Gil Asakawa's Nikkei View | japan & asia
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April 7, 2011

One of the heartwarming positive ripple effects of the tragic disaster in Japan has been the worldwide outpouring of support for the country and the earthquake and tsunami's victims. That's true locally in Colorado, where a handful of benefit events have already been held, and not just by Japanese or Japanese Americans. A couple of weeks ago Colorado's taiko groups got together to perform an evening of Japanese drumming to raise money for earthquake relief. On Saturday April 16, the Asian Pacific Development Center and 16 -- count 'em, 16 -- other local Asian community organizations who've signed on as partners are hosting "The Power of Solidarity," a pan-Asian event of epic proportions. (Click the flier for full size.) The event, which will be held from 5-8 pm at Abraham Lincoln High School, 2285 S. Federal Blvd. (Federal and Evans) in southeast Denver, will feature some of the area's best talent, starting with Mirai Daiko, the popular all-women taiko group, along with award-winning singer-songwriter Wendy Woo, killer guitarist and songwriter Jack Hadley, Chinese dance group Christina Yeh Dance Studio, Indian troupe Mudra Dance Studio, Indonesian ensemble Catur Eka Santi, the Filipino American Community of Colorado, Korean youth drumming group Dudrim, renowned classical guitarist Masakazu Ito and the United States Vietnamese Veterans Alliance. Phew, that's a very diverse lineup gathered together for one good cause.
March 21, 2011

Heartbeat for Japan Taiko Concert Three local taiko drum groups, Denver Taiko, Mirai Daiko and Taiko with Toni, are hosting "Heartbeat for Japan: A Taiko Benefit," a concert to raise funds for relief efforts in Japan, on Sat March 26, 7 pm at Colorado Heights University (formerly Loretto Heights) Auditorium at 3001 S. Federal Blvd. Admission is free but donations will be accepted. This should be a terrific evening of thundering drums for a great cause.
March 15, 2011

Japan tsunami I was shocked, saddened and depressed when I learned that there are people in the United States who think that the Tohoku Kanto Earthquake and subsequent tsunami, which has caused enormous damage and casualties that will surely top 10,000, is some sort of karmic payback for Japan's bombing of Pearl Harbor. Really? Seriously? Yes, unfortunately. Here's just a sampling of some updates and comments from Facebook that rant about Pearl Harbor and the tsunami, and how the U.S shouldn't send any aid to Japan:
Who bombed Pearl Harbor? Karmas a bitch. Do I feel bad for japan? Two words....pearl harbor Dear Japan, it's not nice to be snuck up on by something you can't do anything about, is it? Sincerely, Pearl Harbor. screw japan they got what they dederve. any remember pearl horbor I do .they killed thousands of anericans and would do it again. kill em all let god sort emm out. Now the people in japan know how we felt during pearl harbor when they made are man abd women float in the ocean... Its god way of sayng theres too many chinese here imma take u out lol If they didn't bomb pearl harbor this wouldn't have happened. Gods way of tell japanese people there gay all yall remember pearl harbor when yall give money to japan OMG!!! Im so sick of people "praying for Japan" :we should help" i don't know wha happened in yall brain but they're the same people that bombed Pearl Harbor! get it together mane, I have no sympathy for em, Tragic stuff happen every single day!! Obama To Offer Assistance To Earthquake.. We have starving people in this country, people with housing /medical needs and other life substaining essentials yet USA runs to the rescue, who's going to rescue us the overinflated porices does any 1 remember "PEARL HARBOR"??? AGAIN TAX PAYERS WILL END UP PAYING AT THE END OF THE DAY
I'm all for free speech and these people have a right to say what they think, even if it's ignorant, misinformed and downright hateful. But these thoughts are worrisome because they seem so cavalier, so easy for these people to express.
March 13, 2011

