Are Asians Perennial Adolescents 7

This numinosity, this light in the human soul that directs human action is not something that just the Japanese have. It is this very light that Virginia Woolf speaks of so often in her novels, this sense of Being that we reach toward but are also burned and killed by like moths.

This numinosity is something that the Japanese prize in themselves. I think it explains their artistic talent.

The Japanese love to talk about the Uniqueness of Japanese culture. Japan is so unique. They talk about how unique something is or about how Japanese you are being when you do something with near perfection. Japan, in essence, is not a unique culture. It has taken much from China. It has taken much from other Asian countries too, I suspect. It simply has made these things Japanese. The personal camera was not made in Japan. It was actually very inventive Americans who were working on the personal camera. The US government gave them very little support. Some Japanese came and they were very interested in the cameras they were making. These Japanese basically stole the ideas of the Americans and stylized the cameras to make them Japanese. There are plenty of people who still think it was the Japanese who made the portable, personal camera.

The Japanese are known as the Geniuses of Imitation. They should be known as the Geniuses of Making Everything Japanese. Everything from another culture must be made essentially Japanese or it does not belong.

Onto the Japanese Economy:

Now, I don't think the Japanese actually thought up the idea of the export-driven economy. At first, Japan, like any beginning economy, saw its advantage in producing cheap goods. When cheap Japanese electronics first entered the American market, they were considered low-quality goods. With the money that Japan made in cheap goods, Japan began to do research in higher quality goods. They probably took apart the higher priced electronics and figured out how it worked. Some parts they probably replaced with cheaper parts. The Japanese ear is an excellent ear. They probably increased the sound quality. Then, they entered the high-quality electronics market. The personal camera, I already spoke of. As for the car market, Japan entered when there was the fuel crises in the late 1970's, I believe. American cars were literally fuel guzzlers and the cost of fuel was rising. Japan saw a gap and went right through it. The ability to go through a gap is definitely a Japanese talent.

Japan succeeded in almost all of it economic ventures. It was quite amazing. It was the East Asian economic miracle. Was it good for America?

When I read Lee Iaccoca, when I saw those cartoons with a Japanese sushi chef making the US into sushi pieces that spell out the USA (my memory is not clear on this image, but I think that was the gist of the cartoon), I really have to wonder why the US, over and over again, accepted those trade deals with Japan that were so obviously unfair.

I have thought about this issue for a while. At one point, I thought that the American businessmen were exhausted after the lengthy negotiations in which they may see completely new faces who continue the negotiations on the Japanese side while, they, the tired Americans must continue. One can feel suffocated and tired after such negiotations which seem to last forever without any forseeable end. "Business is War," the Japanese say. It's a War of Attrition for the Japanese. Just wear the enemy down.

I thought the American Businessmen would probably spend a few nights with a Japanese courtesan, geisha, or prostitute and then give up... surrender. "Fuck this," he would say. "Someone else can take care of this problem."

Over time, I found my explanation of the problem to be too complex. Over time, after watching many documentaries about the US, it became obvious to me why the US had acted so cowardly toward Japan.

THE US IS AN EXTREMELY ENEMY-DRIVEN COUNTRY.