Wherever one goes one sees only Occidentals... somehow I have the feeling that we are looked down upon... A solitary Japanese among a group of Occidentals is hardly an imposing figure. This is due to a large extent to our not being suited to Western style clothes, but even if we try to make something of the color of our skin and our physique, we still have very little to boast about. Nevertheless, I am confident that from the standpoint of spiritual power and intelligence we are not in the least inferior. The majority of Europeans love pleasure too much. Few of them have any faith in a future life. For the most part they live idly from day to day.Despite this being a work of fiction, Wilkinson asserts that it is reflective of the "popular sentiments" towards Europeans held by the Japanese during the 1930s.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Research assignment
Depending on the nature of this research assignment I may end up choosing another quote, as this one is a bit unusual, or perhaps completely inapplicable! The quote comes from a novel titled Love and Death, written in 1939 by the Japanese writer Saneatsu Mushanokōji. I haven't actually read the novel itself, but instead found the quote in Misunderstanding: Europe vs Japan (Chuokoron-sha, Tokyo, 1982, p.135) by Endymion Wilkinson. The following is written from the point of view of the story's protagonist, Muraoka, who writes home from Paris:
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Thanks Ash! I find the topic of relative inferiority or superiority itself to be more interesting than individual conclusions drawn about it. I think this question (that is, Are the Japanese inferior to Westerners?) was of particular concern to people in the Meiji, Taisho, and early Showa periods but I still see it today. The concern about what non-Japanese people think about Japan that we can observe frequently on TV seems to be part of this tradition.
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