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Thomas Harris - The Silence of the Lambs

Himiko’s background and route to power is unknown. The Wèi Zhì describes her as, “[using] magic and sorcery and bewitch[ing] the populace,” (Tsunoda 1951, 2) but it is unclear if this describes her habitual behaviour, charisma, or having literally used magic to become queen. Kidder suggests she was born to a powerful family (2007, 132), like most rulers. Maybe that power included hereditary shamanic training, but Himiko did not have an iri/yori title, so that is speculative. Himiko came to power aged 20, and was queen of Yamatai for nearly 60 years. She did not marry, lived in seclusion in a castle with 1,000 female attendants and one male, probably her brother, who managed her food and wardrobe (Tsunoda 1951, 3), acted as her spokesperson, and may have also held political power himself. Her death triggered a return to civil war, until her 13-year-old niece Toyo (臺與) became queen after her. Her day-to-day governance is not detailed, besides Wèi Zhì commentary that Yamatai law was “strict and stern” (Tsunoda, 3), and that wives and children could be confiscated or killed as punishment (2). Slavery was practiced, as one of the Wei court’s surviving exchanges with Himiko thank her for a gift of slaves. What is telling of Himiko’s possible diplomatic skill is her receipt of gifts and recognition by China as a ‘friend of Wei’ (Wang 1994, 25): “The title “Pro-Wei Queen of Wo” that Himiko received was the most prestigious title that the Wei court had ever granted to any of the “barbarian” rulers, who in general could only expect to be granted the title “Ruler in Command of his Tribesmen” (shuai-chung wang 率眾王). She also received unequivocal political commitment from the Wei ruler.” (26)

While prostitution came to be treated as a necessity for [American] soldiers’ wellbeing and entertainment, evidence that they were dating a Japanese woman was grounds for immediate transfer to another city or abroad (De Mente 1991, 44; Ward Crawford et al. 2010, xvii), and even when relationships were not deliberately destroyed, soldiers could be penalised and permission to marry and bring their wives back to the States was contingent on extensive investigation of their personal and family background (Ward Crawford et al. 2010, 237). Essentially, Americans were encouraged to interact with Japanese women only as prostitutes, and all Japanese women were automatically suspected of being prostitutes. As well as interference in interracial marriages, the combined stigma of promiscuity and disease impacted Japanese women as a whole through their inclusion in STD testing round-ups that involved genital examinations, interrogation by American and Japanese military police, and the physical assault of women and girls who resisted (Kovner 2012, 42). Women who dated and married Americans also reported receiving verbal abuse from other Japanese when out in public, as they were automatically assumed to be escorts (Ward Crawford et al. 2010, 33, 40, 115, 185). Notable in Japanese War Brides in America is a comment — whether from the interviewee or translator is unclear — suggesting that American troops stationed in Japan contracted STDs after visiting brothels for “social opportunities” (112). The women interviewed have a similar anxiety about prostitute stigma to actual prostituted women, that extends to the point of an aversion to acknowledging the actions and responsibility of the men amongst whom they found their husbands. Previously, mistreatment of prostituted women had been accepted through their role and physical isolation, but the racialisation of postwar Japan -- or its arrival along with a loss of control of the system as subjects of occupation -- reconfigured earlier ontological boundaries, or at least revealed that women had little control of their placement within them. The connection of ideas around prostituted women and sexual hygiene to race on one side presumed particular sexual behaviour of women because of their race, and on the other blamed women for damage to ‘racial purity’ caused by a situation they were induced or forced into out of financial insecurity.