Week 7 Discussion Question

The week 7’s discussion question related to all previous readings we had that reflected different people’s stories back to the ancient Japanese times. Most of them were the commoners back then and their whole lifetime were slightly mentioned in the historical record. The history-writing about the lives of these people reflected the living conditions for a million of people who had same position in the society back then (most of them are people who ranked at the bottom of the hierarchy). They counted a big chunk of population back then and were the most representative. The most ethical history writing is the one that is real and related to their true living condition. These archival materials are super meaningful because they made up the whole picture of the Japanese’s “colonial” population in the past. So these people would not be forgotten. These people were not just representing themselves, but also the people who shared similar experience. The history writing couldn’t cover everyone or even the same kind of group of people. Think about the pandemic that is going on right now, the first group of people that pops up in most people’s mind that we should thank will be the health workers. The health workers’ contribution would definitely be recorded as the hero events in the future historical writing. But during this pandemic, there are so many different groups of people that sacrifice a lot. For example, the researchers who were creating vaccine. In the future historical writing, those pharmaceutical company would be most likely to be recorded. Who will know the name of those researchers who devoted 16 hours a day trying to save people’s life. One thing about the historical event is that it will not cover everyone. People like us who stay at home and follow the guideline also suffered much during this pandemic. But not everyone of us will be recorded in the historical book. There will be a couple of people who will represent us with their real names.

But if I am luckily to be chosen as one representative, I will not be willing to disclose too much about my life during the pandemic time. I don’t write diary that records my everyday life. I will probably be open to answer some questions and describe some significant stories in my life. I am a person who is really caring about the privacy and I don’t like people to track my life. I think that’s what happened during the reading that some of the historical data weren’t available to the public. The historians need to stay ethical to accommodate people’s wishes and respect them.