Lessons in Shanghai in 1930’s
(Les leçons apprises à Shanghai dans les années 1930)
Since 2007, we have had new leaders coming up from potent countries to the global stage one after another.
Japan, France, the U.K., Russia, and Australia have new leaders; even in the U.S. the possible next Presidents or Presidential contenders have drawn more attentions than the incumbent President.
Indeed, this year’s G8 summit to be held in Japan from July 7 will surely make US President Mr. George W. Bush outstanding, since he has kept his position since the 9/11 Terror in 2001.
In addition, South Korea has now new President, Mr. Lee Myung-bak who unlike his anti-Japanese predecessor looks sound and responsible, since he honestly expresses the importance of friendly relationships between Japan and South Korea.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/26/world/asia/26korea.html?ex=1361682000&en=518f941250ca7780&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Though some Americans might believe that most of Korean people hate Japanese due to Imperial Japan’s occupation of the Korean Peninsula before WWII, the fact and truth is that most of Koreans like Japan and Japanese at heart. But, due to Japan’s occupation of the Korean Peninsula before WWII, they have to condemn Japan sometimes at least on a superficial level for their nationalism; otherwise their nationalism is suspected by others.
It is said that the poorer a Korean is, the more he or she likes Japan and Japanese.
But it is not the new Korean President that took my attention on a TV program showing the inauguration ceremony of President Mr. Lee.
It is Japan’s Former Prime Mister Mr. Yasuhiro Nakasone who led Japan from 1982 to 1987.
While most of former Prime Ministers of Japan are gone, he still acts as a politician, attending this 2008 Korean President’s inauguration ceremony held in cold Seoul.
Mr. Yasuhiro Nakasone was no more Japan’s Prime Minister when the father of the incumbent US President, namely Mr. George H. W. Bush came into the White House as the 41st US President in 1989.
So, observing Mr. Yasuhiro Nakasone in Seoul in 2008 is something moving, though he has now no official post in the Japanese Parliament and the Japanese Administration despite his presence still occasionally felt among the incumbent ruling party of Japan.
(Even one relatively young lawmaker of the opposition party of Japan wrote in his blog about his attendance to the ceremony in Seoul accompanying Mr. Nakasone with delight.)
So, I checked the book written on the network of personal connections behind the scene of the Japanese political world since the era of the Sino-Japanese War or the Manchurian Incident in 1930’s.
http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E3%81%AE%E5%9C%B0%E4%B8%8B%E4%BA%BA%E8%84%88%E2%80%95%E6%88%A6%E5%BE%8C%E3%82%92%E3%81%A4%E3%81%8F%E3%81%A3%E3%81%9F%E9%99%B0%E3%81%AE%E7%94%B7%E3%81%9F%E3%81%A1-%E7%A5%A5%E4%BC%9D%E7%A4%BE%E6%96%87%E5%BA%AB-%E3%81%84-15-1-%E5%B2%A9%E5%B7%9D/dp/4396333684
The incumbent Prime Minister of Japan, Mr. Yasuo Fukuda, is a son of the former Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda who was the successor of Nobusuke Kishi (Prime Minister between 1957 and 1960), a grandfather of the former Prime Minister Mr. Shinzo Abe (Prime Minister between 2006 and 2007).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobusuke_Kishi
The most interesting part of the above book is that it reveals how influential figures who acted after WWII on the stage or behind the scene of Japanese political circles had established their fundamental relationships in Shanghai and Manchuria, currently the northeast territory of China, in 1930’s.
The human network covered not only politicians but also businessmen, journalists, and various types of fixers.
It also reveals that how those Japanese were influenced by Chinese in Shanghai.
When those ambitious Japanese came to Shanghai they found how naive they were, though they had been regarded as shrewd and hotshot successful politicians, bureaucrats, businessmen, journalists, and various kinds of fixers in Japan.
It is said that those Japanese learnt every dirty trick they had not dreamed of in Japan in addition to how to use money, power, and conspiracies, which traditional samurai code of conduct had never permitted, from Chinese counterparts working covertly and overtly in Shanghai in 1930’s.
