Date: Wed, 06 Feb 2002 22:11:11 +1300
From: prime wordsmith <primewordsmith@hotmail.com>
Subject: Honor 04 - 05

Honor 04
primewordsmith@hotmail.com


04

While we were taking our repast, I realized Joshie epitomized the conquering
occupiers for me.

He was huge, clumsy, inelegant, unsubtle, uncultured, rough mannered,
ill-educated, ungraceful, unaware of his history, unaware of our history,
unmotivated by philosophical considerations, largely irreligious but
fundamentally superstitious in that odd American way.  He did not always do
what his superiors required.  He had little sense of his place or position
in his society, or of his social space in his culture.  He did not consider
where he fitted in or did not fit in.  He was not versed in his culture.
Even Grandfather knew some of the great bears' linguistic giants.
Grandfather had taught me some passages from Joshie's forebears'
unparalleled author Shaksbeer, or at least that was how we transliterated
his name into our language at that time. Somehow Joshie had the impression
that Shaksbeer was some popular American writer who had recently come to our
country to pick up some culture.

Joshie did not even know the names of his country's economic giants, or his
political greats, or his technological wonderboys. He had heard of Edison
but thought he invented the incandescent light globe.  He did not understand
that Edison had  merely improved  on many other light bulbs patented by
other inventors between 1841 and 1878.  He did not know that Edison's
improvement only came about in 1879.  He thought Edison was about 50 years
earlier.   He was misinformed.

Joshie was aware he was one of the conquerors.  But he was certainly unaware
of the complex history of why his country was the conqueror.  While we were
eating, Grandfather tried engaging him in a discussion of gunpowder and the
development of guns.  Joshie thought that guns had arisen in the American
West to fight the Indians, and later to fight the Mexicans and Spanish.  He
did not know that gunpowder was invented in China and moved to the middle
east where Islam successfully used it to defeat the Christian Crusaders.  He
didn't know who the Crusaders were. He thought they were some American
Southern Baptist group.

As for guns, Grandfather said their story encapsulated the essence of the
American-Japanese cultural clash in a nutshell.  Grandfather spoke about how
Chinese firepowder had reached Japan around 1000 ad. We had disdained to use
it since it was so unreliable and likely to do more damage to the people
using it than to the people against whom it was directed.  Grandfather
explained that firepowder kept drifting across from the celestial empire
over the years but no-one was ever really impressed with it.  In 1543 ad,
Grandfather said, two Portuguese adventurers arrived with their primitive
harquebuses on a Chinese cargo ship.  These guns used the firepowder in a
way which we could not ignore.  They were unreliable and inadequate, and so
were their firearms. But the guns were worthy of us expending effort to
improve on them.  We could no longer afford to ignore this threat.

Grandfather said Japan commenced gun production and improved the originals
so much that by 1600 ad,  Japan owned more guns and more technologically
superior guns than any other country in the world.

Joshie was interested.  He only had to keep eating the food I placed before
him and listen to Grandfather talk. Together we managed to keep Joshie's
attention.  Grandfather explained that guns were inelegant.  They were
antisocial.  They had no finesse.  They killed too many people
indiscriminately.  They were weapons of mass destruction.  As such they were
unacceptable in Japanese culture where a warrior took a personal interest in
his opponent.  Killing, for us Japanese, was a very personal thing.  The
warrior had to prepare before combat.  Physical exercises were required.
Breathing exercises were required.  But above all, spiritual exercises were
required to attune the warrior into the right attitude and disposition
before going into combat.  War was a very spiritual, very metaphysical
thing, which required great devotion and learning before one went off and
pursued one's quest.  War was a truly elegant art form.  But for Joshie and
Americans generally, war was simply a means to an end, where the more enemy
that were killed the better.

Grandfather lamented that our cabinet had decided to adopt the American
method of war and to go in for simple annihilation. Grandfather was appalled
that we had lost our ancestral balance.  He was also appalled that we had
chosen to use guns again.

Earlier we had been eating poached chestnuts. Joshie feared it was the brain
of some sea creature, because of the convoluted wrinkling on the surface of
the chestnut. He was very relieved to find it was vegetable by nature. At
that time Grandfather was explaining how after 1600 ad Japan decided to
limit the production of guns to a few cities.  Later a government license
was required for the production of guns.  Later still, production licenses
were only issued for guns to be used in government service.  Finally
government use of guns was reduced to almost naught. Gun production and use
became almost non existent in Japan.  Japan had decided to do without guns.
It was a very successful venture into discarding bad technology.
Grandfather was most pleased that Japan had moved that way.

Joshie was incredulous.  He came from a gun-toting culture where if you did
not have it and use it, you were considered deficient as a male.  You were
not a real man unless you had a gun.  Grandfather thought that sort of
attitude led to endless slaughter and huge civil war.  Joshie could not see
it.  He also had difficulty believing Japan had totally renounced the use of
guns.  He was sensible enough not to deny Grandfather directly to his face.
But Grandfather could see his difficulty.  I slipped my hand into Joshie's
again to show him that he would not be ostracized because of this new idea.
We did not hold it against him that his countrymen were so backward.

