Living in a Countryside

　　I live in Nagano Prefecture. Japan is an island country, but Nagano has no waterfront and is surrounded with mountains. Most people have lived farming on small lands or working at small factories.

   But young people who finished schools move to big cities to get jobs and to enjoy more convenient lives. Many of them settle there. So, Tokyo is getting bigger and bigger, on the other hand, small villages and towns far from big cities have only old people. Their population is decreasing. We see a lot of abandoned places that were once rice fields. Our neighbor’s rice field next to our vegetable garden is now covered with tall ugly weeds.

Everyone is worrying about the future of our community; no young people, abandoned houses, fields with no people to farm…... Only huge cities are prosperous.

When I first came here to live, I didn’t like this place; no shopping malls, no concert halls, not many sophisticated people, harsh winter, nothing interesting, nothing exciting.…  But now I feel I’m lucky to live here; we live in a pretty large house though very old, grow enough vegetables without chemicals to feed my family on the inherited land, I also enjoy gardening( too big for me to weed). I don’t need much now, so I don’t have to go shopping often. Many People are not very intelligent, but they know a lot about cooking and farming.

This kind of idea might come to me because I got old. While I was busy working hard, gardens or nature meant nothing. I understand the people who need to be in big towns

But recently some young people come to live in this town. They seem to know what I didn’t know until late of my life.         

We Have Lost the Guiding Star

　About Okinawa, I have too much to tell, and I’m afraid I might write too long.

When I visited there for the first time, I was fascinated with its culture; music, building, clothes, pottery, cuisine, and their language. It is very different from ours, Yes, Okinawa was once a kingdom called Ryukyu. But Japan annexed it about 150 years ago.

   In the World War II, the Japanese army in Okinawa was commanded to stop American army go and attack Japan’s main island, The fight was fierce and two hundred thousand people were killed there, including one hundred and twenty thousand civilians. After the war the US forces occupied and ruled Okinawa for twenty-seven years. People had suffered enough during those years.

   Okinawa is now a part of Japan, but their suffering is continuing; 74% of the US army’s base is in Okinawa, a very small island prefecture. Can you guess what the life with the bases of foreign forces, which is holding supremacy over Japan, is like?  Violence of soldiers, accidents of military vehicles and helicopters, etc. When a twelve year old girl was raped by three soldiers, the US had to say that they would give Hutennma military airport back to Japan.  But the US demanded an alternative, a new military base at Henoko, which is much larger and up-to-date equipped, of course with Japan’s expense.  It is not the solution, but bigger  danger, people thought, so they have been opposing to the plan for many years. The construction is destroying the rich and beautiful sea where dugongs live. They expressed their will through elections and gatherings, but the government of Japan has never listened to them. Abe Government especially has treated Okinawa mercilessly.

   I have some friends in Okinawa, and one of them is a eighty-nine year old woman who survived the war. She was burned by a flame thrower of the US army and her body is hurt even now, but she sit in front of the gate of the US marine base almost everyday to oppose the new base plan, where the riot police exclude the civilians like her .  

   Takeshi Onaga, the governor of Okinawa has keenly criticized the Tokyo Government and tried to stop the construction work of the new base.  He has been a core of all the Okinawan people and the anti- military base movement. Not only  Okinawan but also the people who want to support Okinawa and hate such a mean and dirty Abe Cabinet are very sorrowful and depressed at his death. We have lost the big guiding star. I hope the people of Okinawa will start fighting again with the memory of Onaga.

  

 

      

Women's Roll in Japan

   August 6^th was 73^rd anniversary of the atomic bomb attack to Hiroshima. Tomorrow is Nagasaki’s. Both cities have memorial ceremonies every year on their anniversaries. In the ceremony held in Hiroshima the day before yesterday, the mayor wanted the government to sign the Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty, while the Prime Minister Abe mentioned nothing about it. The treaty was concluded at the UN with the long time effort by the victims and survivors from the two bombs on the cities. But Japan did not support the treaty though Japan is the only country that suffered the nuke weapons in the war, and most of its people want to abolish nuke weapons. Why?  Because Japan is America’s henchman?  Because Japan believes America’s nuke weapons to protect Japan?  

