156. The Ephemeral (Japan)

As a part of my research into the psychological workings of the Japanese people after the March 2011 Earthquake, I have been paying attention to personal blogs in Japanese. One that I have encountered a week ago is written by a middle-aged man (Mr. Y) in Osaka, whose brightly-colored blog (the sidebars adorned by cartoon animals) contains many posts about loss. The man appears to be deeply affected by the Earthquake, and in August 2011, posted the following brief but controversial post:

Quote:
『世界中のみなさん、原発事故を起こしてしまって、本当にすみません。地球を汚してすみません。謝る言葉も見つかりません。知床を世界遺産に認定してもらった にもかかわらず、原発を再稼動してすみません。馬鹿ばっかりで本当にすみません。そして東北のみなさん、本当にすみませんでした。また、多くの野生動物や 犬や猫のみなさんには、多大なるご迷惑と放置したことを心からお詫びします。本当にすみませんでした。』Date: 2011-08-19

Translation:
"To the people of the world: We are truly sorry for letting the nuclear disaster happen. We are sorry for polluting the earth. We cannot find words to express our regret.It doenst matter how many world heritage sites we have, we let the nuclear issue rise again, and so we apologize. We are stupid. To the people living in Tohoku (the northeast), we are really sorry. Also, to the thousands of wild animals and pets, we have caused you much trouble and we wish to apologize with all our hearts." Accessed: 2012-01-23

Accompanying the text is a blurry photo taken from an ancient play, where feudal lords are holding a conference with one figure in the foreground bowing in submission.


There is great significance to the above writing. Why has the author written a fictional apology in the voice of feudal Japanese lords? What is his point? From various other posts made by the author, I see that he has an interest in politics. The apology, therefore, could be understood as a hope for political figures to step up and assume responsibility, something that has always been unaddressed, especially in August 2011, when protests rose in Japan against issues ranging from Korean-Pop to Fukushima Children's Urine. The issues are often disconnected logically, but emotionally can all be traced to the Earthquake.

Allow me to use a metaphor. If a boy experiences the death of his mother, everyone around him will speak to him from this day onward with the knowledge that he is changed by a dramatic loss in his life. It does not matter if it is true, but once the idea becomes a consensus, even the boy's own thoughts can reflect the expectations other have for him to be abnormal. For most Japanese bloggers, the reflections were shown in the few weeks directly after the Earthquake. The majority of bloggers would return to their usual language and subject matter a month later. However, Mr. Y has continued to express his thoughts regarding the national, collective loss explicitly, many months after the Earthquake. This is why I use him as my example. His semi-absurd political mockery, demonstrated in the above excerpt, is only a bonus.

The inspiration for me to post his writing, however, is the fact that Mr. Y has deleted more than half of the blog contents within the last week. When I tried to access his posts regarding volunteering for the rebuilding of Tohoku, I could not locate the posts. I resorted to using internet cache files and archives to restore his blog, and succeeded in quoting the above.

Mr. Y explained the reasoning for deleting the posts:

Quote:
また私事ではありますが、体調面の問題もあり、療養に専念したいとも思っており、長らくブログ記事の更新も出来ず、このブログを続けるべきか悩んだ結果、終了することに至りました。
少しばかりですが、過去のブログ記事を暫く残しておこうと思います。

ブログの中には、あまり相応しくない記事や表現、発言もあったように思っており、皆様には多大な失礼とご迷惑をおかけしましたことを心よりお詫び申し上げます。Posted: 2012-01-30

Translation:
Due to personal problems, including my health and recuperation, I could not update my blog, and even thought about deleting the blog all together. For now, I will begin the blog anew. Although not great in number, I have left a few old posts in place.

Within this blog, I may have caused the readers discomfort with insensitive comments, I sincerely apologize. Accessed: 2012-01-30


Is this a good reason to delete blog history? I wondered. Except for the one instance where I wrote over a previous post, losing that post in the process, I have never deleted anything from this blog. Even if the links to the posts are not visible in the Archives, by accessing links directly, anyone can read what I have posted onto this blog. I believe in keeping a record of my internet activities, and had I ever written something such as, "I apologize to the people of the world", I would have given enough consideration beforehand to leave it on the internet.

At the most basic level, the issue is caution, to take the internet publishing platform as seriously as you would in paper print, and to recognize that nothing is ephemeral. On top of that, I propose to speculate further on the possibility of psychological denial of the overarching ideology that "Japan has suffered" by the Japanese people.

If I believed in conspiracy theories, I would say an external force has pressured Mr. Y into deleting his writing, due to the majority of the deleted contents contained comments regarding the Earthquake. For now, I will understand it as a gesture that the people getting tired of the suffering, and are ready to move on.

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Written by micr0q. Copyright 2012. No image copyright infringement intended. This is a non-profit blog.