During my trip to Japan, I wanted the opportunity to meet some ordinary Japanese, and if they spoke English, try to get to know them and their experiences living in this East Asian giant.
Thankfully to the Lord, He provided some encounters with some Japanese. My friends and I met an old Japanese man on our trip to Nara, and we had the opportunity to ask him questions about his country while he asked about ours.
But the one person I will not forget after visiting Osaka/Kyoto is a girl simply known as "Bae," because her identity situation is a fascinating one to think about. During my stay in Osaka, Ok'e (my American friend I met in Kyoto) needed a place to sleep for one night during his first day in Osaka (and our last in Japan, since we traveled together on the last leg of our trip). We helped him find hotels around the city, but with August being one of the busiest seasons to visit Japan, he was running out of options. I finally helped him settle on a hotel called the "Toko Hotel," which is located in northern Osaka, and in an area that is more well-off than other parts of the city. So the price for a single room was quite high during this time.
I helped him check in, but fortunately, they had one girl on their staff who spoke English, whose name on her name tag simply read "Bae." So as Ok'e and I were getting him registered, I had to enquire something with her. "Bae" is not a Japanese name, it is Korean. Now in Japan, Koreans make the biggest minority group. There are many Korean families living in Japan for various reasons: from simple migration to being descendants of forced migration due to Japanese imperialism. With Korea and Japan having a contentious relationship at times, I bet it must be difficult for a Korean to live in the land of the former oppressor. (Japan actually ruled Korea from 1910-1945, going so far to even trying to erase their language, culture, and even heritage, a cultural genocide)
So I asked this lady: "Are you Korean?"
And the response I got from her was very interesting and poignant, because Ms. Bae said: "No I am not, but my parents are."
"No I am not, but my parents are." A very interesting answer. So after getting him registered, Ok'e and I went to his room, and I told Ok'e about the conversation I had with this woman and who she was: a Zainichi Korean.
A Zainichi Korean is any Korean who lives and makes a living in Japan. "Zainichi" in Japanese means "to stay in Japan." There about more than a half of million Zainichi Koreans who live in Japan today. I thought it was the most fascinating aspect of Japanese culture, these Koreans who are stuck in the land of another East Asian culture giant.
So the next day, we met up with Ok'e at his hotel while he was checking out, and luckily, Ms. Bae was there again. I wanted to see what was up with that response she told me yesterday.
So I asked her about her background, and we had a quick conversation about how she was born in Japan, but she does not speak Korean. I also let her know that I was half-Korean, and she asked me if I could speak Korean. I told her I said hardly, and she responded, "yeah, most Koreans are pretty uptight when it comes to their children knowing the language."
So I asked her does she feel Korean or Japanese, and her response was even more interesting... "neither."
And I will finish this discussion about cultural identity some other time, because I have to get up early for Day 5 of the English camp that I'm teaching at. Good night.
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