conversation in English

俺：As you know, I spent my childhood in Showa era. I believe there was a backdrop which is uncanny and, almost foreboding Japan’s decay even in the midst of economic prosperity. The most famous Manga writer Osamu Tezuka depicts the Zeitgeist especially in his artwork “Phoenix”. The author of Doraemon is alike. As Ryuzo Uchida, professor of Tokyo University is pointing out, Showa era people were bound to feeling of guilty or indebted to the unredeemed dead in the WW2 and Emperor Showa, who enshrines them instead of himself. Contrary to Showa, we are now never bound to any kind of morality at the cost of economic prosperity. I’d like to say the sense of guilty united Japanese people and drove them to economic prosperity.ジョンさん：Highly interesting. Is it a commonly held theory? Japanese were working so hard to recover from the war in honor of the sacred war dead? Were they ashamed to have survived while a million or more died? 俺：Thanks. But this theory is not held commonly. I just assembled this theory, picking up from the particle of 「Kokudoron」by Uchida and 「Anti-Oedipus」by Deleuze and Guattari. But, whoever Japanese spent their lives in Showa share that bad ominous and depressing prospect for the near future I believe. The most acute protest against loss of morality is Yukio Mishima’s Hara-kiri. He strongly detested to the apathy of Japanese seeking for economy and immortality. And, he tried to warn of Japan’s moral decay.ジョンさん：I still think Japanese society has many many more positive aspects than America. America is not the same country of my youth. It has been destroyed by the Left.I no longer recognize my own home nation.俺：I’m surprised you think highly of Japan so much. Traditional lifestyles are almost completely forgotten in Japan likewise. This is a negative aspect of that notorious “Globalization”. Free flux of capital and access to its market is eroding the traditional way of life. Along this, phony image of diversity is prevailing. In Japan, using loyalty to the nation is completely taboo. People don’t know on what basis they live mentally. But, I’m positive on US’s arduous and tenuous works to recognizing each other and bundle society again. The most famous case is Sesame Street. Such effort is far less seen in Japan than in US. And, albeit globalization expanded economic gap, US has been alluring the top notch intelligences and they are making industrial giants. This is one of the most powerful element which is making US the world’s strongest giant.ジョンさん：Do you know the expression “the grass is greener on the other side?” Perhaps that is the case! Still I admire Japan for not completely losing its national identity to globalization unlike USA and Europe. You still don’t have most of the social problems we do. On that issue alone, Japan is far far better than the West. Our cities and schools and borders are crumbling rapidly and Biden ignores it all. I’ll take Japan any day!