Introduction
Who I am and why I write.
The US navy sent me to Japan against my wishes in the early 90s. It was not that I did not want to visit Japan, I just didn’t want to return to anywhere other than the US after deployment. I fought to get my orders changed. Luckily, I lost that fight. Determined to make the most out of my less than preferred new country of residence, I got off base as much as possible, started learning the language and met a lot of wonderful people from Japan, of course, and from many different countries. I enjoyed it to the point that I decided to spend two non consecutive years studying in Japan after I left the navy. After graduating from college, I returned in 2000 to teach English for 3 to 5 years. I am still here.
Before shipping out to Japan, I served aboard another vessel in San Diego. Loved the place. Met many great people there too, and I sorely wanted to go back there after my C school. The ship I was stationed aboard in San Dog went into the yards for a complete overhaul. It spent some time in the graving dock which most would call a “dry dock”. It was during this time that I was required to get certified in respirators. As a Machinist’s Mate, this is a very unusual qualification to have as our usual job does not require respirators. It is also the one qualification that I thought would never play any role in my life after leaving my first boat.
It was shocking to see people masked in public once I arrived in Japan. As I understood, it was illegal in most jurisdictions in the US to be masked in public. Halloween being an exception. I was told it was the Japanese way of being polite to others when they had a “cold”. “Great way to keep from getting over a cold.”, thought I, at the time. Much later, I would learn that a large number of those wearing masks in Japan do so in their efforts to fight off “kafunsho”, hay fever. Hmm, that at least has some logic to it, arguably at least.
Years and three trips later would find me teaching Eikawa (English conversation) classes for a major chain of schools set up for this purpose. In the early 2000s Japan was hit with a very bad flu and masks were again called upon in the fight against this yearly visitor. Reusable masks were all the rage at this point in time. I remember one of our students boasting about his new, long lasting, reusable mask. Before I could chime in, another student (An elderly gentleman who himself was a navy vet, though he sailed for the Emperor in his youth.) cautioned him against reusing any mask and never to wear one for more than a few hours before replacing it with another. What is it with navy guys?
Moving on from Eikawa, I landed a position at a med. school where I have been trying to teach my students that a mask will not protect against any airborne virus. No way, no how. Thus, for twenty years prior to the Covid induced panic, I have been battling against this inappropriate and unhealthy use of masks.
Thanks for telling your story. What an interesting life! I am currently in San Diego as a music and English teacher, although more on the literature side than ESL.
I was horrified to learn about the misuse of respirators during Covid, and heard some (seemingly) legitimate accusations that many people died from intubation. I'm sure you would have a lot to contribute to this aspect of the covid craziness over the last 2.5 years.
The idea of a mask and the practice of one are two different things.
That is the thing, talk to anyone with any long term experiences with masks in real world settings like in paint shops, doing sand blnd blasting, or working in a mine and they will all tell you, from people in the low 100's to those smart as a whip, that masks can't keep out small particulates, so what do they think the chances are that it will work with particles so small as to be effectively invisible?
I imagine a question would be to ask holding up a vial "This contains ebola, how confident are you at believing your mask would stop it?"