The strong manly ones in life are those who understand the meaning of the word patience. Patience means restraining one’s inclinations. There are seven emotions: joy, anger, anxiety, adoration, grief, fear, and hate, and if a man does not give way to these he can be called patient. I am not as strong as I might be, but I have long known and practiced patience. And if my descendants wish to be as I am, they must study patience.
– Tokugawa Ieyasu
Since the tragedy of 3/11, much has been written about the stoicism of the Japanese people, particularly the people of the Tohoku area. I was intrigued to find out where this now famous characteristic or quality of the Japanese people came from. Rather than go to academic writings, which are full of theories derived from studies of history and famous characters, I chose a different tact. I asked my students.
In my interviews with students, I asked them two basic questions: why are the Japanese people so patient and how do you think they get that way? There were basically three ideas espoused by my students, which I have combined into my basic theory to answer the question “how did the people of Tohoku become so patient?”
Several interesting things occurred during the interview process. The types of responses I received varied with the age of the student. Some students were far more articulate in their explanations, others more vague and general. Some, I’m sure, have never contemplated the issue so couldn’t really explain themselves. However, those who had ideas or theories were able to articulate them quite well.
The younger people I talked to didn’t really know why Japanese people were patient, but they had ideas about “how” patience was “learned.” One student in fact said that, following 4 years of living in and attending an American elementary school, he had reverse culture shock upon returning to Japan and entering a Japanese elementary school. His culture shock occurred for two distinct reasons. First, he said he felt a great deal of stress from having to learn to think more about the feelings of his fellow students than his own feelings, that being aware of your fellow students feelings was more important than your own feelings. The second thing that he learned was that he asked too many “why” questions. In fact, he asked “why” so often that his teacher sent a note home to his parents instructing them to tell their son to stop asking “why” questions in class. In Japanese elementary school, you don’t ask why!
So, while my young student couldn’t explain why Japanese people were patient, he had his own theory about how patience was learned. He cited the example of a school undokai. One of the main activities of the undokai was a large student pyramid, consisting of about 100 students forming a human pyramid 25 students across and 5 students high. As one of the larger students, he was delegated to the lowest level, which of course bears the greatest share of the weight. The process of preparing for that pyramid took several weeks. My student said that several boys cried and one boy’s leg was broken during the process. When kids cried the teacher either yelled at or hit the student to end the crying. When the student’s leg was broken, it was explained that he had broken his leg because he wasn’t following instructions properly, so the accident was the boy’s fault. My student hated the whole process, but had to persevere through it. Patience was a requirement, but asking why the pyramid was necessary was out of the question.
A middle-aged student’s theory was consistent with what I have heard many times since coming to Japan. The people of Tohoku are farmers and fishermen, so they have learned, over time, to be very patient. They recognize that they have no power over the weather or the sea, so have developed this extreme patience and stoicism as a coping mechanism. In his opinion, the people of Tohoku were perhaps a little too extreme in their stoicism, but that was the way of the people of Tohoku. For me, this legendary, quasi-genetic predisposition has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. People of Tohoku are patient.
The older people spoke of being taught patience from their parents, who had learned it from their parents, who had lived through the first half of the 20th century with its wars and depressions. That patience had been passed down through generations before that. They felt they had been taught the importance of being aware of those who were less fortunate than themselves. Having and achieving a degree of wealth was OK, if it were based on your own efforts, but extreme wealth was not good. If you became too wealthy, you would be unable to relate to those who were less fortunate than yourself. More importantly, this awareness of the less fortunate was to be accompanied by action.
The action referred to in the situation in Tohoku was, and is, quite interesting. While the foreign press was full of stories criticizing the failures of the leaders of Tepco and the Japanese government to do anything, the patience of the people of Tohoku was manifested in the belief that any action by the leaders was better than none. “Now” was not the time to complain, now was the time for action. Complaining and placing blame could wait. The earthquake was a once-in-a-thousand-year calamity. It was an extreme example of mother nature’s power which nobody could have foreseen, so nobody was “responsible”.
Being aware of the less fortunate in this case was, from the people of Tohoku’s perspective, a perverse reverse. The people of Tohoku were aware that the people of Tepco and the government were ill-prepared and incompetent and therefore unable to help. They believed that the people of Tepco and the government, although incompetent, were trying to do their best. Complaining about their incompetence would not produce competence, it would only further alienate the only sources of help they could turn to. Complaining and placing blame could wait.
Patience, it seemed, was the only proper response. If you want the government’s, or anyone’s help, it does little good to complain, to search for meaning or explanation. What you need is action, even if you have to be patient and wait.
