Newsletter

Most of us have heard a lot of news about the recent earthquakes in Japan. At 2:46 PM on April 11, one month after the massive earthquake hit Japan on March 11, everyone in Japan heard a siren and offered a silent prayer for the victims of the earthquake. Two and a half hours later, at 5:16 PM, I went to a post office just across from school, and at that time, tall buildings began to shake tremendously. This time the epicenter was somewhere near Tokyo, and a magnitude 7 earthquake had an impact on my neighborhood. All buildings and trees outside were rocking from side to side. I had motion sickness, and felt terrified all at once. When will it be over? Everyone pretends they are fine, but we are all experiencing one uneasy day after another here in Japan. I think that many Japanese people want to flee to Korea only if it is possible.

[Painting 1] Scolding the catfish to
prevent earthquakes from occurring

There is a popular belief in Japan that a massive earthquake occurs when a huge catfish, deep under the ground, shakes violently with fury. It is said that when Toyotomi Hideyoshi (豊臣秀吉) ordered his servants to build a castle right after he triggered the Imjin War (Japanese invasions of Korea, 1592-1598, 壬辰倭亂), he mentioned, "Build a strong castle that can withstand earthquakes caused by the catfish." There is no scientific evidence, of course, but many Japanese people still believe that earthquakes happen because of this catfish

[Painting 2]
Earthquake prevention
performance

Paintings called "Namazue (鯰繪)" were very popular in the last days under Tokugawa Ieyasu (徳川家康)'s reign. Namazue is a parody of Ukiyo-e(浮世繪) or folk painting (民畵) in which people appease or scold the huge catfish [Painting 1] or people push it to the point where it cannot move at all [Painting 2], in order to prevent earthquakes from occurring. In particular, a magnitude 7 earthquake hit Edo (江戶, today's Tokyo) on November 11, 1855. The number of victims reached as many as 4,300, and more than 10,000 houses were destroyed. After that, Namazue became more popular and sold like pancakes. Later, diverse versions of Namazue came out, including a painting in which the catfish helps poor people suffering from Yonaoshiiki (世直し一揆), and another one in which the catfish shares joy with merchants who made a lot of money due to policies that boost the economy after the earthquake. Moreover, there was a painting in which Commodore Perry of the US Navy and the catfish fight a duel against each other, when Commodore Perry came to Japan for the second time with his "black ships (黑船)" to sign the Convention of Kanagawa in 1854 [Painting 3].

[Painting 3]
Duel between Commodore
Perry and the catfish

As explained before, the myth of the catfish has been with Japanese people for a long time. Due to the massive earthquake and tsunami, a nuclear plant in Japan was destroyed, leaking radiation. Now it seems that Japan needs another imaginary animal in order to overcome the hardship. Given the Japanese government's dilly-dallying and inadequate response to the radiation disaster, it may take several hundred years to create another imaginary animal. It is a quite likely scenario, considering that it took almost a month for the Japanese government to officially acknowledge that there was a massive leakage of radiation.

[Photograph 1]
People enjoying spring

Japan is the only country to have suffered nuclear bomb attacks. This time, Japan is suffering from a radiation disaster, and it did not even inform its neighbor, Korea, of its plan to dump the radiation-contaminated water into the sea.
It is a behavior of a sea contamination "terrorist nation". In the past, Japan was a "terrorist nation" with colonialism and imperialism. Today, it fails to officially acknowledge its wrongdoings under the colonial rule, turning a blind eye on the illegality of its forced annexation of Korea. Moreover, Japan continues to make unjust territorial claims against Korea. Japanese people in Ueno Park (上野公園) enjoy spring under the full-blown cherry blossoms [Photograph 1]. I wonder if they understand that we suffer more severely from these kind of psychological attacks.

"I think that what is even more worrisome and terrifying than radiation-contaminated water or air is the tall barrier between Korea and Japan, including visible and invisible prejudice, discrimination, and a sense of superiority. Korean and Japanese people should join hands and spare no effort in bringing down the barrier."