Shohei Ohtani and the Tragedy of Japanese Translation: Chapter 2

There is a beautiful poetry and justice to Shohei’s success in Major League Baseball. Japan is an island country in what the West call the Far East, heavily influenced by the neighboring Chinese civilization as shown in its writing and spoken language. For centuries, Western countries tried to figure out how to interact with the East. Japan being an island country was able to contain the incursion and potential violence of the Westerners by shutting itself off from the world. Individuals in feudal Japan could be punished or executed for leaving the islands. Two Western countries specifically got preferential treatment in trade, the Netherlands and Portugal. Several centuries of this mutually beneficial exchange continued until as any Japanese will tell you 黒船来航 (kurofuneraikou) or in English the Black Ships Arrived At The Port. The White European Americans came as most Westerners did, with guns loaded and threats of violence. They wanted to extort the Japanese to trade conditions in their favor. 

What transpired was known in this part of history and a continuing theme in Western culture of making Asian people and cultures subservient to Westerners. It is the idea of the unequal treaty. This was a condition that made many parts of Asia from the Middle East, India, SouthEast Asia, and even parts of China “colonies” of Western nations. The Japanese by remaining isolated and not venturing out and exploring the world had left themselves behind. They missed out on the great land grab and subjugation of non Western people that the legacy of much of Western Civilization is built upon today. I mean, America itself, is built from the colonial expansion of the West, specifically the British Empire, and has established a legal and cultural English or Anglo dominance that persists to this very day. Many of the same white nationalist ideas and laws which were created at the founding of America on the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 proceed today preserving the very core of white nationalism in America and its association with the white nationalist leadership of the Founding Fathers to this very day. Those core ideals and values are still hallowed and celebrated to this very day through the lingua franca of America, English, a foreign language to the American continent, and the flag and anthem, themselves ongoing legacies of a white nationalism.