Benedict also watched movies written and produced in Japan, including all sorts of movies--propaganda films, historical movies, and movies of contemporary life i Tokyo and in the farm villages. Her method seems comprehensive given what she could not do, which was to go to Japan, and she even watched films with Japanese who had seen some of the movies in Japan and who might have a different view of the characters than would she. Nakane also states that she approaches her subject in terms of a structural analysis and not as a cultural or historical explanation. She echoes Benedict to the degree that she sees as her organizing principle the "vertical principle" in Japanese society: I could not go to Japan and live in their homes and watch the strains and stresses of daily life, see with my own eyes which were crucial and which were not. I could not watch them in the complicated business of arriving at a decision. I could not see their children being brought up (Benedict, 1989, 5-6). Of course they did not present the whole picture. No people does. A Japanese who writes about Japan passes over really crucial thing which are as familiar to him and as invisible as the air he breathes. So do Americans when they write about America (Benedict, 1989, 7). Here again is a reason why Western observers would be thought to have missed the point as they search for patterns with which they are familiar in an environment where such patterns have little meaning. Dale, P.N. (1986). The myth of Japanese uniqueness. New York: St. Martin's Press. |
