Difficulty of Coexistence

Ever since the Sagamihara stabbings, I’ve occasionally wondered what has happened since then to Tsukui Yamayuri-en and to Kanagawa. So every now and then I take a look at Kanaloco, the online site of the Kanagawa Shimbun.

Honestly, I’d like to go directly to Tsukui Yamayuri-en and lay flowers there, but I’ve heard that since the incident the media may crowd in, and that there’s no shuttle bus and the access has gotten worse.

I also hear things like: compared with Miyagi, Kanagawa has a larger population and a larger foreign population, and there’s more hate speech than in Miyagi.

I’ve never actually seen hate speech myself, though.

Or rather, if people with developmental disabilities were to drive out resident foreigners, I think it would just become infighting.

(Christ also said something like, “If Satan drives out Satan, it’s divided against itself.”)

Basically, I think the foreign people at church are good people, and I probably also have the desire to share Japanese culture with them—starting with Hakkenden and so on.

At the same time, there’s also the feeling of, “What happens to us people with developmental disabilities?”

I’ve heard that Satoshi Uematsu recently got married while in prison.

One of the victims’ bereaved families said:

“Capital punishment was a mistake. He should live and face what he’s done.”

But if you ask me, it’s better not to expect that.

Rather, I think in the end his conclusion will be:

“The bereaved families and Japanese society that keep protecting ‘the mentally lost’ (people with severe disabilities) are the ones who are wrong.”

(I’ve said this many times.)

Sooner or later he’ll be executed, but I think he’ll be hanged while cursing not only the victims’ families but Japanese society as a whole.

There’s also that sentiment of Martin Niemöller, but in the end, I suppose that what cannot reach certain people will not reach them.

Even looking at Mamoru Takuma’s prison writings, there was nothing but shifting responsibility onto his parents, self-justification, and a cringing, servile mindset.

Since society is made up of a patchwork of people, it only takes the smallest trigger for people to fall out, or to end up hating each other.

Mr. Takanori Fujita of the NPO “Hotto Plus” says,

“A symbiotic society isn’t ‘easy,’ but it’s interesting,”

but depending on the person, who knows how that will be taken.

(Many people would sneer at it as “nonsense.”)

There are also plenty of people who think in zero-sum terms:

“If one side gets fed, the other side dries up.”

“Give-and-take” can be flipped into a win–win relationship, and I think whether we can do that is the key to coexistence.

Of course, what exactly counts as “give-and-take” requires both sides to adjust and meet each other halfway.