Power Over the Mind
In the history book, there is a circle around the description of the 1971 novel Silence by Shusaku Endo. You notice a loose piece of yellow paper with the following reference.
Endo, S. (2016). Silence. Macmillan USA.
You think back. Wasn’t there a movie by that name? You search the database: there may be a copy in the audio / visual department on Floor 2.
You put your stuff in your backpack, enter the elevator, get off on Floor 2, and walk towards the department. You notice tape strewn across the entrance, broken televisions, open disc trays, and CDs thrown about. There was one light in the back.
You walk back to the map near the elevator and head up to Floor 5. You locate the book near other translated and original books of Japanese, Korean, and Chinese literature. Doesn’t look like anyone has checked these out recently. The HVAC shuts off and the smell of dried flowers is more pungent. You notice someone at the end of the hall, but they turn away.
You open the book and start reading its torn and faded pages. You get swept up in the novel and pour over it even as the sun falls. The lights flicker. And a guard paces down the aisle.
After the Rebellion
Silence recreates the period after the Shimabara Rebellion at the beginning of the strict sakoku policy. Based on a historical account, the novel tracks the capture and prosecution of a Portuguese Jesuit who came to Japan as a stowaway. The authorities find the priest and his small native Christian community. They torture and kill the peasants one-by-one and say they will stop if he apostatizes. The authorities consider his turn a propaganda goldmine. They had forced an apostasy from the priest’s mentor who then wrote treatises for the state on why Christianity would not be tenable for the Japanese mind.
By trying to internalize clearly external political forces, the authorities and the priest cast “the Japanese” as exclusive, pure, and self-contained and cast “the others” as the opposite. The incursion of proselytes and their demands of the universal acceptance of one truth was treated like an attack on the categories of “Japanese” and “others.” If that binary was broken, then their grip on the populace’s mind could be out of their control once more.
Opposing Forces
You remember what the librarian said: open and closed. You think about it. You break down some descriptions into these categories:
- OPEN: Christianity; Foreign Trade; Local Control; Faith; Foreigners; Land
- CLOSED: Military Power; Shogun; Internal Trade; Authoritarian Control; Obedience; Japanese; Sea
You then sort these out into opposites. In this story of modern Japan, will these pairs always line up in a certain column or may they switch based on the time or context?
| Open | Closed |
|---|---|
| Christianity | Shogun |
| Foreign Trade | Internal Trade |
| Local Control | Authoritarian Control |
| Faith | Obedience |
| Foreigners | Japanese |
| Land | Sea |