Osaka, Part II

Up bright and early (hey, it feels like early afternoon US time at 5:00 a.m. in Japan), we had the hotel's complimentary breakfast: tea, coffee and pastries. We began walking around the electronics district, but quickly figured out that we were facing the same problem: not much open at 8:30 or 9:00 a.m. A huge store said it would be open at 10:00 a.m. In fact, the only people awake seemed to be the business men and women on their way to work. And sumo wrestlers! That's right, we went past a gymnasium that seemed to be some sort of arena for a sumo tournament. There were drums being played and wrestlers converging on the place wearing kimonos and sandles. We decided to get on the subway and head for the civil rights museum we had read about in our tour book. A subway and train ride later, we found ourselves in a very quiet neighborhood featuring taiko drum stores and an inordinate number of older people. I'm not sure if they were the only ones out and about in the neighborhood on a Tuesday at 10:30 a.m., or if there was a lot of retirement housing in the area. The Civil Rights Museum is housed in a very lovely and modern building. When we entered, the staff seemed so please to see us. We had at least five people hanging around us. A woman who spoke English very well got us set up with the English audio tour. As we were about to enter the exhibits, an older gentleman directed us towards a movie about the museum. Then he told us in broken English that the special temporary exhibit did not have English information and so he would show us around. He ended up following us around the entire time in the museum - nearly two hours! He was so nice and tried to tell us about the exhibits. We even ran into him in the cafe afterwards. He was having lunch and recuperating. I think we wore him out.

The main exhibit at the Museum consisted of a series of rooms, each with its own theme. The first talked about Japanese culture and why its values may have led to certain forms of discrimination. To me, it was a little like saving face up front, saying basically that it is good that Japanese value family, education, wealth, nation, health, cleanliness, civilized behavior, gender roles, etc. (these were literally the ones they talked about). It is just that these values sometimes make us too exclusive and too narrow minded, it seemed to be saying, with a strong apologetic. The subsequent rooms were each dedicated to an oppressed group: Koreans, Okinawans, women, sexual minorities, Ainus, Burakus, people with Hansen's Disease, people with HIV/AIDs, people affected by pollution/waste. It was quite an array! We learned a lot. I was particularly interested in the Ainu who are an "aboriginal" group who live mainly in Hokkaido (northern island). They were a lot like native Americans -- they probably came from Mongolia, they said, and pre-dated the Japanese nation. For each of the oppressed groups, the talked about the efforts fro recognition, rigths, and government assistance. Many had won some gains in recent years. Amazingly, most of the movements were within the last thirty years. Some were just a few years ago. The final thing we did is listen to testimonials by discriminated parties (audio and video). I watched one about a woman who married a Baraku man and faced problems because of it. The Baraku are a particular group in Japan who are disciminated against because of their connections to dead things (they are leather workers, etc.). Steve watched one about the Ainu and another about a truant. Yes, a truant!! This kid had been non-conformist in school and this caused a major problem. They eventually moved him to an alternative high school. Ha!

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