blog#2

1.       One scene where I saw aimai as a virtue was when the school administrator was first telling the teacher about how parents were complaining about Noguchi’s desk. Instead of arguing with the school administrator the teacher remained quiet and remained ambiguous. This was virtuous because instead of voicing his opinion and causing disruption, he maintained harmony between the school administration, him, and the students’ parents.

2.       The scenes with Sonobe, Noguchi, and the other bully show ambiguity. For example, when Sonobe is talking to Noguchi (in his memory), Noguchi is saying “No” and begging not to have to steal; however, he is doing it with a forced smile and forced laughter.  This shows aimai on the part of Noguchi because he was reluctant to sternly say “No”, and this gave Sonobe the opportunity to ignore his pain.

3.       In America bullying usually involves name-calling, pranks, public humiliation, and violence. In Japan bullying is more hidden. Japanese bullying is caused by people using other people’s desire to be uchi to manipulate them; whereas, American bullying is caused by people’s physical and verbal violence.

4.       Noguchi’s desire to be uchi caused his to not stand up for himself. And it was the other students’ desire to establish soto that caused them to bully. This can be seen with the bullying that occurred when a female student sent out and email telling everyone not to talk to another female student. The bullied student did not take a stand against the group because she wanted to be with the group, and the bullies treated her this way because they wanted to make a clear distinction of who was soto.

5.       In the film it seems as though the male students were socially dominant to the female student. This can be seen in with the boy who constantly stole the notebook of the bullied girl. The girl barely fights back and the boy establishes his dominance, which is the patriarchal dominance of Danjyo Kankei.

6.       The second set of reflection papers were more honest and showed that the students knew that they made a mistake. For example, Sonobe directly addressed Noguchi and explained to him why he was going to remember his faults. In Sonobe’s first letter he was writing it for the school; therefore, did not use meaningful language and wrote the letter so that he could forget the situation.

7.       The stuttering teacher challenged the students not to resort to bullying. Their first instinct was to make fun of the teacher; however, many of them then learned the need to “ listening earnestly,” as the teacher would say.

8.       The 3^rd person listed on Noguchi’s suicide note was “and everybody else.”

9.       The teacher told Sonobe that bullying is when you trample on somebody and refuse to see their pain.

10.   I like the quote “Starting over is cowardly”. This is an important life lesson topic that is ignored in American culture.