Dealing with Pain and Suffering

A theme that runs through many of the texts that we have explored this semester is how various people in different situations deal with the pain and suffering in their lives. I will compare and contrast various texts to examine how pain and suffering has been dealt with by the various characters and some of the authors of the stories.

When one thinks of dealing with pain of suffering in reference to this course I believe that one would have to start off with the first film we watched “White Light Black Rain” directed by Steven Okazaki. This film is a very poignant examination of the physical and mental pain that survivors of the two atomic bomb drops have to deal with. The immediate thing to talk about is the noticeable physical pain that the survivors deal with everyday of their lives. The burns and scaring on many of the victims were so severe that during the immediate aftermath of the bomb they were unrecognizable to their own families. Many had to receive repeated plastic surgeries over many years to become somewhat passable as normal in everyday society. However, much of the physical damage can only be repaired so much and has marked everyone who survived those events with a stigma. The stigma is that the survivors of the bomb are a living reminder of a period of history that many Japanese would like to forget. So the survivors have suffered tremendously in regard to their social status. Many who may have the ability to hide the http://nucleardilemma.org/datas/photographers/1203109438.jpgfact that they are survivors of the atomic bomb do so because of the social stigma that is attached to them. This suffering is also carried down the generations, it is not uncommon for the children or grandchildren of survivors not to mention the fact that there parents or grandparents were survivors. Most survivors deal with the discrimination and stigma in a quiet way. According to the film, years after the bomb was dropped there was little to no aid given to the survivors and the government did its best to ignore their plight. Only within the last decade has some compensation been given to the survivors of the bomb. Survivors in general go on about their lives as normal as possible and keep the horrible memories of those days and years after the bomb to themselves. However, as we learned in class there are some among the survivors who use their experience of pain and suffering to talk to others and hopefully through their experience convince others that something like this should never happen again.

A few other pieces that have to do with the pain and suffering caused by the atomic bomb are “Summer Flowers” written by Hara Tamiki and “Barefoot Gen” drawn by Nakazawa Keiji. Both stories are about the first hand experiences each had in reference to the bomb. In “Summer Flowers” I sensed throughout the story a feeling of disillusionment and numbness regarding the events that were going on. The enormity and the shock of the event were so impactful for Hara Tamiki that he could not fully comprehend what happened emotionally in his mind. For Hara Tamiki the pain and suffering of the bomb was too much for him to handle. So in order to escape the pain and suffering he did what he thought was the only option and that was to ultimately commit suicide. This was the only way for Hara Tamiki to deal with his pain. Unlike some of the survivors mentioned above who were able to take their suffering and put it to work for the good of mankind by using their lives as examples of the absolute hell of war and the indiscriminate nature of atomic weapons, Hara Tamiki became overwhelmed with his suffering and it took him over and ultimately destroyed him.

In contrast to how Hara Tamiki dealt with his pain and suffering the characters in “Barefoot Gen” actively fight against the suffering that is inflicted upon them because of the father’s stance on the war. Gen’s father deals with the pain of seeing his sons sometimes slip into the mindset of the propaganda propagated by wartime Japan with violence. For him the most effective way to teach his children that something is wrong is through hitting
them, through the pain he hopes that his children will come to associate that concept or action with the pain that was inflicted on them. Today, this type of teaching method might be frowned upon, but during the time period, this was perfectly acceptable as a way of raising children. Gen also deals with the bullies he suffers from with violence; he will quickly get into a fight with anyone who mistreats him, his sister or his little brother. This is best shown during the incident when the mayor of the town is found out to be responsible for Gen’s father going to jail and being tortured. Gen and his little brother confront the mayor in the middle of the street and fight him; they are so brutal in their attack that they nearly bite some of the mayor’s fingers off.

Gen’s family is a family of fighters, when pain and suffering come their way they do their best to fight against it.

In contrast to the fight of Gen’s family against the pain and suffering they endured, Dr. Tenma of Astro Boy tries to get rid of his suffering through trying to escape it and pretending it did not happen. Tenma’s suffering comes the pain of the loss of his son in a car accident. At first he has the normal reaction anyone would have in such a situation, however, since he is a robotics genius he figured that he could make the pain go away be creating a carbon copy of his son. By doing this he is trying to erase the memory of the death of his son by creating a robotic copy that would replace the old memories of his son. This is an extreme form of escapism from reality. When he does complete the copy of his son, for a time, there is bliss and he can act out as if his son never died. However, after a number of years the facts that the copy is a robot and therefore will never grow up to be a man destroys the illusion of tranquility for Dr. Tenma. He snaps and sells the robot he created to the highest bidder in order to get rid of it and not be a constant reminder of the son he lost. When it comes to pain and suffering the story of the origin of Astro Boy is one about escape and avoidance of pain.

