Johatsu

A podcast episode that popped up in my feed this week was immediately interesting to me. Given my ongoing interest in missing people, and a side interest in people who choose to disappear, it's notable that I hadn't heard of Johatsu and the Night Movers before. Enjoyed the podcast and did more reading on this elusive story...

Tokyo's johatsu are said to disappear into the Sanya district's streets

In Japan, if you want to disappear from your life, you can just pick up the phone and a ‘night moving company’ will turn you into one of the country’s ‘johatsu,’ or literally ‘evaporated people.’ You can cease to exist. Meet the people who choose to disappear and the people who are left behind..." [listen to the podcast on the BBC].

Of the many oddities that are culturally specific to Japan — from cat cafés to graveyard eviction notices to the infamous Suicide Forest, where an estimated 100 people per year take their own lives — perhaps none is as little known, and curious, as “the evaporated people.”... [read more in the New York Post].

There is a book on the phenomena, entitled The Vanished (by Léna Mauger). Sadly, there is no audiobook and before paying crazy prices before buying a used hardcover, I checked out the reviews.... and they were not very good (Goodreads reviews).

Actually, there are two. The other, entitled The Night Movers (by Shou Hatori), has done its own vanishing act... can't find it in any form. Hmmm. It's a shame, as this guy was a night mover.

Aspiring authors: there is a book here! Just be sure to include an audiobook.

Japan's 'evaporated people' have become an obsession for this French couple - Pri.org story and podcast
Do Stressed-Out Japanese Really Stage Elaborate Disappearances? On the Trail of the Johatsu or 'Evaporated People' - Time
The chilling stories behind Japan’s ‘evaporating people’ - New York Post
Rulebreakers: How I Disappear - BBC: The Documentary Podcast

Review: Tokyo Rose (the Iva Toguri story)

Tokyo Rose: The History and Legacy of Iva Toguri and Japan’s Most Famous Propaganda Campaign during World War II by Charles River Editors
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A hero and a scapegoat
Iva Toguri was an innocent Japanese-American who got stuck in Japan in World War II. Having arrived for vacation on the last ship to sail, when she was unable to return home, she had to fend for herself for the duration of the war. Unwelcome as an American, she did her best to stay of the radar and blend in. She eventually fell into broadcasting, one of several women broadcasting in English, and all loosely referred to as "Tokyo Rose". But Toguri's broadcasts were unique: American soldiers listening to her broadcasts would hear news of attacks and anti-propaganda slipped in between the music she played and the official propaganda. Anything she could do to support the Allies and undermine the Japanese, she did. Despite these courageous acts, she was dismissed as a disloyal Japanese-American, sadly not surprising given the roundup and detention of Japanese in the USA during the war. She was furthermore treated as a scapegoat and prosecuted. Her brave efforts to support her country were lost in the process. In the end, it's a pretty sad story, and it is too bad she wasn't celebrated as a hero. I'm glad this book was written so that her story is not swept under the rug and forgotten.

View all my reviews