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December 18, 2004
At Shuri Castle v2.0
Wednesday:
Shuri Castle was the seat of the Ryukyu government until either 1609, 1873 or 1879, depending on your point of view. We destroyed it along with most of everything else in the Battle of Okinawa.
This didn't really sink in until, going into the castle, I overheard a tourist guide pointing at a dragon-shaped spring and explaining, that stupid smile still plastered on her face, that this tiny statue was the only piece of the original castle to survive the destruction.
Later, the museum impressed that fact into me even more deeply. The Ryukyuan "Ogoe" were elaborate portraits of the kings, a chronicle of the royal line that went on for centuries. They were all destroyed, and what now hangs in the museum are black-and-white copies taken from plates made before the war. In ninety days (and in the following dislocation of the population) we wiped six hundred years or more of history off the face of the earth, forever.
The rest of the castle was rebuilt as the economy recovered.
The sinks in the bathroom were a hoot.
I had some very nice conversations with the guides, who were dressed in what I assume was traditional costume. They seemed startled but not unhappy to find someone actually interested in the castle itself amongst all the tittering high schoolers. There are so many here. It seems like every school in Japan takes its class trip to Okinawa. I don't know yet how to feel about that, though Matthew Allen helped a bit.
Posted by Ben at December 18, 2004 08:58 AM
Comments
Hi
"We destroyed it..." while literally true, has political overtones which I am certain you intend. I would prefer "It was destroyed...". We didn't start the war, and unless we took a wrong turn and decided on a whim to trash Okinawa over the weekend, I think the Japanese were involved in the fighting.
Unless by "we", you mean "stupid, violent humanity", in which case, I'm with you.
I love you, and keep posting what you think, and what you see. I know this is a diary, and not a thesis.
Posted by: Dad at December 18, 2004 01:55 PM
I was hoping you would catch that. I thought using the first-person more accurately described my own visceral feelings on walking through the castle.
Of course the Japanese must bear more than a little responsibility, but I think to distance myself from what my country did is unfair. It's true that I didn't personally have anything to do with it, but I also didn't personally make friends with the Japanese so that they'd let me into their country without a visa. If I'm going to take advantage of the priviliges my national identity affords me, it would be hypocritical to separate myself from the uncomfortable parts of that identity. And yes, that reflects my emotional reaction, not my reasoned analysis of the situation.
Eh, it's your fault for raising me Catholic anyway.
More on the "reasoned analysis" side, I certainly think we could've done a lot more in World War II to be mindful of civilian casualties. The firebombing of Tokyo in particular comes to mind, which was by far the most horrific military attack in history at the time (until we surpassed it in Hiroshima). Who knows, maybe if we'd avoided targeting civilians in that manner it might've made the Japanese propoganda that said Americans were cruel barbarians less convincing, and maybe fewer people would've followed the orders to kill themselves rather than be captured, tortured, raped and killed by the American soldiers.
Posted by: Ben at December 19, 2004 06:04 AM
By the way, your comment about "taking a wrong turn and trashing Okinawa on the weekend" reminds me of the Fourth Crusade.
Posted by: Ben at December 19, 2004 06:11 AM
Thank you.
I however wholeheartedly endores you revulsion at the destruction caused by the war.
And don't forget Dresden.
I never owned a slave, but that doesn't mean I don't have to own my national cultural heritage, and be on guard to see that those conditions are never tolerated again.
You and your subversive friends, with your empathy and compassion for common humanity, may make it impossible to hate, and no really good war ever got off the ground without hate.
Radical.
Posted by: Fred at December 19, 2004 05:32 PM