Disability ◆ Not Yielding to the Gaze of Others

The Chunichi Shimbun Morning Edition, April 21, 2006

When I talk with people who have disabilities or exchange letters with them, I am often struck by the sharpness of their sensibilities and the accuracy of their perceptions of others. Once, a person with cerebral palsy told me, “That doctor may be a professor, but he doesn’t seem to understand how patients feel.” It made me realize that an innocent heart, unbound by titles, can sometimes see the truth more clearly than others.

Parents of children with disabilities also often leave strong impressions. They may be incredibly cheerful, or they might achieve remarkable success at work — there’s often something distinctly special about them.

The film What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (1993) features Leonardo DiCaprio, now a major Hollywood star, alongside Johnny Depp, whom he admires like an older brother in real life.

Leo plays a boy with an intellectual disability who loves high places. One day, he climbs the tallest chimney in town, causing a commotion that ends with him being taken into custody by the police. His mother, who became morbidly obese after the death of her husband and is unable to move easily, bursts into the police station and shouts, “Give me back my son!” The way she walks out with Leo, ignoring the judgmental stares of townspeople, is deeply moving. Like many parents of children with disabilities, she overcomes the social stigma and piercing gazes of others.

The older brother, played by Johnny Depp, is a charming young man torn between his responsibilities to his family and his own dreams.

What’s Eating Gilbert Grape offers many important lessons — the meaning of living with a disability in society, the significance of independence, the bonds of family that support it, and the kindness of the local community — all things that are gradually disappearing from today’s Japan.

The Act on the Independence of Persons with Disabilities, which came into effect in April, has been fiercely criticized for increasing the burdens on disabled individuals and their families, and for making social participation more difficult. Some have gone so far as to call it the “Act to Hinder Independence.” The bureaucrats and lawmakers involved in this legislation should watch this film and come to understand just how important people with disabilities and their families are to society.