tsunami screen shot Unless you live in California, most Americans can't imagine what it's like to be in a minor earthquake, never mind a major one. As a kid in Japan, I lived through lots of little quakes. They were no big deal. If the quake seemed serious or went on too long, we'd simply go outside and wait. But there was never a major quake when I lived in Japan. In the 1990s, on a trip to Japan with my mother, an earthquake hit just after I checked into a hotel in Sapporo. I was hanging up shirts and jackets in the closet when they started swaying. We were on the 10th floor so I could feel the building swaying at least two or three feet. I had a flash of fear, and opened the door to the room and wedged myself in the doorway as a safety precaution (I think it's something I remembered from my childhood), but I knew if the building collapsed standing in the doorway wouldn't help. I looked out the door, and no one else seemed as concerned as me, except my mom poked her head out of her room. As it turned out, the temblor didn't cause much damage in Sapporo, the largest city in the northern-most Japanese island of Hokkaido. But two days later when we arrived in Nemuro, my mom's hometown at the easternmost tip of Hokkaido, we saw the power of the "jishin," or earthquake. Roads were humped up in the middle and the pavement split like the top of a loaf of bread, and in the town's cemetery, my grandfather's memorial had crumbled into a pile of rubble. But life went on as normal. Luckily there were no casualties from that quake, and there was no tsunami that followed in its wake. The Great Tohoku Kanto Earthquake, which is now what the Japanese call the March 11 disaster, is the strongest earthquake in the country's recorded history. That's saying something for a country where quakes are so common there are established rules for what you're supposed to do when they strike, like people in Kansas are taught from childhood what to do if a tornado touches down.
February 22, 2011

The Monsters of Shamisen rock, even though they're playing a traditional Japanese instrument, a three-stringed lute that's plucked with a plectrum that looks like an windshield scraper. The shamisen usually is heard playing traditional Japanese folksongs, and as accompaniment for kabuki and bunraku theater. It has an instantly-recognizable single-note sound that's similar in tone to the banjo. It's a folk instrument. But the Monsters of Shamisen don't play just old-time folk music. You won't hear only a Japanese version of banjoey, bluegrassy songs. Sure, you'll hear that, but the MoS puts their instruments to use on Western classical music, pop and rock and roll, European folksongs, and yes, bluegrass too. Where else are you gonna hear Led Zeppelin's "Black Dog" payed on two shamisen (above)? Last night, two of the three Monsters, Kevin KMetz and Mike Penny, performed at the King Center on the Auraria Campus in a concert sponsored by the Japan Foundation and the Consulate General of Japan in Colorado. (The third, Masahiro Nitta, is in Japan.)
February 4, 2011

It stands to reason that the country that invented karaoke is one that takes karaoke very, very seriously. It takes singing to backing tracks so seriously that in Japan, Kohaku Uta Gassen, the annual singing showdown that airs live on New Year's Eve, has been like the Super Bowl of the country's broadcasting industry, drawing huge numbers of viewers year after year. And Colorado's Japanese-speaking community has brought the tradition to Denver by hosting its own Kohaku Uta Gassen every January for 36 years. Since 1951, the year Japan and the US signed the San Francisco Peace Treaty and Gen. Douglas MacArthur -- the "Gaijin Shogun" who ruled Japan as the Commander-in-Chief during the US occupation of post-war Japan -- was fired by President Dwight Eisenhower, the annual karaoke singing contest has been one of the highlights of the country's cultural calendar. Kohaku Uta Gassen (literally translated as "Red and White Singing Battle") has pitted women (the Red Team) against men (the White Team) in a competition to see who has the best singers. That first Kohau Uta Gassen was broadcast on NHK radio on January 4, 1951. When television broadcasting began in 1953, the show moved onto the small screen, and to New Year's Eve. Along with sports shows such as wrestling (there was a huge fad of Western-style, not sumo, wrestling in the 1950s) and baseball, Uta Gassen helped boost sales of television sets because no one wanted to miss the shows. Over the decades it became so popular, featuring the country's best performers in evolving styles from traditional "enka" (Japan's version of blues or country music, mostly about heartbreak) to the current Jpop and rock sounds, that it's become an institution. Denver's Uta Gassen has also become an institution, with some performers singing every year. This year's contest, held at the Denver Buddhist Temple's auditorium in Sakura Square, was filled as usual with about 300 audience members, including the singers and their families and friends. It's always an all-Japanese affair -- the one year I served as a judge, I understood about 30% of the jokes and even less of lyrics but was able to vote on the merits of the performances. It's extreme karaoke, spending an afternoon hearing 32 singers belting out songs in Japanese to nothing but backing tracks. At least they don't need to refer to a TV screen with the lyrics scrolling by -- they've been rehearsing their songs for weeks.
January 8, 2011

