I am rereading Benedict Anderson’s classic account of nationalism, Imagined Communities which I had leafed through somewhere along the line. Today I came across some choice passages on Japanese nationalism which suddenly made me remember Oshin. Actually, it’s impossible for me to think about Japan without thinking about Oshin in some way. Oshin was, after all, the first woman I ever fell in love with.

My Bangladeshi readers who recollect the period before the influx of ubiquitous dish antennae and then cable in Dhaka will no doubt remember MacGyver.  There has never been a white man so loved by the Bangladeshi people. We even incorporated him into the language (”MacGyveri kora”).  The whole nation was united under MacGyver’s spell. After they took MacGyver off they air, they showed some Singaporean (or was it Hong Kong) soap (I really do have very good long-term memory) about infighting in some rich Chinese family over control of some business that had convoluted sequences involving speedboats, helicopters, nice mansions, cocktail dresses and may be (and here’s it starts to get fuzzy and confused) assassins in clown suits. Needless to say, the  soap never really took off. And then, they started showed Oshin…

Oshin was about a Japanese girl born into a poverty-stricken family in rural Japan at the turn of the 20th century. The 297-episode saga traced her life through that tumultuous century in Japanese history - from the Russo-Japanese war of 1905, to the Great Tokyo Earthquake of 1923, to increasing militarization in the inter-war period, to the ugly Second World War, to the post-war humiliations, to the rapidly growing economy in the 50’s, to the prosperity of the 1980’s.

Oshin was, apparently, the most popular show in history in Japan, with an average viewership of nearly 52.6% of households with TV’s in Japan. But what was surprising was how receptive audiences outside of Japan were to Oshin. Mike Rogers reports:

 And, get this: Oshin has been broadcast in most Middle Eastern countries for at least the last 12 years. Iran? Sure. According to the Nikkei Shimbun News Oshin scores a remarkable 82% viewer rating; Iraq? Of course 76.7%; Thailand? 81.6%; China!? I thought most Chinese people hate Japanese because of the war! Yeah, well, maybe so, but they love Oshin! 75.9% viewer rating in China; Poland? 70%.

The Japanese government has noticed the popularity of Oshin, and how valuable it has been in fostering a positive image of Japan wherever it has been shown.  It has funded numerous cultural grants to allow Oshin to be shown, including in Afghanistan and Iraq.  Rogers tells us that when Japanese soldiers were sent to Iraq…

[t]he Japanese military has ordered all troops in Iraq to grow beards and moustaches. Weird, eh? Well, no… Smart. Besides understanding the ways of society in the Middle-East, Oshin’s husband has a moustache. Don’t believe me? Check this out:

Japanese army opts for new form of camouflage

Just about every Japanese soldier in Iraq that I’ve seen on TV has a moustache.

So, now when Iraqi people see Japanese soldiers with beards and moustaches they all yell, “Oshin! Oshin! Oshin!” 

Now that’s what I call soft power!

Somewhere along the line, they started showing Oshin on Kuwait TV after I moved back there. This was around the time when I was 13 or 14 - that age of rebellion, raging hormones and awkward self-consciousness. Evenings were when you hung out with your buddies kicking footballs or throwing basketballs and chatting about irrelevancies. But on Tuesday evenings you could not pry me away from the TV. At 3:30 they would start showing Oshin, and my mother and I would drop whatever else we were doing at 3:20, discuss possible plotlines for about 10 minutes, and then watch it together. There’s not a lot of TV that my mother and I would agree upon at that time in my life - but not Oshin. Mother and son would regularly bond over Oshin.

I am not ashamed of saying this: I was in love with her - and not just because Oshin from 16 to 46 was played by an extremely attractive crush-inducing actress.  Apart from my mother and grandmothers, Oshin has played a bigger role than any other woman in shaping my ideal of womanhood. Intelligent. Independent. Honest and frank. Generous and giving. Resourceful and optimistic in the face of adversity. Pragmatic. High-mindedly forgiving of fault and injury. Loyal. Jealously protective of the people and things she valued - not least of which being her independence of thought and integrity.

I am not alone in my high opinion of Oshin. An Iranian woman was once asked by a reporter who her symbol of Islamic womanhood was. Her response, “Oshin!” It’s said that the answer enraged Ayatollah Khomenei so much that he got four people from the TV station broadcasting Oshin arrested and stopped the program from showing for some time.