In terms of internal cultural identities regardless of how we look, I agree with what Josh is saying about the difference in the cultural psyches between the 3世 Japanese vs 2世 Japanese. If you were a 3世 Japanese, you would probably be very internally Japanese. ジョシュshould be VERY Japanese, probably more so than カイラ as a 2世 Japanese. It’s an odd way to describe, but Josh’s household had probably been “more Japanese” than カイラ’s where カイラ had been brought up speaking English quite often. I’m not talking linguistically, but the cultural identity aspect of it. 私の母も東北出身(秋田)ですが, I find myself still in some confusion with my cultural identify after having been in the States longer than I had been in Japan. One thing I noticed is where you had lived culturally in the first 20 years of your life tends to leave us stronger psychological marks than the second 20 years would as an adult, for example. I’m saying the childhood cultural influence remains very strong compared to the same duration spent in the adulthood. I want to thank both ジョシュ and カイラ for making me feel I’m not struggling alone for the cultural identify. このビデオ見て、 少し なんとなく スカッとしました。おふたり ありがと。Good luck ya’ll in London. 日本の酒が飲みたくなった。
I really appreciate her honesty, courage and straightforwardness. Good on her! Yes, it’s imperative to speak out the truth with a healthy critical mind so as to make things better. No criticism, no improvement. It’s a no brainer. Meanwhile, so many try to be nice rather than good in this PC world, by sweeping dirt under the rug. True that JPN has a lot of positive sides, but it has its fair share of dark sides as well. Its grim and slavish work culture for one thing, and its venomous bullying culture for another. When it comes to racism, what generally exists in JPN is very implicit and most Japanese wouldn’t dare to show it to your face, or so I reckon. Meanwhile here in NZ, racism can be very explicit just as in the other formerly colonized countries. I moved from JPN to NZ 28 yrs ago, and have been lucky enough not to experience any explicit racism, but have heard directly from Japanese and other Asians who have been at the receiving end of blatant racism. I think I can safely assume racism in America, with its institutional racism, is much worse. As Angela Davis said, "In a racist society, it's not enough not to be racist. You have to be anti-racist." Yes, silence is submission.