 

I have once visited both cities and their memorial museums. If you visit them, you know that the nuke weapons are absolute evil, and we, human beings , cannot get along with such things.       

 

I read an article today about a high school girl from Nagasaki. She is one of the student peace ambassador to bring the people’s signatures that want the abolition of the nuke weapons to the UN.  She says,” 2020 Olympics closing ceremony is going to be held on August 9^th, Nagasaki’s anniversary. We can do something on the day to appeal for the peaceful future without nuke weapons and wars.” I sometimes feel desperate, but I should hope for such young generation. 

 

I’ve just heard a news that Mr.Onaga, the governor of Okinawa died. How sad and how shocking! What a loss not only for Okinawa but for us all!  I’ll write about Okinawa next time.

 

Women's Roll in Japan

　　The rank of the gender equality in Japanese society is 114th of all the countries. It’s getting worse.

    Tokyo Medical University, one of the most famous medical universities, counted the entrance exams scores of female applicants around 10 % less to decrease the female doctors. Can you believe it?  

    When I was young, about a half century ago, not many girls studied in the universities. They thought girls didn’t need to study, women should just get married, have and raise children, do domestic chores, and help husbands. It was women’s roll, and a happy life for women; many people believed so. I worked at junior high schools, but there weren’t many female teachers when I started working; they thought women couldn’t deal with teen-age boys. I was often asked, “Why do you work?” I had studied education at the university to be a teacher! If I had been a male, did they ask the same question? I kept working, thinking things would change when the number of working women increased.  

    A lot have changed , but not enough in this country.

    But such a situation is hard also for male, don’t you think?  They always have to be strong, capable, right, and responsible for families, companies, and communities. So much pressure to bear!  Why don’t you give half of your burden to female?

 

    Some weeks ago, one of the LDP members of the diet wrote “ We should not use the money of the nation for LGBT because they are not productive.” I felt shudder to read it. She (The person is a woman, can you believe?) calls having babies and raising children a matter of ‘product’. She is saying having children is not the personal matter, but national affairs, and they try to support people only when it’s useful for the nation. According to her idea, the value of people is judged if they are useful or useless, productive or unproductive, and the nation doesn’t want the latter.

    People criticized her comment, of course. But she did not correct it or apologize, but wrote again,” Many LDP Diet members encouraged me saying,’ You wrote the right thing.’ ‘ You are not wrong, Don’t worry.’ I’m grateful and I’m happy to be one of them.”

    It was two weeks later that the LDP said her comment was not suitable, as the criticism got louder, and many people had a gathering to protest in front of the Diet building. It shows the LDP members have the same idea as hers.

    

 

Are We Safe With This Much Defoliant?

　I may be counted as one of the many Buddhist in the world, but in Japan, Buddhism is not a religion for most of the people called Buddhist. We don’t believe in what is said in Buddhism. It is a kind of custom or cultural tradition, and many of us need temples and priests only for funerals. I, myself don’t need them even on my funeral, I’m telling to my family.

    In summer Buddhists have a day when we believe(?) the souls of our ancestors come back home and visit us, and family members get together and visit their graves.

    Yesterday my husband and I went to our family’s graveyard to clean it before the day. We cut grasses and wild vines and swept them away in the heat. Then a man who has the graveyard next to ours came up and scattered something in his area, and went away. It was defoliant. His graveyard has been clean without any grasses, but color brown in the summer. His family lives next to us, and they use the defoliant for their vegetable garden and yard. It has no weeds, although my family struggle with weeds everyday.

    It is well known that defoliant was used in Vietnam War by the US army, and it has caused serious disease on both Vietnamese and US soldiers. But now we see a huge area of defoliant bottles and packages in every store that sells things for farming. All this will be used on the farms and gardens!!  I feel dizzy. Many might, or want to, believe the note on the package which tells “No Harm on Human Being” No way!