The morning after my appearance on the NHK special called "Black in Buraku" aired, I went to work and some of my co-workers who'd seen the program came up to me excitedly to say they had.
"I watched it!" they'd say. "What did you think?" I'd ask. And, almost to a person, almost as if it was somehow scripted, they'd respond: "It was very difficult" with a pained expression on their faces. The first time I asked what was so difficult about it, the teacher couldn't really express why except to say: "It's a complicated subject."
After 2 or 3 people responded similarly I stopped asking why.
A couple of days later I was talking with a Japanese private student and the following convo took place:
Private Student: I watched "Black in Buraku"!
Me: Oh yeah? What did you think?
PS: It was difficult.
Me: ...
PS: What?
Me: You're like the 10th person that's told me it was difficult.
PS: It was. Very complicated.
Me: OK.
PS: But I get it. And I think it's...
Me: What?
PS: I remember back when I first became your student, about 3 years ago, right? And you told me about the empty seat. Maybe you don't remember.
Me: (grinning) well, I've talked about that quite a bit over the years, with a whole lot of people, so I'm not surprised it came up. But, nah, I don't recall exactly, sorry.
PS: It's alright. Anyway, I told you I'd never seen that. And you were not surprised. But, after that lesson, I couldn't NOT see the empty seat. You know?
Me: Really? (Trying to hide a smile)
PS: Yeah! And you know what? Every time I see an empty seat by a foreigner I sit in it. Even if I have a choice between sitting in an empty seat by a Japanese person and sitting by a foreigner, I choose the foreigner.
Me: Really? Wow!
PS: But I feel strange every time. Before I used to feel nothing. It's like, you made me feel and think about stuff like that. I never had to before because I didn't know...and I didn't care.
Me: Ignorance is bliss.
PS: Huh?
Me: (I put my two hands on the table between us) So let's say this hand is bliss. Bliss is like heaven. Bliss is filled with, er, not knowing things, or only knowing about things on a very ashallow level. Now this other hand? This is hell. Hell is deep and it's filled with knowledge.
PS: (she laughs) So, you put me in hell!!
Me: (laughing too) Sorry. But, yeah, knowledge is hell!
PS: That's the same way I feel about "Black in Buraku." I didn't know much about the Burakumin. And I didn't care really. If I met a burakumin person I wouldn't have any discrimination feeling for them because I wouldn't know anything about that. But now...this? This is hell.
Me: The hell of knowledge.
PS: Yeah.
We both laugh...
Me: I can't say which is better or worse, this hand or this one. Both have their benefits and drawbacks. But here's the thing. Let's say you make a Burakumin friend while you're in heaven, right? And you don't know anything about that history. She's just a regular person. Then you go home one night and you tell your husband or parent about your new burakumin friend and one or both of them say: "Oh no! You can't do that. Those people are kegare (tainted / unclean)!" Now you've been sent to hell by false knowledge and shallow information instead of the facts. Now, knowing you, you might question them, or do your own research. But some people won't. Some people will never question their parents or partners or friends or even teachers....you know?
PS: That's true. Guess I should thank you for sending me to hell.
Me: (smiling) Nah. I just believe everybody should go to hell...at least for a visit.
(This was an exerpt from my new book: Words by Baye, Art by Miki available now in my new Bookstore here):
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