My mom, brother and me at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, eayly 1960sWow, the WSJ has a book excerpt today, "Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior," written by Amy Chua, a Yale law school professor that boggles my mind and sends a chill down my spine. It's her blunt declaration that the values of Chinese (and I'm telescoping it out to include all Asian) mothers are better for raising kids than "Western" parenting style. She acknowledges the stereotype that Asian moms are hard-asses and then goes on to say that being tough on your kids is a Chinese mom's way of showing they know the kids can a) get an A in the class, b) learn that difficult piece on the piano c) excel at everything the Chinese mom says is important. It's just a different way of showing your children you love them, she says. She states her case so emphatically that this essay really just fortifies those American stereotypes. I can hear parents in conservative households murmuring their agreement: "See Martha, I knew there's a reason why those Chinese are always so damned good at math and science!" Here's how the article starts:
A lot of people wonder how Chinese parents raise such stereotypically successful kids. They wonder what these parents do to produce so many math whizzes and music prodigies, what it's like inside the family, and whether they could do it too. Well, I can tell them, because I've done it. Here are some things my daughters, Sophia and Louisa, were never allowed to do: • have a playdate • attend a sleepover • be in a school play • complain about not being in a school play • watch TV or play computer games • choose their own extracurricular activities • get any grade less than an A • not be the No. 1 student in every subject except gym and drama • play any instrument other than the piano or violin • not play the piano or violin.
This has to be a joke, I thought, except the Wall Street Journal probably doesn't have a sense of humor and doesn't run satire pieces. Take this line, for instance: "If a Chinese child gets a B—which would never happen—there would first be a screaming, hair-tearing explosion." Nope, Chua, who was born in 1962 a year after her parents immigrated to the US, is serious. In fact, this essay is an excerpt from a book being published this week, "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother."
December 31, 2010

Japanese New Year Unlike other Asian cultures, the Japanese don't celebrate Lunar New Year. Instead, they celebrate the Western calendar New Year, January 1, and some of the special traditions for the holiday, called "Oshogatsu," have been handed down to Japanese Americans over the past century. Japanese New Year's traditions are different from Western (or at least, American) ones: First of all, New Year's Eve isn't the big holiday, and the focus isn't on partying and waiting until midnight on Dec. 31 to watch the Times Square ball slide down, or to see fireworks or make hearty toasts. A lot of us do, because we go to parties to celebrate with friends -- after all, we are Japanese American. In Japan, New Year's Eve and the days leading up to it are all about cleaning house, cleaning yourself and your soul, putting your business in order to prepare for the new year. It doesn't sound like much fun. And traditionally, people spend New Year's Eve quietly at home with family or friends. There are events, such as the release of thousands of balloons at Tokyo's Zojoji temple to pray for world peace -- pretty different from Times Square, huh? My mom's hometown of Nemuro is at the easternmost tip of the northern island of Hokkaido, and thousands of people gather on Cape Nosappu outside of town past midnight on January 1, to see the first sunrise of the new year in Japan. Buddhist temples ring their bell at midnight to mark the start of the new year, a very spiritual sound. There are other festive events throughout Japan too, with live music and fireworks just like in the US -- it's not all traditional. By the time the clock ticks over into the new year, Japanese have spruced up their house with traditional decorations made of pine, bamboo and plum trees to bring good luck. On New Year's Eve, families settle in with special toshikoshi soba noodles to bring long life, and watch Kohaku Utagassen, a men versus women singing contest that's like karaoke on serious steroids featuring the country's biggest enka (a traditional style of pop music) and J-pop stars. This show has been aired on New Year's Eve since the end of World War II, and for decades it was Japan's equivalent of the Super Bowl in popularity. Denver's Japanese community has held a Kohaku Utagassen competition for many years too. The main event in Japan isn't New Year's Eve and the midnight celebrations. It's New Year's Day, or Oshogatsu, and not because of college sports contests. The first days of January represent the start of a clean slate for everyone, and a time to celebrate family and friends by visiting people and wish everyone well. January 1 is also the day for a family feast that can put American Thanksgiving to shame.