My Background

I have always been curious about learning new things. Especially things that people often hear about but do not necessarily know much about. For example, people have heard about and have their views on zombies, alchemy, Yōkai, pirates, ghosts, universe, souls, our own existence, or even say, a history of coffee (it was first popularized in England, but people think of tea when they think about England). You can read about my professional field of research in About Me section, but here, I would like to talk about something about my personality, beliefs and my personal background in general. 

 

I grew up in Hiroshima in my elementary school student years and I was often introduced to the concept of war, peace, victimhood and oppression. Upon my frequent visits to the Peace Park Memorial Museum in Hiroshima as a child, I came to prioritize the concept of war rather than focus on who did what - as I believe everyone actively involved in wars has done evil deeds. Misery is entailed in the act of war itself. My belief that we should always listen to the victims (hereon, survivors) and cultivate empathy in oneself results from my exposure to the firsthand account stories by war survivors and survivors of sexual assaults. It is my fundamental belief that evil is the lack of empathy, which is in accordance of the definition of evil given by the political philosopher, Hannah Adrendt. She meticulously articulated that the seed of evil is potent in ordinary people, which she called “the banality of evil”. It is in contribution to the society through my teaching and writing that I firmly believe that we can leave a trace in history and eventually change the world for the better place. By that, I mean the world where there is no discrimination, prejudice, premature judgment of characters, bullying and sexual assaults of any form of shape – the world in which we can co-exist while acknowledging the differences and respecting one another.

No matter how great your ambitions and accomplishments are, if they are done without contribution, they are without significance. It is not how you want history to remember you, but rather how history would remember you. This is a paraphrase from a line in the movie, The Emperor’s Club (2002), and like any youngsters, I devoured movies as a student and one movie that changed the course of my life is Titanic (1997). It moved me to the extent that it made me firmly believe we can change the world by changing the societies and individuals, leading to influencing one’s core belief. How this can be impactful is also shown in the movie, Inception (2010). When I watched Titanic, I did not know what but something made me believe I wanted to influence people in a positive way when the world is filled with misery and selfish individuals. Now, I’ve come to realize that this something was the appeal to empathy. I was deeply touched when I watched Titanic and I frequented the theatres just to see the movie over and over again as a 14-year-old. At the same time, I was intrigued by the fact that the movie – a non-physical object – was able to compel me to go to the theatre without contacts, for the laws of physics dictate that nothing can be moved except by physical contact. I soon realized that movies, literature and arts are the only things that can move people without touching them. In different words, only the strong and cogent messages can appeal to human emotion and move people and change their minds. While I was mesmerized by this concept of “touching” people’s minds and moving them – both physically and figuratively, I was also struck with the fact that how ideologies are the makers of this world-society as such. In order to make a change, one must plant a seed in people’s mind that some things are in accordance with virtue while others are not. This is by no means a small task, but together, through our lessons, I heartily wish that we can become the positive beginnings of the ripple effects so as to engulf the entire world with thought-provoking practical idealism that seeks for justice and righteousness. I also want to make a note that while Titanic made me want to write and voice my own opinions to public debate, one must not forget that such a tragedy did actually happen and no matter how artificial the stories these movies and literature may tell on the surface, there is an essence that is at the core and unchanging. This is the reason why I went into philosophy – to establish the unmoved mover of my own and speak with conviction so that the world would recover from any damages done by bad actors and these wounds would soon be repaired and become the guiding principles themselves for us not to make the same mistakes again in the future to come. With this, I close my statement of purpose for this Lyceum Philosophicum and I would like to welcome all of you who wish to learn and develop their own ideas and speak freely with respect in order to bring happiness to our lives.