Sarah Paine
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
You and I are looking each other in the eye.
That's how you do it in the West, show that you're paying attention.
That's not how you do it in Japan.
In Japan, if you're Japanese, I'm looking at your shoulder.
It's rude to look people in the eye.
It's just too intrusive.
You're getting too much information probably from that person's face.
So you can imagine a Westerner in a prison camp looks his guard in the eye.
And the eye's going...
The guard's going, oh, who is this arrogant person?
You can imagine bad things are going to be happening.
These are guesses on what's going on.
There are certain values that I've talked about.
There's certain desperation that's going on.
And then there's the dehumanization of what wartime's all about, right?
Initially, conscripts go in of all armies.
having trouble killing people, and then they get better at it over time.
This is a tragedy of human beings.
I don't know if I've answered your question.
I don't know that I know the answer.