, this movement lost traction during the reign of imperial Japan. Japanese schools, instead of focusing on expression and skill, worked to control thought and enforced ultra nationalistic ideas in order to train more efficient soldiers to serve their emperor. The 1940 National History for elementary schools referred to the Emperor Hirohito as a “living god.”

During WW2, the Japanese military committed thousands of war crimes that included rape, murder, and human experimentation. The Holocaust is known for its complex human experiments, done by surgeons within the German concentration camps, but the events of Unit 731 go beyond what is human. Rape, mutilation, and pedophilia were conducted within the realm of “scientific research.” The rape of Nanjing, which took place in the winter of 1937-1938, was the Japanese-led massacre of Chinese citizens. Victims of the massacre can recall the “Japanese bayonetting infants for sport” and “suffocated bodies stacked amongst each other.” Between 20,000 to 80,000 women and children were raped then murdered. Lives were taken in drunken competition, effectively eliminating over 300,000 Chinese citizens.

What was once a progressive country of growth evolved into careless murder and torture. However, many Japanese students do not learn about these crimes. According to BBC News, only 19 pages of a 352 page textbook discuss the events of WW2. There is one line about the rape of Nanjing. Within the confines of the textbook are lessons about samurai and the feudal system enacted within Japan, but little about the horrors their country participated in under the guise of “every era in history being taught equally.”

Many Japanese students have never been informed of the horrors inflicted during WW2. Japanese university student Nami Yoshida says she “has not heard of comfort women,” who were women and children used as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers. The Japanese education system teaches that WW2 was a time in history where the “whole world went crazy,” working to undermine their actions as a militaristic dictatorship. This is the main reason why many Chinese and Korean citizens do not forgive the country for their behavior today, because they feel the nation’s government has not properly addressed the extent, and modern day impact, of their actions.

The Great East Asian war was a series of colonizations by the Japanese military across several countries in Asia. The nation, after seeing the scramble for Africa by American and European countries, worked to colonize Asian countries such as China and Korea for the resources their nation lacked. What at first was a peaceful trade agreement turned into an exertion of control by implementing Japanese as the official language that quickly turned the Asian countries into a 1984-esque dictatorship. Within Japanese textbooks, the curriculum tries to present the Great East Asian war as “freeing Asia from Western powers.” The content glosses over the cruel reality of Imperialist Japan and tries to justify its expansionist policies because of the liberation it provided. 

According to The Techy Life, the Japanese school system paints the country in a positive light and “emphasizes victimhood.” The curriculum strongly addresses the tragedy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as well as the suffering of Japanese soldiers during WW2. By downplaying Japan’s role as an aggressor in WW2, Japanese education attempts to minimize the severity of their actions by focusing on how their country suffered in its place. This leads to children who do not know the extensivity of their country’s role in a tragic war and instead view themselves as the underdogs who got entangled with the wrong crowd.

The Japanese Ministry of Education states that “all children must be taught about WW2 and the damage caused to promote peace.” Former Japanese history teacher Tamaki Matsuoka disagrees. The teacher claimed that the Japanese government implements educational barriers removing the “hush topics” of WW2 in order to maintain their pristine image. Nobukatsu Fujiaka, the founder of the Japanese Society for Textbooks, holds a more conservative view and claims that the Chinese government hired actors to pretend to be victims of Nanjing. Fujiaka, a key leader in Japanese education, has tried to push his ultra nationalistic ideals into Japanese learning. It shows that while the government tries to portray the country as a land of peace, there are figures behind the scenes working to disguise the gruesomeness of their actions. To do this, the government targets education which is a fundamental institution of learning within children. These children will be raised with the knowledge of the textbook and not the truth. Over time, the harsh reality of what occurred in WW2 will be wiped out as each generation knows less and less. The school system tries to minimize the severity of their countries’ behavior from an early age and therefore eliminate their accountability.