The new US Defense Secretary, Mr.Leon Panetta, visited Japan on 24 October. The next day he saw the Prime Minister Noda for 35 minitues, and some other Ministers, too. Before taking the present office he was the Director of the CIA. As such he was one of the prominent personalities in Bob Woodward's Obama's Wars, discussed before in these columns.
What was his mission this time? Every Japanese knows it by now. It is to make the Japanese, its government, and the prople of Okinawa, swallow a plan, a bitter plan, to construct an entirely new air base in Nago city, Okinawa, about two hours' drive from its capital, Naha city.
It is a plan to move a base existing at Futemma, as it is in the midst of a congested residential district and is called a most dangerous base in the world. The two governments came to an agreement that a new base be built at Nago so that the aircraft and facilities at Futemma should be shifted there. The agreement was reached five years ago. Not a single step has been taken toward that goal since then. Because the people are against the plan. Okinawa is already saturated with the US bases. Why should they have one more? And this one is not a usual one. They, for want of a land space, want to reclaim the sea, a beautiful coral sea, and build a V-shaped two runways. What a violence against the nature!
They have decided on it in the face of the bitter opposition. Why to have another base at a heavy cost, not only in money terms but also at the expense of the natural environment? And why at this time, when the US wars are hopefully coming to an end not only in Iraq but in Afghanistan? Okinawa has long been a stepping-stone for the forward deployment of the US forces, and that is why Japan has been regarded as their ally, not in peace but in war.
This anger has been expressed, for example, by an age-old writer from Okinawa, Mr.Ooshiro Tatsuhiro. It has been discussed here on 10 July.
This time Mr.Panetta came to push the Japanese authorities on some procedural matters. He certainly came, he saw the PM and others, but he didn't even try to talk to the Okinawan people, let alone conquer their heart and mind.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Friday, October 28, 2011
Narayan Desai on Japan's Nuclear Energy Utilization
Mr.Narayan Desai, 87, is a leading Gandhian thinker and activist in the world today. Through his father, Mr.Mahadev Desai, Gandhi's famous secretary, he was closely acquainted with Gandhi himself during his childhood.
He has recently given a reply in writing to a young lady from Japan, Kurihara Kaori, who is studying Gandhian thought at the Gujarat Vidyapith, Ahmedabad, India, where Narayan is the Chancellor. It is a reply to the question, 'If Gandhi were alive today, what message would he give to the Japanese in view of the recent triple tragedies - earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear, in Japan?'. The reply was given in Gujarati. It has been translated by Kurihara into Japanese, and has just been published in the October issue of "Sarvodaya", a monthly journal of the Tokyo-based Japan-Bharat Sarvodaya Mitrata Sangha(Japan-India Sarvodaya Friendship Association).
Here let me give a summary of that portion of Narayan's reply which has impressed me most, i.e. the portion concerning Japan's nuclear policy.
He begins this portion by saying that it would be discourteous in view of such a disaster to claim that he has been pointing out to the danger of nucler energy in the past. We should instead straight and in all humility admit that this is the second warning. The first one was Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was not only to the people of Japan but to the whole of mankind. But the big powers of the world have not taken heed of the warning. We also have failed to notice the inseparable relationship between the nuclear weapons and the nuclear energy. The people of Japan who have been the victims of the nuclear weapons have unfortunately chosen the path toward the use of the nuclear energy.
Narayan then proceeds to analyze the specific conditions in Japan. The nuclear energy generates radioactivity. It is not economical. Also it has been proved to be not perfectly safe. It may be because of the following reasons that Japan has made use of it in spite of those factors. First, there were scarce energy resources. Second, the government has defined the meaning of development as the pursuit of the material affluence, and tried to achieve economic growth by competition, thereby forgetting that it is a wrong growth that victimizes others. Moreover, they have idealized Western values, Western way of life, Western culture, thereby forgetting their own identity. In so doing they have internalized the belief that science and technology are infallible. They have forgotton that man is fallible.
