Rectifying Metanarratives

U.S. Independence Day, July 4, provides an annual opportunity for observing a national metanarrative on display. Patriotic tunes and fireworks that reenact “The rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air” celebrate gallant patriots who fought off the mighty British Red Coats over two centuries ago. The fanfare also salutes today’s armed forces and their global defense of U.S.-Americans’ freedoms. Not on display, of course, are the displacement-annihilation generations earlier of indigenous North Americans by settlers of Western European descent, or the forced relocation-enslavement of millions of West Africans. The latter’s unresolved history showed itself yet again in this past week’s events in Baton Rouge, St. Paul, and Dallas.

 Another region with acute pain from conflicting metanarratives is modern East Asia. On the one hand, as a U.S.-American that has lived much of his adult life in Japan, I resonate deeply with Japanese instincts and sensibilities. That goes for interpersonal relationships, how language and communication work, cuisine, sports, beauty, sounds, seasonal changes, and any number of other aspects of life in Japan. At the same time, various atrocities that the Japanese imperial military committed over the several years up through 1945, coupled with the degrading Japanese occupation of Korea (and in a different way Taiwan), bear a dark reproach upon Japanese standing before the Divine as well as before the peoples of Asia and beyond. Deep pain and anger persist over the unresolved wrongs that took place.

 Within such lingering darkness in East Asia, there is encouragement to be found. Over recent years some Korean, Chinese, and Japanese private individuals who have been engaged with modern issues - as activists, teachers, historians, for example - have taken cooperative initiatives to compose common East Asian historical accounts covering modern times. One particular initiative was in reaction to the 2001 approval by the Japanese Ministry of Education of a middle school textbook that glossed over the 1937 Nanjing Massacre and other Japanese military atrocities. The participants shared a common concern that young people in all their countries learn history in a fair and truthful way. Through their numerous meetings over four years the collaborative team encountered all sorts of seemingly  insurmountable barriers: hostile subconscious notions, sweeping prejudices, contrasting labels for the same events, differing frameworks for historical outlines, and linguistic misunderstandings. Remarkably the group was able to work through many of those challenges and achieve much empathy, crystallized understandings of remaining differences, and a common East Asian history written in their respective languages (and translated into English as A History to Open the Future) for wide educational use.

 The example of similar post-World War II European projects have helped to encourage this East Asian initiative to persevere in tackling its seemingly more intractable challenges. Other contexts demand similar ongoing efforts, including between Turkish and Armenian and, perhaps most internationally crucial of all, Israeli and Palestinian. Such ventures are not easy and are fraught with all sorts of unforeseen mine fields. Local initiatives are also essential, including in the complex U.S. milieu, as Anthony Bradley has so aptly pointed out. But justice, peace, and integrity demand the efforts.

 Past wrongs cannot be made right, nor can past deeds and their effects be undone, However, empathy and common understandings can increase. Moreover, just restitution - be it financial, legal, emotional, or otherwise - can take place.

In the end, God will have the final say at Judgment Day. Until then, common efforts by people divided by previous wrong and harmful actions are worth the struggle for just peace and for turning enemies into friends. Working at understanding history together, as well as collaborating locally, are particularly important. May God’s Spirit give strength to those who embark on such ventures.