When the Butterfly Stings
By Richard C. Cramer
(Upfront Publishing, Leicestershire, England, 2002)

“Your job is as much a cultural ambassador as an educator.” With these words ringing in his ears, Richard Cramer starts his job as a JET (a participant in the Japanese Exchange and Teaching Program) with high hopes of carrying out this dual role. Enthusiastically he embraces life in Japan, absorbs Japanese culture, learning the arts of the tea ceremony, the shamisen, makes Japanese friends – an ex-kamikaze pilot, a purple-haired tea master, mafia ‘thugs’, to name but a few – and immerses himself in Japanese philosophy. Young and idealistic, he sees a need for improvement in the teaching of English, but when he tries to introduce changes he hits a brick wall. The teachers just aren’t interested in new ideas. Reluctantly, he realizes that to survive he will have to stop rocking the boat and learn to accept the ‘Japanese way’ of doing things.This does not stop him asking questions, and when it comes to the problem of bullying in schools, he refuses to let the matter rest. When his concerns are ignored – with tragic results – he blames himself. Should he have tackled it the ‘American way’ instead of the ‘Japanese way’? Mr. Cramer’s experiences as a JET are fascinating, his evaluation of Japanese philosophy, culture and the education system sharp and incisive, and through the eyes of a young foreigner readers are provided with an exciting pictures of life in modern Japan.

I’m an apologist for the U.S. for the same reason…. Despite the current administration’s violent and unilaterialist foreign policy and the anti-immigrant sentiment and racism growing in this country, I still defend the U.S. because of my husband, friends and many other Americans who are truly great people.

Speaking of the Japanese society with “major problems,” a friend of mine just forwarded this site to me:
http://www.ceoenglish.com
(“Learn to speak ‘CEO English’ to enslave your foreign emplyees as you wish!” that’s basically what this CEO guy is saying.)
I’m so embarassed about these Japanese businessmen who have no idea what business ethics is about when they deal with non-Japanese employees. I don’t know why our society doesn’t hold these people accountable for what they do/say. I don’t know what will make these people learn…...

I recommend Chalmers Johnson’s “Japan: Who Governs?” for a good introduction to the realities of politics in Japan, especially pre-’93.

“Tokyo Underworld” was a best-seller in Japan, and it has a Japanese-only sequel. Although the protagonist may be irrelevant to Japan today, Whiting’s reporting on the yakuza’s activities still holds up. They took over the Japanese art market in the 80s, and they haven’t exactly gotten rid of those investments.

“Speed Tribes” is sloppy pseudo-journalism, at least 50% fiction, and there are now dozens of books (in English, even!) that tell the same kind of stories with much more accuracy. Do you really think that the average Japanese kid knows how to “fold a baggy of heroin better than an origami crane” or whatever it is that Greenfeld writes?

Death threats: I thought you had run afoul of the urashakai. What a let down.

Suffice to say that Japanese girls often find it hard to take no for an answer when things aren’t working out. The death threats/suicide threats were the last spasms of campaign against my months-long effort to break up with her. If you insist on knowing more e-mail me.

I liked Embracing Defeat. I don’t know if there has been such a comprehensive document on the period right after the war. As I read, I kept thinking, “Oh. Right. Now I get why my mother knows how to pick all those weeds for food.” Or, “I remember hearing about people eating crickets.” Etc. Some interesting scholarship has been done on the Imperial Family too by westerners—and by the “Korean” contents of the Imperial tombs in Japan. This is stuff you just wouldn’t read in Japan.

There are also some other books which capture nuances—Daughter of a Samurai, and Reischauer’s wife’s memoir. Yes, literature has an awful lot of stuff which can add to our knowledge.

But all that being said, how does anyone ever fully appreciate another culture? I mean, I’m American and I “get” America and yet I don’t.