In an episode of Code Geass, the anime about an alternate-reality Earth in which Japan is conquered by the evil Empire of Britannia, Zero asks his friend Suzaku a question. “What is it to be ‘Japanese,’ and how do you define the concept of ‘race’? Is it through language? The land where people are living? Blood relationships?” “No, not that,” Suzaku replies, “It’s determined by their kokoro.” It’s a good scene to illustrate one of my favorite Japanese concepts, kokoro, which essentially means heart, but only the philosophical or spiritual aspects of it. A kokoro is the purest definition of a person’s self including their mind, their current and future goals and aspirations and everything that they hold dear. Although I’m not Japanese, the fact that I’ve lived here for 18 years and have embraced the language and values of the country means that my kokoro has has joined with Japan on some level. It’s not unlike my father, also named Peter Payne, who emigrated from Britain to the U.S. in the 1950s and stayed all his life, becoming very passionate about his new adopted country.
Code Geass is an anime that can get quite philosophical at times.
