LLA 4/30

The word “propaganda” often came up when I learned about WWI and WWII; however, similar to the difference between socialism and communism, I had never really understood the concept of the word, so today’s LLA lecture was useful to me as it cleared up my vague understanding. I thought that this topic profoundly relates to Lies My Teacher Told Me because textbook authors concealing or exaggerating facts about certain historical figures or events seems similar to omnipotent corporations censoring the information on newspapers, for example. Who knows, there may be powerful industries behind textbook makings who control what materials are put into children’s spongy brains.

I learned last year in politics and economics class that the Yomiuri Shimbun strongly encouraged the importation of nuclear power technology into Japan, information that was censored by the government and the reporter. I think that the same can be said with the news about nuclear power contamination in Fukushima. The government assured the people that the contamination they were exposed to were higher than usual but harmless to the body, which seems unlikely. It can be assumed that the Tokyo Electric Power Corporation controlled the presentation of this information. It is frightening to think that information on a national newspaper that people rely on for accuracy is being muddled around by big industries. My parents always encourage me to read newspapers to “stay on track” with the surrounding occurrences, but reading these may lead me to a track of falsehood. Furthermore, the short documentary about two journalists who were blackmailed for finding out about Monsanto’s use of rBST in cows was upsetting since they could not win the case because of the inexistence of any law that says that news should not tell lies. The reason of their defeat is ridiculous, and how the Monsanto cares more about their profit than the health of Americans is appalling. This documentary told me that you can never win against powerful industries and their domination of the media. Now, I do not know where to look for trustworthy information since many of the media are censored by these companies.

It was difficult for me to look at the pictures of a distorted body, a dead bloody baby, and an old person carrying a heavily injured child because they were so devastating, but I felt that no matter how grotesque or inhumane they are, we need to see them because they capture the reality. I believe that a lot of censoring was done in the Iraqi war by the American government and weapon production companies to convince Americans that this was a meaningful war for both countries when in reality, it was hardly. Again, it frightens me how we are being manipulated by the government, who are supposed to be protecting us, and the insensitive, massive companies who lead us to our ignorance of facts that may significantly affect our lives, such as the danger of certain chemicals in the American milk, and that is simply unjust.

ELA class 4/29

First of all, I am glad to know about the tutorial sign-up web page since I embarrassingly visited Rab’s office this morning without knowing about it… I am sorry about thatL From now on, my name will appear on the sign-up page before I actually appear in Rab’s office!

The first topic that we discussed today in class was what we thought about the revelation of Columbus’s “other side”, and most people in my group said that the facts were not a surprise to them because they had either already learned it in school or had expected it, and this was a surprise to me. This tells me that although textbooks may lie to students, some exceptional history teachers do not, so the book title Lies My Teacher Told Me seems unfit. I thought that the people who had previously been taught the material were lucky since it must have been intriguing learning about Columbus’s unknown characteristics while studying about him and the age he lived in. I never enjoyed a single history class in high school because it was merely time given to make an exact copy of the chalkboard surface on my notebook, so I am envious.

Rab showed us a video today by a person called Ken Tanaka, who was adopted by a Japanese family after being abandoned by his parents in Japan. (I did a little research on him, and it seems that his true name is David Ury, who is an American actor and translator of Japanese animes and mangas, and he adopted the name Ken Tanaka for his Youtube channel. However, it also says that Ken Tanaka is a so-called identical twin brother of David Ury. All these information are from Wikipedia, so they are probably not trustworthy but it was still interesting to find out about this.) Personally, I found this video to be slightly offensive towards the Japanese people. It seemed to me as if he was poking fun at the weird communication gestures instead of introducing an interesting cultural aspect of Japan. His mimicking of the Japanese English pronunciation will most likely annoy many Japanese people as well. However, I suppose what matters is his intentions. Rab mentioned today that when we view the customs of other countries, we need to apply critical analysis, meaning we should not decide what is unorthodox or orthodox according our own cultural views. If Ken Tanaka’s intention in this video was to demonstrate an intriguing linguistic nature of Japan, then I think the video is acceptable, but if his intention was to mock the queer-looking gestures and sounds of the Japanese culture, then he should not have done it. Nevertheless, I found myself laughing while watching this video which is contradictory to what I feel. Perhaps this is telling me that I am both Japanese and Canadian because the fact that I am laughing denotes that I understand the viewpoint of a non-Japanese person looking at the Japanese culture.

