Slow Bullets: A blog site by novelist John Rachel

Saturday, August 10, 2024

My Two Recent Anti-War Books

Writing about and promoting peace to an American audience might be a thankless enterprise. But to be thankless, it would first have to be noticed.

Violence in the U.S. is so endemic, so commonplace, so intrinsic to the American Way, it would be less extreme to suggest to people that they stop breathing or eating than to propose that fewer guns might reduce the ongoing slaughter. Mass shootings, unless they are a full-frontal horror show involving copious bleeding and splattered entrails, innocent children, terrorists or grandmothers in wheelchairs, though a daily occurrence now, are so much a part of the fabric of life, they now rarely even make the news. Same ol’ same ol’. Better ratings reporting on new trends in smart phone dating apps or meltdowns of transgender athletes refused entry to girls locker rooms.

Scaling this mentality up from road rage and drive-by shootings to relations among nations, results in the same glassy-eyed stupor. To suggest that the country and world could do without war is yelling in a vacuum. American foreign policy comes down to a basic, unstated platitude: It’s our way or bombs away.

So where do I fit in to the savagery that is the new normal?

Am I deterred? Does such a fanatical embrace of human expendability discourage me? Does such indifference to the value of human life intimidate me?

Not quite. Two factors are in play: I was taught to dream the impossible dream. And ironically, there’s some Zen comfort in pointless futility. Dylan said it best: There’s no success like failure.

My two most recent books are about peace. Go ahead. Laugh. I’m happy to put a smile on your face.

THE U.S. AND PERPETUAL WAR came out in May 2023 . . .

As an eBook . . .

As a Deluxe Paperback . . .

WAR IS MAKING US POOR! was published just last month . . .

Both of these were intended for Americans to read. Unfortunately, rarely does anyone in the U.S. buy them. They sell almost exclusively in Canada, England, Europe, and Australia. Not sure why that is. Maybe it’s like I said at the beginning. “Writing about and promoting peace to an American audience might be a thankless enterprise. But to be thankless, it would first have to be noticed.”

Whatever.

Let me close by changing the subject.

Want to know what by far is my most popular book? It’s my novel about trafficking of Asian prostitutes, PETROCELLI, completed and published in 2015.

What about my most popular article over the past couple years? It’s a chapter from my book LIVE FROM JAPAN!, which appeared on my blog site August 4, 2020.

Life In Japan: TVs on TV

You probably guessed it. It’s about the popularity of transgenders on Japanese television.

There’s a lesson in all of this somewhere. Let me know in the comments below if you figure out what it is.

[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]

My Two Recent Anti-War Books | John Rachel

Thursday, August 8, 2024

LIVE FROM JAPAN! Revisited Redux

I again want to send some love to the wonderful fans of LIVE FROM JAPAN!

My my how time flies! LIVE FROM JAPAN! was published end of January, 2021. I sent the first shot of love here to the fans of the book June 2023. Then, as now, I let everyone know that the saga continues, as I regularly post articles on new happenings and my evolving perspective on life here as an American expat.

While I believe my understanding of and appreciation for the customs and people of Japan is always growing in depth and subtlety, one thing has not changed: I love living here!

There’s no simple explanation for this. All I can suggest is read my book, then read the articles that have subsequently appeared. Judge for yourself..

Here is the entire list of “living in Japan” essays that have appeared on this website, to date:

All of those were written after this splendid book got published. My way of keeping you up to date and hopefully dazzled and delighted.

If you don’t have a copy, you have no idea what you’re missing. Time to remedy that. You can order it from your local book store or visit one of these sites:

An Apple iBOOK is available HERE.

A B&N Nook Book is available HERE.

Other popular ebook formats are available HERE.

A deluxe full-color paperback from the printer HERE.

A deluxe paperback is available from Amazon HERE.

A deluxe full-color paperback is available from B&N HERE.

ENJOY!

[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]

LIVE FROM JAPAN! Revisited Redux | John Rachel

Sunday, June 23, 2024

Life In Japan: Monkey Attack!

In all the years I lived in America, I can honestly say I never had what happened to me this morning ever occur even once. Not in Michigan, Florida, Oregon. Not even in California, where there are no limits on the craziness.

My wife and I were finishing breakfast this morning and when we looked out the back window on the forest that is adjacent to our property, there was a MONKEY!

I know the photo makes it look like it’s watching TikTok on an iPhone, but he was actually munching on a potato he got from someone. Maybe us?

While usually such sightings are quite rare, monkeys are very much a part of the “fabric of like” here. Let me elaborate.

