Thursday, December 13, 2007
Surreal Human Rights Experience
There won't be too many posts that I put up without pictures, but this is definately worthy of immediate mention. Today was a normal day at Ritto- Nishi Chugako. I was grading papers at my desk when a teacher approached me to let me know that there was a Human Rights Performance in the gym being done by the second grade(our 8th grade). I was appreciative of the heads up, so I followed him to the gym. Once in there, I realized I might be stuck in there for an hour, trying to pick out any Japanese vocabulary that sounds familiar to me. Then the piano started and a stage full of thirteen year old Japanese kids started singing "We Shall Overcome". I must say, they did a nice job. After the song, which up until that performance I had solely connected to the African American Civil Rights movement, I began trying to pick through the Japanese vocabulary for something to hold onto.
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3 comments:
What about the Hayama Human Rights Day? You must tell people of the sign language teacher that was brought in.
Maybe they were trying to get a jump on Black history month, or just showing support to African Americans. Maybe not, just an idea since you couldn't understand what was really going on.
That's pretty weird.
I like the idea that they were getting a jump on Black History month. That makes complete sense.
One time at an Arlo Guthrie concert he introduced "This Land is Your land" by talking about a time he was in Japan w/ his mom and Woody was being honored by some school. They sang it to them and Arlo said to his mom "It's from California to the New York Islands... why are they singing this song" to which his mom replied, "Woody never said which way around the Earth he meant." It could be a similar situation... using American folk traditions to honor their own struggles. Just like when I make paper cranes to bring hope to my radiation riddled community.
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