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Violence of The Heart
is
Toughest to Fight
June, 2001 |
My
hand-scrawled caption for the photo reads: “Principal Kiuchi, not to be trifled
with.” If the student crashing to the floor isn’t evidence enough, the
expression on the faces of onlooking classmates is proof aplenty. Principal
Kiuchi is not to be trifled with.
In 1996 I had
the pleasure of touring Kannami Junior High School in Kannami, Japan,
pre-arranged by a relative of a friend I was traveling with. She had been at
the school a year or so teaching English, and was graciously serving as our
volunteer guide, translator, and travel agent.
The visit came
at the end of a month-long international trip and I was bone-dead weary, but if
there are a more hospitable people on earth than the Japanese I have yet to
stumble across them. The typical American household handles unexpected guests
by drawing the drapes and playing possum; Japanese homes keep a supply of
pre-wrapped gifts in case strangers drop by. Such generosity is hard to
decline.
I was glad I
didn’t. The school was spotless, the children polite and neat in their
uniforms, the halls and playground orderly. Hardly robots, these kids simply
live with, and up to, higher expectations, but we saw them laugh, play, work
happily in classroom groups – and take judo for physical education. Take it
pretty seriously, by the look of things.
Principal
Kiuchi certainly did. A trim man of about 50, he once practiced judo
competitively and still had an eye for form and technique. The students
sharpened up visibly when we entered the gym, which I took as a sign of respect,
though in hindsight I suspect they also wished to avoid a hands-on
demonstration.
I don’t know if
Kannami Junior High is representative of public education in Japan, but I
remember thinking if it is it’s no mystery you don’t hear much about school
violence there. To the casual observer at least, the children seemed respectful
and disciplined, the staff focused and well trained, the principal firmly in
control.
Unfortunately, people are
pretty much the same everywhere. In a massacre exceeding any recent American
school slaughter except Columbine, a 37-year-old unemployed man with a history
of mental problems killed eight students at an elementary school in Ikeda
earlier this month. Aside from the dead, all between the ages of 6 and 8, 15
were wounded. Police say the attack lasted about 10 minutes.
Extreme violent crimes are
still relatively rare in Japan, though recent high profile cases have citizens
and politicians alike worried. While the Ikeda attack was Japan’s worst since a
cult killed 12 in a 1995 nerve gas attack on a Tokyo subway, the nation has had
several jolts since.
Last year alone a teenager
used a baseball bat to randomly batter strangers at a Tokyo shopping area, a
second teen beat his mother to death with a bat, while yet another knifed a
neighbor to death for the pure thrill of it. A year before that a man stabbed a
7-year-old dead on a school playground.
Aside from
sheer U.S.-style senselessness, these attacks have one thing in common: None
involved a gun. Japanese law forbids private ownership of guns, a notion
popular among Americans who tell us that mass murders can’t happen without
them.
That would be a pretty
tough sell to at least eight sets of parents in Ikeda right now. Japanese Prime
Minister Junichiro Koizumi has pledged to do whatever it takes to revive the
country’s reputation for nonviolence, saying “The safe society is crumbling. We
must think of ways to deal with this problem.” But unlike U.S. politicians,
he’ll have to find a less convenient demon than guns.
He need look no further
than the human heart. And since he has no place else to point, he just might
find his answers.
© 1997- 2002 Brent Morrison
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