While all of America is waking up to a nice Sunday morning, here in Japan, it's nearly the next day. 9/11 has come and gone here.
This year, 9/11 for the Japanese had more significance: it was election day. I asked several people who they voted for, and although some actually voted progressively (my host father voted for the Democratic Party of Japan - the liberal party), the common response was, "Jimintou wa tabun katsu" - the Liberal Democratic Party (which is actually neither liberal nor democratic) will probably win."
So what's it like in a foreign country with all this stuff going on in America? Read on.
When news first broke about New Orleans, my host family asked me if everyone I knew was okay. My whole family lives in New York, so yes, everyone was fine. We watched the news quite a bit, and nearly evey night, there was something about New Orleans and how things were breaking down. Just a few hours ago, they were talking about things there, and watching the report was sort of like reading DailyKos in moving form. They interviwed a bunch of people in New Orleans, dubbing their pleas and tears into Japanese. The dubbing of President Bush was somewhat amusing, if only because he sounded better in Japanese. But what really struck me is that they showed the clip of Brown saying "We didn't know about it until just a few hours ago" - and as is popular on Japanese TV, they had it written on the screen as well. They didn't sugarcoat any of the stories the way the mainstream media does in America.
I've got the TV on in the background, reading off the results of today's election. I'm so used to a two-party system, and it's a bit odd to me to see a half-dozen parties being represented on the screen. Granted, the Liberal Democratic Party, which has been in power for a long time and will probably continue to do so, has nearly three times as many votes as any of the other parties - but nonetheless, each party appears to have some level of representation.
I'm still overwhelmed by the way the President and so many others have screwed up the country post-Katrina. Even my friend who interned for Santorum this summer (I've known him since elementary school, sorry) is appalled by the President's response. Quote: "he is incompetent ... really a disgrace to the party." It's about time he realized what the rest of us have known for so long.
9/11 came and passed here. I think I saw two short interviews with people, both of whom said that they didn't feel any safer since the attacks four years ago. Neither the Asahi Shimbun (newspaper) nor the Japan Times have articles on it. Admittedly, I sort of forgot about it. I'm not in New York, and I didn't really have it on the mind. But why would anyone here give anything more than a passing thought about it? It didn't happen in their country. They have their own things to worry about - like re-electing a conservative party to government.
I know I'm not the only person abroad right now. For anyone not in America, what's it like to be there on 9/11? Is anything different?