🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <CLAUDE.92Sep10104436@tokyo.trc.mew.mei.co.jp> claude@trc.mew.mei.co.jp (Claude Huss) writes:
 |I liked very much the news broadcasted yesterday night (NHK) about 
 |a Korean-Japanese high-school girl who decided to make $@K\L>@k8@(J
 |(Real name). It's very sad to know that Korean-Japanese and
 |Taiwanese-Japanese have to hide their identities, their language,
 |their culture to don't be bothered by the other japanese. I admire
 |how that girl is going against all these things.

Discrimitanion towards non-Japanese residents is persistently going on
in this country. I also saw the news. Very impressive. Another proof
of hidden discrimination in Kanto - where people less believe there is
any racial discrimination.

The news story also reminded me of one of my schoolmates. He was a
second generation Korean-Japanese and once he declared to our
university lab members that his name should be pronounced as in Korean
language since then. This was also an impressive event. Japanese
broadcasting stations forced Japanese pronunciation until they changed
their attitude in 1985 or 1986 - Korean broadcasting stations had been
pronouncing Japanese name as in the Japanese language long before
that.

It was 1980 when I first encountered with the fact of discriminatory
actions of Japanese to Korean people - I also saw Kwangju incident 
$@!J8w=#;v7o!K(J on TV. It was another version of Tiananmen - and I
realized how I was ignorant about a neighbor country. I decided to
learn Korean language - and I spent my time from 1981 to 1984 for
learning it. It's nice to be able to read/write hangul letters - and
can guess how Korean language have influenced Japanese one and vice
versa.

FYI: In Kansai, I find out that the situation is much more complicated
and that people are rather pragmatic about racial/discriminatory
issues. Discrimination to people who live in "buraku" communities is
still persistent, and local governments are trying to enforce a sort
of "Equal Employment Opportunities" or "Affirmative Action",
anti-racial legal movement in the USA. Also, quite a lot of
Korean-Japanese residents are living in Kansai and local governments
are very sensitive on discrimination to them.

// One thing I suggest to Mr. Huss: not only Taiwanese-Japanese but
// other Chinese-Japanese are suffering from the discrimination.

 |I think it's time (how Mr. Rikitake said in his post) to break
 |the illusion that Japan can be "homogenous" and "monolithic"
 |forever. Much more than $@9q:]2=(J, Japan needs $@2ACM4Q$NJ#?t2=!JJQ$J(J
 |$@F|K\8l$HJ,$+$C$F$$$k$1$l$I$b!#!#>P!K(J. 

$@2ACM4Q$NB?MM2=(J should be better for describing "making social change
for accepting many kind of values."

// gotta go, lunchtime.

// Kenji