Valerie Dixon, Contributor
A Japanese shrine maiden (centre) offers a cup of sacred sake rice wine to a 'bride' during a mock traditional Shinto wedding ceremony, part of a training course for young women, at Tokyo's Kanda Myojin Shrine. The shrine gives lessons to high school students, hoping to help deepen their understanding of Japanese culture and tradition. - Reuters
OFTEN WHEN I meet an African, two thoughts flash through my mind: "Why did your ancestors sell my ancestors into slavery?" and the other "Why did your ancestors turn a blind eye to the plight of my ancestors and did nothing to help?"
Living in Jamaica in 2005 I see the same attitude and the same hatred and animosity being perpetuated among the various 'tribes' living in Jamaica, just as it must have been in Africa during the many decades of the slave trade. Black people still think in the same way as they did 500 years ago. Many of us think that as long as we are in the 'right tribe' then we are safe and all right, and to hell with the 'hated tribe'.
Need I remind these people that many of those who sold their black enemies into slavery were themselves ambushed at gunpoint and marched to the slave ports, where they were shackled to the very enemies they sold and shipped to the West Indies and America? The same knife that sticks sheep will also stick goat, and I do believe this same sick drama of enemies being side by side on the plantation is still being played out today.
I have often heard that highly revered and fearless talk-show host, Wilmot Perkins, praising the economic achievements and social development of Singapore and Japan and lamenting about how Jamaica missed that same boat that could also have sailed us into
economic independence and prosperity. I took the challenge to do some research into one of these countries Japan to see for myself why the Japanese 'have made it' and we just can't be anything more than a 21st century plantation. As fate would have it, my friend Dr. Sultana Afroz, a lecturer in the Department of History, UWI, was giving a series of lectures on, of all topics, Japan. What she taught me was amazing and I am now convinced that the black man's mind works differently from the minds of other races. Maybe this could explain why black people are the way we are.
HOMOGENEITY
The triumph of Japan and Asia can be summed up in one word homogeneity. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word 'homogeneous' means alike, made up of parts of the same kind. Homogeneity is maintained through the 'purity' of the Japanese blood, i.e., to be Japanese both your parents must be Japanese. This homogeneity also strengthened the nationalist spirit, in other words, a Japanese politician is a nationalist and a patriot who works for the interest of Japan. His role as a politician is secondary to his patriotism. This is woefully missing in Jamaican politicians. The Japanese, regardless of which part of Japan he is from, regardless of which class he is from, regardless of whether his skin is a little paler than other Japanese, regards
himself as being first and foremost a Japanese.
This is not so with the black man his tribe is either better than, richer than, browner than or some other superlative that only the black mind can fathom. As a result of this comparative inbred attitude, he sees nothing wrong in slaughtering a whole tribe of
people, or selling his enemies into slavery simply because they are not liked for one reason or another.
When our national hero Marcus Mosiah Garvey tried to get us to understand this point of being one race of black people, under the motto One God, One Aim, One Destiny it was black intellectuals and the black middle class who laughed him to scorn and ridiculed him. Garvey died a broken man simply because the black man does not think like everyone else.
Japan was able to maintain this homogeneity through her Samurai tradition. The Samurais were the powerful ruling military class. The head of this military class was given the title of 'Shogun' and he was called upon by the Emperor to form the government. This military class ruled Japan from the twelfth century to 1868.
However, Japan had great stability and good governance in particular from the Shogun Tokugawa House from 1600-1868. This Shogunate established hereditary rule (from father to son) and this leadership paved the way through its far-sighted policies for Japan to become the First-World country that it is today. One policy decision was to isolate Japan from the rest of the then world. This seclusion policy helped Japan to nurture her culture, because she realised that each nation had its own unique culture.
Christianity was barred from entering Japan, because the religion was seen as being too divisive and disruptive. Even after her seclusion ended, and in her modernisation programme, there was a limit to cultural borrowing. Japan found the West to be spiritually empty; hence, she limited her borrowing to science and technology which were universally applicable.
SELF-SUFFICIENT
Jamaica has failed to nurture her forefathers' African culture and has adopted Western material culture, which has led to moral degeneration. Jamaica has also failed to learn and adopt scientific principles and techniques which have led to a dependency syndrome.
This decision to isolate Japan, forced her to become self-sufficient in food production. For each Han (province), there was regional specialisation of crops which came under the banner of 'One Village One Product'. This policy remains in vogue to this day. Japan therefore developed industrialisation mainly around her community based agricultural produce.
Japan's leaders were sensible to realise that you can't talk about globalisation when you can't feed yourself, and you don't have any products to compete with in a global marketplace. Jamaica can't be like Japan because we don't believe in producing anything from agriculture. We 'kill' our farmers and support foreign farmers. Black people do think differently.
To ensure loyalty and accountability to the Shogun, each daiymo (governor) had to attend a retreat held at the Shogun's encampment or capital on alternate years. Simply put, a daiymo had to report to the Shogun on the progress in his Han every other year, so half the daiymo would be at retreat every year. Families were left in the capital to ensure that the governors came to these retreats. Families were and still are very important in Japanese culture, so there was no way anyone would 'run away' from their families.
