Oops. I forgot that I had this draft sitting here. About a month ago (yikes! it’s been too long since I’ve posted), I attended the exhibition opening for “Obama no Obama,” an exhibit at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii, curated by Prof. Christine Yano, and highlighting “Obama merchandise,” or 『オバマ・グッズ』 from the Japanese city of Obama.
I have no pictures from the event, since we were not allowed to take pictures in the gallery, but I’m sure if you just Google, you’ll be able to find plenty of examples of the “I <3 Obama" goods being produced/sold in Obama City, from T-shirts and lanyards to “Yes We Can (of coffee)” to manju stamped with “I <3 Obama" on them, to lots of even weirder crazier stuff.
Obama was once a castle town, the center of a small han in Wakasa province, a major medieval seaport, and even today a major center for the production of lacquered chopsticks. It seems like a town with some serious historical value and other tourist interest that was in sore need of something to drum up business, and then, poof, there it was! Barack Obama catapulted onto the world stage in 2004, and began campaigning for president a few years later, and Obama City saw its opportunity!
I am sure that Dr. Yano has all kinds of complex, intensely insightful things she could say about this phenomenon, from an anthropological standpoint, but she also seems to just really enjoy the wackiness of it all.
For the opening, the mayor of Obama City was here, along with several members of the “We Love Obama Society”, and a hula troupe which formed in Obama City in celebration of their tenuous and wacky connection to Barack Obama, and through him to Hawaii. Their sensei (or kumu hula) was super nice – I ended up talking to her briefly. She’s from Tokyo, but just had a sort of energy about her that made me wonder if she was from here; she’s got a very good spirit.
Here’s a video of one of the Obama Girls’ hula performances. You can find two more on my YouTube account.
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On a perhaps slightly related note (insofar as it relates to US-Japan relations), I’ve found that a nice catalog of the Smithsonian holdings of gifts received by Commodore Perry in Japan and Ryukyu is freely available online. The book, entitled “Artifacts of Diplomacy: Smithsonian collections from Commodore Matthew Perry’s Japan Expedition (1853-1854),” can be found at: http://www.sil.si.edu/smithsoniancontributions/Anthropology/pdf_lo/SCtA-0037.pdf.
Perhaps most exciting and interesting for me is the lists, towards the very end of the catalog, of gifts given and received on specific dates by Commodore Perry and his entourage. I see no mention of the Gokoku-ji bronze temple bell, fashioned in 1456, and taken by Perry and hung at the Annapolis US Naval Academy where, I have heard, it was rung every time Navy beat Army in football, until the bell was returned in the 1980s or so; nor do I see any mention of Okinawan coral limestone brought back by Perry to be inserted into the Washington Monument, then under construction. (The stone was in the end inserted, at the 220th landing. Hopefully, it’s visible and marked today; I’ll have to take a look the next time I am in DC.) But, even so, to see the lists of exactly how many fans, bolts of silk, pouches of tobacco, etc. the Commodore and his people received on each visit to Ryukyu, and what sorts of gifts they gave to the Ryukyuan royalty and officials in return, is really quite interesting.
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Meanwhile, as just sort of a side note, the Korean Uigwe texts which I mentioned about a year ago that Japan was talking about returning, are now in the process of actually being returned. I think this is a great thing for Korea, and hopefully this will actually foster some goodwill, rather than being viewed by Koreans as just getting back what the “evil” Japan “stole” from them.
Putting aside whether or not the books should be returned – I think it’s a great effort of goodwill that they are being returned – I maintain my view that their “theft” was not “illegal” as the Korean YonHap News Agency would have it. Korea was a part of Japan at that time just as much as Okinawa is today; if moving these books to Tokyo during peacetime constituted “looting” or “theft”, then so does moving objects of Okinawan importance to Tokyo, or moving objects of Hawaiian importance to Washington, or moving Welsh or Scottish objects to London. Call it immoral or inappropriate if you like, or culturally insensitive, but it’s not illegal.
Another “Quick Links” coming up soon!
Didn’t the “Evil” Japanese destroyed many of Korea’s historical buildings as well? it was illegally stolen from the government and put into private museums as property. Korea was not part of Japan, but part of a Japanese Empire, which was a colonial entity, a foreign one.
Oh, the Japanese did all kinds of horrible things in Korea at that time. Call them terrible, unconscionable, if you like. But that doesn’t make them illegal.