And he askes if those tragedies are not the opportunity to change such a way of thingking.
I will not go into the more general and philosophical portion of the reply. Let me, however, call your attention to the fact that, at the beginning of his reply, Narayan says that it is a difficult task to say what Gandhi would have said, because he wonders if he qualifies, and, more interestingly to this writer, Gandhi was always evolving, and therefore he could not be sure how Gandhi's ideas might have changed in the 64 years after his death. Very much like him!
He has recently given a reply in writing to a young lady from Japan, Kurihara Kaori, who is studying Gandhian thought at the Gujarat Vidyapith, Ahmedabad, India, where Narayan is the Chancellor. It is a reply to the question, 'If Gandhi were alive today, what message would he give to the Japanese in view of the recent triple tragedies - earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear, in Japan?'. The reply was given in Gujarati. It has been translated by Kurihara into Japanese, and has just been published in the October issue of "Sarvodaya", a monthly journal of the Tokyo-based Japan-Bharat Sarvodaya Mitrata Sangha(Japan-India Sarvodaya Friendship Association).
Here let me give a summary of that portion of Narayan's reply which has impressed me most, i.e. the portion concerning Japan's nuclear policy.
He begins this portion by saying that it would be discourteous in view of such a disaster to claim that he has been pointing out to the danger of nucler energy in the past. We should instead straight and in all humility admit that this is the second warning. The first one was Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was not only to the people of Japan but to the whole of mankind. But the big powers of the world have not taken heed of the warning. We also have failed to notice the inseparable relationship between the nuclear weapons and the nuclear energy. The people of Japan who have been the victims of the nuclear weapons have unfortunately chosen the path toward the use of the nuclear energy.
Narayan then proceeds to analyze the specific conditions in Japan. The nuclear energy generates radioactivity. It is not economical. Also it has been proved to be not perfectly safe. It may be because of the following reasons that Japan has made use of it in spite of those factors. First, there were scarce energy resources. Second, the government has defined the meaning of development as the pursuit of the material affluence, and tried to achieve economic growth by competition, thereby forgetting that it is a wrong growth that victimizes others. Moreover, they have idealized Western values, Western way of life, Western culture, thereby forgetting their own identity. In so doing they have internalized the belief that science and technology are infallible. They have forgotton that man is fallible.
And he askes if those tragedies are not the opportunity to change such a way of thingking.
I will not go into the more general and philosophical portion of the reply. Let me, however, call your attention to the fact that, at the beginning of his reply, Narayan says that it is a difficult task to say what Gandhi would have said, because he wonders if he qualifies, and, more interestingly to this writer, Gandhi was always evolving, and therefore he could not be sure how Gandhi's ideas might have changed in the 64 years after his death. Very much like him!
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
"Occupying Tokyo"
It started in New York on 17 September. The slogan was 'Occupy the Wall Street'.
Thousands did so by going up and down the street. Their placards said 'Arrest the Bankers', 'No More Greed', and many such things. What was unheard-of was that they were unanimous in stressing the disparities between the 99% of the population and the remaining 1%.
From NY it spread to Washington. In the US the population below the poverty line swelled by 2.6 million last year to reach 46.2 million. It is 15-16% of the total, roughly the same as in Japan, though her jobless ratio of 9.1% is somewhat higher.
In less than a month the movement spread to about 1,000 cities all over the globe, including Tokyo. The remarkable thing here is that the ratio of those who are irregularly employed has kept on rising and it now reached 38%. And it is making the position of the rest of the working force that much unstable.
A week ago, in the midst of this phenomenon, a high official of the IMF in charge of the Asia and the Pacific has given an interview to a Japanese newspaper.
He said, among others, that in order to cut the budgetary deficit it would be desirable that Japan would raise the consumption tax from the present 5% to 15% by stages, as the hike of this tax would least affect the economic growth. He also suggested that there should be reforms in the social policy so that, for example, the people would get the pension at a later age.
