Shikata ga nai

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Shikata ga nai ( ????? ) , pronounced [? I? Word? A nai] , is a Japanese phrase meaning "can not be helped" or "nothing can be done about it". Sh? ga nai ( ?????? ) , pronounced [? O :? A nai] is an alternative.

Video Shikata ga nai

Cultural association

This phrase has been used by many Western authors to describe the ability of Japanese to maintain dignity in the face of unavoidable tragedies or injustices, especially when circumstances are beyond their control, somewhat similar to "c'est la vie" in France. Historically, it has been applied to situations where the masses of Japanese people as a whole have been made to survive, including the Japanese Allied occupation and Japanese and Japanese Japanese American internees. So when Emperor Sh? Wa (Hirohito) was asked, in his first press conference given in Tokyo in 1975, what he thought about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, he replied: "It is regrettable that the nuclear bomb is dropped and I feel sorry for the people of Hiroshima but that can not help because it happened in wartime. "

Dalam Asian American Women: The "Frontiers" Reader , penulis Debbie Storrs menyatakan:

The Japanese sentence shikata ga nai , or "it can not be helped," denotes cultural norms in which a person has little control... The idea of ​​suffering comes in part from shikata ga nai : failure to follow cultural norms and social conventions leads to a life of little choice but endurance of suffering.

This phrase can also have a negative connotation, as some may consider the lack of reaction to adversity as a sense of complacency, both of social and political forces. In a Business Week article, a Western businessman said about the Japanese:

He encouraged the Japanese not to give up on the mentality of shikata ga nai but became angry and started acting like a citizen. 'The Japanese listen to me because I always push what the possibilities are and how things can change... to ensure a positive economic and political outlook...'

Maps Shikata ga nai

Non-Japanese literary reference

This phrase appears as an important theme in various books relating to major events in the history of Japanese society. Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston's Separation with Manzanar devotes a chapter to the concept of explaining why Japanese Americans who were interned in the US during World War II did not do more resistance to the conditions and policies that limited them.. The historical manga Barefoot Gen shows many residents in Hiroshima using the phrase "Shikata ga nai" to explain why they accept the military rule, and acceptance of the under-poverty conditions that cause many of them starvation. Similarly, the words of John Hersey Hiroshima apply this phrase after an attempt to help the seriously injured hibakusha stop.

James Clavelle uses this phrase in Shogun. Japanese figures explain it to westerners who come to see his wisdom.

This phrase is also introduced or described by Japanese or Japanese-American characters in books such as Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson, James Clavell Sh? Gun and David Guterson's Snow Falling on Cedars .

In The Hostile Beaches by Gordon D. Shirreffs, Lieutenant Carney's character says the phrase. When asked what that means, he says it means "Let's work", not knowing the true meaning. Later, Bob Dunbar said the words to confuse the Japanese army.

Japanese commentator Willard Price often refers to the terms in relation to Japan in the 1930s and 1940s.

Kim Stanley Robinson also included the phrase in his book Red Mars. The phrase was pronounced by Hiroko at the beginning of Mars's occupation: "Hiroko who intercepts Arkady, with what he says is an ordinary Japanese: 'Shikata ga nai,' meaning no choice" (100). Pt 8, the last chapter of this book, also called Shikata ga nai .

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More references

This phrase has been adopted by the Metasploit framework as the name of a polymorphic XOR additive feedback additive for the X86 shellcode. The name is appropriate because the polymorphic encoding means no expectation of antivirus products detecting malicious code encoded using this method.

"Shoganai" is a song on King Crimson's 2002 mini album Blessed with What You Should Have Been Happy with .

"Shikata Ga Nai" is a song on the Van der Graaf Generator 2016 Do Not Disturb album.

The phrase appears in the flash game "Katawa Crash", based on Shoujo's katawa, associated with Hanako Ikezawa.

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References

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Further reading

• "Shikata Ga Nai". Time Magazine . October 8, 1945. Archived from the original on March 10, 2007 . Retrieved November 3rd, 2014 .

Source of the article : Wikipedia