Japanese Teacher Terrorizes and Tortures Nine Year Old for Having American Great Grandfather

The Japan Times Online ^ | 09 OCT 03 | KYODO

[Mortimer Snavely]

Lawyers aid schoolboy harassed over American heritage

FUKUOKA (Kyodo) More than 500 lawyers have joined hands with a 9-year-old boy in a lawsuit filed Wednesday with the Fukuoka District Court demanding 13 million yen from his school and a teacher who repeatedly ordered the child to kill himself.

The boy, a fourth-grader who attends a municipal school in Fukuoka's Nishi Ward, suffers posttraumatic stress disorder as a result of his teacher's actions, according to the lawsuit.

In an effort to show solidarity with the pupil and to make him feel that he is not isolated, 503 lawyers from around the country have put their names to the lawsuit. It is rare for such a large number of lawyers to be involved in one case.

According to the suit, between May and June this year the 46-year-old male teacher repeatedly told the boy, whose great-grandfather is an American, to commit suicide, saying such things as: "Your blood is filthy, jump from your condominium and die," and "Haven't you died yet? Make sure you do today." The teacher has since been suspended from work.

Furthermore, the teacher injured him on several occasions by making the boy choose from five forms of punishment, when it came time to go home. In one such punishment, "Pinnochio," the boy's nose was pinched so hard that it bled, the lawsuit said.

Lawyers for the boy, who suffers convulsions and nausea and has said he wants to "change his blood" and that he does not deserve to live, made an appeal to colleagues nationwide asking for support.

The Japan Times: Oct. 9, 2003
(C) All rights reserved

[Mortimer Snavely]

"But, very, very deeply racist."

I think that most Japanese would honestly disagree.

A big problem is their fear of the unknown. In Japan, people tend to require a thoroughly understood scenario where all possible outcomes, no matter how unlikely, can be predicted, before participation can be contemplated.

Foreigners are a wild card, thus unpredictable, and so are always problematic, and tend to be included out of serious activities.

Whether or not this is technically racism is irrelevant, because the end result is the same.

[TruthNtegrity]

And beward that poor gaijin if he doesn't understand that ONE date with a Japanese girl means that she will chase him and hold onto him forever, hoping for a large American house with washing machine, dryer and no relatives living with them!

I saw, from the vantage point of a Navy base in Japan, how dangerous it was for any American to ever think of asking a Japanese girl out on a date. A guy from my company SAT with a Japanese girl at a Sailor's wedding to a Japanese girl, and this girl considered it to have been a date. She chased him while he lived in Japan, and when he returned stateside, she found a way to get herself to DC, "to study English". Yup - she got him - they married. He could never get away from her, although he had started dating other women when he had returned here. But then, Japanese girl shows up - end of dating other women, end of freedom - married within a year.

My problem was with Japanese men, who are frankly, disgusting in public, but especially in those tightly packed trains. If you've never seen those "pushers", who shove all the people on a platform onto a train, you are in for the experience of your life. Japanese men use it as an excuse to rub themselves against you - totally disgusting experience, and no way to get away from them.

[yarddog]

Here is one harmless but still to me amusing incident regarding the Japanese students.

There were around 30 working that Summer. The resort was a religious one and smoking was forbidden on campus. One night I was in one of the sudents room conversing and I noticed a few times he glanced at his watch. Then a few minutes before One A.M., he made some excuse about needing to go to sleep so I left. Knowing these students liked to stay up really late I suspected something was going on.

I was in charge of security btw. I got outside the dorm and hid in some bushes. Sure enough, just at one o:clock, Japanese students, both male and female began to appear out of the dark and all met at the steps of the laundry building.

After a few minutes they all left as a group and went up to the recreation area which was about a half mile away. I followed at a distance and they got onto a softball field and formed a circle where they all sat around smoking and talking. Since they weren't really doing any harm we just let it go.

We also caught them several other times being sneaky but not really mean and again didn't make an issue of it.

[Centurion2000]

In Japanese culture this is 10x worse than it would be in American. Small nuances of dishonor can provoke great shame. Imagine abuse like this.

Sounds like his father should break out the samurai sword and have this teacher for sushimi.

[Centurion2000]

Well here in Germany i´ve an article(i think it was on spiegel online) about german exchange students being humiliated in the USA, because of our opposition against the Iraq war. According to this article they were harassed by their teachers and their guest families. A lot of them wanted to go back to Germany as soon as possible

Germans whining about racism ? That's like nation of islam calling itself a tolerant group.

[CatoRenasci]

Most racists of all sorts don't think they're racist, they simply believe their group to be superior.

