Speaking of Japan’s treatment of the news, I would like to pay my respects to Jeffrey Sanderson. This kid was the same age as me, came over to teach English just like me, but had his life cut short a few months ago by some disgraceful, abhorrent Japanese driver who ran him over and then fled the scene. Jeffrey’s friend, Patrick, was also run over and put into critical condition at the time by the same driver (and perhaps another!).

I never knew him (though I did know of him after the fact through a friend), but it saddens me. This man was little different from me. He probably finished college, looked at his options and thought that going on an oriental adventure would be an experience to remember the rest of his life. Now because of some sick, repugnant idiot, he experienced so much less. Still, he should be proud that he braved living in a foreign country at a time when less than 20 percent of Americans have a passport. At the very least, I hope his time on Japan was well spent.

Compounding this, his company, Amity (the kids-only part of Aeon), tried to keep the lid on the whole situation (although I hear they did at least contact his family right away) and Japanese press helped out by ignoring the story–especially since he was not Japanese. While I am sure it is important for every 6 people injured in a hurricane to be fronted on a national newspaper, I think it is important for Japan not to just sweep every bad story under the rug because it shows the country in a negative light.

Let us hope we learn from out mistakes and avoid these tragedies in the future.

This entry was posted on 2004-10-21 at 10:57 and is filed under Life in Japan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.