The Legacy of Yukio Mishima: 50 Years after the Resolution
(Top) A Desperate Cry of Faith in Japan
The following is from a feature article in the Sankei Shimbun (November 24, 2020).
We were angry at Japan's too-long postwar slumber.
On November 25, it will be 50 years since the shocking suicide of Yukio Mishima, one of Japan's leading postwar writers, who holed himself up in a Ground Self-Defense Force facility in Ichigaya, Tokyo.
Although he has been called an "anachronistic and foolish act" and "an act out of character," Mishima was concerned about Japan and pinned his hopes on the country's future.
The times have caught up with Mishima, and the tension between the two is beginning to be felt by today's young people, who have never heard of "decisive action.
Why Mishima now?
Mishima was seeking a way to revise the Japanese Constitution and make the Self-Defense Forces the national army, and on November 25, 1970, he and four members of Tate no Kai, a civil defense organization he had formed, holed up in the office of the Eastern Regional Commander of the Ground Self-Defense Force at the Ichigaya Camp (Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo).
They took the commissioner, Mashita Kanetoshi, hostage and urged the Self-Defense Forces personnel to "rise up" from the balcony before the commissioner's office.
Mishima's voice, however, was drowned out by the shouts of the Self-Defense Forces personnel and the noise of a news helicopter.
Mishima gave up on his speech, returned to the commissioner's office, and plunged his sword into his stomach.
Unverified
Why did Mishima push himself so hard?
The proclamation distributed at the garrison on the day of the meeting stated,
Omission
We have seen postwar Japan become so absorbed in economic prosperity that it has forgotten the nation's fundamental principles, lost the spirit of the nation's people, and run after ends without correcting the basic tenets, falling into makeshift measures and hypocrisy, and falling into a state of spiritual emptiness.
(Omission)
We had to watch with gnashing of teeth as the Japanese desecrated Japan's history and traditions.
(Omission)
We were angry at Japan's too-long postwar slumber.
Writer Seicho Matsumoto considered the actions of Mishima and others at the time "an incident that should not be viewed simply as an incident."
The reason was that there were too many messages to be dealt with as a single incident.
However, words such as "insanity," "anachronism," and "self-aggrandizement" flew around.
The incident was treated as a case involving an extreme right-wing ideologue, and an actual examination of Mishima's sorrows was avoided.
Writer Fusao Hayashi wrote in his book "The Harp of Sadness: A Requiem for Yukio Mishima," "If you call someone insane, politicians and writers can stop all thinking and avoid any responsibility. There is no simpler or more convenient way to deal with a person than to call them a madman."
Incident or Righteous Act?
Mishima was not only concerned about the future of Japan, but he also believed in Japan and the Japanese people.
Someday, after all the cultural turmoil, Japan must be able to use its uniquely sensitive and perceptive aesthetic sense to create a stylistically unified culture and, from the perspective of beauty, to refine its morality, education, arts, martial arts, athletics, manners, and more.
(Contributed article, "Belief in Japan," Ehime Shimbun, January 1, 1967)
That is why Katsumi Terao, 91, a former assistant army general who rushed into the commissioner's office to save Mashita, who was taken hostage and was seriously wounded when Mishima slashed his back and other parts of his body, calls the actions of Mishima and others "a righteous act.
Despite being a victim of the war, Terao has appealed in lectures and other activities.
"The Japanese people have lost their Yamato spirit and are numb with peace; he predicted that the Japanese people would lose their souls, numb with peace and an economic superpower, and would be crushed if nothing was done. As one who was there, I want to convey the cries of the souls of Mr. Mishima and others who gave their lives in exchange."
At empty times, a sense of tension resonates in the youth.
"Japan will be gone, and in its place will remain an inorganic, empty, neutral-colored, wealthy, flawless economic superpower in the corner of the Far East."
Yukio Mishima's famous phrases in his essay "The Unfulfilled Promise: Twenty-Five Years in My Life," which he contributed to the Sankei Shimbun on July 7, 1970, about four months before he committed suicide.
Mishima is concerned about Japan's pursuit of affluence, forgetting to pass on traditional culture.
However, his words remained strong after the Showa and Heisei eras and the Reiwa era.
"Mishima was a prophet and a pioneer. Japanese society today can be said to be 'nihilistic,' which is also the theme of "The Temple of the Golden Pavilion."
Senzaki Akinaka, professor of the history of Japanese thought at Nihon University, says.
He says that we are living in an era of inorganic emptiness.
With the development of the Internet society, everyone can express their opinions and arguments.
Senzaki says, "Without skill, accumulation, and achievement in expressing one's opinions, one's assertions will be the same and become mediocre. Today, we want to assert ourselves, but we live in a society where the self has become diluted, and it is challenging to create an identity. Significantly, he predicted such an era as 'nihilistic."
Predicting the Half Century Ahead
Mishima's eyes captured various aspects of Japan.
He wrote in the November 1970 issue of "Bungei" ("Literature and Art"), "There are no people who value the righteousness of their convictions over government service."
In a conversation with writer Takeda Taijyun, Mishima reflected on the May 1969 debate with the University of Tokyo Zenkyoto, saying, "The issues that students raised at the University of Tokyo are still alive. Why is a teacher who has engaged in anti-authority speech still alive and well, receiving money from the government?"
There is controversy over Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's decision not to appoint six new members recommended by the Science Council of Japan.
Mishima foresaw the friction between power and academia becoming apparent half a century ago.
In his "Lectures on Immoral Education," published in March 1959, Mishima wrote, "The human body will become artificial. Skin, organs, bones, and everything else will be replaced as soon as they are discarded."
He may have been referring to induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells), considered the trump card for regenerative medicine.
However, Mishima continued, looking ahead to the end of a civilization that believes that everything can be managed by science and technology, "Humans will no longer respect what they are born with so much. It is because it can be changed in any way."
A former member of the Tate no Kai said, "It is impossible to describe how knowledgeable and versatile he (Mishima) is. When he spoke with us, he would look into our faces as if he were staring into the future. I can only think that he could see the future.
The bizarre "high fever."
Fifty years have passed since then.
The Yukio Mishima Literature Museum (Yamanakako-mura, Yamanashi Prefecture) says, "Interest is growing on the 50th anniversary of his death. Publications are more plentiful than in previous years." Recently there have been many young people who have come to the museum, saying that they became interested in Yukio Mishima after seeing the movie (Yukio Mishima vs. the University of Tokyo: Zenkyōtō: 50 Years of Truth).
If Mishima had only guessed at the future of society, he would be a mere famous writer and thinker. Why does Mishima resonate with young people half a century later?
Senzaki says the key phrase is "building a sense of tension."
The inorganic and empty society that Mishima predicted is becoming more diluted and spreading.
It is no longer an economic superpower.
Some people cannot stand the flattened, individuality-less era we live in today.
Such young people are attracted by the sense of crisis that this unusually passionate person exudes. Perhaps they want to regain a sense of urgency about being alive."
(Titles omitted)
2023/7/16, in Kyoto
