bout de papier, Vol. 8, No. 3 (1991) — Summer 1991 // Été 1991, p. 44
Japan, the Blighted Blossom, by Roy
Thomas, New Star Books, Vancouver, 1989,
$19.95.
The Future Japan, by Tokutomi Soho,
translated and edited by Vinh Sinh with co-
editors Matsuzawa Hiroaki and Nicholas
Wickenden, University of Alberta Press,
1989, $24.95.
Despite the general current trendiness of things Japanese and the significance for Canada of Japan’s increasing impact on the world, remarkably little has been published here about Japan. As a glance through almost any library shows, most books relating to Japan concern the particular experience of Japanese Canadians during and after World War II, something which has more to do with historical Canadian attitudes and policies than with Japan itself. Two books published in Western Canada therefore are of more than passing interest.
Roy Thomas’ Japan, The Blighted Blossom, attempts to reveal the reality behind Japan’s image as a relatively stable democracy, supported by a rigorous education system and an economic miracle within which managers and workers co-exist in workaholic harmony. As such, it is far from what might be termed the geisha and shoji screen school of writing, falling well into the critical camp of those who worry about what is happening in Japan and what it may mean not only for Japan but also for the rest of the world.
His central thesis is that Japan forfeited its chance for social democracy in the immediate post-war period when General MacArthur and the U.S. government shifted gears from trying to introduce democratic institutions and values in Japan, toward a preoccupation with cold war ideologies and the objective of making Japan a key strategic ally in the Pacific. This, he argues, allowed much of the pre-war Japanese hierarchy to resume power under the Liberal Democratic Party in cahoots with Japanese industry. The result has been a de facto one-party state existing mainly on “money-politics” and corruption, in which the aspirations of those on the left of the political spectrum have been effectively held in check in favour of a gradual return to pre-war nationalism. Some of his sharpest arrows are reserved for former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, an arch conservative whom he portrays as successfully playing off American desire for opening Japanese markets and an assumption by Japan of more responsibility for defence spending into domestic support for his real agenda, Japanese re-militarization.
The result is a growing gap between official myth and realities associated with the gap between Japan’s economic success and the benefits delivered to the Japanese population. This is beginning to show up in dissatisfaction in how Japan stacks up with western countries in terms of such things as inadequate housing, little leisure time, low social welfare spending; and an extremely hierarchical, costly education system. Such things, he suggests, may lead to a more truly democratic society as the yoke of pre-war style politics loosens its grip.
Much of what Thomas writes is simply factual, and provides a good digest of the ills of Japan, past and present. It involves things of which any serious observer of Japan should be conscious, and is worth reading for that alone. It also provides a thought-provoking perspective on the impact of U.S. policy on Japan, arguing that the new generation in Japan is likely to find increasingly less tolerable continued critical demands driven by U.S. domestic politics and this is certain to strengthen the forces of Japanese nationalism.
Whether the book has got it quite right is another matter. Perhaps because it is so intent on dispelling myths, the book creates the impression of being essentially one-sided, focusing only on the negative, and ignoring much of what is admirable and encouraging about Japan. Part of the difficulty may originate with the inspiration for the catchy metaphorical title, characterizing Japan as some sort of unblemished “blossom” which has somehow been “blighted”. This contrasts oddly with the title of Thomas’ other book, China, the Awakening Giant. It questions whether the blinders may not come off our perspective on Japan, when westerners can stop romanticizing it, and finally see it as a country like any other; imperfect and forced to grapple with the problems with which it is faced.
The book is also very much a product of Thomas’ own social democratic values, in which the yardstick is the democratic reforms envisaged in the immediate post-war period, and the evolution of western democracies since that time. There is, of course, nothing wrong with this yardstick, which is one Japan increasingly uses itself. However, to use it exclusively is to ignore another important measure. This is the distance Japan has come in its own terms over the past hundred years, or so, in which it has shifted dramatically from a largely feudal society to a modern economic powerhouse, leading much of the rest of the world. While the Japanese people have undoubtedly paid for their post-war economic success in various ways, there can be little doubt that, for the most part, they are decidedly better off than they were 50, 30 or even 20 years ago. Nor does the book address the extent to which the Japanese model, with its unique blend of culture and economic values may, or may not, be a suitable model for the modern industrial state vis-à-vis present western institutions.
It is tempting to look to Tokutomi Soho’s The Future Japan (published by the University of Alberta Press), to pick up where Thomas leaves off speculating where Japan vis-à-vis the rest of the world is heading. The title is somewhat misleading: the future of the Japan which is being written about is one envisaged a hundred years ago, shortly after its opening to the west.
This makes the book nonetheless interesting. Tokutomi Soho was a key figure in the group of young Meiji reformers in that remarkable period during the 1870’s and 1880’s when Japanese intellectuals enthusiastically embraced virtually all things western as the only way to deal with the newly-arrived foreign powers. The Future Japan was a best seller, and is a fascinating amalgam of western political theory as expounded earlier by John Stuart Mill, Adam Smith, Alexis de Tocqueville, Herbert Spencer and others, encompassing oriental philosophy and Meiji period preoccupations. Soho believed that Japan must, first and foremost, become an industrial nation and a peaceful and democratic society, warning that, if the Japanese people were hesitant in following world trends,, “those blue-eyed and red-bearded peoples will intrude, like rough waves, upon our country and drive our people to the islands in the sea, and a democratic society in a great commercial nation created by the Aryans will come to be seen in our homeland…. If we cannot do what the Westerners do, they will aspire to do it in our stead.” Like many Meiji reformers, Soho eventually lost his faith in western liberalism, shifting his focus toward more militant nationalism and expansionism, especially when Japan was effectively forced by Russia, Germany and France to return the territories acquired by its victory in the Sino-Japanese war of 1894-95.
The Future Japan is an intriguing book for anyone interested in the origins of modern Japan. Like Thomas’s book, it also provides a subtle reminder that the future of social democracy in Japan will be influenced by its treatment by western countries as well as by its own actions.
Anne Park, a former foreign service officer, is a senior official at the Department of Finance. She is currently on a leave of absence and is living in Geneva.
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Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 8, No. 3 (1991) — Summer 1991 // Été 1991, p. 44. Read the rest of this issue →