Completely turning the concept of pain and suffering on its head is the story by Yamada Amy called “Kneel Down and Lick My Feet”. In this story pain and suffering are seen as pleasurable things and a way to express one’s true self in a controlled setting. The people who come in to the dominatrix shop that is the central location in the story are mostly men from the elite class of society. A reason that I feel that the main clientele at shops such as these is that these men during working hours have control over nearly everyone around them and so someone being able to control their actions is somehow exciting for them. These men willingly pay for pain and suffering to be inflicted upon them. By doing this some of these men may be trying to vicariously feel through physical pain the type of mental pain they inflict on their subordinates at work. This lets these powerful men, even though temporarily, feel like what it means to be weak and subordinate to another person’s will.

A story that is filled with pain and suffering on top of more pain and suffering is the film by Oshima Nagisa called “Cruel Story of Youth”. The two main characters in the story are madly in love/lust with each other but they seem to do nothing but cause one another pain and suffering. Toxic relationship does not even begin to describe the dynamics of their coupling. As we discussed in class, the reaction of Kiyoshi and Makoto to their situations is very animalistic in nature. When something hurts them they react immediately and then forget about and continue as if it never happened. I would have to describe their mechanism for coping with pain and suffering as apathetic. Both of them just seem not to care one way or the other about the pain they cause each other. As long as there is some semblance of pleasure no matter how small that they get out of the relationship, then they always end up getting back together. However, in the story there is a voice of reason when it comes to pain and suffering and that is Makoto’s older sister Yuki. Yuki sees herself in the carefree, screw the world Makoto. Guessing by how she speaks to Makoto and the conversations she has with her past lover Dr. .Akimoto one can tell that she experience much of the same pain and suffering that Makoto is currently going through. Through her experiences as a youth she tries to lead Makoto in the right direction but Makoto refuses to listen to any type of authority figure other than Kiyoshi which ultimately leads her down the path of self-destruction. Because of the apathy both Kiyoshi and Makoto feel for pain and suffering they both never learn the lessons that Yuki learned in order to mature into descent human beings. This leads them both to the inevitable end that is death, which is the logical ending of ignoring the pain and suffering around you and caused.

In conclusion one can see that there is a definite theme of pain and suffering in many of the texts that have been used for this course. Also, by looking at the texts one can see the many different coping mechanisms that are used to deal with pain and suffering. In the texts that have been described above one can see mechanisms such as fighting, escape, avoidance, apathy and turning pain into pleasure. These various texts I believe are a good way to get insight into human nature at its most fragile moments.

Which is The True Self. Public or Private?

Much of the material that we have gone through in this class has to deal with the complex and sometimes contradictory nature of the human mind. Since Japanese society is the focus, this complex nature is played out most prevalently in the concept of honne and tatemae and how different characters deal with it in their lives. I am going to explore through some of the texts and materials that have been used in class on how honne and tatemae can create conflict on how a person perceives themselves.
For those who are not as familiar with Japanese terminology and culture I will define what honne and tatemae are and its role in Japanese society. Honne refers to a person’s true feelings and desires. These may be contrary to what is expected by society or what is required according to one’s position and circumstances, and they are kept hidden, except with one’s closest friends. Tatemae which literally means “façade” is the behavior and opinions one would show in public. Tatemae is what is expected by society and required according to one’s positions and circumstances, and these may or may not match one’s honne.( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatemae)
Many other cultures have the concept of a public and private self, however, the degree and rigidity of the system used in Japan is quite unique to Japan. Here is some history on how this public and private system was created. Honne and tatemae are arguably a cultural necessity resulting from a large number of people living in a comparatively small island nation. Even with modern farming techniques, Japan today domestically produces only 39% of the food needed to feed its people so, before the modern era, close-knit co-operation and the avoidance of conflict were of vital importance in everyday life. For this reason, the Japanese tend to go to great lengths to avoid conflict, especially within the context of large groups. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatemae)

