Photo/Illutration A scene from the controversial music video promoting the new song “Columbus” by Mrs. Green Apple  (Captured from YouTube)

A music video released June 12 by popular Japanese rock band Mrs. Green Apple triggered a storm of protest over its lack of cultural and historical sensitivity and overtones of colonialism.

The clip to promote the band’s new song, “Columbus,” was pulled the following day by Universal Music Japan.

In the video, the three band members, dressed as Christopher Columbus, Napoleon Bonaparte and Ludwig van Beethoven, interact with anthropoids on an island they visit.

Columbus, the explorer once regarded as a “hero” for “discovering” the New World in 1492, is now generally viewed in a negative light due to his treatment of the indigenous people he encountered.

In the video, the band members interact happily with the “apes,” get the animals to pull a rickshaw, teach them how to play the piano and instruct them on horseback riding. These depictions were seen as skewed or romanticized portrayals of racial discrimination and slavery.

In a statement released June 13 on the group’s official website, vocalist Motoki Omori said, “We did not intend for the (content of the video) to be discriminatory nor to affirm a tragic history.”

He said the band members at the outset were concerned the portrayal of anthropoids might be seen as discriminatory, so they used special makeup techniques to ensure the apes did not look like people. Although the explanation did not go far enough, its sincerity in accepting the widespread criticism that the music video evoked was evident.

This, however, raises further questions about why problematic expressions and scenes actually got to be filmed.

It was not just the band members. Many entities were involved in the project, but none of them recognized the problem beforehand. That includes the television network that introduced the music video in a positive tone.

Artistic “expressions” that uncritically trace historical elements are bound to cause an uproar, and have done so repeatedly. This is especially so when they fail to recognize the full context of related events while romanticizing or trivializing the circumstances of serious or traumatic figures 

For example, in 2016, a pop idol group caused a major stir with costumes that resembled Nazi uniforms.

There is a tendency in Japanese society to regard “political” expressions as taboo. However, artistic and other expressions, and that includes the music world, cannot be completely apolitical.

Ignoring history is also a political statement. There is a widespread tendency to avoid confronting negative history. This has apparently trapped sensitive artists and creators in a politically insensitive environment, leading to expressions that trivialize history.

What should be noted from this latest incident is not that it was wrong to make Columbus an important element in the video but that the way he was depicted was the problem. It would be wrong to denounce all references to certain subjects or all use of specific words as discriminatory without examining the context. Otherwise this will impose unnecessary and unwanted restrictions on speech and other expressions.

What must not be forgotten is that Japan has also been involved in colonialism and violating indigenous people’s rights.

In this latest instance, criticism against the video arose quickly on social media. Changing times bring not just increased sensitivity to human rights. As more time has elapsed since atrocities occurred in a dark chapter of this nation’s history, widely shared memories of the victims and the perpetrators of these actions tend to be lost. We should always keep this fact in mind.

--The Asahi Shimbun, June 28

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