When there was a change in the government in this country two years ago, the new Democratic Party government was telling the people that there would be no change in the consumption tax ratio for the full term of four years. At the Upper House elections a year ago, however, the former PM talked about a possible hike in this tax, and lost heavily. More recently the new PM and the FM are sending out signs of rasing it to 10%. The above interview may well be a part of a coordinated effort, both on the part of the official and the newspaper.
For, the interview does not take into consideration that there is a very keen feeling of inequality already existing among the people at large. Not only the income tax is unfair. Medical and educational expenditure are so heavy that there are many unable to pay the prescribed insurance fee, or unable to keep the children studying beyond the nine years' obligatory education. If the consumption tax trebles or even doubles over and above all this, it would mean a devastating blow to the purching power of the common people.
Nothing is further from the truth to say that it is the least harmless to the growth. It is the most retrogressive tax. A 10% rise will take away 5% of the annual GDP of the country. It will surely widen the gap between 1% and the rest.
The official also says that Japan should go ahead with trade liberalization through participating in the proposed TPP(Trans-Pacific Partnership). He seems to think that free trade will mean higher growth for Japan. That is not the way Japan's economy grew. It has not been an export-led economy. It has been based on domestic demand and full employment. The pattern has been eroded by making more and more of the working force unstable since 1980s.
Participating in the TTP would surely be another blow, may be a body blow, to the Janapese economy, especially agriculture, for how can our small-scale intensive agriculture compete with the US and Australia? Even the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries estimates that our food self-sufficiency ratio will come down from the present 39%, itself low enough, to a mere 13%. It is also probable that it will open up a number of social sectors to the foreign private capital, so that the already emerging tendency for the government to pull out from those sectors will get further momentum. Thus the dichotomy of one against 99 will reemerge on an international level, as it will help reduce the jobless in the US but increase it in Japan. As such it is part of Obama's election strategy. Most of Japan's 47 Prefectural Assemblies have expressed either opposition to or causion on the PPT participation.
The official said in the same interview that there are limits on the curtailment of the government expenditure. The same newspaper reported on the same day that the Self-Defense Forces of Japan is now selecting one out of the three candidates for their next fighters, and it will mean a purchase of $12 billion or so. Is such a purchase necessary?
Thousands did so by going up and down the street. Their placards said 'Arrest the Bankers', 'No More Greed', and many such things. What was unheard-of was that they were unanimous in stressing the disparities between the 99% of the population and the remaining 1%.
From NY it spread to Washington. In the US the population below the poverty line swelled by 2.6 million last year to reach 46.2 million. It is 15-16% of the total, roughly the same as in Japan, though her jobless ratio of 9.1% is somewhat higher.
In less than a month the movement spread to about 1,000 cities all over the globe, including Tokyo. The remarkable thing here is that the ratio of those who are irregularly employed has kept on rising and it now reached 38%. And it is making the position of the rest of the working force that much unstable.
A week ago, in the midst of this phenomenon, a high official of the IMF in charge of the Asia and the Pacific has given an interview to a Japanese newspaper.
He said, among others, that in order to cut the budgetary deficit it would be desirable that Japan would raise the consumption tax from the present 5% to 15% by stages, as the hike of this tax would least affect the economic growth. He also suggested that there should be reforms in the social policy so that, for example, the people would get the pension at a later age.
When there was a change in the government in this country two years ago, the new Democratic Party government was telling the people that there would be no change in the consumption tax ratio for the full term of four years. At the Upper House elections a year ago, however, the former PM talked about a possible hike in this tax, and lost heavily. More recently the new PM and the FM are sending out signs of rasing it to 10%. The above interview may well be a part of a coordinated effort, both on the part of the official and the newspaper.
