Hello readers,

Last week, while the members of my ASTU class were on a field trip at Irving Library at the Kogawa Fonds, I was sick and was unfortunately not able to attend. So, instead of discussing that experience with you, I will be discussing a topic of my choice. In relation to our recent literature review in exploring technologies of memory, and the three main books that we read this semester with main themes of memory as well as struggle and hardship, I have chosen to discuss the concept of repression of memory. I am also going to be relating information that I have learned form my Gender Studies class to the abuse that Naomi experiences in Obasan.

Throughout Obasan, Naomi is expected to repress her past of sexual abuse, being influenced especially by her mother. Traditional Japanese culture often wants to try to repress memories that are tainted, to prevent dealing with feelings such as shame and sadness for example. “When a Japanese woman is raped or sexually abused, most often she has no one to help her.” (Japan’s Battlers of Sex Abuse Confront Culture, Law) Yuko Yamaguchi, who is the director of Japan’s oldest feminist organization says, “‘the reluctance to act against sexual violence in Japan can be tied to society’s ‘traditional male domination and the pressure to understate individual emotions for the sake of group harmony.’” (Japan’s Battlers of Sex Abuse Confront Culture, Law)

In Gender Studies this semester, I had to read My Year of Meats, by Ruth Ozeki. This novel discusses important issues such as abuse, abortion, the meat industry, and racism, just to name a few. Jane and Akiko are both Japanese and they both come from a background of repressing their emotions. Although Jane is American, she too puts on a hard face when the going get’s tough. Jane experiences a miscarriage, and instead of embracing her with loving arms when she hears the news, her mother asks her what she has done wrong to bring this miscarriage on. In Akiko’s case, she was married to her husband John Ueno without any real choice of the matter. He met her and decided she would make a good wife and make good babies and so he chose her. And, she was too vulnerable and young to really stop those series of events from happening. In this novel, Akiko is raped by her husband. After this traumatic event, she spends days bleeding, and John finds her on the bathroom floor having fainted. Instead of receiving sympathy when she is brought to the hospital, the doctors immediately assume that Akiko’s husband is a wonderful man because he was the one that brought her there.

Jane and John are business partners for a television show, and when Jane tries to help John back to his room at a hotel when he is drunk, he tries to rape Jane. Both Jane, Akiko and Naomi are all expected to repress their emotions and memories associated with traumatic events. Although my group for the technologies of memory assignment defined technologies of memory as items such as heirlooms, artifacts, tattoos, and anthems that strike memory in some way, our minds can also be a technology of memory. If society is encouraged to repress memories of violence, no one will be able to learn from these events in history, and no one will be able to help make a difference for the future. Although Naomi acknowledged the fact that silence doesn’t always have to be a negative thing, speaking up is a valuable resource for all victims of abuse. No matter how difficult it is to “remember” traumatic events again, in the long run, it is the most definitive and positive course of action to help victims of abuse.

Works Cited:

Kakuchi, Suvendrini, Catherine Makino, and Tessa Morris-Suzuki. “Japan’s Battlers of Sex Abuse Confront Culture, Law.” Women’s ENews. N.p., 17 Sept. 2009. Web. 06 Dec. 2016.