Chinese politicians, businessmen, fixers, and activists living in the great social turmoil and upheaval since the collapse of the Qing Dynasty were in a different class or poles apart from those Japanese counterparts who accordingly decided to learn every dirty trick and method of conspiracy from those Chinese.
The Empire of Japan had then far advanced and modern industry, society, and military than Chine that promised Japan’s final military victory in 1930’s; but the depth of evil in the Chinese society was beyond imagination of those Japanese elites.
The point of issue is that those Japanese who had experienced Shanghai life in 1930's survived WWII and formed the influential human network as part of mainstream or underground one in the Japanese society.
They also combined with those who also built their careers in Manchuria or Manchukuo, like former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi, and in official circles of the Japanese Government as elite bureaucrats since WWII, like former Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda and Mr. Yasuhiro Nakasone.
So, the ugly vice some Japanese had learnt in Shanghai in 1930’s survived and influenced the politics in Japan after WWII, though fully democratized Japan after WWII became an ally of the U.S. especially against communists in the Soviet Union and China, which made the human relationships in the political and business communities more complicated.
But, in 1970’s, along with the coming of era of global expansion of the Japanese economy, a new group of people got political hegemony in Japan relying on huge money produced through the economic growth, the leader of whom was former Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka.
The Japanese people also supported this new political faction, feeling a sense of relief from a kind of old regime governed by old elites, though it was often criticized as money-driven politics as exemplified in the Lockheed scandal in early 1970’s which deprived Kakuei Tanak of honor and respect, though he and his successor maintained hegemony in the political world.
But, this hegemony virtually ended when Mr. Yoshiro Mori became Prime Minister of Japan in 2000 and Mr. Jyunichiro Koizumi launched a fierce political fight, since 2001, against the remnant of the group Kakuei Tanaka had founded 30 years ago.
Finally, the group Nobusuke Kishi had founded 50 years ago with a help from those coming back from Shanghai after WWII established and consolidated its power base again, a result of which is the incumbent Prime Minister Mr. Yasuo Fukuda.
* * *
It is hard to tell how much evil and vice of Shanghai in 1930’s is alive and working in the present Japanese Government and its Parliament called the Diet.
But it is surely a fact to take note of: In 1930’s, many ambitious Japanese went to Shanghai, China, to take an evil course, growing up from country players to continental-class players in politics and business.
In 1990’s, ambitious Japanese went to London and New York, to take an evil course, growing up from country players to world-class players in the money market.
And, even in 1930’s, some Japanese elites in various fields were moving from Tokyo to New York, and then New York to Shanghai to build their careers, good or bad.
Today, as the recent Davos conference suggested, many players of various nationalities in the global money market are building their career through travelling between London, New York, and Shanghai.
Even Japanese with such respectable culture and history were contaminated by such evil in Shanghai in 1930’s.
Other people of various countries today could be also highly and negatively influenced by such vice in London, New York, and Shanghai. And, they will surely influence politics and business in their home countries.
That is why you have to just ponder on the order of Jesus Christ: Do not access foreigners’ way.
(There are some Japanese critics, such as Ms. Yoshiko Sakurai, and politicians, such as Ms. Yuriko Koike, who probably by instinct are on the alert for Chinese way of diplomacy, politics, business, and human relationships.
One of big worries of such Japanese people about the next US President lies in this concern and context.
My concern is however that there might be some affinity between Chinese and people who belong to the Latin cultures, say, such as French or Italians rather than Anglo-Saxons, since some founders of Chinese Communist Party experienced studying in Paris also in 1930's, and the Mafia might even today become an easy partner of a secret agency of the Chinese Communist Party.
Indeed, Shanghai in 1930’s was also full of Europeans and Americans, maybe, like you, in addition to Japanese, maybe, like you.)
“His answer made his enemies ashamed of themselves…”
(Als Jesus das gesagt hatte, waren seine Genger beshamt…)