BBC – Travel – Why are the Japanese steadfast?

At Shorinzan Darumaji Temple in Takasaki, 130 km north of Tokyo, visitors receive hundreds of squatting dolls stacked on top of each other. Each painted doll, in red painted, boasts a boastful face with big black eyes frozen in the shape of strict determination. This is Daruma, similar to Bodhharma, the founder of Zen Buddhism in China, and Japan’s most popular good luck charm. Takasaki farmers started making hollow paper dolls about 200 years ago, and the area continues to make the majority that is sold and found in homes throughout Japan.

Temple visitors can purchase their own daruma, which will have two empty eyes. Then Jupiter creates desire and colors in his left eye pupil. After fulfilling the desire, Jupiter fills the second pupil. As the end of the year approaches, visitors to Darma donate to the temple and buy a new one for another wish or renew their commitment to achieving their goals. The piles of dolls at Shorinzan Darumaji are those that have served their purpose and will be burned at a celebration in the new year.

But Daruma represents something more deep than just good luck. Each Daruma is weighed at the base and you can shake it from side to side, but it will never capsize: a symbol of perseverance for a nation often pushed close to its borders.

Japan has experienced many natural disasters – and many human disasters – and has often had to bounce back from adversity. In the past 100 years, Japan has suffered from the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923, which calmed Tokyo. Two nuclear bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945; The 1995 Kobe earthquake, which was followed, just two months later, by the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway; The triple shock of a earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear collapse in the Tohoku region in 2011. Only last year, in October, did Hurricane Hegibi cause widespread destruction and death. But some argue that adversity has given rise to resilience and cultural features of resilience.

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“Like the Daruma doll that always recovers when it falls,” said Dr. Joshua W. Walker, who grew up in Japan and is the president and CEO of the Japan Society in New York City.

Daruma acts as a reminder that no matter how many times you may be exposed to roads, you should always come back. Closely related to this ideology and the dharma itself are the Japanese proverb “nana korobi ya oki”, which translates to “seven times down, eight times up”; As is the spirit of ganbaru (to endure), a trait that is instilled in Japanese children from a young age.

Spend a long time in Japan and you will probably notice the language of flexibility and sobriety found in everyday speech. Words like “shoganai” or, officially, “shikata ga nai” (cannot be helped) – along with the necessary form of ganbaru, ganbatte (do your best) and noun gaman (perseverance) – often appear in the conversation, reflecting The fact that perseverance is a very respectable and famous feature.

Travelers can learn not only from earthquake and nuclear accident, but also from reconstruction and overcoming adversity

While you will most likely hear the language of steadfastness pointing to somewhat vulgar situations – “shoganai” when you miss the train; “ganbatte” before passing the test – tangle with some of the most shocking experiences in Japan. In a 1945 radio address by Emperor Hirohito, who was then considered a living deity, he called on the Japanese “to endure the unbearable and unbearable suffering” as the nation prepares to humiliate the unconditional surrender and economic collapse at the end of World War II.

After the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, international observers were shocked by the calm and courteous displayed as people formed organized queues outside the shops and largely abstained from looting: measures often attributed to the spirit of the buffalo. In the March 2011 Los Angeles Times headline, “Japanese restraint is mired in a culture of tested flexibility.” The slogan that urges “Janbaru Tohoku” (the overall form of “Janbaru” – that is, “Let’s Hang About There”) abound in banners in public places and on the web.

But this spirit of flexibility is not without criticism. An April 2011 article in The Economist entitled “Silence by gaman” argued that the urging of “head-to-head endurance slaps, rather than hope for better things to happen in the future” and that “Tohoku people began to resent the phrase, because it seemed like a request To endure more. ”The Japan Times article argued that Jaman leads to passive tolerance of disasters,“ a panacea, that relieves people of the need to do more. ” Another criticized the imperative of the “angry” shogunai.

