How to be away and home simultaneously? A case study of the US military in Japan

I definitely knew that my trip to Japan would teach me a great deal about South East Asia and the Pacific region. I did not think one second that I would also learn quite a bit about the United States of America.

During my second trip to Tokyo prefecture, not to confuse with the city of Tokyo[1], I halted in the city of Fussa to visit a friend. Thus I had the opportunity to take a look at the US air force military base, also called there Yokota. This was a trip within trip: for two days, I was back in America[2]!

I was driving on the road 16, route that brings right in front of the base. It was a surprise to see that to get in the base, I had to go through a “border”. First I had to register on the base and than I had to show my passport, my gaijin card[3] and go through a search of my car. In addition, my friend, let us call him M, still had to sign me in the base. As I am Canadian, I went through the process very easily. Within about 20 minutes of administration work, I left Japan to be in the United States.

Younger, I traveled quite a bit through the US, particularly in the southern areas. I was than able to compare Yokota to my souvenirs of the United States, at least what I knew of that country. It was a shock for me to realize that I was not in Fussa-shi anymore but in Virginia. The houses were all like what I have seen in Orlando and Fort Lauderdale. The streets were just like in Florida. M also offered me to choose between Subway, and another steak place for dinner. In the grocery store it was not possible way to find soba or any Japanese character. It was all about the Miracle Whip, the chocolate chip cookies, the Skippy peanut butter and even a sugar pie (one of the food that leads me to gluttony). In the morning I had a heart attack served in a plate: scrambled eggs, bacon strips and two mega wafflers drowned in a liquid filled with glucose-sucrose that was suppose to be maple syrup. The television was a military channel that only showed American related topics, of course in English. Even the electricity plugs were “American”. The only Japanese I saw on base were a couple working here and there…but I found that they do not even live on base. Of course!

M had lived in “Japan/the replicat of the States” for almost three years. Although he loved to dance which lead him to Japan’s sin city, Roppongi, and other hot spots, he never left his base to explore what Japan really had to offer. As he said himself: “Why would I get out if I have everything here?!” It is with this frame of mind that M never learned much Japanese, never experienced an onsen and barely had an appreciation for Japanese food.

The military forces, which have been present in different areas in Japan since the end of World War II, were extremely efficient at reproducing a home environment for their soldiers. Indeed, I understand how hard it is to be in a constant state of uncertainty regarding our next move. Militaries spend a great deal of their career being sent to different missions. They probably need land marks to keep going, with or without family.

I ask myself if it is the most beneficial thing to exclude the soldier from the reality of their environment. I believe that creating this type of environment for the soldiers makes it easier for their superiors to control them as they are not aware of what is really happening outside. They miss a big part of the picture by not knowing the culture, the people, the geography they are surrounded with, outside of the base. The Americans, along with other countries, are fighting in Kabul. Do they really know the culture of these people? Did they take the time to get deeper on a personal level and understand the intricacies of these populations? By creating a cocoon for the soldiers one is subtlety saying that this is the right way of doing things….dangerous path to take as it has the strong potential to lead to intolerance.

But again, many military argue that they are not put in place to learn about other cultures but instead for the greater good of creating a better society by promoting democracy blablablabla…. Yes! And now how do you intend doing so without truly knowing your counterpart? That leads me to think of an invasion and the coercion of ideas pushed upon people.

Solutions: not only training and how to set up a hospital quickly, fire guns and jump off of planes but also extensive training and courses on different culture, having guest speakers from “the other angle”. Hence I am saying that there should be much more openness and actual knowledge of the country visited. More initiative to understand what one is not. This is how one could actually talk about the greater good…
[1] Tokyo city is located in Tokyo prefecture
[2] I do not mean America as the country because there is no such thing! I mean as the continent.
[3] Gaijin means foreigner, thus this card is given to legal foreigners living and working in Japan.