Joshie thought it through.  I was most proud of him.  I squeezed his hand
and smiled at him.  He gave me that puppy dog grin again and found the
courage to ask Grandfather: 'How is it that Japan gave up guns but then took
them up again?' 'We were forced to, by overwhelming odds' Grandfather said.
'How's that' Joshie asked. Grandfather started to explain.

'We watched firepowder drifting across from China for centuries.  We did not
think it was a real threat to us.  But when the stinking pork-gobblers came
on that Chinese junk, they brought more evolved means of using the
firepowder. They had personal portable weapons. They could shoot just anyone
with them. Our rulers were alarmed.  These were a real threat to our way of
life.  We examined them, trialed them, copied them, trialed the copies,
produced more copies, improved on the copies as we produced more, improved
on the improvements, and produced still more, until we were the most
advanced gun using society in the world.'

'As I said earlier' Grandfather continued 'we decided to give up the use of
guns. The foreigners who were threatening us with their use of guns came to
understand that we would not tolerate being invaded or having guns used
against us on our own soil.  That message was quite forcefully put across
and eventually it was understood and respected. With that understanding by
the foreigners, the threat lessened and increasingly diminished. As the
threat continued to diminish we were able to further restrict the use of
guns in our country.  Eventually we replaced the need for guns by insisting
that foreigners were not allowed to enter our country whenever they just
liked.  They had to have government permission to enter and trade with our
country.  Foreign governments understood this and accepted it.  They
respected our rulers' decisions.  They respected our sovereignty.  They
respected our restrictions on entry to our country.  We did not need guns
any more.  So we took the final step and gave up all commercial gun
production.  The only guns being produced were those needed to keep us
competent in the technology.'

Grandfather paused to refresh himself and to give Joshie an opportunity to
digest what Grandfather had said so far. Grandfather noticed me squirming a
little.  He looked more closely and realized that Joshie was squirming
somewhat also.

Grandfather looked at me, circled his head, dropped it suddenly, and clicked
his tongue making a Popp sound. He then looked at Joshie, then back at me,
then lifted his head slightly.  I understood.  I took Joshie's hand and
stood up.  My back was sore from this unusual seating arrangement.  Joshie
looked baffled, as usual.  I smiled at him and lifted his hand up while
keeping his wrist level.  He had to get up.  What a wonderful Joshie.  He
understood right away and looked at Grandfather.  I gave Grandfather a half
bow and, wonder of wonders, Joshie gave him one too.  Grandfather graciously
inclined his head and I took Joshie towards the screen door.


05

Joshie still did not understand, but like most of my stray hounds, he was
learning quickly.

We scuffed along the corridor deeper into the house.  The helpers had enough
sense to remain scarce.  Joshie started babbling again.

'Jees kid.  Where are we going.  This is a real maze.  It's a rabbit warren.
  Any stranger coming in here would get lost right away.'

What a clever Joshie.  That was the whole point, of course.

I still had this difficulty of not being able to let Joshie know I
understood his barbaric tongue. I also had the further difficulty of dealing
with an outsider, ignorant of our ways, and not able to communicate like
even the lowest of our classes could. And to compound the whole lot, I had
to steer both of us through the minefield of the rest of our people, who did
not know what a loose cannon I was towing around beside me.  Just like the
muzzle of a quality carronade, Joshie's muzzle was gaping wide open.

I started to get a fit of the giggles.  I could not resist the temptation.
It was just too much.  I continued walking but lithely turning side on,
stretched out my other hand, and gently lifted Joshie's chin until his mouth
was closed.  But I ruined it rather by not being able to suppress my giggles
any longer.  Joshie looked at me and opened his mouth again.  I thought I
would have to close it for him once more.  He must have read that in my
eyes, he was watching them closely enough, for he abruptly shut his mouth
with a clunk. Good Joshie. I giggled again and this time he joined me.

He pulled us to a stop.  Giggling, both of us.  He pushed me in the chest to
the side of the corridor.  Thankfully it was close enough to one of the
support columns.  I did not think he realized that you could not push a
person against one of the ricepaper-and-bamboo walls.  He knelt down on one
knee and said: 'You're gorgeous kid.  Absolutely gorgeous.'  He then kissed
me on the lips.  I giggled again.  He had one of those really complex
expressions you sometimes see on a seal hound's face.  It's like when you
command the dog to do something new it has never done before.  A mixture of
dredging the memory and of incredulity over something totally unknown.
Joshie had that look.  Plus he had a mixture of delight that my giggling
showed I was not shocked, and a look of mild disappointment that my giggling
had interrupted the moment.  It was priceless.  I had never seen such
complex expression on such an open face.  That was another reason why Joshie
epitomized the American invaders for me. For all their clumsiness, they were
still basically open, honest people.  Well, the enlisted men anyway.

