Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Sorry, I'm Not Sorry




Last day of my lovely month of April.  Glad to've had ya here.  Let me finally get around to talking about Reggie Workman.  I’ve got him on now live in Munich in 1961, optimistically punching his way through “On Green Dolphin Street” with Eric Dolphy on bass clarinet and McCoy Tyner on keys and what should have been Elvin Jones on drums, but apparently he had passport problems, (did he lose it at a bar or not they issue him one?) and instead we’ve Mel Lewis who I’m not familiar with.  But otherwise it is that classic Coltrane combo, sans JC.  Scott Yanow points out on Rdio that the recording quality is poor, but it is still lovely to swing with them regardless over these glorious, extended standards. 

Like John Coltrane, Reggie Workman was from Philadelphia and unlike Eric Dolphy or most of the other jazz giants we profile on this page, I’m happy to report that he is still alive and teaching at the New School back in Manhattan.  This recording “Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise- Live In Germany 1961 “ does make it difficult to focus on his playing but it isn’t hard to hear how he’s driving Mel Lewis, in a graceful arc that keeps rejuvenating, cyclically. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reggie_Workman



Great article in Foreign Affairs by Gi Wook Shin and Daniel Sneider on the resolution of bitterness from WWII in the region.  I worked hard in a manuscript that I was well along with this time last year, “The Seven Deadly Starbucks (7DS) in which I tried to push myself to offer recommendations on these matters.  It’s a vexing puzzle.  One area I decided was under examined was the unique roll of Korea, North and South, in bridging the giant neighbors.  But the authors in this article seem instead look to challenge America to take the lead.

America doesn’t want to be seen to be meddling.  But it is arguably the unwitting author of many of the current tensions.  The pardoning of Hirohito, and certain “nationalist conservatives”, the recognition of territorial disputes early in the Cold War in the hope that they would ultimately settle.  It’s a healthy reminder.  We tend to be least optimistic sometimes about the devil we know best.  I can think of countless reasons why the US will exhibit a deficit of will to lead this issue, just as Korean friends tell me the same, about their beloved home. 

This article doesn’t seem to put much of any onus on South Korea or North Korea to do anything more than be magnanimous when Japan finally does what it ought to.  China merely looms in this reckoning.  Japan is at fault.  And the U.S. is powerful and timorous.  But it’s nearly impossible to imagine a rendering that didn’t tilt or slant with bias. Japan does wear a unique responsibility.  That they, as the author’s pithily observe say “Sorry, I'm not sorry,” is perennially depressing. 

I implicitly understand but would be pressed point to specific, tangible differences between the way Germany responded to its wartime history and the way that Japan did.  These authors help to layout some specifics:  the $7.5 billion  “German Fund for the Future” jointly run and funded by German corporations and the German government.  German Chancellor Willy Brandt kneeling in front of the site of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.   Germany and France jointly designing text book curriculums for their students. 

What it mean for North Asian relations if the Japanese Prime Minister, indeed Abe in particular, if he were to bow at the Nanjing massacre site, if he were to meet with the surviving South Korean “comfort” women?  He needn’t 负荆请罪[1], just be sincere.  And what if the United States, were to push Japan in unison with China and South Korea on certain matters.  What if as they rightly suggested an American President were to: 

“throw aside political caution and go to Hiroshima or Nagasaki to offer his or her own reflections on the horrible human costs of the decision to drop atomic weapons on Japan. The United States would not only set an example -- without doing so, it would be hard to justify American intervention on wartime history issues.”



The authors referenced research done on the part of a larger initiative they titled “Divided Memories and Reconciliation.”  It is a Stanford program that cross references quite a bit of interesting material.   The introduction was very thoughtfully written to allow entry from any perspective:

“Questions about what happened in the past touch upon the most sensitive issues of national identity, the formation of historical memories, and national myths that play a powerful role to this day. Whether it be Japanese atrocities in China or the U.S. decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan, no nation is immune to the charge that it has formed a less-than-complete view of the past. All share a reluctance to fully confront the complexity of their own past actions and blame others for their historical fates.”   Dr. Gi-Wook Shin
I’ve downloaded a large “Progress Report” that looks like it will be interesting. 







[1] fùjīngqǐngzuì:  lit. to bring a bramble and ask for punishment (idiom) / fig. to offer sb a humble apology

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