HIEA 115 #3

After examining the stories of buraku, Okinawan, and Korean women, as well as those who lived in the Japanese countryside, it made me ponder more deeply how much of my knowledge and perspective of history is actually unbiased. Is it possible to truly understand historical events accurately and with complete objectivity? My view on this topic is that although we cannot control biases in historical records, we can control our own point of view. Not only is it important to reference various sources but also going beyond the words and consider the purposes and intentions behind the text. This is especially relevant to the stories we have examined in this course since the subjects of our exploration are often those who have less voice or impact on society. Despite their crucial role in the transformation of Japan, these are the people who had little to no ability to leave their footprints on historical records, therefore, they are probably the most underrepresented and misunderstood groups. However, we should still attempt to form as complete a picture as possible in order to fully understand the larger history.

When thinking about the present time, this unprecedented global pandemic will undoubtably be marked as a significant turning point in history. For example, if a historian is writing about this global pandemic with the purpose of warning future generations of the dangers of a novel virus, what is likely not going to be accurately demonstrated in this record are the different individual experiences. Some have experience tremendous grief as a result of the virus affecting their health, losing a family member, or financial troubles; some may be enraged because the pandemic has affected their relationships, plans, or political campaign; some may feel confused or lost at the unprecedented situation; some may have even benefited from the pandemic financially; for others, it may not have had much impact at all. It is only natural for people to be living in various situations and experiencing different changes but historians may not capture the whole picture accurately. Some of these experiences could be left out of the record for the purpose of more effectively depicting the event as a fearful time in history. From this perspective, it can be said that the stories of the women we looked at these past few weeks represent the experiences that are not necessarily consistent with the “general” history. These experiences go against the larger historical arguments made about the time and they are left out of record for this reason. If we view history with a preconceived, monolithic notion of what people at time should have been like or felt like, we cannot begin to grasp the complexity of people’s individual experiences.