Understand that they can be very troublesome. Several monkeys can wipe out an entire garden in one raid, the veggies it took two or three months to grow. At the same time, our city officials don’t want to mercilessly eliminate them. After all, before we humans came along, this was their land. They are part of the eco-system here that has thrived for millennia.

We have five groups of monkeys — groups are extended families or communities — A through E. Group D is the most aggressive, or as we humans might say, the one that shows the most initiative. The groups are dispersed throughout the area, but it’s Group D that makes its presence felt around our house. Lucky us!

The monkey groups are tracked by the city government. There are chips inserted in members of each group. When possible, the city lets us know when a raiding party is moving in on a particular location.

Citizens report sightings as well. Right after we saw the monkey this morning, I alerted a neighbor, a gentleman who serves as the unofficial monkey policeman. Immediately, another neighbor phoned a report into City Hall. Our own monkey sheriff grabbed some fireworks launchers — these are hand-held tubes that fire a round of three explosive charges high into the air — and he set them off. The explosions are very loud, but I have a suspicion the monkeys are used to them and just ignore them.

It was community work day, so I left to work. While I was cutting weeds around our village shrine . . .

. . . my wife Masumi had two more visits by our encroacher.

I can’t blame the monkey. It’s spring and there is an inviting assortment of vegetables growing all around to select from. Time to catch up on eating after the sparse winter months.

As I’ve often said, the excitement never lets up here!

Do you doubt it?

[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]

Life In Japan: Monkey Attack! | John Rachel

Saturday, June 22, 2024

What Do Mermaids Eat?

I’m thinking about how many times in my life someone has asked me this question . . .

“What Do Mermaids Eat?”

Ah hah! I remember. ONE TIME!

That was when my unpredictable, truly fascinating Japanese wife was sitting across from me in a café on Taketomi Island, Okinawa.

We had just come from swimming at a lovely beach. Unfortunately, the water was very shallow and the entire seabed was covered with sea cucumbers. We had to walk very carefully, scoping out the sandy bottom every step we took.

Sea cucumbers in a word are disgusting! They are ugly tubes of squishy flesh that seem to have no purpose on the planet. They don’t move. They just lay there. If you’re unlucky enough to step on one, it’s an unpleasant sensation, like stepping on an intestine.

We survived the attack of the sea cucumbers — now there’s a great movie title if I ever heard one — dried off, then stopped at the café on the way back to our guest house. While we ate a snack lunch, we were engaged in light conversation, generally in very high spirits, being in the luxurious warmth of the sun and pleasant blowing breeze of this Japanese paradise. I made a few more wise cracks about how repulsive the sea cucumbers were, how drab and pointless their lives are, and asked jokingly, “What the hell do those things eat?”

Masumi smiled and said, “And what about mermaids? What do mermaids eat?”

That was the one time. And it became the inspiration for my latest book!

After several years in development, this fantasy/travel/cookbook will be available next month. And yes, you’ll find out first hand the answer to this salient, very thought-provoking question.

I promise you: It’ll be fun. It’s a book to treasure over the years, guaranteed to bring smiles to anyone who reads the stories.

[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]

What Do Mermaids Eat? | John Rachel

Friday, June 21, 2024

Life In Japan: My Wife the Drummer

My wife is amazing!

Anyone familiar with Masumi knows she’s a teacher, specifically a music teacher of elementary students at a school in Inagawa, a medium-size town less than an hour from Tambasasayama.

But like many — most? — Japanese people, she is always finding ways to improve herself. This includes periodically taking courses and training to increase her teaching, her ongoing study of English, her studies and activism in human rights and peace, and of course improving our seasonal efforts to grow a variety of vegetables. Just yesterday, we harvested our potato crop!

But despite more than thirty years teaching kids both how to play and how to appreciate music, she is also still improving her “chops” at learning and performing music. She is already a marvelous piano player and singer, and regularly takes ballet classes.

Now, much to my surprise and genuine delight, she is dedicating much time and energy to learning to play cello and — see above — DRUMS!

Masumi has a top-of-the-line Roland V-Drums electronic kit set up here at home, which allows her to practice daily without disturbing me or the neighbors. While on headphones, she gets the full effect of the drum fury she creates, we on the “outside” only hear the light pitter-patter of drumsticks on rubber pads.

The photo at the head of this article was taken at her first drum recital last year. For this live show, she played on a real drum kit, performing Stevie Wonder’s Knocks Me Off My Feet.

This year, at my suggestion I might add, she’s performing Vanessa Carlton’s Thousand Miles. I’m really looking forward to it! This is one of my all-time favorite songs. It’s so completely original, combining classical and pop, a phenomenal production and vocal performance. It has a nicely-grooving drum part, uniquely incorporating syncopated snare hits during the chorus, a highly unusual choice for a pop song.

