To go beyond the name "I" Memories of 1969

To go beyond the name "I" Memories of 1969

I was breathing in a tribe town in the year 1969.
Unpaved roads, wooden row houses, and days when I felt cold eyes somewhere whenever I said my name.
Everyone pretended not to see it, but there was indeed a line drawn there.

Horizontal ideals and our reality.
The National Horizons Society, of which we should have been proud.
The words of human emancipation that its founders set forth were so straightforward.
However, as time went by, I feel that it was somehow narrowed down to a demand for the rights of the Buraku people.
If you ask me to be proud, I can nod my head.
But it was something that they finally tried to take back after someone had confronted them with their differences.

The Gift of Gratitude
The Dowa measure project. Roads are improved, housing is renewed.
It is gratifying. However, we knew that these measures were based on the premise that discrimination exists somewhere.
A government official told us, "This is a Dowa district. This is a Dowa area.
That one word branded me with another brand.
Once again, the government had proven to me that I was not a normal person.

Silence in the name of denunciation
In those days, any discriminatory remark was met with unrelenting denunciation.
I was forced to bow my head in front of the microphone. Some people shed tears.
But was this really about eliminating discrimination?
At some point, I began to doubt it.
When denunciation became a ritual to make people bow down, rather than to make them understand,
The trust I had in the movement slowly began to wear away.

Words engulfed by ideology
The Buraku liberation movement began to join hands with socialism and communism.
It is said that capitalism is the structure that creates discrimination. I thought, "I see.
But then it seemed that the movement was becoming someone else's tool.
The leaders of the student movement told us that we should come to the demonstrations,
We had our own words.
But we had our own words, and it was painful to have them painted over with the right words from the side.

Beyond the name, being me
The document said that we should think about human liberation beyond the self-definition of Buraku people.
I was struck by these words.
Be proud of your Buraku origin. Yes, that is true.
But before pride, I wanted freedom.
I had always wanted to be able to laugh in my own voice, to be angry, and to walk the path of my choice, without worrying about what anyone else would think.

My 1969
That year.
The whole country was abuzz with excitement.
Universities were barricaded and newspapers were filled with stories about politics and the student movement.
Among them, those of us from the tribe were certainly trying to make our voices heard.
But my voice was small and wavering.
Not out of anger, not out of justice.
I just wanted people to see me as a whole person. That's what I was hoping for.

Related information (useful reference materials)
For those who want to know and think about that time period as a Buraku native.
Here are some resources for those who want to know and think about that period.

Naoki Kato, Discrimination in Japanese Modern History
Nobuhiko Kakuoka, What is the Buraku Issue?
Yoshihiro Uehara, Traveling the Alleys of Japan
Human Rights Enlightenment Materials (Human Rights Protection Bureau, Ministry of Justice)
Buraku Liberation League, Central Headquarters
International Movement Against Discrimination IMADR

I, who was born in the Buraku tribe, am still searching for my voice.
It may or may not reach someone.
But I will continue to raise my voice.
As a human being behind the name "Buraku".