The following is from the feature article on the conversation between Mr. Sekihei and Mr. Kin, which appeared in the monthly magazine WiLL, published on September 26th, on pages 201-211, under the title "I've become a naturalized citizen, but I don't want to hear Chinese or Korean."
It is a must-read not only for Japanese citizens but also for people worldwide.
Japan should take better care of its national interests
Escalating Chinese provocations
Now is the time to arm ourselves with nuclear weapons
Sekihei
The threat from China is imminent.
In May, China's ambassador to Japan, Wu Jianghao, made an unforgivable outburst regarding the Taiwan issue, saying that "the Japanese people will be dragged into the fire."
However, the Japanese government's response ended with a protest from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Deputy Director-General, Masataka Okano.
Kin
The statements of public figures such as the ambassador to Japan are becoming increasingly extreme.
Still, anti-Japanese sentiment is also growing among ordinary citizens, as shown by incidents such as Chinese men defacing the stone pillars of Yasukuni Shrine and a Japanese father and son being attacked with a knife by a Chinese man in Suzhou, China.
Sekihei
In the case of the graffiti at Yasukuni Shrine, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said, "We would like to remind Chinese citizens abroad to comply with local laws and express their appeals in a rational manner. " However, in the first part of this statement, he effectively acknowledged the man's actions by stating the outrageous lie that "Yasukuni Shrine is a spiritual tool and symbol of the aggressive war launched by Japanese militarism."
As for the incident in Suzhou, even the Chinese government has not said "well done," but on the Chinese internet, there is a ridiculous situation where people are saying "well done" and "he is a hero of the nation."
The current situation in China is that anti-Japanese sentiment is spreading from essential people, such as the ambassador to Japan, to ordinary citizens.
Kin
If China attacked Japan, public opinion would probably applaud.
But why have anti-Japanese views spread so far among ordinary citizens?
Ishihira
When Mr. Kin and I were children, the NHK drama "Oshin" had a positive influence, and the image of the Japanese was that they were kind-hearted, generous, and had a strong sense of responsibility.
However, the winds changed direction with the Tiananmen Square Incident in June 1989, when the People's Liberation Army suppressed the people who were calling for democracy.
The Jiang Zemin administration, which came to power immediately after the Tiananmen Square Incident, actively began anti-Japanese education to shift dissatisfaction with the Chinese Communist Party onto "foreign enemies."
As a result, anti-Japanese sentiment spread among the general public.
Kin
One of the concerns about the rise in anti-Japanese sentiment is the radicalization of China.
There is no zero possibility that they will launch a nuclear attack on Japan.
Despite this, Japan still tries to adhere to the three non-nuclear principles.
In the past, Mr. Shōichi Nakagawa was criticized for saying that Japan needed to discuss the possibility of possessing nuclear weapons, but what is wrong with this statement?
In addition to this, Mr. Nakagawa also said that "having nuclear weapons can deter nuclear attacks from enemy countries that also have nuclear weapons."
I agree with that.
Sekihei
Mr. Nakagawa's comments really hit the nail on the head.
A nuclear war can't break out between two countries that both possess nuclear weapons.
However, if you don't have nuclear weapons, you will be invaded like Ukraine.
Kin
In Hiroshima, where I have lived for many years, the Prime Minister and other important figures come every year on August 6th to hold a peace memorial ceremony and other peace activities, but I think they should stop.
If they had possessed nuclear weapons during the war, the atomic bombs would not have been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Rather, Hiroshima should be the one to advocate nuclear armament.
Sekihei
I have also visited the Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.
Still, when I saw the inscription "We shall not repeat the evil," I didn't understand the meaning for a moment.
I felt that it was written as if Japan had brought the atomic bombings on itself, even though the US was to blame for dropping the bombs.
Kin
Strangely, there is no criticism of the United States at the ceremony, which is held every year.
If we don't say what we need to say to the United States, our nation will cease functioning.
Sekihei
I wanted to ask Mr. Kin, researching comparative cultural theory between Japan, China, and Korea, about the characteristics of Japanese culture and civilization.
Kin
First of all, we value harmony.
A significant characteristic is that we can cooperate with each other through agriculture and fishing.
