Sunday, October 07, 2012

RIP Big Daikon

When I lived in Japan, I used to post on Big Daikon, a site for English-speaking foreigners living in Japan - mostly brought over on the JET Programme - to rant, blow off steam, exchange ideas, and so forth. I was on the site from near its inception - I started in 1999, I think. It was the first internet community I belonged to, and even though I gather it got quite ugly (it gets described in one entertaining read as an unmoderated bad-taste extravaganza) it mattered to me for awhile. Also, one essay of mine, "My Life with the Nanking Massacre," was published by the site, dealing with aspects of my culture shock, acclimatizing to a singularly unusual coworker; I see that it has actually appeared in teaching materials at Tokyo Gakugei University, and gotten referenced by at least one blogger. Alas, with Big Daikon being shut down, my essay no longer exists anywhere - I took for granted that it would remain available and didn't save it to my hard drive. (Trying to track down a copy now). Goodbye, Big Daikon (and thanks to the anonymous commenter who pointed out that the site was gone).

3 comments:

Amanda M said...

I would love to read your piece if you manage to locate it. I've launched a Kickstarter to use my photography to document the remaining survivors of the massacre for the 75th anniversary. I'd be grateful if you checked it out!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2131084637/nanking-portraits-a-massacre-75-years-later

Amanda Mustard
www.amandamustardphoto.com

Allan MacInnis said...

Thanks to those of you who have helped me relocate my story. I actually am more comfortable with it no longer being publicly accessible, since it has, it turns out, had more of a life than I'd ever intended for it. I wanted a copy for my own files, and have it, so a) no longer need it, and b) with apologies, would prefer not to share it further. It's a chapter in my life I'd like to remain closed...

Googler said...

https://bigdaikonjetstories.blogspot.com/2014/02/my-life-with-nanking-massacre-written.html