In this episode of the Hon podcast, host Amy Chavez talks with author Richard Lloyd Parry about his books Ghosts of the Tsunami and People Who Eat Darkness: The Fate of Lucie Blackman. (Click “more” below to see the Show Notes).
BOA Podcast 7: Show Notes
“Welcome to Hon, the Books on Asia podcast, I’m your host, Amy Chavez, and today we have with us Richard Lloyd Parry and he is going to talk with me about two of his three books, People Who Eat Darkness: The Fate of Lucie Blackman and the other is Ghosts of the Tsunami.”
They start the show talking about the title People Who Eat Darkness, which is based on the title in Japanese, by Taroru Matsugaki called 闇を食う人々 (Yami o kuu hito bito), a phrase which refers people who go over to the dark side.
The discussion starts with Lucie Blackman, who worked at a “hostess club” in Tokyo, and the implications of such clubs and how they work. They note there are many levels of these clubs, that even women go to them, and that they vary from the benign to the more sexually explicit venues. How to tell the difference between the clubs and their activities is not always so obvious.
Amy asks Richard why Tim Blackman, Lucie’s father, was portrayed by the Japanese as someone without feeling when actually, the Japanese themselves are known to be quite stoic in the face of tragedy. Furthermore, he came off as someone who was taking control of the investigation of his daughter, as he held his own press-conferences, and put pressure on the police, actions which made the Japanese public construe him as suspicious, and which lead some thinking maybe he had something to do with his daughter’s disappearance. Richard talks about how people have biases about how bereaved people should behave and also their place in investigations concerning police. They also talk about the suspect, Jōji Obara, and how he didn’t behave as Japanese society would have expected either and the ensuing implications. They discuss criminal trials, the years of investigations in the Lucie Blackman case, and the role of confessions in Japanese criminal cases.
Parry observes that while Western media like to point out Japan’s odd obsessions and fetishes that these clichés don’t explain why Japan is still a very safe country compared to other industrialized nations. Amy reads a passage from People who Eat Darkness that points to racist stereotypes Westerners often make about Asia and Japan. In explaining why someone like Lucie Blackman would get into a car with a man she didn’t know very well, Amy expresses how easy it is to be lulled into a false sense of security in Japan because you usually don’t have to worry so much about your safety. They also talk about the role of voluntary compensation money in Japan for any harm you’ve caused someone (even in light traffic accidents).
Moving into Ghosts of the Tsunami, Amy discusses how the book brings in the reader to the reality of what actually happens when a tsunami hits, how people tend to discount possible events by shutting them out as if they don’t pertain to them, and how at the same time heeding warnings isn’t always possible either. Richard reveals that with the book he attempted to get beyond statistics by telling a story and not just putting the numbers out there. His strategy was to focus on smaller stories that spoke for volumes of people. Shamanism, ghosts, and the supernatural also come into play as people deal with tragedy. Ghosts are discussed and how they contributed to the title Ghosts of the Tsunami.
Amy asks Richard how he deals with such tragedies as part of his everyday job and how he balances work and life, especially when people from right wing organizations are, reportedly, threatening his life. He reveals how he has learned to filter threats, and decide what is important in feedback to his articles and what isn’t.
Lastly, Amy begs for some insight on how, as a writer and journalist, he organizes such volumes of information to get them into book form. Richard goes through his painstaking process of how he organizes his notes and the tactical strategies to put his narrative together. He also talks about using assistants, translators and interpreters.