Lies... Chapter 2

When I read this chapter about Columbus, I was not too astonished about Columbus’s merciless behaviour towards the Native Indians, Africans, and the Haitians because it was not the first time to hear of such treatment. I was taught about the violent, unjust treatment of the Aztecs by the Spanish explorer Cortes whom the Aztec leader thought was a god because Cortes brought horses and guns, which were new to the Aztecs. The Aztecs welcomed Cortes and his crews; however, when Cortes compelled the Aztecs to convert to Christianity, the Aztecs refused, so Cortes massacred the place and took the gold, of course. Columbus’s story closely resembles this one. It is strange that Cortes’s story is more famous than Columbus’s. Perhaps it is because Columbus is “supposed to be” the first discoverer of Americas and American textbook authors are particular about keeping this figure unsullied and unstained as much as possible.  

I believe Loewen was more successful in this chapter in persuading me that textbooks need to include more accurate details because it included many supporting evidence that were derived from primary sources. For example, to support his assertion that Asians and Africans may have discovered the Americas before Columbus, he mentioned of organic materials painted with faces similar to Africans found in the east coast of Mexico, which is a fairly reliable source.

When Loewen pointed out that information in some history textbooks contradict with others, I thought that was a little ridiculous although some of them were comical, to be honest. In fact, I enjoyed reading this section the most. Nevertheless, I fail to understand the intention of textbook authors who decide to include anyway the information that they are uncertain of. For example, some textbooks say that during Columbus’s journey the sea was peaceful while the others declare that it was storm-battered. This addition of melodrama may be a kind of entertainment fit for fiction books, but not for history books that are supposed to be filled with credible materials. Ultimately, I have become confused about the making of history textbooks. I felt as if textbooks are somewhat like Wikipedia where “history experts” can easily alter the information that the public sees. Loewen mentions that some of the details that authors invent are harmless. I think that depends on how you interpret “harmless” since these are undoubtedly filling the students’ brains with false information which cannot be “harmless”. However, I felt that some of them are quite detrimental. For example, Loewen asserts that some American textbooks include that the “bad” Turks cut off trade with Europe. He conjectures that authors may have included this to provide evidence for Islam followers’ irrational behaviours. If Loewen’s conjecture is correct, and if this, in any way, contributes to increase the tension between Islamic people and the Americans, then this manipulation is much dire than one thinks it is as it might be interfering with international affairs.

When we judge history textbooks, I felt that we should take nationalism into account. Loewen emphasized countless times that American textbooks were “Eurocentric”. I believe that it is natural for people to be nationalistic. For example, when we watch the soccer World Cup, we want our country to win.  It may be difficult finding the middleground to satisfy both sides-the white side and the non-white side when selecting which materials to be included in history textbooks. Too much inclusion of white people’s accomplishments degrade the non-white people. I am going to digress a little, but I studied about WWII in a Canadian high school, and my teacher tacitly implied to the class that U.S had no choice but to drop the bombs in Hiroshima because Japan’s menacing power had to be hindered. I was appalled because my teacher taught the material as if the U.S. was justified in bombing Japan, which is certainly not what is thought by the Japanese people. So that may be what the non-white people feel when the U.S. textbooks are so “Eurocentric”.  On the other hand, too much emphasis on the coloured people may cause some white people to receive criticism from “Eurocentric” people, as Loewen mentioned. I believe there is presumably not a single American history textbook that satisfies everyone, and nor will there be any.