Campus Correspondence : Violent America Catches Japanese Students Unaware

“Watch out, Etsuko, America is not a big Disneyland; it is a very serious country,” my best friend at school told me. Like ordinary Japanese women, I seemed a little too sensitive, too honest, too naive. “You have to be a very tough woman,” he advised. “Otherwise, people in this country can easily push you around.”

My friend’s cautionary words crossed my mind when I heard about the shooting deaths, in San Pedro, of Takuma Ito and Go Matsuura. I recalled how the words had opened my eyes.

Just as Americans go abroad to study in England or France, Japanese students travel to other countries to attend universities or colleges. An acquaintance of mine went to Indonesia to learn music; another went to France to study art. But the United States is probably the most popular destination of Japanese students, because they grew up in a Japan heavily influenced by American culture--Coca Cola, Mickey Mouse, Hollywood stars, music, and so on. It is thus quite natural for them to want to come here and see the “real America” and learn English, while they study their major. To many Japanese students, it is “gifted time.”

But we all soon see the gap between what we were told about America in Japan and what our eyes and ears tell us once we are here. America is not a fair country. Racism abounds. The combination of racism and unfairness creates violence. This society likes to blame people of color for that violence. Americans are fond of saying “it’s terrible” when people like Ito and Matsuura are murdered for a car, as if they never contributed to the problem.

But given all the Japanese studying in America, I don’t think we are any more targets of violence than any other foreign students. The greater risk for us is that we may fall into American habits of racist thinking.

For example, we are constantly warned about “dangerous areas,” though in normal circumstances we would never think to venture into them in the first place. But the damage is done: We may cut ourselves off from all people who happen to share skin color with those who live in these “dangerous” communities. We will begin to stereotype them, and never ask ourselves why we must think this way. The irony, of course, is that we, too, are people of color.

When I first read the news about the two Japanese students who were shot to death, I thought it could happen to anyone, that it was just a case of bad luck. But after a while, I began to worry: I have come to accept this kind of violence as “normal,” as just part of everyday life. Maybe that’s because I see violence on the news every day and have become accustomed to crimes involving the use of a gun. Whatever the reason, I have started to lose the sensitivity to violence I carried from my country.

Still, we should not become obsessed with the tragic deaths of the two Japanese students. We should instead focus on how to rid American society of racism and the violence it breeds. This is not a Japanese problem. It is an American problem. It should no longer be easier to get a gun than a driver’s license.