Monday, September 05, 2016

"shake off the very dust" - God-Believing Japanese Politician before WWII

Around the Tokyo Station


God-Believing Japanese Politician before WWII


In Japan, Korekiyo Takahashi (1854-1936) is even today respected as one of the most successful and competent politicians before WWII.

He was well know for his remarkable work as the Vice Governor of the Bank of Japan to get investment from European countries and the US during the Japan-Russo War (1904-1905) and also as the Minister of Finance during the financial crisis in 1927.

He became a friend of the Rothschild family and kept good relationships with some financial leaders in Europe and the US.  So, Takahashi was a pro-Anglo-Saxon politician in the Empire of Japan before WWII.  Takahashi also delivered criticism to the expansion of excessive armament of the Imperial Army and Navy.

In 1921, he was appointed to the prime minister of the Imperial Government.  In that era, the Imperial Army stationed many troops in Manchuria.  Takahashi said at the time that the Empire sent troops to Manchuria to defend the Empire (including Korea) from aggressive invasion by Russians.  He stressed that the Empire of Japan should not have territorial ambitions in Manchuria and China.  He was critical of attitudes of some Japanese against Chinese, because Takahashi thought there had been a mood in Japan of despising China since the First Japanese-Sino War (1894-1895) where the Empire defeated the military of the Qing dynasty.

Korekiyo Takahashi wrote some essays where he admitted that he believed in God, though he did not mind the form of worship.  Though Takahashi was taught Christianity by an American priest when he was a teenager, he did not openly confess that he was a Christian but he thought that God was above any religions.  However, as militarism and nationalism came to gather momentum in Japan in 1930s, Takahshi became a target of radical military officers as an enemy of the Japanese race.

Accordingly, in the February 26 Incident of 1936 where some young Army officers tried to take over power from the Cabinet with full of "rotten" ministers, as they claimed,  Takahsahi was shot to death.  This semi-coup d'etat finally failed as the Emperor was strongly against insurgent officers and troops, because they killed or attacked Takahashi and other ministers the Emperor trusted.

However, the Imperial Army could not solve its problem involving many young officers who had strong criticism toward and complaints to the Japanese political system at the time.  And, after the February 26 Incident of 1936, the leaders of the Imperial Army intensified their operation in Manchuria and China as if they had been trying to divert the brunt of criticism from unsatisfactory officers to oversea military operation.  On this trend, the second Sino-Japanese War started and eventually the Pearl Harbor attack was carried out.

So, the assassination of Korekiyo Takahashi in 1936 became a foreboding of the tragedy of the Imperial Japan joining WWII, since Takahashi was a kind of Christian, pro-Anglo-Saxon, and compassionate with Chinese.  The Empire of Japan in WWII was almost totally against the Christian world, the Anglo-Saxon nations, and China.    

Anyway, Korekiyo Takahashi has been the only Japanese prime minister, to date, who wrote in an essay that he believed in God.


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Korekiyo Takahashi with Rothschild in Tokyo in 1934
http://tatemonoen.gdd.jp/view/178305/



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Luk 9:5 And whosoever will not receive you, when ye go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet for a testimony against them.