But Time Magazine suggests that “fatalism is implicit in the phrase [shoganai] It indicates not only the deficits in the vicissitudes of life but also the calm determination to overcome the uncontrollable. “

Dr. Walker believes that even more than just overcoming it, Japan bends adversity. That, instead of severe suffering, it comes back and appears stronger. For example, rebuilding Tokyo after the 1923 earthquake – and again after the 1945 bombing by the U.S. Air Force – turned it into a modern city. Not only was Hiroshima rebuilt, it was completely re-envisaged as a memorial city for peace symbolizing what the Building Act of 1949 called “the sincere pursuit of real and lasting peace”. The Kobe earthquake is now considered a turning point in Japanese civil participation, having led to the now established trend of volunteerism after disasters. After the triple tohoku disaster, reconstruction projects and those seeking to find alternatives to nuclear energy around Fukushima Prefecture in the Tohoku region – and now growing tourism in the region – can see this directly.

In the past few years, the Fukushima prefectural government has been promoting the concept of “tourism of hope”, which allows visitors to see the current situation of disaster-affected areas and meet local people involved in shaping their future. Takehiro Okamoto, who organizes “Hope Tours” through the travel company Wondertrunk & Co, explains that the hope that tourism is the opposite of “dark tourism”. “Travelers can learn not only from the earthquake and the nuclear accident, but also from reconstruction and overcoming adversity,” he said in Fukushima.

Okamoto explained that the participants visit disaster-affected areas and related sites, including the road near Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station and the TEPCO Disassembly Archive Center, where they learn about the current dismantling efforts of the plant. Okamoto told me the most important thing is to talk and work with the locals. “Participants start thinking about our future: issues related to energy, local communities, and the culture of overconsumption.”

After the 2011 disaster, Okamoto said that there is a trend towards renewable energy throughout Japan. A grassroots movement was revitalized to reassess nuclear energy in the wake of the disaster, leading to some of the largest protests the country has seen in decades. He explained that “all nuclear power plants stopped and increased investment in solar energy.”

“Unfortunately, we have not been able to completely change Japan’s energy policy,” Okamoto said, contemplating the anti-nuclear movement. In August 2015, after shutting down for four years, the Sendai Nuclear Power Station in Kyushu was the first nuclear power plant in Japan to restart its reactors. In Fukushima, the local government aims to supply the region with 100% renewable energy by 2040.

There is a philosophical understanding that the imperative of life includes disasters and victories that are greater than the individual in the circle of life

Okamoto sees “seeds” of a brighter future in the region in general, pointing to a new highway linking the long-isolated coastal area to central Tohoku and Tokyo; In addition to the new Machinoku Coastal Path, a 1,000,000-long path that stretches along Japan’s northeastern coast rarely across four provinces affected by the earthquake and tsunami.

He also sees tourism as a way to keep the impact of the disaster in mind. “For the Japanese, the memory of accidents fades with time. So we want to be reminded [them] And rethink the issues during our travels [by] Talk to the locals. Okamoto says that Japan’s many experiences of disasters have made its people “very impatient and united”, but “at the same time, [find it] Easy to forget It is easy to make the same mistake again. “

However, Dr. Walker seems more optimistic that the world, now more than ever, can learn from Japan’s position. “There is a philosophical understanding [in Japan] He said that the imperative of life includes disasters and victories that are greater than the individual in the circle of life, a mentality that is particularly relevant and useful in the current period, and we find ourselves at the global level.

The torch relay for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics was scheduled to start in Fukushima in late March. The flame symbolized the region’s recovery from events nine years ago until the month. However, as the games were postponed, the relay was canceled. If the Olympics were to take place in 2021, their focus would likely shift to recovery from a more recent and global catastrophe: the coronary pandemic.

As fear of radiation begins to fade slowly, another invisible fear has replaced it, a situation most of us have no choice but to tolerate and perhaps hope for a better world in the aftermath. It is a reminder that adversity is an inevitable part of life. As most of the world slid inside, in Takasaki, daruma piles sit, more stoic than ever. It’s a powerful symbol: The reason why traditional small squat dolls painted red is that during the Japanese Edo period, they were used as talismans against the smallpox virus.

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