A collaboration between Masayuki Takayama's must-read article and my photographs. Part 4.

A collaboration between Masayuki Takayama's must-read article and my photographs. Part 4.
A partnership of Masayuki Takayama's article and my photos, a must-read for all Japanese citizens.
April 25, 2023
When a neighbor's child is kidnapped by Koreans, the new Japanese say “long live Article 9” as if it were someone else's problem.
Jun 14, 2022

The following is from the recent book "Biden is Red" by Masayuki Takayama, the one and only journalist in the postwar world.

This book is one of his best works.

It is a must-read not only for the Japanese people but for people worldwide.

Several passages will move the Japanese people to tears.

This book is a true enlightenment for the Japanese people.

It is how the Japanese smile disappeared.

William Dickson, the Englishman who introduced the beauty of Fuji to the world in the early Meiji period, described the Japanese people as follows: "There were no faces burdened with the stresses common in everyday Western life. Everyone was smiling, and it seemed like there was no such thing as sadness in the world."

The French painter Felix Legame also wrote, "The smile of the Japanese is the basis of all courtesy, and it never disappears, no matter how unbearable or sad the situation."

Edward Morse witnessed what Legame calls the smiling face during the Great Fire of Yokohama.

He saw no tears or irritation. 

People were smiling as if there were a festival and getting on with rebuilding."　

English poet Edwin Arnold wrote, "The Japanese scenery is graceful, and the people divinely kind, charming, and courteous." 

Rudyard Kipling, who visited Japan in 1889, was also impressed by the same thing but worried about how long it would continue unbroken.

Americans said similar things.

Townsend Harris, who came aboard to threaten Japan, said, "Japan is entering a new era. I dare to ask. Will it be true happiness for Japan?　

But this merchant diplomat was a forager.　

He negotiated with the shogunate and set the currency exchange rate at "one one-dollar silver coin to three one-bu silver coins."

However, Harris made no mention of the gold-silver exchange rate.

As a result, a back door was created to obtain gold at the unbelievable rate of three koban coins for four silver coins.

Thus, the United States gained hundreds of thousands of ryo, and Lincoln was able to cover almost all of the costs of the Civil War.

Of course, Harris made a killing.

Kipling knew this and predicted that "Japan would eventually be made a territory of the United States and turned into a factory for making buttons and hooks" ("Kipling's Discovery of Japan").　

In fact, Americans had no interest in understanding Japan.

Even Lafcadio Hearn described family members laughing at a wake as "incomprehensible."　

For the U.S., Japan was nothing more than a sitting duck, and the rest were considered incomprehensible.　

So when Japan defeated assertive Russia, Theodore Roosevelt pretended to be a mediator between Japan and Russia and ensured Japan was not given a single ruble in reparations.

The only rights in Manchuria that had been given to Japan were taken away by Hoover and Secretary of State Stimson, and Franklin Roosevelt started a war against Japan to revive the American economy.　

Thus, bombs rained down on "picturesque Japan," and everything was burned to the ground.　

On August 30, 1945, U.S. generals stationed in Japan were perplexed by the Japanese response.　

The Japanese greeted them with a warm smile, "the basis of all courtesy," as Legame put it, even as they dropped the atomic bombs.　

MacArthur was not cultured.

He could not distinguish between Legame and Green Turtle.　

He had expected the Japanese to be as terrified as runaway black slaves.

MacArthur was enjoying the euphoria of victory, but they were smiling.

Why were they smiling?

MacArthur had been chased by the Japanese in the Philippines and forced to make a humiliating escape before the enemy.　

For a moment, MacArthur thought the Japanese were mocking him for being a coward.　

Or perhaps they were laughing at the humble side of those who fawn over the powerful, like Miyazawa Toshiyoshi of Tokyo University, who had endorsed the GHQ Constitution.　

For a moment, MacArthur wondered whether the Japanese were sneering at him for being a coward.

Or it was a humble laugh to curry favor with the powerful, like Miyazawa Toshiyoshi of Tokyo University, who had expressed support for the GHQ Constitution.

Either way, it was unpleasant, so he ordered, "Put an end to the ambiguous laughter."

To enforce his order, he organized the Japan Teachers' Union and had a scholar write it down and include it in textbooks. 

Mr. Nagase, my homeroom teacher at Azabu Elementary School, also taught us to "put an end to the ambiguous laughter."

MacArthur established the "Science Council," an organization comprised of such scholars to ensure that this would take root in the future.

Toshiyoshi Miyazawa was the first to be elected as a member of the Council, who sesame-picked with a straight face, saying, "MacArthur's arrival triggered an invisible August Revolution."　

MacArthur erased the smiles from Japan, the frowns increased, and the people who passed by with umbrellas leaning against each other disappeared.　

When Koreans kidnap a neighbor's child, the new Japanese say, "Long live Article 9," as if it were someone else's problem.

I want people to know that all of this is the fault of the Council for Science and Technology Policy, which was under the control of MacArthur. 

(October 29, 2020 issue)

2024/9/5 in Mihara