PROMISCUITY
This is another reason why we can't be like Japan. In Jamaica we don't have families women have babies and men get babies in any parish that they happen to be in. Promiscuity is the norm in our society and here is the proof. Japan has a population 50 times larger than Jamaica's population 127 million as against 2.6 million. Yet there were roughly only 12,000 people living with HIV in all of Japan in 2003, compared with roughly 25,000 people living with HIV in Jamaica. [Source: United Nations AIDS Programme website http://www.unaids.org.]
Due to the spiritual upbringing of the Japanese, every Japanese to this day has great respect for his ancestors, his family, his elders and, most of all, for himself. Japanese follow the teachings of Confucius. Although not a religion according to Western standards, the Japanese people are homogenous in their beliefs that centre on the teachings of Confucius. We can't be like Japan because we have no homogenous spiritual teachings.
If Jamaica did not experience spiritual genocide during and after slavery, many present-day Jamaicans would have adhered to the Islamic tradition, since 56 per cent of the African forefathers were brought from predominantly Muslim West Africa. One advantage of this would have been that our present-day historians would have no fear of Islam, so they would feel free to teach our people about the Moors and their civilisation, which is our people's rich and glorious black heritage, alongside the teaching of Tainos, Incas, Aztec and Mayan history.
I have no intention to be a Muslim and when I see Jamaican Christianity in action, I have my doubts there as well. But I have great respect for my ancestors and have no difficulty in acknowledging that they came from great civilisations, before they were forcibly ripped from their homes and families and brought to the West Indies and America and given the name 'slaves'. If it go so, it just go so.
Even the military leaders, the Shoguns and their warriors, the Samurai were strict adherents to the teachings of Confucius. They were gentlemen soldiers and scholars who indulged themselves in Confucian classics and Shintoism. Confucian philosophy emphasises filial piety (children honouring their parents), good governance, honesty and frugality. Shintoism leads the Japanese to have reverence towards the Emperor as a symbol of unity. What does our Governor-General represent British colonial authority. Is this not subservience to our former masters?
These gentlemen soldiers and scholars had to exemplify the virtues as taught by Confucius, in how they conducted themselves and how they treated the lower classes. Frugality, not bling-bling and flamboyance, is the tradition of the samurai and continues in present day Japan. Their military code meant 'the way of the warrior' or the Bushido code. It merged with the Confucius philosophy, giving rise to the perfect 'gentleman soldier' who was also a scholar. When we see how our army and police, a few weeks ago, treated the situation in a certain community, we can further understand why we can't be like Japan. No samurai would ever dream of shooting into a crowd and not care who gets hit, and no Shogun would ever issue such an order.
Frugality is a way of life in Japan. Japanese are known for their thriftiness and savings ability, a characteristic rarely found among Jamaicans. Japanese are quick to invest their savings for a better future, while Jamaicans spend it for short-term material comfort and vanity.
Corruption was almost unheard of because the society is based on the principle of meritocracy. Everyone had to earn their position by passing an examination, somewhat akin to the (now defunct?) Civil Service Examination. This examination was started after the Meiji Restoration after 1868 and it gave their civil service a high degree of political, economic, cultural and social stability. Unlike what happens in Jamaica, where oftentimes dunces and inept persons are given high positions, simply because they are relatives or cronies of our leaders.
COLONISATION
Japan was never colonised simply because she did not possess vast amounts of oil, gold and other precious metals that another race rapes and plunders the Earth for in order to gain control. So Japan was left alone. Japan has had her troubles like every country has, but due to the homogeneity of the Japanese, the country did not fall apart when there was a revolution that brought an end to Shogunate rule and ushered in the Meiji Restoration rule by an Emperor after 1868.
However, by 1868 Japan had a highly educated and skilled population who, due to their high reasoning ability, have adapted well to all adversities. This is evidenced by the fact that although they were vanquished at the end of World War II (1945), they were able to 'wheel and come again' and adapted and adopted the technologies of the West and have made themselves into a super world power.
Today many Japanese have accepted Christianity, especially since 1945 when she opened up some more to Western culture; but the traditions of Confucianism, Buddhism and Shintoism still influence the Japanese way of life. Jamaicans for the most part, are still ashamed of their main traditions (read African).
Japan's leaders believe that their people should have the best of everything that they produce. We can't be like Japan because our leaders believe that we must 'walk-bout' and borrow peoples' money like we are 'a careless and worthless people' and have other people's cast-offs. So on election platforms our leaders boast that "more man have car" (Japanese old cars) and "more man have cell phone" (many are made in Japan) and "more man have more gal" (I am not sure where these are made).
Now that we have looked at some aspects of the Japanese people, we understand why we can't be like Japan. I think the time has now come when we all need to take stock of our sorry condition and begin to ask ourselves the question "Why can't we be like Japan?"
Valerie Dixon is a Manchester-based educator who can be reached at valeriecdixon@hotmail.com