For, the interview does not take into consideration that there is a very keen feeling of inequality already existing among the people at large. Not only the income tax is unfair. Medical and educational expenditure are so heavy that there are many unable to pay the prescribed insurance fee, or unable to keep the children studying beyond the nine years' obligatory education. If the consumption tax trebles or even doubles over and above all this, it would mean a devastating blow to the purching power of the common people.
Nothing is further from the truth to say that it is the least harmless to the growth. It is the most retrogressive tax. A 10% rise will take away 5% of the annual GDP of the country. It will surely widen the gap between 1% and the rest.
The official also says that Japan should go ahead with trade liberalization through participating in the proposed TPP(Trans-Pacific Partnership). He seems to think that free trade will mean higher growth for Japan. That is not the way Japan's economy grew. It has not been an export-led economy. It has been based on domestic demand and full employment. The pattern has been eroded by making more and more of the working force unstable since 1980s.
Participating in the TTP would surely be another blow, may be a body blow, to the Janapese economy, especially agriculture, for how can our small-scale intensive agriculture compete with the US and Australia? Even the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries estimates that our food self-sufficiency ratio will come down from the present 39%, itself low enough, to a mere 13%. It is also probable that it will open up a number of social sectors to the foreign private capital, so that the already emerging tendency for the government to pull out from those sectors will get further momentum. Thus the dichotomy of one against 99 will reemerge on an international level, as it will help reduce the jobless in the US but increase it in Japan. As such it is part of Obama's election strategy. Most of Japan's 47 Prefectural Assemblies have expressed either opposition to or causion on the PPT participation.
The official said in the same interview that there are limits on the curtailment of the government expenditure. The same newspaper reported on the same day that the Self-Defense Forces of Japan is now selecting one out of the three candidates for their next fighters, and it will mean a purchase of $12 billion or so. Is such a purchase necessary?
Friday, October 14, 2011
People's China on the 1911 Revolution
The October issue of the Japanese edition of the People's China is a special number on the 1911 Revolution. I am not sure if the other language editions are also a special. The Japanese editon well focuses on Japan's involvement in the Revolution. An article by a Chinese woman professor is of particular interest for me. It highlights the role of one University in Japan at a specific period of the Revolution.
It is Hosei University, and the author is a professor of this university. Hosei was the first private law school, later turned to a university, built in the Meiji period. For five years from 1904 to 08, while the Chinese dynasty went into its last period, it set up a one-year course, as against the usual three-year ones, for the benefit of the Chinese students who wanted to study in Japan hurriedly the legal system of a modern state. It was done at the request of the Chinese Minister to Japan in view of mounting demand of the sort among the Chinese youth.
Hosei was not necessarily at the top in terms of the number of Chinese students who studied there. Still as many as 2,117 students were enrolled in this course altogether, and they included some who later became well-known in China's history, including Dong Bi-wu, Wang Zhao-Ming, Song Jiao-ren, Hu Han-min, and Liao Zhong-kai.
When Sun Yat-sen founded the forerunner of the Nationalist Party in Japan in 1905, this course was in existence. Out of its 963 founder-members as many as 860 were either the students or other residents in Japan. In this year the Chinese students at Hosei numbered 295, and most of them are presumed to have joined the party.
In order to make it easy for the Chinese students to be enrolled in the course, the examination was done away with. A letter from the Minister was enough. Most of the teaching was of the legal subjects, and there were interpreters in the classrooms.
Incidentally 1905 was also the year when the Chinese dynasty abolished the traditional, and very prestigious, Civil Service examination.
Unfortunately the one-year course was abolished in 1908. Other sources suggest that it was because the Chinese government did not like the liberal and revolurionary mood among the students and put a request to Japan to wind it up. Japan herself had her own reason to do so and tried to restrain their activities. So much so that many of the students went home in protest.
Very soon Japan would place Korea under her rule. The parting of the ways with China also was at this period.