We continued up the rear.  How was I going to arrange this?  Joshie had his
arm around my waist. Well sort of.  I am sure that is what he wanted to do
but he had it up higher, not quite as high as my chest.  My waist was too
low down for him to encircle while he was standing upright or walking.  I
did not know what height he was.  For that matter I did not know what height
I was.  I was definitely tall enough to kiss his navel but not tall enough
to kiss his nipples, except perhaps on tippytoes.  But even then it would
have been a real stretch, if at all.

At that time, water closets - WCs - were most unusual in our country.  We
used earth closets.  Land was at a premium, agriculture was all important,
and fertilizer was essential to keep crop production continuous and high. We
could not waste any fertilizer.  This was a problem for the new dominators,
especially for the city dwellers amongst them.  The ones who had done
wilderness survival courses could make the transition easily.  For the
country men, it was not unusual.  They understood and adjusted almost
automatically.  The sailors needed to exercise a bit more mind power.  Some
had a lot of difficulty doing that.

In the older sailing ships, like great grandfather used to have, the sailors
would go up to the head of the ship.  They would climb the nets over the
front counter of the ship and enter a tiny area shrouded with canvas.  A
board was tied to the nets inside this canvas shroud.  A hole in the board
allowed the seamen to sit on it and drop there business into the waters
below.  There was usually a couple of these enclosures on each side of the
bowsprit, up in the head of the ship.  The sailors used to go up to the head
when they needed to drop their solid waste.  When toilets were built inside
ships they still used the old phrase 'going to the head' to describe the
process.  Since sailors were used to more simple methods of disposing of
waste, they had little difficulty adjusting to our simple ways.

Since he was a sailor, I expected Joshie to have little problem using our
earth closet.  But of course we were more careful about our cleanliness than
most of these hairy-chested invaders.  That was the part that was worrying
me about the fur-ball I had attached to my hand. I had been told by
Grandfather's factor that these snow bears were prudes when it came to being
unclothed.  How extraordinary, I had thought.

One time Father took me with him up to Hokkaido.  Hokkaido is the
northernmost of our four main islands. Joshie had a buddy in the American
military who came from near Portland in the state of Oregon. His name was
Joe.  Northern Oregon was about the same latitude as northern Hokkaido, but
on the other side of the Pacific. Joe used to talk to Joshie about his home
on the coast at Cannon Beach. I thought Oregon must be a very cold place
where it snowed all winter.  But Joe had told Joshie that it almost never
snowed there and they never really got any killer frosts.

Joshie said a warm ocean current travels all the way from southern Japan
across the ocean and warms the American coast at Oregon.  We call it the
North Pacific current but Joe had said his folks call it the Japanese
current.  Joshie said that is because we are such warm people - just like
the current.  But Hokkaido in northern Japan does not benefit from this warm
current.  Instead it has a cold current called the Oya which flows from the
Arctic ocean, near the American state of Alaska.  Joshie told me not to
think the Americans are cold like the current.  He said it came more from
the Soviet side of the Bering Sea than from the American. That was why it
was cold.

When I told Grandfather he said he had to agree.  The Soviets would have
been much colder for us than the Americans.  Grandfather said it was only
because the Soviets were camped on our northern doorstep, that the Americans
were trying to be so nice to us.

When Father and I went to Hokkaido we stayed in a village on the northern
coast.  Before nightfall we went to the baths at the appointed time.  The
whole village was there.  We all sat around washing in the bath-house and
then entered the heated pool.  The bath-house had walls.  No roof of course.
  The walls were more to stop the snow driving into us.  It was still
falling on us while we were washing and bathing.  But that was normal of
course.  Naturally none of us had any clothes on.  After we finished we
dressed and returned to our houses.  The women provided us with warm drinks
and then went off to bathe themselves with the girls and youngest children.

Grandfather says the invading bears have a word to describe a condition of
being unclothed.  They call it 'nudity'.  I thought that sounded a bit like
a disease. It did not sound natural to me.  Fancy giving it a scientific
name like that.  If we take our clothes off, we just take them off.  It is
usual when we do it, and no-one thinks about it.  It is natural.  But for
the Americans apparently it was a big thing. How weird.

So it was with some trepidation that I headed into the earth closet with my
great, floppy, tongue wagging, bottom wiggling, Joshie-hound.   I worried
whether he would be as dysfunctional as other Americans. Then I remembered.
He had already kissed me. There was nothing abnormal about that.


[If you would like this story to be continued please email me, Yoshi
Torriati, at primewordsmith@hotmail.com  Positive feedback would be greatly
appreciated. Many thanks to David Spencer for editorial assistance and
advice on English usage.]