On My Mind - Seventy Years Since World War II
CHINO Keiko / Journalist
July 24, 2015
"Mom, what made you happy when the war ended?"
"Well, I was glad I didn't have to sleep in a monpe anymore. And we were free to keep the lights on at night. That also made me happy."
I had this conversation with my mother one early afternoon, more than half a century ago, when I was still a child. I'm not quite sure how much of her reply I was able to comprehend at the time, but I can still vividly recall how I nodded in appreciation on that faraway day. It was during that war that the baggy monpe workpants became the daily uniform of Japanese women.
That came to an end on August 15, 1945. Most Japanese had shed tears learning of their total defeat, in which Japan had "lost one-third of its total wealth and from one-third to one-half of its total potential income," according to the General Headquarters of the Allied occupation. However, it was also true that deep down in their hearts they had felt a sense of relief that differed from any feeling of despondency. Most of the urban areas of major Japanese cities had been burnt to the ground, but the scenes of vast open horizons evoked a sense of liberation in the minds of many Japanese, which could not have all been a case of sour grapes.
Asked by the Emperor what just cause would be served by declaring war, Prime Minister Tojo Hideki is said to have replied: "the matter is currently under study." ("'Showa Tenno Jitsuroku' no Nazo wo Toku (Unraveling the Mysteries of The Recorded Words of Emperor Showa)"; Bunshun Shinsho). It is an episode that captures the essence of that war quite well. As the frontlines continued to expand with no plausible explanation offered to its people, Japan had persisted aimlessly in a desperate war, even after Germany and Italy had surrendered, and eventually faced an unprecedented defeat.
Perhaps it had been a reaction to all that. Placing their faith in peace, the Japanese made a vigorous push for reconstruction. They toiled on, believing that life will be better tomorrow than today, and even better the day after tomorrow than tomorrow. And for the most part, that was indeed what actually transpired.
However, not all of it was the fruit of our labors. To begin with, Japan was favored by international circumstances. It did not experience the tragedy of having their country divided in two, as had Germany, nor was its monarchy abolished, as in Italy. Japan was also fortunate to have been occupied by the United States instead of the Soviet Union, which had unilaterally denounced its non-aggression pact with Japan during the war. In the years that followed, Japan continued to benefit from the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. We could also add to this the fact that tectonic activity around the Japanese archipelago had been extraordinarily subdued during the era of postwar reconstruction, which in retrospect can only be ascribed to good fortune.
Japan became the world's second largest economic power – a position it held until 2010, contributed to advancing developing countries as the world's top donor throughout the 1990's, and remained firmly committed to pacifism by firing not a single bullet against any country. Inherent in such a stance was a self-serving belief in the supremacy of peace, which expressed itself as opposition even to Japan's participation in U.N. Peace-Keeping Operations, while our own lives were being protected by foreign military forces. Yet, happily again, this contradiction did not place Japan in jeopardy.
It is now seventy years since the end of World War II. Will we continue to be graced with such good fortune? I believe not. We would do better to think that our good luck has run its course.
Above all, the international environment has changed. First, the advance of globalization has brought about an era in which our economies increasingly share the same fate. The Greek crisis or a sudden drop in Chinese stock prices have immediate repercussions on the financial markets in Tokyo. Second, the security environment surrounding Japan has undergone a sea change. China's hegemonic ambition of becoming a military and maritime superpower has become stronger than ever before, while the United States will no longer act as the "world's policeman," to quote President Barack Obama .
Caught between the U.S.-China rivalries, it will be crucial for Japan to not only forge a stronger alliance with the United States, but to better coordinate its actions with Australia, India, and Southeast Asian countries. Japan must also face up to the issue of redefining its relations with its neighbors – China and South Korea, which have deteriorated to the lowest levels in the past seventy years. While we can no longer return to the "era of friendship," neither can we turn to confrontation as a solution. The need for level-headed, hard-nosed diplomacy has never been as acute as it is now. Meanwhile, on the domestic front, Japanese society is being threatened by the challenges posed by a rapidly aging population and declining birthrate such as the world has never seen.
