In early 2020, shortly after I started writing my blog for the first time in a long time, suddenly, various problems occurred around me. I has been working on whereabouts issues, including renewing my green card, and spending time reviewing my life.
Covid-19 was also one of the negative chains. However the time when all my schedules were canceled by the lockdown of covid-19, allowed me to spend time solving other problems. Moreover, I was tired from last year's trip, so I was able to take a rest and healed with the nature revived by the lockdown.
During this period, while preparing my own environment and looking back on my past, I have been searching for the connection with myself. I have been returning to Japan every year to meet my elderly parents since 2012. However, covid-19 makes it difficult for me to return to Japan. From the time of the end of November 2018 when I last returned to Japan, I will update the blog.
Return to Japan
(November 27 2018 - January 7 2019)
Osaka
After arriving at Narita from New York, I took a rest in a public bath called Mannenyu in Shinjuku Korean town and headed to Osaka by night bus.
I visited my friend, Ushi, living in Osaka where it is currently a hot topic in the face of voting for the Osaka Metropolis Plan. He prepared bicycles and we cycled around the city of Osaka. It was the most effective way to get to know Osaka in a short period of time.
He introduced me his favorite bar, "Hana," which had a nostalgic atmosphere. It also became my favorite bar. We always stopped by Hana on our way home, and had fun and talked with the locals.
Nishinari
Kamagasaki is an area where day laborers who supported Japanese economic miracle period are living and its aging is progressing. I met a paper painter, Yutaka Kirino who woke up to expression at Kamagasaki University of the Arts. He used to be a day laborer.
The local Tamade supermarket selling cheap food, sex shops, homeless people living in tent of the park, small bars and old houses, still retained the scenery of Japan a long time ago.
In the changing town, Kamagasaki University of the Arts for citizens has been providing unique programs to everyone . Their activities have been inspiring the community through art.
During my stay, I participated in their event to learn about the recent situation of the city in Nishinari district. Due to the low price, the number of foreign tourists increased, and not only Japanese companies but also Chinese hotels and karaoke bars were newly opened.
The participants listened to a friendly Chinese owner’s talk. He bought many places in cash and showed us the new hotel “TM-House”. At that time, I remembered the story I heard that some Chinese were buying land in Hokkaido.
I think the current situation in the United States, where the problems of the Chinese Communist Party's global expansion of power and the suppression of human rights have surfaced, started also a long time ago in many countries including Japan.
I saw the old houses demolished and felt this town has been changing. I strongly felt that the whereabouts of people were threatened.
We visited the “Children’s native place" and "Sanno Children's Center" of the Welfare Children's Center. Locals have been providing places where children can rest assured. They have been supporting people who have nowhere to go or who have no purpose to live.
Moritomo Gakuen
Moritomo Gakuen, which was a major event that shook the Diet in Toyonaka City, Osaka, was surrounded by a fence with a sign of state-owned land.
At that time, the Moritomo scandal had developed into a resignation issue due to the involvement of Prime Minister Abe and his wife. It started with brainwashing education using the Imperial Rescript on Education, falsification of official documents of the Ministry of Finance in illegal land transactions, suicide of an employee who was forced to tamper, etc. that remains unresolved to the present.
The Kagoike couple who founded the school were imprisoned, but were released and are on trial. Although the prime Minister Abe has already resigned due to illness, this case was an important event concerning the future of Japan, where the lies and corruption of the government and bureaucrats should be revealed.
We are in a weird society that honest, conscientious and kind people are hard to live in. I am thinking about the meaning of our lives with the darkness of modern society that 99% of suicides are homicides.
Jeju 4/3 Victims Memorial Monument
Many Korean live in Osaka, and there are Korean towns in Ikuno and Tsurumi. During the Japanese colonial era, many Korean Jeju islanders moved to Japan, mainly in Osaka.
The Jeju uprising occurred on Jeju Island in South Korea from April 1948 to May 1949. The massacre of the islanders in the process was a long-hidden history of tragedy. I learned about this unknown history of South Korea in a film "The Ghosts of Jeju" by American director Regis Tremblay. I met the director at the premiere screening in NY and then screened his film at the galleries in the Netherlands and Japan. I participated in the Jeju Peace Festival jointly held by Japan and South Korea in 2014 and visited the site.
The monument to the victims of the Jeju massacre was erected on November 18, 2018 at Toukoku Temple in Osaka. I went to pray there and was surprised to see the pebbles with the village names lined up.
I remembered when I hiked in a small mountain on Jeju Island, I picked up and brought back a pebble because I thought that the islanders might have been slaughtered here. Looking at the pebbles, I was thinking about what I could do to find out the hidden facts and regain the truth.
I went to see the New York premiere of the movie "Sennan Asbestos Disaster" directed by Kazuo Hara. It is a documentary film that shooted the process of lawsuits against the state by employees and neighbors who suffered from asbestos health problems. I thought one of the important themes of this movie was the time. The film, in which many plaintiffs died during a protracted trial, became a record of their own lives. The time itself, such as 8 years of film production and 215 minutes of screening time, shows the complexity of solving problems of public pollution.
Coincidentally, on Thursday morning, July 19, 2018, three days before the screening, a steam pipe exploded under a street in the Flatiron district of Manhattan, produced smoke containing asbestos. Through this incident, we were made aware that the asbestos problem is not over yet and it is our own problem.
I met Mr. Kazuyoshi Yuzuoka, one of the plaintiffs of the asbestos trial, at the screening in New York city, and four months later, I visited him in Sennan City to hear his story. He told me that all the plaintiffs distributed the compensation that won the case without objection, and partially donated to help and eradicate all asbestos victims around the world from Sennan.
At the 5th anniversary ceremony of the "Sennan Asbestos Monument" on Saturday, April 20, 2019, "Atelier Sennan Asbestos Museum" was established to convey the damage to asbestos to posterity. It is exhibited on the relics of Dr. Masaru Kajimoto, who has been complaining about the danger of asbestos locally from early on, and the records of the Osaka Sennan Asbestos State Redress Proceedings. I recall the time when Dr. Kajimoto's eldest son, Mr. Itsuo, and Mr. and Mrs. Yuzuoka spoke in front of the monument next to the memorial museum under construction. I hope to visit them and see the museum.
Osaka Citizen activities
I met my friend Ushi in Okinawa. I participated in a regular rally in front of Osaka Station protesting the construction of a US military base in Okinawa. It was very impressive that men and women wearing cute aprons handed out the leaflets while raising colorful handmade patchwork burners. They were doing what they could and were bright and lively.
I was particularly encouraged by the strong presence of Masayo Furui with her big smile despite the inconvenience of wheelchairs. Somehow I remembered the movie "Goodbye PC" by Kazuo Hara and told her about it. She answered that she was appearing in this film. People who realize the meaning of their lives, and challenge their potencial are powerful and beautiful.
While listening to the word "new normal" after Covid 19, I have been thinking that I want to protect what is likely to be lost. I felt it might be a smile. It was a meaningful trip to Osaka that gave me a lot of homeworks for the future. It's time to find the answer.
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