I am finally going to come out: I am a transethnic Japanese woman...
It is not racist to know that the body we live in is different than our soul...I don’t hold anything against white people for the tragedies occurring during World War II-that was the American government’s fault, and the blame does not lie with a specific race of people. Of course all people from the same country and ethnicity don’t think the same, but people of my race living in my country Japan share a common cultural identity. And the people with this Japanese culture have Japanese skin. Ethnicity has to do with culture, not just skin color...
All I want is for people to look at me as the right race and nationality, like being called the right pronouns... It would so be much easier to just be a foreigner in Japan, and it would be even easier just to be born in the right country in the first place... I am proud to be Japanese even if I wasn’t born that way, but this journey to become my true self isn’t easy.
Also, it is a real hardship that we don’t have a way to transition. We can’t get an operation to become our true skin color physically...I’m so glad transgender people can surgically become themselves, and wish it was easier for them. But us transethnic people? We can change our names and nationalities, but our skin color is always going to be dyed in this unfitting shade...
I understand how some transethnics feel offended by all the hate, but that doesn’t give us a right to insult cisethnic people...I am a cis woman, and I am very lucky and thank the kamisama every time I have my period because there are plenty wonderful women who would give everything to have the opportunity to have a female body with the ability to give birth. In fact, I’d love to be a surrogate mother for lovely trans ladies... Has my identity dysphoria been so strong that I was driven to self-harm and suicide? To the latter, yes, actually. I’ve always experienced extreme nationality dysphoria, and recently realized it is ethnic dysphoria too...Then I realized, Japan is so close to being perfect. At least, Japan is my perfection, my happiness, the country that I belong in and that I should have been part of my entire life. It’s not just because Pocky and ramen are my favorite foods-it’s everything about Japan that defines me and explains who I am as a person. I’m a typical Japanese girl who loves Japanese pop culture and society and the ancient traditions still manifest in Kyoto...After getting rid of the western-ness I may accidentally have acquired, I’ll be a normal Japanese in every situation, socially and culturally... Of course there are problems with Japan, but he’s as close to perfect as I’m ever going to find, and it was shocking to me that humans could create something so wonderful.
It was really quite difficult to know how to edit that to create an extract, it really needs to be read in full to get the author's full message and the full impact of the piece. And you get delightful music to read it by.