A good example showing the duality of the public and private self in Japanese society is the short story by Yamada Amy called “Kneel Down and Lick My Feet” This story is about two sisters who work as dominatrix’s. Shinobu has been in the business longer and is therefore showing her younger sister the ropes on what to do. There is a lot of sadomasochism and sexual imagery in the story; however, at its core it is a story about how these women handle this type of life and plays with the question of what is normal and who the true self is. Firstly, I will talk about how

the women deal with having a job like this. Being a dominatrix has to deal with extremes of mental behavior that are most likely different from the person’s normal personality. So for Shinobu and Chika, the way they get into the mood to dominate these men is to treat it as if it was a play and during the prescribed time they are playing characters. So when the time is up they immediately go back to the normal Japanese woman role they would play in society. So for them they are able to turn this dominatrix side of them self on and off at will and don’t let it interfere with life outside of the club. Some of these women have children and husbands at home and so this dominatrix side of their personality is something that even the closest people to them will know about. This brings up the question, which aspect of their personality is most truly them. Shinobu brings up this eternal acting when she says, “All people are actors to some extent, except when they’re completely alone. That’s why, in my heart, I don’t believe anything about anybody. But that doesn’t mean that I hate them. It’s just obvious. No matter how much you trust somebody, that’s person’s acting, at least a little.”( Kneel Down and Lick My Feet pg.197
The story brought this aspect into view when after Shinobu had her time with one of her clients and his suit was back on she would bow to him and show him the normal respect of everyday life. Another example is when Shinobu told Chika to sit down with first time clients after a session to show them that in reality you are not truly that mean person you were a few minutes ago(Kneel Down and Lick My Feet pg.194). A quote that Shinobu says that really gets to the heart of what the story is trying to convey is “When you get right down to it, there are an awful lot of sadists and masochists in the world. People call this a perversion, but you have to wonder, if there are this many so-called perverts in the world, what is normal?”( Kneel Down and Lick My Feet pg.191). Many of the men who come into the club to be dominated are successful business and CEO’s of companies and for anyone who looked at them would seem like the elite of society and if these people are not normal, then what is? So it makes the question of standards of normality moot to have so many seemingly normal people doing this kind of activity.

Now to move on to another example of perceptions of self through the lens of “Rashomon” which was directed by Akira Kurosawa and “In a Grove” written by Akutagawa Ryunosuke which most of the story of “Rashomon” is based. “Rashomon” is all about finding out the truth of a murder by looking at how each character perceives their role in it, because as the audience we know that each character is lying to some extent but to what extent is found out only by looking at how the character perceives their role in the crime. So basically we are trying to figure out the little shards of honne among all of the tatemae that each character shows. This is what makes “Rashomon” better than “In a Grove” because in the written story there is not much mystery as to what happened because all of the characters show their true nature immediately and so the story becomes a simple recap of events instead of what it became in the movie which was a piecing together of stories of what the characters wanted other people to think their role was.
One would be remiss to not mention Neo Genesis Evangelion when talking about the private and public selves and perceptions of oneself. The entire series of evangelion is about the journey of Shinji Ikari from a boy to a man and his struggles to define himself. Near the end of the series Shinji finally has a breakthrough and is able to define himself for the first time. Shinji is presented with a host of visions, one of which is different people in his life defining who Shinji is to them. This has been the problem with Shinji throughout the entirety of the series; he was only up to this point able to define himself based on what other people perceived that he was. So basically he had only a public self and therefore felt empty and confused inside because he had no internal definition of himself. The scene ends with a voice asking Shinji, “Now who is Shinji Ikari, to Shinji.” Through this transformative moment Shinji becomes more of a balanced person because now he is just not defined by outside perceptions of himself. The public and private selves of Shinji Ikari meet and combine to create a complete person.
In conclusion, what does it mean to have a public and private self and is either one truer than the other? For me the question becomes moot because both parts make up what a person is. For example, if you are being fake with someone, then that being fake is part of what you truly are because you are doing it, if it wasn’t part of you than you wouldn’t do it. In all of the texts mentioned above, the characters in each all have to deal in their own way with their public and private selves. Each story negotiates the perceptions the characters give to the world and the internal perceptions they have of themselves and I believe that each story is asking the audience to move toward a balance of both because each part is a piece of what a person is truly.