The Plot Against America

I woke up around 3:00 a.m. today in Osaka due to some lingering jet lag. I did the one thing you’re not supposed to do when waking up in the middle of the night, I reached for my phone. The killing of Alex Pretti was all I saw. Over the next two hours, I lay awake watching videos and reading stories about how ICE in Minneapolis shot and killed him.

During the COVID spring of 2020, my son Kyle and I watched the HBO miniseries The Plot Against America (which I highly recommend). Given the current political landscape in America, I decided to read the Philip Roth novel on which the series is based. The book presents an alternative history in which Charles Lindbergh becomes president in 1940 and steers America toward fascism, resulting in Jewish families leaving the U.S. for the safety of Canada.

One passage I read today feels disturbingly relevant to what happened in Minneapolis yesterday, as well as to the rise of Trump:

“Because every day I ask myself the same question: How can this be happening in America? How can people like these be in charge of our country? If I didn’t see it with my own eyes, I’d think I was having a hallucination.”

Although Roth wrote those words in 2004, they perfectly capture our current moment. Instead of the fascist and antisemitic Charles Lindbergh, we now have a fascist, racist, white supremacist, Stephen Miller, dictating our immigration policy.

Traveling internationally as an American has become a sensitive issue. Last year, while on a tour in India, Jane and I were the only Americans in a group of about a dozen people. When our new friends asked what was going on in America and where we fell on the political spectrum, I came up with this response: “If I were there, I wouldn’t be here.” If you need an explanation, I’ll happily break it down for you.

Back to Osaka:

We arrived late Friday night. On our ten-hour flight from Seattle to Tokyo, Jane and I were lucky enough to each have an entire row to ourselves, also known as poor man’s first class. Our flight from Tokyo to Osaka was delayed, which meant hustling to catch the last train from the airport into the city.

On Saturday, we explored the Shinsaibashi neighborhood, Kuromon Market, Dotonbori, and saw the iconic Glico Running Man sign. Later in the afternoon, we joined a walking tour that took us from Namba to Shinsekai. For dinner, we had delicious ramen at Tenkaippin.

Today we visited Osaka Castle. After heading up to the eighth-floor observation deck, we walked around the surrounding park grounds. We then returned to Kuromon Market, where I had takoyaki which is golf-ball-sized dumplings made from wheat flour batter and filled with minced octopus. On the way, we encountered several streets blocked off and soon realized the Osaka Women’s Marathon was underway. Back in Namba, we wandered through local shops featuring capsule vending machine arcades, figurines, and various card stores.