Unlock the mystery of Japan Part-1
From this time, I’m going to explain the difference of Japanese, Chinese, and Koreans in series.
These are very different people from one another. Especially Japanese people are completely different from Chinese and Koreans.
The purpose of writing this theme is to unlock the mystery of East Asians because most people in the world are misunderstanding East Asians. If you know the difference of East Asians, you will know the answer for why Japanese people and Korean people can never get along with each other and all. There is always a reason for everything.
‘Cause and effect.’ The cause is the difference of national character. And the effect is what’s going on in East Asia now and in the past.
If you know the difference of East Asians, you will be able to look at the issues about East Asia from a different aspect you’ve never had. And you’ll be able to perceive East Asian issues more accurately than those reported by major Newspapers and Web News.
What I am explaining here is not just my personal opinion, but from a lot of opinions given by experts and scholars of Japanese, Chinese, and Koreans. These are the kind of things that you can never hear as far as you are relying on English for the source of information.
Since the era of internet began, there are so many things that we East Asians discovered and learned the differences of each other.
Nowadays, when talking about politics of China and Korea, TV programs invite native Chinese and Korean scholars and let them explain, from the point of view of national character difference, why China and Korea or Chinese and Koreans make decisions like that. In another word, Japanese people also can’t understand Chinese and Koreans because there is a huge difference in a way of thinking that comes from their national characters and common senses.
These huge national character differences were all formed over the course of thousands of years. So if you look at history of each country, you can find the answer why each country has a totally different national character.
Before I talk about the difference of national character, I’ll explain how different Japanese culture is from Chinese and Korean. You’ll know why Japanese people have a different way of thinking from Chinese and Koreans if you look at the cultural history.
First of all, what makes Japan so different from China and Korea is the existence of Japanese Emperor.
A lot of people in the world, including Chinese and Koreans, misunderstand about Japanese Emperor. Did you know Japanese Emperor was a Pope? Just like Pope Francis of the Roman Catholic Church, Japanese Emperor is a Pope of Japanese religion called “Shin-to”. However, unlike Catholic Pope who is being elected by vote, Japanese Pope (Emperor) has the unbroken chain of pedigree which has been lasting more than 2,000 years.
A country of Japan was founded more than 2,000 years ago by first Japanese Emperor so that Shin-to has longer history than Christianity. And current Japanese Emperor’s ancestors are gods of Japan.
There are more than 88,000 shrines in Japan as of now. These are like Churches in Christianity but unlike Christian churches, Japanese shrines don’t have Sunday school. No mass, no lecture, no book like Bible. Then what are they for? Well, Shrine is a spiritual place where Japanese god resides. There is a shrine in each village or about every two villages. These shrines are watching over the village to protect villagers from trouble. And people visit a shrine to make a wish. And in local villages, villagers have a festival twice in year, once in spring and the other one in fall. The festival in spring is for asking Japanese god to let villagers have a good luck in harvesting for the year. Fall festival is for appreciating Japanese god for letting villagers harvest the crops successfully. So you see every village throughout Japan has those activities for Japanese gods.
And there is a custom in Japan people visiting shrines on January 1st to make a new year wish. And there are many more lifetime events that have to do with shrine and Japanese gods.
Those activities are only in Japan for thousands of years. You don’t find anything like this in China or Korea.
Japanese people’s life is pretty much intertwined with Shin-to, a Japanese religion which has been in Japan since the birth of Japan more than 2,000 years ago.
Now, when you hear an emperor, you may imagine a dictator dominating the country. It is true Chinese Emperor and Korean King were dictators extracting wealth from people. But Japanese Emperor was and is nothing like that. The biggest difference is that Japanese Emperor has never governed Japan. This is something that all people, Chinese, Koreans, westerners, and all, can’t understand because there has been no such an emperor or king in human history.
When a man gets power, the man builds a huge architecture to boast his power. Well known examples are Kings in Egypt who built many Pyramids, and also Chinese first Emperor Qin Si Huang, who was just like the King in Egypt, held sway over people and built Great Wall of China. However, despite Japanese Emperor has the longest Imperial family history in the world, he hasn’t built a huge architecture to impress his power at all. Only shrines, which are modest size compared to the size of Buddhist temples, were built all over Japan.
This is absolutely impossible to understand even for Chinese and Korean people.
In Chinese and Korean history, an Emperor and King were dictators tormenting people. So it is natural for Chinese and Korean people to think that Japanese Emperor was the same type of dictator as Chinese and Korean Kings until the end of 2nd World War. But in reality, Japanese Emperor has never been a ruler.
Japanese Emperor has never got involved in any war in Japanese history. Not to mention during 2nd World War, even during the age of battle, when Shogun and Samurai warriors were fighting against the opponents to dominate the regions, Japanese Emperor was an outsider. The Emperor never got involved or participated the battles.
Chinese Emperor and Korean King were ‘a taker’, whereas Japanese Emperor has been ‘a giver” establishing a shrine in each village to provide villagers with spiritual power for protection.
Continues to Part-2
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