take action, Japan

Something like 25 students have sent letters to the Japanese Ministry of Education threatening to commit suicide. At first it started with one or two letters and by the time we got back from my honeymoon, I heard that figure made an exponential jump. In addition, there was plenty of news on actual suicides commited by mostly junior high schoolers who were victims of bullies.

I think the attitude in Japan to bullying is something like, "hmm, let's just wait and see what happens." In this case, the Daoist principle of action by inaction does not apply you morons! In the meantime, such bullying gets progressively worse and sometimes, in the worst case, the child feels there is no way out except for 'really out' of this world. What a pity.

Reasons why I think bullying is becoming problematic in Japan:
- the old emphasis on uniformity and conforming
- working parents who do not have time to be with their children
- breakdown of the family
- mass media
- poor self-esteem (of bully and bullied)
- inactive school administration, teachers
- parents who cannot notice changes in their children
- children have lost their ability to communicate properly, whether it be because of social isolation, too many video games, existence of cell phones for even elementary kids!

When I was in 8th grader, I was terribly bullied by three girls. The leader of them, Jessica Pilarski, was a girl who was popular out of sheer fear, so I theorize. They often wrote me nasty messages, tried to trip me in the hallways, threw down my books, and even told me I smelled like sushi. Um, stupid girl - sushi is Japanese not Chinese. Again, not all but some Americans are really dumb and know nothing about Asia. Back to the topic, I told my father a little bit and he seemed concerned but also confident that I would get myself out of it. My brother was in the army and could not do much about it either.

You may ask how it ended? A few things happened. The band teacher noticed I was being bullied and pulled the girl and I aside to have a 'chat' with us. The world history teacher did the same as well. He was particularly nasty to her and at least in that class, the bullying came to an end. Ironically a bigger bully (my neighbor, Kelly) bullied them (threatened them never to bother me again) and they never again bothered me. I was lucky to have a supportive family, friends, and teachers during that time. Sometimes I wished I could disappear but somehow I got by. That experience made me stronger and as a result, I did not put down people or join in on bullying in high school.

To this day I wonder what happened to a girl named Anna Donelli, who was from an impoverished family (from her appearances I gathered that) and was mercilessly teased by the children in our 7th grade music class. I felt terrible for her and after she suddenly disappeared off to home-schooling, and on occasion wonder what became of her.

Being Asian in an all-Caucasian town was never easy. Because of that I am very reluctant to go back to such a narrow-minded town. I do not regret growing up there, yet, at the same time, I cannot imagine living there again.