During a visit to Washington late last month, all flags at public institutions were flying at half staff; a former president was indicted by a New York grand jury on over 30 counts; and a reporter for a leading newspaper was detained by Russian authorities on espionage charges.
Despite it being just a quick trip of two nights, I learned a great deal where I found that America's conscience was being tested. I also had a hunch that, likewise, our "Japaneseness" would eventually be put to the test.
A few days before my arrival, six people, including three 9-year-old students, were shot and killed at an elementary school in Nashville. While this one incident alone was so shocking that it left me speechless, surprisingly, it was the 129th such shooting in the U.S. of the kind in 2023. Except for war-torn countries such as Ukraine, no other country in modern times has had 129 mass shootings in just 90 days.