individual Response
We have discussed three groups of people so far: Chinese in Honolulu, Koreans in Befu and Okinawans in the battleground. One thing in common is that these poor groups of people were being suppressed because of their racial identity. In Honolulu, china, the town was forced to lock down and even set on fire because of the plague. Similarly, In Befu, Korean workers were forced to work at the fertilizer factory, exploiting their health in exchange for trivial salaries. Also, Okinawans were forced to leave their homeland and received unfair accusation as spies from Japan, their alley.
Before learning about what happened to Okinawan people, I thought Chinese people and Korean people’s suffer is mainly a result of racism. Chinese and Korean people were the minority groups in Honolulu and Befu. They have a relatively weak political power since they are new to this land. In the eyes of a local leader, these people are unprotected cheap labour. What is more, most of them do not speak the local language, which prevents cultural communication and causes misunderstanding. For example, most Chinese workers in Honolulu are refugees from wars in China mainland, and they do not speak English. The local company would hire them and pay them a trivial amount because the barrier of language and minority identity makes it hard for them to fight for their rights. When the local leader saw the flow of Chinese worker and the spread of contiguous plague, they make the association and form a prejudiced accusation towards Chinese people.
However, when I connected the Chinese and Korean’s position to Okinawan people, a question comes to my mind: if Chinese people in Honolulu and Korean workers in Bafu are the minority, why Okinawan people, the local residents in Okinawa, also received unequal treatment. In World War II, Okinawa people fought for Japan. However, during the war, Japan did not trust Okinawa and often accused them of spies. Things even went worse after the war. Okinawa was under the control of the United States, and the US military grips the land from local owners. The racisms towards minority do not hold to this case since Americans are the “ minorities” in this situation. I believe the concept of Capitalism is involved in this case. As I discussed in my first response, Capitalism is a process of accumulating capital and creates inequality between different groups of people. Also, I can apply the same concept further to a national level to explain these unequal treatments among Chinese in Honolulu, Korean workers in Bafu, and Okinawans. If we put all the countries in the world into a capitalist system, countries are accumulating capitals, and during such accumulation, inequality rises. The United States get capital more than countries such as China, Japan, and Korea. United states’ abundant capital, such as strong national defence powers, issued a superior position among all the countries. And this common recognition prevents US citizens from unequal treatment in other countries. From Hild 11, I learned that American citizens have Jurisdiction immunity in Guang Zhou and profit from trading. Compare what happened to Chinese worker in Honolulu. We can see that difference comes from National powers rather than whether a group of people are a minority or not. And such a National power comes from the accumulation of capital in Capitalism.
One thing that could break the barrier and reflect humanity is art. The appreciation of art, such as painting and songs, is not restricted to language or cultural background. For example, even though I know so little about Japanese culture and identity, it does not bother me to be a massive fan of Ozawa Seizi, a famous Japanese conductor. When I was a child, the school’s education on the history between China and Japan gives us a prejudice that the Japanese were cruel and savage. However, after hearing several concerts conducted by Ozawa Seizi, the beautiful melody washed away my bigotry and hatred. As a result, I believe cultural production would positively affect political struggle. Cultural production allows people from different cultural background to know about understand each other. If Taki Seihi is familiar with Korean cultural production, he would understand that Korean workers, just like himself, are humans with feelings. As a result, he would feel guilty to treat them in an inhumane way.
