Sideshows From Show Time By Lee Ann Fujii: Chapter Analysis

Nationalist that raged a war or genocide creates terror, destruction of society and destroys relationships. The hostile environment is not solely achieved by supporting the cause of violence, but extra -lethal activities play a role in adding more violence to the environment. The essay discusses the chapter 7 called Sideshows from Show Time: The Race, Power and Violent Display by Lee Ann Fujii. The chapter explains why is it important to look at ‘extra-lethal’ activities that are the sideshows of the war or genocide. Nationalist ruthless acts are the extra lethal activities that did not happen during the midst of the war or genocide and are transgression. (Fujii 2015, 1-2). Nationalists act on opportunities that take advantage of a violent

Torturing or humiliating the victims brings pleasure and satisfaction for the nationalist. In the prison camps in Bosnia displays how the nationalist exploited their victim for their own advantage. The guards would force the prisoner to sing in exchange for water. The guard would make the prisoner to sing louder or make them sing more than once, eventually throw the water at the prisoner and leave them to drink it of the ground (Fujii 2015, 4-5). Prisoners had to perform many brutal activities, such as bite off their fellow prisoner’s testicles, randomly interrogated or beat each other (Fujii 2015). According to Fuji, while the guards performed these extra-lethal activities they interacted by clapping, laughing, cheering and mocking (Fujii, 2015, 20). These interaction shows that the guards used their prisoners for their entertainment. Fujii explains that nationalist would perpetuate the entertainment by finding new innovated ways to perform barbarous acts and keep the environment ‘lively’ (Fujii 2015,19). These brutal acts were not necessary nor supported the cause of the war. For the nationalist the prisoner being prisoned and beating the prisoner was not enough, but they provoked more violence to see how far they can go with it and enjoy their

In the Rwanda genocide and Bosnia, nationalists were exterminating the local relationships. The guards in the prison camps in Bosnia wanted to make sure that Muslims and Serbs would never bond with each other again. Prisoners would fear of becoming recognized because a nationalist recognizing them meant that they would get tortured (Fujii 2015, 4). Guards beat up Serb prisoners because the prisoner had ties with Muslims before or after the war. Nationalist did not only want demolish Muslims and Serbs relationship, but establish a new meaning of being a Serb (Fujii 2015, 8). The new Serbs and the fear of Muslims being recognized by Serbs was the method of completely dismantling the bond between the two ethnicity and achieving more nationalist support. Tadic took his former friend Emir and tortured him mercilessly in the upper level room (Fujii 2015, 11). Emir’s screams would reach to the other prisoners, as this created terror and showed that the bonds between a Serb and Muslim no longer existed. Tadic wanted to prolong the brutality, thus he made prisoners volunteer to play part of the extra-lethal activity (Fujii 2015, 14). This is links to the example that guards exploit their power for sources of entertainment and destruction of the relationship between two friends. The extra lethal activities were meant to dismantled the