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[imomus]

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[Poll #1429518]

Comments

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I think I've been pretty clear on that topic. I champion an emerging "third culture" in which Japanese and Westerners hybridize, especially culturally. When they do that biologically, though, you have to bear in mind that a person is different from a multimedia art installation. A person is not a statement about your beliefs, or a missile to shoot across the bows of someone else's perceived racism. A person is going to have to fit into a society as it is, not as you would wish it to be.

It's also worth bearing in mind that the thing that makes hybridisation such a good thing -- the merging of separate flavours -- is also the thing that potentially undermines it. Sure, something is gained by hybridisation, but something is lost too.

This is the context in which one couple may make the decision -- hopefully without being condemned by those who decided differently -- not to bring up a hafu kid in Japan.

[(Anonymous)]

sorry, perhaps i took your comments a bit personally, being in the position of bringing up 3. apologies for over reacting.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

That's kind!

What amused me was that people were talking about the-child-we'd-decided-not-to-have as if he were an existing entity, a poor non-had hafu standing there weeping profusely at our lack of faith in him! Like the emotional blackmail of pro-lifers taken even further. "This cancelled pre-foetus is a person too! God loves this non-conceived nondividual!"

[(Anonymous)]

"A person is going to have to fit into a society as it is, not as you would wish it to be."

Some would say that life not being a total breeze is character-building - part of the fun. That any child - no matter how discriminated against - living in US, Europe or amidst the obtuse and frightened in Japan - would be a lucky child.

This is a very pre-Obama outlook too. Yes you can, it seems, even in Japan.

"Unlike Momus, I'm certainly not prepared to give deference to the opinions of a bunch of racist, ultra-rightwing crackpots when making such important decisions. My main problem with Momus' statements is that he is giving indirect support to the people who believe that Japanese society should remain homogenously Japanese."

A quote on http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23278&page=2

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I'm certainly not prepared to give deference to the opinions of a bunch of racist, ultra-rightwing crackpots

And my main problem with that quote is that this (presumably) foreigner in Japan is dismissing the views of not only my girlfriend but most Japanese people as if they were something extremist, something to be fought with human canon-fodder (in the form of new humans who are genetically different from them). There's a kind of Settler mentality to this which I find deeply disturbing. Is the Japanese interest in blood and relatedness (which stretches from lex sanguinis to kids asking each other what their blood type is) really something you can dismiss with a phrase like "ultra-rightwing crackpots"? If so, why are you even in a country whose basic premises you disagree with so fundamentally, and whose social contract you find so distasteful and misguided?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

By the way, I'd exchange a hundred of these gaijin blowhard blogs for one What Japan Thinks (http://twitter.com/WhatJapanThinks).

Self-contradict Opera strikes again.

[(Anonymous)]

One day morals are relative and fluid and change over time and you argue that very passionately - and the next day "Japan" and everything it means is written in stone forever.

Re: Self-contradict Opera strikes again.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

So you're saying the Japan we see today is only a temporary aberration? And that it can be changed to something better by outsiders who parachute in their DNA? Because the Japanese themselves can't fix what's wrong, right?

Re: Self-contradict Opera strikes again.

[(Anonymous)]

Same old things you argue about immigration being healthy (for non-Japan countries), yup.

Re: Self-contradict Opera strikes again.

[(Anonymous)]

"And my main problem with that quote is that this (presumably) foreigner in Japan is dismissing the views of not only my girlfriend but most Japanese people"

My main problem is that the commenter was talking about the views of extremists and you are now maintaining that these are actually the views of "most Japanese people". On what basis do you say that?

[(Anonymous)]

Er... because the views of a far right wing should not be allowed to dominate?

Little things like that?

[vertigoranger.livejournal.com]

"Some would say that life not being a total breeze is character-building - part of the fun."

Sounds like the thinking of an American to me.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that "American" outlook never achieved anything.

Japologists

[(Anonymous)]

There's an interesting pathology at work when you support a club that wouldn't have you as a member.

[kumakouji.livejournal.com]

Would you argue that gay couples shouldn't be allowed to adopt until society is fully accepting of homosexuality?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

That's not a good parallel -- are the children of gay couples gay? No, they're likely to be straight. In other words, what hafu kids can never achieve, these kids are almost all likely to.

[kumakouji.livejournal.com]

OK, here's a better one -- Should a couple with an incurable inheritable disease be allowed to have children if it meant their children would have to live a life disabled and sickly?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Well, nobody's talking about preventing anyone from reproducing. My stance is just that you have to be aware of the context, and of potential problems. The parallel here would be that Hisae and I are the ones with the "disease", and that we're making the personal decision not to pass it on. But that's putting it too strongly -- it's not a disease, just a context.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Actually, maybe a better parallel would be the gay couple that chooses not to adopt, precisely because of the likelihood of the adopted kid being straight!

there are progressive cities

[(Anonymous)]

"A person is not a statement about your beliefs, or a missile to shoot across the bows of someone else's perceived racism. A person is going to have to fit into a society as it is, not as you would wish it to be." --momus

there are of course progressive and accepting places, in the US and elsewhere, where there are scores and scores of interracial families and children. Vancouver, Seattle, CA Bay Area, etc etc etc...granted, one should be mindful that it's certainly not like that everywhere---the American South or Japan, for instance.

a final note about Japan, there are international schools there that are apparently quite popular for just these reasons...