Hey! Shanelle here! I’ve been in Japan for about two months now, and I have seen and experienced so many new things here! However, today, I would like to discuss a more serious topic that I learned about in one of my classes here. I discovered that there is great tension between Korea and Japan. Apparently, due to conflicts in their past, Japan and Korea have held a deep hatred for one another. This bad blood escalated to the point where even Japan-born Koreans (i.e. Zainichi) were treated harshly for simply having Korean lineage. Even now, although the discrimination has significantly diminished over the years, it is still present in Japanese society today. I don’t know about you, but the idea that these two countries could have such a negative relationship never crossed my mind. In fact, for some reason, I just assumed that they were on good terms with one another. How ignorant I was! It was only after coming here that I began to understand the struggles Japan, and other East Asian countries, face.
This discovery about the Japan-Korea relationship has given me a new outlook on things. I was always in my own little “American bubble” – only concerned with what was happening around me. Other countries’ problems were so far away and had no direct effect on me, so I paid little or no attention to them most of the time. However, now I realize that this lack of interest has made me ignorant to many things – I know little to nothing about what’s going on in the rest of the world. While I could get away with this is the US, living in another country has given me a reality check. In this day and age, there is so much international interaction that it is not just beneficial, but necessary to have some understanding and knowledge about other countries. In order to achieve this, I need to be more aware of what’s happening in the rest of the world. I need to break out of this “American bubble” and become the global citizen that I know I am capable of being!