Here I should be teaching history.

Two examples alone are enough to merit these words.

In the very class where I read the story, from the English textbook New Horizon, of the tree who remembers people dying under her branches due to the bombing of Hiroshima (consisting of fourteen and fifteen year olds), I found a very alarming graphic on a student's pencil case. It was a swastika next to a skull wearing an army helmet with the words "destroy your pretty face" or something of that nature. I don't know what is more disturbing, the fact that this kid didn't know not to buy/use/have this pencil case or the fact that it is sold in stores here (or the fact that teachers haven't prevented him from using it even after I made it known in the office).

The other example comes secondhand, from my mom when she was here. My mother and I were at an enkai (drinking party) and my mother was talking to one of my favorite people from my office (who also speaks English). I was speaking to some Japanese men who were trying to tell me that they liked to suck women's nipples, but that's another story. I could almost hear the conversation of the other side of the room that my mom later recounted. They were discussing World War II and the Japanese popular reaction to the war. My mother had just told my co-worker that her family in Japan was, like many Japanese families, against the war from the get-go. This shocked my co-worker, who replied: "you mean there were Japanese who were against the war?" My co-worker, who had to have been a very good student and quite well-read, was not to fault for this, of course. For one, it is hard to say how many people were really firmly against the war. But it does suggest that Japanese history textbooks do not provide a very comprehensive account of the war to which their country was central. That, coupled with the swastika pencil case, is enough for me to want to be a history teacher here (and an English teacher as well, to help the Japanese converse with other cultures).

Something happened in the unhappy news that, despite its unhappiness or rather because of it, I wanted to bring it up here. Van Tuong Nguyen was hung yesterday for trafficking 396 grams of heroin through Singapore. Officials in Singapore decided, depite pleas for otherwise, not to let the condemned man hug his mother before his death, he only was allowed to hold hands. This all happened despite pleas from Australia's prime minister John Howard.

On a similar note, the U.S. just hit its 1,000th person executed since 1976. That is not good. Although many of these people were charged with crimes much greater than Nguyen's (in my humble opinion) many of these people may not have truly done the crimes of which they were pronounced guilty. Even if they had been guilty, killing is not right. For those who are not insane, something like shame and prison would be a much better approach. For those who are insane, then there are insanse asylums.

The causes of, and fixes for, the predominance of insanity in America is another problem that needs to be addressed, but I'll save that for another time.