You say things were illegally stolen from the government? From what government? There was no Korean government at the time. Do you mean the Japanese government? The Japanese Colonial Authorities? Because I find it unlikely that the Japanese government would steal from itself.
However “evil” we may like to think colonialism is, that doesn’t make Japan’s control of Korea at that time any less genuine. For all intents and purposes, Korea was just as much a part of Japan (or “Imperial Japan” or 大日本帝国 if you prefer) as Hawaii is part of the US, or Wales is part of the UK today.
The only law that was valid in Korea was Japanese law, and correct me if I’m wrong but I doubt the Japanese were in violation of Japanese law in doing these horrible things that they did.
I dont support or condone the destruction of historical sites, or the looting of cultural objects in the course of a war. But however inappropriate, however repulsive, one thing it was not was illegal, under the laws of the Empire of Japan – the laws in place under the authorities controlling Korea at that time.
So it’s simply right that Japanese destroyed nearly 95% of historical Joseon palaces because some colonial law imposed by a foreign country illegally? Yes, illegally by an annexation treaty that wasn’t signed by the Emperor of Korea and illegally ousted by military threats from Japan. Korea was just a foreign country, not part of Japan until 1910. How about artifacts from China, Taiwan, etc?
Sure, there was no Korean gov’t that controlled Korea, aren’t you forgetting the provisional government?
Since S.Korea is independent country, yes it was illegal to take those artifacts and NOT give it back after the end of colonial rule.
I never said it was “right”. Not at all. It was terribly wrong. I just said it was legal. Please understand that I agree with you that what was done was wrong, that all of this, from the destruction of historic sites to the removal of cultural artifacts to secretting them away and denying access to scholars. But what is wrong is not always illegal.
My point is simply that we should not conflate morality or ethics with legality. Just because colonialism is considered morally reprehensible today does not mean that all actions related to it were “illegal” under the laws of the time. If there were indeed legal issues with the Treaties at that time, as you say, then, I yield that in that case, Japan’s control of Korea was indeed illegal. But it’s this matter of the treaties that would determine that, not just the simple matter of that they did morally or ethically reprehensible things. Which they did.
I remember the Obama village folks elation at Obama’s victory.. I did not read much about the village so thanks for this post. I remember I found myself wondering to what extent those people understood American politics and the historical relevance of the election. As you said, they probably seized the opportunity for some advertisement – the shape is what counts.
As for Korea – hmm that’s the same old issue, right? Should Britain return the Rosetta Stone, or the Parthenon frieze? I think Japan and Korea still have a long way to go before (and if) certain matters start to settle – gestures such as the one mention are much, much needed.
Rosetta Stone is publicly viewed, while the Uigwe books were kept in secret even after the colonial rule. They weren’t even recognized by any Japanese historians until recently the Japanese government announced they had these. Yes, both countries HAVE a long way to go but one should know who was the victim and the aggressor before.
Yes, that distinction is very clear in my mind. And efforts should be done to bring that history back from the drawer where it has been hidden for decades.
I actually road-tripped to Obama: http://odorunara.wordpress.com/2009/12/01/fukui-roadtrip/
I have a ton of pictures of the Obamiyage if you’re interested in seeing some. ^^
Oh, the Japanese did all kinds of horrible things in Korea at that time. Call them terrible, unconscionable, if you like. But that doesn’t make them illegal. However “evil” we may like to think colonialism is, that doesn’t make Japan’s control of Korea at that time any less genuine. For all intents and purposes, Korea was just as much a part of Japan (or “Imperial Japan” or 大日本帝国 if you prefer) as Hawaii is part of the US, or Wales is part of the UK today. The only law that was valid in Korea was Japanese law, and correct me if I’m wrong but I doubt the Japanese were in violation of Japanese law in doing these horrible things that they did.
I dont support or condone the destruction of historical sites, or the looting of cultural objects in the course of a war. But however inappropriate, however repulsive, one thing it was not was illegal, under the laws of the Empire of Japan – the laws in place under the authorities controlling Korea at that time.
There’s a problem in this, Japan haven’t even allowed Korean historians to even see their artifacts which was totally wrong for them. Heck, Japan just kept this until recently told Korea that they had these books all long. Japanese law or not, it was looting. Anyone with a common sense know this.