Most of all . . . I get to see the fruits of Masumi’s many hours practicing drums! It should be great fun.

[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]

Life In Japan: My Wife the Drummer | John Rachel

Wednesday, May 15, 2024

Life In Japan: A rose is a rose is an onion . . .

I was trying the other day to imagine what went through my mind when I was 25. It’s both a difficult and amusing exercise.

It requires erasing a lot of experience, history, knowledge, wisdom, joy and pain — maybe ‘ignoring’ is a better term — and seeing what sparse caricature of reality is left to assemble into a marginally coherent view of the world, recognizing that “hindsight” is still at play here, sabotaging the mechanics of memory.

It also requires recalling — painful and even embarrassing as it might be — what dreams and expectations I entertained at the time, as immature and undeveloped as I was.

I can’t say I came up with anything very interesting or startling. One thing I can assert with absolute certainty . . .

I never imagined I would at this stage in my life be living in Japan growing onions in my modest garden!

Not that I have anything against onions. On the contrary, onions are spectacular! They have a lot of symmetry and are about as essential as it gets in the kitchen.

It’s just that at 25 I was still living in my home state of Michigan. And I was more pre-occupied with exhaust fumes than fertile soil or keeping monkeys from stealing me blind. True, I was no longer in Detroit. And 25-years-of-age was post-university. But avoiding the exhaust fumes of pompous college professors had replaced avoiding the exhaust fumes of automobiles and factories.

Anyway here I am. And I’m a “proud papa”! Just look at this fine specimen . . .

Yes, a lot has happened over the many years, and a lot has changed. So my life is not just about vegetables. I write novels and unique — some would say eccentric — creative non-fiction books. More importantly, much of my focus these days is on political activism, specifically anti-war activism. You can get the flavor of my efforts HERE and HERE.

Oh . . . one last thing. The inspiration for the title of this article was Gertrude Stein. Here is the story from Wikipedia: “The sentence ‘Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose’ was written by Gertrude Stein as part of the 1913 poem Sacred Emily, which appeared in the 1922 book Geography and Plays.” As if you didn’t already know that.

[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]

Life In Japan: A rose is a rose is an onion . . . | John Rachel

Sunday, May 12, 2024

Life In Japan: Peace Parade

You wouldn’t know it from the saber-rattling of recently assassinated former prime minister Shinjo Abe, or current prime minister Fumio Kishida, whose slavish obsequiousness to the forever war whims of the United States, is shameful and nauseating. But the vast majority of Japanese citizens, especially the older generations who remember the horrors of World War II, are for peace. They support Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution, which forbids anything other than a purely defensive military, just what is minimally necessary to defend Japan from aggression by other countries.

As a public school teacher, my wife Masumi belongs to a union and that union supports a truly left-wing agenda, one that serves the interests of working people and actively promotes peace.

Every year, they have a sizable demonstration, a march in Kobe for their admirable agenda.

This year emphasized their support for strict adherence to Article 9 and separating Japan from its destructive allegiance to America. The U.S still has at last count 56 military bases here, essentially an occupation force in place continuously almost 80 years after the Japanese surrendered and hostilities of the Second World War ended. That was September 2, 1945.

I guess to avoid its characterization as being “confrontational”, this years rally was called a parade, though it felt like a demonstration to me, minus the tear gas and pepper spray. Mind you, the last such event I attended was in 2003 in Portland, Oregon, when 58,000 people in a futile effort to prevent U.S. aggression, marched against invading Iraq. We were among the millions across the entire globe who raised our voices, who declared loud and clear, heartfelt opposition to the anticipated, unjustified, illegal war on Iraq — one based purely on lies propagated by the Bush administration. We know how that turned out.

Which is largely the reason for my current position on demonstrations. They feel good, they are important in terms of “educating” the public, they usually represent the best instincts and intentions of the saner elements in society — the pro-Palestinian demonstrations going on right now being a very noble example — BUT the people who need to hear the messaging of such efforts aren’t paying attention and certainly aren’t listening. So no matter how many people attend or how much they’re on the correct side of an issue, demonstrations are for the most part ineffective, and have been since the anti-Vietnam War rallies back in the 70s. That’s the reality of the situation as it currently stands. Sad but true.

In any case, Masumi and I marched for peace with about 5,000 other good, decent folks. As the only Westerner, I both stood out and felt very special.

I made my own sign for the peace parade. On one side it said in English, “Respect other people, respect other countries, no more war.” On the other side, the same message was in Japanese, to which my wife added, “Respect others, respect yourself.” Nice touch! Which is why I married this wonderful person. She’s brilliant and her heart is in the right place.

Lucky me!

[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]

Life In Japan: Peace Parade | John Rachel