It is Hosei University, and the author is a professor of this university. Hosei was the first private law school, later turned to a university, built in the Meiji period. For five years from 1904 to 08, while the Chinese dynasty went into its last period, it set up a one-year course, as against the usual three-year ones, for the benefit of the Chinese students who wanted to study in Japan hurriedly the legal system of a modern state. It was done at the request of the Chinese Minister to Japan in view of mounting demand of the sort among the Chinese youth.
Hosei was not necessarily at the top in terms of the number of Chinese students who studied there. Still as many as 2,117 students were enrolled in this course altogether, and they included some who later became well-known in China's history, including Dong Bi-wu, Wang Zhao-Ming, Song Jiao-ren, Hu Han-min, and Liao Zhong-kai.
When Sun Yat-sen founded the forerunner of the Nationalist Party in Japan in 1905, this course was in existence. Out of its 963 founder-members as many as 860 were either the students or other residents in Japan. In this year the Chinese students at Hosei numbered 295, and most of them are presumed to have joined the party.
In order to make it easy for the Chinese students to be enrolled in the course, the examination was done away with. A letter from the Minister was enough. Most of the teaching was of the legal subjects, and there were interpreters in the classrooms.
Incidentally 1905 was also the year when the Chinese dynasty abolished the traditional, and very prestigious, Civil Service examination.
Unfortunately the one-year course was abolished in 1908. Other sources suggest that it was because the Chinese government did not like the liberal and revolurionary mood among the students and put a request to Japan to wind it up. Japan herself had her own reason to do so and tried to restrain their activities. So much so that many of the students went home in protest.
Very soon Japan would place Korea under her rule. The parting of the ways with China also was at this period.
Monday, October 10, 2011
China's 1911 Revolution - 2
Sun Yat-sen, finding more political freedom for his activities in Japan than in his own China, founded an organization that later developed into the Nationalist Party in Japan in 1905. In 1924, one year before his death, however, he gave a lecture at Kobe asking the Japanese if they were going to be the tools of Western hegemonism or to walk in the Eastern Royal Road. What has brought about this change in his attitude towards Japan?
Sun had gradually got disappointed with Japan in a matter of two to three decades. In so doing he was not at all alone among the leaders of Asian nations. What was crucial in understanding Japan was that she annexed Korea in 1910. From that time onwards Japan's Asian policies were based on the need to protect Korea as a Japanese territory. Also it was on this basis that Japan became on a par with the Western imperialist powers in Asia and the Pacific.
The Chinese Revolution took place the very next year. It did not immediately pose a threat to the Japanese rule over Korea. A much greater threat came somewhat later, towards the end of 1920s when, after Sun's death, the Chinese Nationalists' move to integrate the whole of China under one government was getting momentum, and was proceeding northward. The warlord over the Chinese Northeast, Zhang Xue-liang, made it clear that he would hoist the Nationalists' flag in the area. In this sense Zhang was an important successor to Sun. Later in 1936, he went against the order of Jiang Jie-shi, the then head of the government and the army, to fight the civil war against the Communists, and arrested him. He then surrendered to Jiang, remained his prisoner for a long time, and breathed his last in Taiwan.
It was in order to thwart such a move as Zhang's that Japan went into military action to cut off the Northeast from China proper in 1931. It was a move ultimately to secure Korea.
What was of more immediate threat to Japan was that of republicanism in China, as the Revolution established the first republican government in the whole of Asia, while Japan was under a monarchical rule cementad by myth and legend. It was being shaken as a dozen socialists had been put to death under the pretext of plotting to assasinate the Emperor in 1911, the year of the Revolution. So Japan was getting increasingly uncomfortable with the revolutionary movement. It was more so when the Chinese Communists put up a common front with the Nationalists for the unification of the country.
When at his death-bed Sun said that the Revolution was not yet completed, he was keenly aware that it was facing powerful adversaries both within the country and without. After 1931, when Japan established a puppet state in the Northeast, many of her educated people expressed the view that it should be a kingdom as republicanism would not suit the Chinese. Japan also exploited it in many ways. Those factors were both in order to secure korea for Japan, and to prepare an all-out conquest of China. The planned conquest of China became a failure because of the Chinese resistance, which made Japan plunge into one more and final war.