While all this is upon us, we should acknowledge that they are also the cumulative consequences of the peace and good fortune enjoyed by postwar Japan. It will do us no good to rush into self-denial or take fright. Rather, the dulled sensitivity of today's Japanese, who remain oblivious to all these dangers as if practicing "see no evil, hear no evil, say no evil," may be the true danger facing us in the seventieth year of the postwar era.
Keiko Chino is Guest Columnist of the Sankei Shimbun newspape.
"Well, I was glad I didn't have to sleep in a monpe anymore. And we were free to keep the lights on at night. That also made me happy."
I had this conversation with my mother one early afternoon, more than half a century ago, when I was still a child. I'm not quite sure how much of her reply I was able to comprehend at the time, but I can still vividly recall how I nodded in appreciation on that faraway day. It was during that war that the baggy monpe workpants became the daily uniform of Japanese women.
That came to an end on August 15, 1945. Most Japanese had shed tears learning of their total defeat, in which Japan had "lost one-third of its total wealth and from one-third to one-half of its total potential income," according to the General Headquarters of the Allied occupation. However, it was also true that deep down in their hearts they had felt a sense of relief that differed from any feeling of despondency. Most of the urban areas of major Japanese cities had been burnt to the ground, but the scenes of vast open horizons evoked a sense of liberation in the minds of many Japanese, which could not have all been a case of sour grapes.
Asked by the Emperor what just cause would be served by declaring war, Prime Minister Tojo Hideki is said to have replied: "the matter is currently under study." ("'Showa Tenno Jitsuroku' no Nazo wo Toku (Unraveling the Mysteries of The Recorded Words of Emperor Showa)"; Bunshun Shinsho). It is an episode that captures the essence of that war quite well. As the frontlines continued to expand with no plausible explanation offered to its people, Japan had persisted aimlessly in a desperate war, even after Germany and Italy had surrendered, and eventually faced an unprecedented defeat.
Perhaps it had been a reaction to all that. Placing their faith in peace, the Japanese made a vigorous push for reconstruction. They toiled on, believing that life will be better tomorrow than today, and even better the day after tomorrow than tomorrow. And for the most part, that was indeed what actually transpired.
However, not all of it was the fruit of our labors. To begin with, Japan was favored by international circumstances. It did not experience the tragedy of having their country divided in two, as had Germany, nor was its monarchy abolished, as in Italy. Japan was also fortunate to have been occupied by the United States instead of the Soviet Union, which had unilaterally denounced its non-aggression pact with Japan during the war. In the years that followed, Japan continued to benefit from the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. We could also add to this the fact that tectonic activity around the Japanese archipelago had been extraordinarily subdued during the era of postwar reconstruction, which in retrospect can only be ascribed to good fortune.
Japan became the world's second largest economic power – a position it held until 2010, contributed to advancing developing countries as the world's top donor throughout the 1990's, and remained firmly committed to pacifism by firing not a single bullet against any country. Inherent in such a stance was a self-serving belief in the supremacy of peace, which expressed itself as opposition even to Japan's participation in U.N. Peace-Keeping Operations, while our own lives were being protected by foreign military forces. Yet, happily again, this contradiction did not place Japan in jeopardy.
It is now seventy years since the end of World War II. Will we continue to be graced with such good fortune? I believe not. We would do better to think that our good luck has run its course.
Above all, the international environment has changed. First, the advance of globalization has brought about an era in which our economies increasingly share the same fate. The Greek crisis or a sudden drop in Chinese stock prices have immediate repercussions on the financial markets in Tokyo. Second, the security environment surrounding Japan has undergone a sea change. China's hegemonic ambition of becoming a military and maritime superpower has become stronger than ever before, while the United States will no longer act as the "world's policeman," to quote President Barack Obama .