The Japanese are essentially agricultural people, and our diets of rice and wheat have a big influence on us.
Sekihei
But Chinese and Koreans also eat rice.
Kin
China and Korea have a pastoral culture that Japan doesn't have.
Chinese and Koreans eat more meat than Japanese people, and that's why they like to fight.
That's why they can't get together like the Japanese, and they exclude people with different ways of thinking.
Also, mochi (rice cakes) symbolize the culture of harmony.
Mochi is soft at first, but over time, it gradually becomes hard.
Japanese people are usually gentle, but when an emergency occurs, they unite and confront their enemies.
During the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Chinese were more afraid of the characteristics of the Japanese than anything else.
It wasn't just the Chinese who were wary of the Japanese's ability to unite; the Americans were also.
Sekihei
That's right.
It is where the meaning of Takeda Shingen's words, "People are like a castle, people are like stone walls," comes from.
Incidentally, the stone walls of Japanese castles are very strong, but sticky rice is sometimes used to connect the stones together.
The adhesive power of sticky rice is very strong, and even such large stones can be connected without falling apart.
Kin
Japanese culture can also be seen as a culture of rice cakes.
Sekihei
Japanese culture is based on harmony, so people try to avoid doing anything that might disrupt harmony.
When I first came to Japan and got on a train, I was really shocked by something.
Not a single passenger was talking loudly.
In China, it's the complete opposite - everyone is talking loudly.
When I asked my Chinese friend in Japan why this was, he told me that it was because "the Japanese have a rule that they must not cause trouble for others."
Here, too, we can see the differences between the Japanese and the Chinese.
Kim
The Japanese place more importance on the public than on themselves.
The Japanese people are the most civilized in the world.
The relationships between the Japanese, Chinese, and Koreans in concentric circles become easier to understand if we consider them as one group.
First of all, the innermost circle is the circle of human relations.
It corresponds to Korea, where people only think about their own families.
The middle circle is the circle of duty.
It corresponds to China, and the fact that overseas Chinese people are united in Chinatowns around the world is proof of this.
Japan places great importance on the public precisely because it is in the outermost public sphere.
China is full of lies
Sekihei
Another thing that surprised me was that when I visited the Kyoto Imperial Palace, the walls were really low and the defenses were weak.
They were only about two meters high, so even a thief could easily get in.
On the other hand, the Forbidden City in China has a site area of 720,000 square meters and the height of its castle walls is 12 meters.
This difference shows how Japan is a culture with few conflicts and China is a culture with many conflicts.
Kin
The Forbidden City and the Great Wall of China are mostly made of brick and stone.
This is to prevent outside enemies, but most Japanese castles are made of wood and look like sophisticated works of art.
This also shows the difference between Japanese and Chinese culture.
Another thing I find wonderful about Japanese culture is its culture of beauty.
In 1549, the missionary Francis Xavier, who came to Japan, described the Japanese as "extremely averse to theft".
From this, we can see that the honesty and integrity of the Japanese is known to foreigners, and that this is what we call Japanese beauty.
On the other hand, the Chinese are full of lies, and they are also happy to pad their figures in statistical data.
Sekihei
Speaking of which, China's National Bureau of Statistics is a regular offender when it comes to fabricating figures, and they always release figures that are full of lies.
Recently, they don't even bother to make the figures they release consistent, and they proudly display two figures that are clearly contradictory.
When I visited a temple in Sichuan, I was surprised by something that happened.
At the temple, I saw a chicken feather stuck to the wall.
When I asked the reason, I was told, "When the local people made a wish at the temple, they were told that if their wish was granted, they would offer a chicken. However, even if their wish was granted, they didn't want to give the whole chicken, so they only offered a single feather."
The Chinese tell magnificent lies even to Buddha.
Kin
There is not even a shred of sincerity.
It really shows the nature of the Chinese people (laughs).
Sekihei
After living in Japan for over 30 years, I can really see how sincere the Japanese people are.
Even so, the conversation never ends when I talk about culture with Mr. Kin.
Today, I really learned a lot.
Kin
I also enjoyed being able to hear about so many different things.
Let's do it again!