Has Sun's and the Revolution's hope been realized? Not yet. China herself should get democratized. If that is done, Taiwan will be willing to be a part of China.
What about Japan? We will talk about it before long.
Sun had gradually got disappointed with Japan in a matter of two to three decades. In so doing he was not at all alone among the leaders of Asian nations. What was crucial in understanding Japan was that she annexed Korea in 1910. From that time onwards Japan's Asian policies were based on the need to protect Korea as a Japanese territory. Also it was on this basis that Japan became on a par with the Western imperialist powers in Asia and the Pacific.
The Chinese Revolution took place the very next year. It did not immediately pose a threat to the Japanese rule over Korea. A much greater threat came somewhat later, towards the end of 1920s when, after Sun's death, the Chinese Nationalists' move to integrate the whole of China under one government was getting momentum, and was proceeding northward. The warlord over the Chinese Northeast, Zhang Xue-liang, made it clear that he would hoist the Nationalists' flag in the area. In this sense Zhang was an important successor to Sun. Later in 1936, he went against the order of Jiang Jie-shi, the then head of the government and the army, to fight the civil war against the Communists, and arrested him. He then surrendered to Jiang, remained his prisoner for a long time, and breathed his last in Taiwan.
It was in order to thwart such a move as Zhang's that Japan went into military action to cut off the Northeast from China proper in 1931. It was a move ultimately to secure Korea.
What was of more immediate threat to Japan was that of republicanism in China, as the Revolution established the first republican government in the whole of Asia, while Japan was under a monarchical rule cementad by myth and legend. It was being shaken as a dozen socialists had been put to death under the pretext of plotting to assasinate the Emperor in 1911, the year of the Revolution. So Japan was getting increasingly uncomfortable with the revolutionary movement. It was more so when the Chinese Communists put up a common front with the Nationalists for the unification of the country.
When at his death-bed Sun said that the Revolution was not yet completed, he was keenly aware that it was facing powerful adversaries both within the country and without. After 1931, when Japan established a puppet state in the Northeast, many of her educated people expressed the view that it should be a kingdom as republicanism would not suit the Chinese. Japan also exploited it in many ways. Those factors were both in order to secure korea for Japan, and to prepare an all-out conquest of China. The planned conquest of China became a failure because of the Chinese resistance, which made Japan plunge into one more and final war.
Has Sun's and the Revolution's hope been realized? Not yet. China herself should get democratized. If that is done, Taiwan will be willing to be a part of China.
What about Japan? We will talk about it before long.
China's 1911 Revolution - 1
Today, 10 October, a hundred years ago, a revolution which originated in Wuhan city pulled down the Ch'ing dynasty in China. Not only this dynasty, but the imperial rule in general was put an end to in China. The revolution changed the course of history in East Asia, and in the world. Sun Yat-sen was the undisputed leader of the revolution, though he was not there on the spot on that day.
China does not usually talk much of this revolution on its anniversaries. This year, however, they celebrated it officially in a big way. Mr.Hu spoke before a large audience, including all the nine members of the Politburo Standing Committee, that the Communist Party is the sucessor to this revolution.
Here in Japan, the China town in Yokohama, the largest of the sort in the country, though we have only two others worth the name, Kobe and Nagasaki, celebrated it with a music festival yesterday, and a more formal ceremony to be followed by a parade today. Thousands came for the music festival, presumably many more from Taiwan than from China, especially in view of the fact that the tourists from China declined sharply after the nuclear accident in March. That could also be guessed from the flags, as they were Sun's Nationalist flags. Or the Chinese characters, as they were not simplified ones which are in use in China. The festival started with a very skillful dance by a pair of lions, not real ones but a couple of men each in an envelope of cloth with a lion's mask.
