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slice of American life. I had brought my video camera and eight hours of tape. I was going to make a documentary to try to explain to the Japanese public what was going on there in Texas. (Japanese news will rarely show anything critical of a foreign government - especially the government of the United States). I wanted to capture the sights and sounds; the atmosphere of a real American-style anti-war demonstration. I had really hoped that I could make a documentary that would show the Japanese just what the average American is thinking.
When I came back to Japan, I transferred the video tapes to the editing machine and I watched in increasing despair. I'm sure I can get the average Japanese to understand what Americans are all about and what they are thinking. I'm sure that if I ever do finish this documentary (and I'm wondering now if I want to), the Japanese will understand more than they want to understand about America. They will watch it and think: "Americans have gone completely nuts." I would have to agree.
Cindy Sheehan and her movement are quite understandable. Cindy seems like a level-headed woman with plenty of common sense. It's the others who have jumped on the bandwagon who seem crazy. Not all of them, of course, but it did seem a bit like a circus full of freaks. And those freaks were fully represented on both sides of the fence.
Even worse than (some of) the anti-war group were the pro-war people - they seemed like they were really crazy. (I only saw six at most - even though the next day's newspaper reported 250.) I talked to one woman who claimed to have "just arrived from Baghdad." She was lying. I could pick that out in a second of talking to her. Her English level was that of someone who had been in the United States for ten years. Yet there she was, claiming to have "just arrived." (Well, okay, I suppose everything is relative, especially in a country where it is now acceptable to out-and-out lie to get what you want.)
There was another guy playing a guitar - or trying to - and singing, "How many ghosts did you make today? Aiding and abetting the enemy, how many ghosts did you make today?" (Bet you a donut he hasn't a clue as to the meaning of the word `abetting'). I suppose a few off-key choruses of this song wouldn't have been so bad, but this guy went on to play straight for at least six hours in the blazing sun without a break. Perhaps that would explain his behavior - he's suffering from cooking his brain in the hot sun for too long.
The entire scene, from the anti-war group to the pro-war group to George W. Bush taking a helicopter to avoid those groups to visit a little league game, seemed like a Lewis Carroll story. And I was standing there watching Alice, the Mad Hatter, the Red Queen (played by George) and the rest of them scurrying about their business but actually going nowhere.
On top of all that, throw in the local TV news reporters with their perfect teeth, slicked-back blonde hair and make-up caked on thick to cover their wrinkles, who think they are all hot stuff because they report for some local in-the-sticks TV station, and you have a real life horror-show on the Comedy Channel.
But the real-life horrors in today's America don't end there. Today's American is poor, both monetarily and in common sense. In many ways, these two are related. The Japanese save money. Americans don't. Of course it is common sense to save money. The Japanese save for all the right reasons, but they also save money for special reasons. It's those special, just-in-case reasons for which the Japanese would always have a nest egg saved.
When I went to the United States this time, I visited a good friend. I'd consider him one of my best friends. I am glad I could visit his place because then I could truly see for myself just how far America has gone downhill. Even though he had little, he was gracious enough to let me stay with him. I was thankful for this as, without his help, I had no way to get around and knew no one else who could help me to do so. But within two minutes of entering his abode, I could see just how poor Middle America has become.
My friend had no money - none. He asked me for twenty dollars for gas. I gave him a hundred. He was happy. I was greatly disappointed, for many reasons. First off, I'm sorry America, but $100 is not that much money to most of the Western world (or China, or Japan). I was disappointed that he would ask me for money. Don't get me wrong, I don't blame him. He has lived all his life in America; he was brought up there. He has been taught that this is now acceptable behavior. But I remember a time when it wasn't. It is unheard of in Japan (and, I suspect, in all Asian societies).
In Japan, a guest is a guest. A guest in your home - especially one from far away - is to be treated with reverence. It would be completely unthinkable to ask a guest for money (although it is also common sense, in Japan, for the guest to offer to pay - an offer which will certainly be refused).
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