I lived in Japan for seven and a half years. It wasn’t a surprise that I moved there. My childhood was immersed in Japanese culture. My father was in love with Japan and Zen Buddhism, and our home was filled with books about Japanese life. When I turned sixteen, I started studying karate. It became the focus of my entire life and eventually I lined up to take part in the 1985 All Japan Karate championships. When my wife and I got married, we moved to Japan together, and l lived there for six and a half more years. In the end I spent most of my thirties in Japan. 

Faux Japanese

Overall, it was a great experience. I was able to do and see things I never would have been able to do had I not gone. My wife and I were able to travel in Japan and other Asian countries. At the end of my time there I was comfortable with Japanese life and even considered living there permanently. I still have a deep respect and affection for the Japanese and their culture and have many Japanese friends whom I regularly correspond with. It all sounds exotic and wonderful, doesn’t it, but that was where the problem lay. You see, during my time there I had become “faux Japanese.” 

 Shattered Illusions

During my first stay in Japan, I experienced an identity crisis. Real Japan was nothing like what I had imagined it would be. That Japan was my father’s fantasy, a land of Zen temples and waving bamboo groves. Tokyo was not like that. It was busy, crowded, unhealthy and competitive. I was going to the dojo every day and training hard while losing weight and constantly being injured. As a result, I became disillusioned. At times living in Japan was depressing, but that experience was also the best thing that ever happened to me. It made me think about who I was, and I desperately needed to do that.

Subway U…

 I realized that I had made a mistake by exchanging my identity and culture for that of the Japanese. It had been a colossal error. It seems obvious now, but it wasn’t then. It is one thing to be fascinated with another culture. It is quite another to think that you belong to it or that you are a member of another race. I quickly discovered that I was not. That discovery left a hole in my life. The way out of that hole was reading. I had a lot of time on my hands while riding on the Tokyo subway system and decided to spend it finding out about my own culture through books. The main question was “If I am not Japanese, then who am I?” In order to find the answer I read voraciously. I began with the great classics of the western world and worked my way up. I thought of my experience as the “University of the Subway” and that is exactly what it became. By the end of my stay in Japan I understood that I was western and that I belonged to a great and powerful civilization and culture. I had come home. 

Delusional Misidentification 

But I was one of the fortunate ones. Millions are now suffering from the belief that they are something they are not. My own sense of misidentification seems trivial by comparison. I had mixed up two cultures and identified myself with the wrong one. But at least I knew that those cultures were real. People are now ignoring reality completely and identifying with something they are not. Sometimes they think they are a different race, and some of those people have been exposed and lost their jobs. An example is Rachel Dolezal, a white woman who pretended to be black and managed to fool enough people into becoming an NAACP chapter head. Others, think they are a different species. I am not exaggerating. Those who identify as animals are called “Therins.” They wear animal suits or costumes and believe they are not human. Ironically, only a human could have such a thought. 

The Nature of the Problem

This entire problem stems from the fact that our society has made it permissible to participate in delusional identities. We go along with it because we think that reality and our culture are boring or invalid and that other cultures and states of belief are better than our own. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our society, by which I mean traditional western society, is far from boring and has great power and significance. It has been, and is, the most important element in the world we live in. We in the West no longer appreciate the wealth and freedom our ancestors bequeathed to us because we swim in these things every day. We are so accustomed to them that we do not even realize that they are being threatened. As a result, we leave ourselves open to falsehoods and delusions that obscure our own identity from us. We see our western culture as dangerous, racist and despicable when, of course, it is not. We look to other civilizations and ideologies as better when they are not just as I looked on Japanese culture as better than my own when it wasn’t. 

Necessary Things

What Japan taught me was that we do not need to denigrate our culture or assume false identities in order to feel worthy. In fact, it is a terrible mistake to do so. The world is now obsessed with the idea of honouring the “other” without properly honouring ourselves and this has brought us to our cultural knees. We need to reverse this trend. I will always honour Japanese culture and be fond of it, but I will never again feel that my own culture is inferior. Unlike many others, I was finally able to understand my identity. The same cannot be said of millions of others in this “woke” world of ours. 

Rightful Pride

Many people dislike excessive pride and rightfully so. We should not be obnoxiously proud. A healthy humility is both necessary and attractive. It goes a long way towards making you a better person. But there is also rightful pride, and I would like to argue for it.  Western civilization is a great and magnificent civilization and not one that we should be ashamed of. We have had quite enough of that in recent years.  No civilization is perfect, including ours, but we can be rightfully proud of the good that it has done, and it is time for us to fall back in love with it.  

The Right Kind of “Identity Politics”

We should not adhere to false identities, and we should be proud of our western identity and European heritage both as individuals and as a nation. There is no reason not to be. We are seeing the toxic effects of the wrong kind of identity politics everywhere these days. It manifests itself in the form of censorship, reverse racism, violence, DEI, cancel culture and propaganda. Ironically, true identity politics is something we should all practice. Take pride in your western identity. You have a right to do so, and your culture richly deserves your loyalty.