It is no exaggeration to say that Arashiyama is my home garden.
After all, several years ago, I spent 100 days a year photographing spring, summer, fall, and winter in Arashiyama.
I often go there on New Year's Day.
Today was no different.
I was lucky enough to be seated in a four-seater from Kyoto Station.
I was reading the February issue of the monthly magazine Sound Arguments, which went on sale yesterday.
It featured an interview between Ms. Sakurai and Mr. Oda at the beginning of the issue.
As I was reading, I almost cried.
Ms. Sakurai said, "I almost cried listening to it."
It is a must-read not only for the people of Japan but for people all over the world.
Recently, I have often left out reading the monthly magazine "Sound Arguments."
Japanese citizens who can read the printed word must buy this month's issue at their nearest bookstore and read it carefully during the New Year vacations.
The emphasis in the text other than the headline is mine.
Japan, Wake Up! Restore the Spirit of Public Service!
Kunio Oda, Special Professor at Reitaku University and former Air Force General, and journalist Yoshiko Sakurai
-Congratulations to Mr. Oda on winning the 38th "Sound Arguments Award."
The decision to award the prize was unanimous among the judges.
The Taisho-born father who kept his promise to the country
Sakurai
I think it's beautiful.
Please give us some more concrete examples.
Oda.
When enlisted members first join the JASDF, they are taught to raise the flag in the morning and evening and "Take risks when we face things."
As for actual activities, the Air Self-Defense Force's Air Rescue Team's motto is "That others may live," and they are trained in various ways to do their best to save the lives of others.
What I found beautiful was when I served as a commander of the Japan Self-Defense Forces in Iraq for two years and eight months.
During my five years in Iraq, including my tenure, there was only one incident involving an SDF officer, and that was when an SDF officer was hit by another vehicle.
There were no scandals of any kind.
When the SDF withdrew from Iraq, there was a luncheon with the commanders of the multinational forces, and when I told them that the SDF actually had no military law or court-martial, they were all astonished.
When asked why there were no scandals, I answered, "It's the samurai spirit," Everyone was goggling in astonishment.
In fact, this is the result of nurturing the DNA that is inherent in the Japanese people.
Living for the sake of others is not something special; it is a natural part of being Japanese.
The great teacher Saicho also said, "Forgetting oneself and benefiting others is the ultimate compassion."
I would like to see this kind of thing taught in school education, but it can also provide this kind of education in the home.
If raised in such a home, they will become fine human beings.
Only about 20% of the students who enter the National Defense Academy firmly believe they will become a member of the Japan Self-Defense Forces in the future.
However, after four years of repeated instruction on "how happy it is to serve others and the nation," 80% of the students become SDF officers because they learn this through training and real-life experience.
It is not that they are special people who join the JSDF, nor that the JSDF's education is an ultra-right-wing education.
It is just that they are educated to become proper members of society, but that is all that is missing in the general community.
Sakurai.
You are correct that education that restores the public spirit is essential.
It must be paired with Fukuzawa Yukichi's words, "Rikkoku is private, not public."
The Self-Defense Forces is a public organization, but each Self-Defense Force officer must sacrifice their life to accomplish the mission as an individual; in other words, the unification of the private mind with the public mind will lead to the perpetuation of the nation.
The public consists of me, and I am also given a place and protected by the public.
People in the past must have been taught this at home through stories and other means.
For example, Masanari Kusunoki in "Taiheiki" devoted himself to the public and left his life story to posterity.
However, Masanari Kusunoki was no longer taught after the war, and such education is now overwhelmingly lacking.
Oda.
My parents were a war generation, and I heard that soon after they got married, the Kure air raids in Hiroshima Prefecture destroyed all of my mother's dowry items. Still, in my parent's generation, the relationship between the state and the individual was natural. It's integrated.
Yasukuni Shrine is the symbol of that.
My father lost his younger brother, a pilot, in the war, and even though he was over 90 years old, he used to climb up the hill from Kudanshita station with a walking stick to visit Yasukuni Shrine.
My father did not understand what those who hated Yasukuni Shrine were thinking until the end.
For my father, the state and the individual were the same.
I believe that the ultimate desire of human beings is to fulfill their natural life.
It is only natural that those still alive should show their gratitude to those who have given up their desires and given their lives for the nation's sake.
When my father turned 90, he told me for the first time that he had built the battleship Yamato.
When I asked him why he had kept quiet about it, he replied, "Because I made a promise to my country. It's not long for me, either. I can talk to you now."
He said that because he had promised the government, he had not told me who was born after the war for a long time.
I was astonished.
Sakurai.
I am almost in tears listening to this.
Oda.
One in seven men born in the Taisho era died in the war.
In the generation of my fathers who survived such a situation, the state and the individual are the same.
If you go abroad, you will see that such a relationship is normal.
It is OK with me because I am a second-generation Taisho-born man who still had such an awareness, but in Japan, the younger you are, the less public awareness you will have.
Education that firmly teaches the relationship between the state and the individual is necessary for Japan's Japaneseness to remain strong.
I believe that the Self-Defense Forces is the only place where this remains.
I thought I was passionate about the nation when I joined the JSDF, but my father must have had even more passionate feelings about the country.
Sakurai.
The Yasukuni Shrine condenses such people's feelings, but the current situation of neglecting the Yasukuni Shrine is very shameful.
Oda
It is a national disgrace and is causing a meltdown of the spirit.
A nation thrives because the individual and the country are one, and a nation can only exist if those who have served the nation are properly memorialized.
When I say such things, I am immediately labeled a "right-winger," and my speech will likely be silenced.
Sakurai.
My mother was born in a farming village at the end of the Meiji era (1868), and of course, she was not a soldier, but even in her mind, the state and the individual were the same.
At the war's end, my parents returned from Vietnam with my brother and newborn me, penniless, on a repatriation ship.
When my mother went to Ueno, Tokyo, she found that the whole area was a burnt field.
Later, I asked my mother what she thought about it then. She replied, "I wondered if my country would be all right in the future."
Although she was penniless and had no suitable home to live in, she could manage to make a living for her family, but she was more worried about her homeland, which had been destroyed to the point of exhaustion.
Oda.
War-generation parents raised us.
When I entered the National Defense Academy, my mother told me to do my best because I had dedicated myself to my country.
She must have been apprehensive about me because I became a fighter pilot, but she never said that to me.
It is hard for me and others to say to my son, "Do your best, risking your life for your country."
In recent years, people have been educated as if it is wrong to say such a thing.
The Self-Defense Forces may be the only organization to publicly educate people to "risk their lives for the nation's sake."
We don't say, "Do the minimum necessary to protect the people."
2023/1/1, at Arashiyama
