May 13, 2022
The following is from Masayuki Takayama's column in the latter part of Shukan Shincho, published on May 11.
This article also proves that he is the one and only journalist in the postwar world.
This article also proves that I was right in my opinion that no other writer deserves the Nobel Prize for Literature or Peace more than Takayama.
It is a must-read not only for the people of Japan but for people all over the world.
The right of a country that has been a victim of nuclear bombing
When I saw Akira Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai," I felt a little uncomfortable.
Wild thieves attack the village after the harvest, as they do every year.
They steal the harvest, rape women, and even kill those who defy them, according to the movie.
There were indeed wild thieves in the Warring States period.
However, in those days, they were usually peasants in the village.
Whenever there was a battle nearby, they would go out.
There is a story that during the Battle of Sekigahara, they brought their lunch boxes and watched the battle.
When the battle was decided, and a fallen warrior emerged, the peasants were instantly transformed from spectators to strippers.
It is called "hunting fleeing soldiers."
The peasants would attack and take away the weapons that were worth money, and if they were famous warlords, they would be rewarded with the head of the warrior's clan.
Shimazu Yoshihiro, who had broken through the enemy, was also beaten up by these peasants after escaping from Sekigahara.
Incidentally, the Battle of Sekigahara was also delayed until the peasants had finished harvesting the rice and hanging it on the rice racks.
It was a battle fought with due consideration for the peasants.
It is why I am uncomfortable with the setting of Kurosawa's film, where hunting fleeing soldiers attack their own village.
It would be more convincing if fleeing soldiers attacked villages, but Japanese history denies this.
For example, after the Dan-no-Ura battle, the remnants of the Heike clan simply fled and fell away.
For example, they fell into hiding in Akatani, Fukui, Minamiaizu, Fukushima, and so on.
There are still hidden villages of fallen warriors in the Hachinohe area.
The late Nikkei-born critic Kazuo Ijiri was a descendant of the warlord Sasaki Rokkaku.
I heard it was defeated in Omi and fell to Ijiri village in Yamanashi, where it changed its surname from Rokkaku to Ijiri.
Liu Bang never gave up even after losing 99 times, but the Japanese gave up after just one defeat.
That is the samurai.
Another thing is that samurai did not slaughter and loot as they pleased just because they won a battle.
Even in the Battle of Sekigahara, except for Mitsunari Ishida, the oppressive exactions of the Western lords were limited to the extent of reducing Kokudaka.
In Europe, the Treaty of Westphalia was concluded at that time, forbidding the plundering of the country and making the government liable for reparations.
For example, in the form of war, Napoleon and the European army decided to fight at Waterloo in Belgium.
Japan also practiced gentle warfare in the Russo-Japanese War.
They even allowed the wives of prisoners of war to come to a camp in Shikoku to nurse their husbands.
In the 20th century, the world awakened to the Japanese way of warfare.
Some countries rehashed the old ways of warfare.
It was the United States.
The U.S.-Japan war that began at Pearl Harbor involved the islands of the Pacific, but the U.S. went beyond that and attacked Japan directly on the mainland.
MacArthur called it Operation Stepping Stone, otherwise known as Sand Creek.
It was the name of a Cheyenne reservation in Colorado, where the U.S. cavalry waited for the warriors to go hunting and attacked the settlement, killing all 600 women and children.
To end a tribe, you have to kill the women.
It is less dangerous and quicker than killing warriors.
The U.S. used the Japanese as the Cheyenne of Sand Creek, killing women and children in a concentrated manner.
The symbol of this was the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The U.S. calls such a war of extermination a "total war.
Why not just call it a war of ancestral return?
It is ironic that Japan, which nurtured the ethics of war, was baptized into the most brutal primitive war, but how should we respond to this?
Will Japan, as the only country to have suffered the atomic bombings, run away saying, "We will not repeat our mistakes"?
Or, "We think nothing of it because of the three non-nuclear principles" (Fumio Kishida), or "If we turn our backs on the Nuclear Weapons Convention, Japan will be hit a third time" (Beatrice Finn of ICAN)?
There is a lot of jokey noise.
However, as the invasion of Ukraine shows, ethics are necessary in war.
Japan is a country that can teach that.
The words that follow "the only country to have suffered atomic bombings" must be "the right to have nuclear weapons in preference to any other country to protect its people from barbarism."
Yet, because they reserve their rights under the MacArthur Constitution, even China and North Korea are stuck up about it.
All countries, including Russia, believe that war means massacre, rape, and pillage, but if Japan has nuclear weapons, they will all shut up.
2024/7/8 in Akashi
