(The Tokyo Bay toward Chiba Prefecture)"Take Part of this Ministry"
The other day, being driven by a cold rain of the winter, I dropped in a convenient shop in a business building, though it was not a Seven-11 store.
There I found, by divine providence, an interesting humble book containing various letters notable figures in the Japanese history had written and delivered. Though it introduces just an excerpt of each letter, it really grasps the point of their communications personal, political, and strategic.
(http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%81%9D%E3%81%AE%E3%80%8C%E6%89%8B%E7%B4%99%E3%80%8D%E3%81%8C%E5%A4%89%E3%81%88%E3%81%9F%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E3%81%AE%E6%AD%B4%E5%8F%B2-%E3%83%AA%E3%82%A4%E3%83%89%E6%96%87%E5%BA%AB-%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E3%81%AE%E6%AD%B4%E5%8F%B2%E7%A0%94%E7%A9%B6%E7%8F%AD/dp/4845832321)
One example is a letter Shigeru Yoshida, then an ex-diplomat, sent to then Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe in 1940.
Shigeru Yoshida, knowing not his own destiny to serve the nation as prime minister after WWII, wrote seriously that the conclusion of the Tripartite Pact with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy had to be avoided. Yoshida, ex-Ambassador to England, claimed in the letter that the Empire of Japan had to exploit friendly relationships with England and the United States, since Nazi Germany looked like having no complete confidence in victory in the war it had launched.
However, then Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe did not respect Yoshida’s advice, allowing for the conclusion of the Tripartite Pact with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.
Yet, the aim of the Tripartite Pact put in force in September 1940 is to indirectly hold movements of the U.S. in check, so that the U.S. would not join the war leading to WWII. The Empire of Japan wanted even the Soviet Union to join the Pact, which was completely broken by the Nazi Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union.
Though the Empire of Japan had the world No.2 navy and air forces just before the Pearl Harbor naval operation, its military strategy without any harmony and linkage with Germany’s and Italy’s was out of fashion and too much based on wishful thinking.
After WWII, Fumimaro Konoe, a proud member of one of historic noble families, committed a suicide as he was going to be arrested as a war criminal by the U.S. military being stationed in Tokyo following the surrender of the Empire of Japan in 1945.
But, ex-diplomat Shigeru Yoshida took a leading part in the post-war Japanese political community to assume the premiership between 1946 and 1947 and also between 1948 and 1954.
Conversely, it seems that as General Douglas MacArthur, who led the Allied Occupation in Japan after WWII, well knew the past political standpoint of Shigeru Yoshida, Douglas MacArthur friendly admitted the premiership of Shigeru Yoshida.
Accordingly, the Japanese diplomatic strategy after the Second World War to date has been based on or subject to the paradigm Shigeru Yoshida insisted even before the conclusion of the Tripartite Pact: the exploitation of friendly relationships with the U.S. and the U.K.
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Once Chinese leaders, whose country was then receiving billion-dollar aid every year from Japan, said to President Mr. Bill Clinton that he should not respect Japanese, since Japanese were devious and dishonest. Mr. Clinton wrongly trusted the false accusation and even advised Russian leaders not to trust Japanese, since Japanese were devious and dishonest.
But, President Mr. Barack Obama must know that the Empire of Japan had realized the atrocity and slaying Nazis had been executing on European Judaists before WWII as little as the U.S. realized then.
For your information, incumbent Prime Minister of Japan Mr. Taro Aso is a grandson of Shigeru Yoshida, though the Prime Minister seems to be happy in these days, buying many intellectual books, enjoying shopping at Ginza, and giving an award to a champion of the Japanese-style wrestling called Sumo, while his approval rate has fallen to 20% or less…probably due to confidence in his family tradition…
Act 1:23 And they appointed two, Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias.
Act 1:24 And they prayed, and said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen,
Act 1:25 That he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place.
Act 1:26 And they gave forth their lots; and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.