The festival was held in a Chinese school. Just next door is a mausoleum of General Guan Yu, red-faced with a long beard, who died in the third century and has been elevated to the rank of the Emperor later on. He is much respected in this country, too. One of his ledends is that when he was injured in his arm in a battle with a poizoned arrow, he called a doctor and had it operated on while drinking wine and enjoying board games with his staff member. Its premises are usually crowded. I have seen another at Kobe.
There was a close association of Sun and Yokohama, and for that matter Kobe, as both cities were the major ports of Japan in his time. It is said that he came to Yokohama and lived there twelve times.
We in Japan like to think that Japan helped him with his revolutionary activities. True, many Japanese tried to be helpful. Some of them, at least, did so without any personal consideration, probably because they saw in Sun a light of hope which they were unable to realize in this country. But not all of them were like that. Moreover, the government was not taking kindly to him as they thought the Ch'ing dynasty was easier to handle. We will discuss some of these matters in the next blog.
Sun was survived by his wife, Song Qing-ling, who was much younger than he and who did a lot for the Revolution of 1949. Her younger sister, Song Mei-ling, on the other hand, married Jiang Jie-shi. They were exiled in Taiwan when defeated in the civil war. There was also the eldest sister who married a business tycoon. All the three studied at the Wellesley Women's College and became known as the three Song sisters.
At the music festival yesterday there was practically no photograph of Jiang. It was all Sun's. Do the people of Taiwan consider themselves as Sun's successors? Or are they even independent of Sun?
China does not usually talk much of this revolution on its anniversaries. This year, however, they celebrated it officially in a big way. Mr.Hu spoke before a large audience, including all the nine members of the Politburo Standing Committee, that the Communist Party is the sucessor to this revolution.
Here in Japan, the China town in Yokohama, the largest of the sort in the country, though we have only two others worth the name, Kobe and Nagasaki, celebrated it with a music festival yesterday, and a more formal ceremony to be followed by a parade today. Thousands came for the music festival, presumably many more from Taiwan than from China, especially in view of the fact that the tourists from China declined sharply after the nuclear accident in March. That could also be guessed from the flags, as they were Sun's Nationalist flags. Or the Chinese characters, as they were not simplified ones which are in use in China. The festival started with a very skillful dance by a pair of lions, not real ones but a couple of men each in an envelope of cloth with a lion's mask.
The festival was held in a Chinese school. Just next door is a mausoleum of General Guan Yu, red-faced with a long beard, who died in the third century and has been elevated to the rank of the Emperor later on. He is much respected in this country, too. One of his ledends is that when he was injured in his arm in a battle with a poizoned arrow, he called a doctor and had it operated on while drinking wine and enjoying board games with his staff member. Its premises are usually crowded. I have seen another at Kobe.
There was a close association of Sun and Yokohama, and for that matter Kobe, as both cities were the major ports of Japan in his time. It is said that he came to Yokohama and lived there twelve times.
We in Japan like to think that Japan helped him with his revolutionary activities. True, many Japanese tried to be helpful. Some of them, at least, did so without any personal consideration, probably because they saw in Sun a light of hope which they were unable to realize in this country. But not all of them were like that. Moreover, the government was not taking kindly to him as they thought the Ch'ing dynasty was easier to handle. We will discuss some of these matters in the next blog.
Sun was survived by his wife, Song Qing-ling, who was much younger than he and who did a lot for the Revolution of 1949. Her younger sister, Song Mei-ling, on the other hand, married Jiang Jie-shi. They were exiled in Taiwan when defeated in the civil war. There was also the eldest sister who married a business tycoon. All the three studied at the Wellesley Women's College and became known as the three Song sisters.
At the music festival yesterday there was practically no photograph of Jiang. It was all Sun's. Do the people of Taiwan consider themselves as Sun's successors? Or are they even independent of Sun?
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