The Culture of Gaman: Resilience and Dignity

Gaman in Japanese means something like, "to grin and bear it"

When I was younger, on car rides when I desperately needed to use the bathroom, my mom would tell me "gaman shinasai, we're almost home."

When my stomach growled for a dinner that wasn't yet on the table, "gaman shinasai, you can wait two more minutes," she would say.  

Those were the ridiculously simple, barely-even-so injustices I faced growing up. 

But the word covers immense and real injustices too.

In WWII when people of Japanese descent were sent to interment camps, they told one another "gaman shimasho, we can get through this." Of course Japanese people demonstrated their dissent and fought hard for their freedom as they were dismissed to camps across the States. One of their lasting legacies though, is that while they protested, they held on to their dignity and made so much of the cards given them.

The same gaman culture is on display in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami.
A recent NPR story introduced me to a woman whose home was leveled. There she was in a massive emergency-living center with hundreds of others. The rumble of noises behind her was steady but not chaotic. The reporter caught her as she was sorting recycling from trash. I imagine he was struck as I was that even with the devastation surrounding her, she would commit herself to the relatively insignificant task of recycling. This is gaman; maintaining organization and order despite the shattered life outside the walls of the center. She told the reporter, "I am very sad... but thank you very much for coming."

Another story explained that many Japanese people are ashamed of showing public emotions. In a city in the northeast, 450,000 people are left homeless. They are squeezed in various sports and town halls to stay dry and fed. There is just one professional counselor for them even before the earthquake. This counselor affirms that indeed very few people want to talk about their feelings. A stigma exists about seeing psychiatrists. Instead, people work to press on with resilience, aiming to leave emotions behind. She explains the motto heard in everyday conversations these days, "gambaro!" Similar to gaman, it exclaims, "we can do this!"
All for one and one for all. It's the rallying cry in this time of tragedy. Another survivor says, "there's no other way we can survive than saying 'gambaro.'"