translator's comments -English

photon's opinion — concerning the diary of April 30th, 2002

About "NHK Special —The Miracle Poet"

I hadn't watched this TV program, but someone gave me the video recording, and I watched it fortunately.
The content of the program is as follows:

"A boy of 11 years old, Luna Hiki, conquered a brain disorder,
wrote down compositions by pointing at a card of characters
with his mother's assistance and published them."

Does Luna point at the card of characters in accordance with his own will?

While Luna is pointing at the card of characters in this program,
his mother is holding him from behind,
she has the card of characters in her right hand,
and Luna's left hand in her left hand.
And she is moving the card of characters in her right hand to hit Luna's left hand.

When she is moving the card of characters in this way,
Luna can't possibly point at a character as he wants.
Moreover, even after he fell asleep, such "writing" with a card of characters doesn't stop.
Luna's individuality seems to be totally ignored.

Is it only that his mother is playing a role in her own play?

I guess his mother is not deceiving others intentionally,
but she has gone insane, and she cannot tell herself from Luna.

And the ego of Luna, who has been brought up in such an environment,
might not grow up yet because he and his mother have been always one in body and mind.
If this state is maintained, the mother and the child might be happy as they are.

But in case his mother dies earlier than him, how can Luna tell his mind to others?

For respecting for Luna's human rights,
I think it's necessary to stop using such an assistant-dependent card of characters,
and give him a communication aid just right for his symptoms.

The other problems

The following points became topics on the Internet, the mass media, the Diet etc.:

NHK has televised a program too poor as a documentary.
Though NHK is public broadcasting, they seemed to advertise a book of a publishing company.
NHK uncritically presented Glenn Doman method, a training method against brain disorders,
which is criticised by many specialists.
Luna's parents don't let him go to school;
it means that they don't fulfil their obligation of education.
Luna's parents seem to abuse Luna's sister by forcing her to have too hard patience.
Luna's parents give him round-the-clock training with pain,
and let him "write" until late at night. It seems to be child abuse.
It is said that Luna's mother has relation to a new religion,
and terms peculiar to this religion appear frequently in Luna's writing.
It is said that Luna's father has quit his job,
and the main source of income of this family is Luna's "writings" and "lectures".

As for Nos. 7 and 8, we have no right to meddle in their affairs whether it's true or not.
As for Nos. 1, 2 and 3, I have no interest in it because I don't watch TV.
But as for 4, 5 and 6, especially the suspicion of child abuse,
I insist that juvenile welfare commissioners go check upon it.

The true meaning of Mr. Takeshi Kaneshiro's diary

I infer from the style of his diary
that the expression of laugh like "hee-hee" is not for irony but for covering his embarrassment when he writes his heart,
moreover, I think he would express his heart with frank words rather than a perplexing irony
if he really wanted to criticise the program.
I mean I infer that Takeshi just frankly wrote the impression given by the program in his diary.

There is no way of knowing if this inference is correct,
but anyway, I think he was shocked by the program somehow, and he couldn't help writing it in his diary,
so he just incidentally mentioned the name of Luna Hiki when he gave an address of closing the website.

I think the reason to abandon the website is, as it was written in his diary of the next day,
that he was just busy and no good ideas occurred to him;
and I guess also that it's because he lost interest in it.