Perhaps you know the Japanese better than I do. I have only been doing business there for 20 years and studying Japanese history and society for that period plus some in graduate school. In my view, and that of most commentators, including Japanese commentators such as Che Nakane, the Japanese truly believe they are superior to all other peoples, and concommitantly, that all other peoples are inferior (with the Chinese being a "wastrel elder brother" and the Koreans being little better (maybe) than dogs). Don't get me wrong, I like the Japanese, but liking them doesn't blind one to their national characteristics. And, a profound racism so deeply ingrained they can't see it seems to me one of them.

[mikegi]

I've had several Asian friends (both Americans and ones from Japan/Singapore/etc.). They've all been nice folks. Of course, after reading this I'm suspicious that they were stabbing me in the back secretly!

[Cronos]

Interesting, the attitude about gaijin (foreigners), but they seem to have most of their commercials featuring blonde blue eyed lots like Beckham etc. Hmm, that's another interestin' thing, are they disdainful of all 'gaijin' equally, both white AND black?

[Cronos]

Actually there are many Nipponese Christians as well, and the rest are a mix of Zen and Shinto.

[Cronos]

Pretty dumb of the Nipponese looking down on 'gaijin' when they themselves were pretty much barbarians looking for Chinese inspiration until the 14th century.

[Cronos]

Get them in group, however, and they reflexively think and act in a group.

That would seem to be characteristic of the Chinese-Japanese-Korean culture, with one Emperor and the masses following him blindly.

[Cronos]

Read a good article in the Financial tiems hte other week, about China's economy booming and it brought up a good point -- the idea of Asia is a Greek invention, considering as:
1. Europe's actually part of the Eurasian landmass, beign littler more than a peninsula.
2. The term 'Asian' doesn't mean that there is any commonality between the 4 different regions there, each with it's own history, language groups and religion. The 4 regions being: The Indian Sub-continent, The Egyptian-Mesopotamian, Central Asia and The Chinese-japanese-Korean part.

[DeinBabbes]

Take a look at your own history, before you remind me of the Third Reich. I wasn´t even born when they comitted all these crimes. I know racism was the wrong word so please stop whining about it. I just wanted to see how you react when you´re confronted with this story.

[DeinBabbes]

1. Did you ever attend any history lessons? We were already beaten by Stalin´s troops before you invaded the Normandie. Utterly defeated^^ don´t make me laugh. Not that i´m proud of Hitler´s madness but it´s always funny when an american tries to lecture someone from another country about his history.

2. they were not send there to be educated, they came to the USA to learn about your country, so they visited the US only for a short time. If they come to your country and only hear insults from your teachers and everyone else is this the right way to treat them? If your answer is yes then stop whining about anti-americanism in Germany. These students showed great interest in your culture, so i think it´s wrong to treat them like enemies.

I´m not belittleling your country even though it may sound like that. Next time please give me some arguments. You can start with whining about the leftist media in Germany.

[aruanan]

And they are the vainest men with the least justification on earth .

Is the former compensation for the latter? Also, any comments on the Bill Murray movie, Lost in Translation? I do enjoy watching those Japanese TV shows featuring physical competition.

[Centurion2000]

Take a look at your own history, before you remind me of the Third Reich. I wasn´t even born when they comitted all these crimes.

One I did not know that you were from Germany. Two, I really don't care. Three, chill out. Four, I'm half German myself so I can speak as I darned well please about Germans.

[Centurion2000]

1. Did you ever attend any history lessons? We were already beaten by Stalin´s troops before you invaded the Normandie.

You'd best thank God that the Germans were defeated before the Japanese or Berlin would have become the world's first radioactive crater instead of Japan.

[Centurion2000]

Berlin would have become the world's first radioactive crater instead of Japan

Correction : ... Berlin and Munich would have become the world's first radioactive craters instead of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

[DeinBabbes]

Like i said i have no problems with our defeat in WWII. I don´t want to start a discussion about WWII. In Germany we learn alot about the crimes our people did during that time. I just can´t stand if people always remind me of WWII and how i should feel ashamed of what happened instead of thinking about some arguments. What has WWII got to do with the problems of exchange students? Aren´t there better to arguments against this article?
I think it´s sad when people stand aside while someone is insulted just because of his race or heritage. We all know that things like that happened to Americans who live abroad i just wanted to show you that this happens in your country as well. No need for any comments about the nazis.

Maybe it´s better we stop this discussion. This is already offtopic.

[The Red Zone]

Sounds like his father should break out the samurai sword and have this teacher for sushimi.

If Dad is part American, well uranium bombs are still too difficult to get but maybe a good Napalm thrower. Remind them once more just who won WWII. </dark-humor>