Caught between the U.S.-China rivalries, it will be crucial for Japan to not only forge a stronger alliance with the United States, but to better coordinate its actions with Australia, India, and Southeast Asian countries. Japan must also face up to the issue of redefining its relations with its neighbors – China and South Korea, which have deteriorated to the lowest levels in the past seventy years. While we can no longer return to the "era of friendship," neither can we turn to confrontation as a solution. The need for level-headed, hard-nosed diplomacy has never been as acute as it is now. Meanwhile, on the domestic front, Japanese society is being threatened by the challenges posed by a rapidly aging population and declining birthrate such as the world has never seen.
While all this is upon us, we should acknowledge that they are also the cumulative consequences of the peace and good fortune enjoyed by postwar Japan. It will do us no good to rush into self-denial or take fright. Rather, the dulled sensitivity of today's Japanese, who remain oblivious to all these dangers as if practicing "see no evil, hear no evil, say no evil," may be the true danger facing us in the seventieth year of the postwar era.
Keiko Chino is Guest Columnist of the Sankei Shimbun newspape.
The English-Speaking Union of Japan
戦後70年―わたしはこう考える
千野境子 / ジャーナリスト
2015年 7月 24日
「ね、ね、お母さん、戦争が終わって何が良かった？」
「そう、もうモンペで寝なくてよくなったのがうれしかったわ。それと、夜、電灯を堂々とつけられるようになったのもうれしかったわね」
半世紀以上も昔のある昼下がり、まだ幼かった私と母が交わした会話である。どこまで分かったのか分からないが、「ふーん」と頷いた遠い日の記憶は今も鮮やかだ。モンペという非日常着が女性の日常着と化したのがあの戦争だった。
それが1945（昭和20）年8月15日をもって終わった。「国富の3分の1、全所得の3分の1から2分の1を喪失」（マッカーサー司令部）するという完膚なきまでの敗北に大多数の日本人は涙したが、一方、心の底で虚脱感とは異なるホッとした思いを抱いていたことも確かだろう。主要都市の市街地の多くは焼け野原となったが、広々とした地平線に人々が心理的解放感さえ覚えたのも決して負け惜しみではあるまい。
開戦の大義名分を天皇から問われた東条首相は「目下研究中」と答えたという（文春新書『「昭和天皇実録」の謎を解く』）。この挿話はいかにもこの戦争の性格をよく物語っている。国民にもよく分からぬままに戦線は拡大、独伊降伏後も絶望的戦いをズルズルと続け、未曾有の敗戦を迎えたのである。
恐らくこれらへの反動もあってのことだろう。平和を尊び、日本人は再建に邁進した。今日より明日、明日より明後日の生活が豊かになることを信じて働いた。実際、事はほぼその通りに運んだ。
とは言えそれは自分たちの努力だけの賜物ではなかった。第1に日本は国際環境に恵まれた。ドイツのように分断の悲劇も、イタリアのように君主制の廃止もなかった。日本との中立不可侵条約を一方的に破棄したソ連でなく、米国による占領だったことも幸運だった。その後も日本は米ソ冷戦の恩恵を受けた。さらに日本列島の地殻変動が戦後の復興期に極めて穏やかだったことも、今となってみれば天佑というほかない。
日本は世界第2位の経済大国となり（2010年まで）、90年代は世界のトップドナーとして途上国の発展に貢献し、一発の銃弾も他国に向けて撃たず、ひたすら平和主義に徹した。そこにはPKO（国連平和維持活動）への参加にすら反対する自己中心的な平和至上主義が潜み、自分たちの命も他国の軍隊に守られていたのだが、これまた幸運にもその矛盾は破綻には至らなかったのである。
戦後70年、このようなモロモロの幸運は今後も続くのであろうか。
いや、幸運はすでに終わっていると考えた方がよい。
何より国際環境が変わった。第1にグローバリゼーションの進展で経済はますます一蓮托生の時代となった。ギリシャ危機や中国株式市場の急落は東京市場に瞬時に跳ね返る。第2に日本を取り巻く安全保障環境も激変した。軍事・海洋大国を目指す中国の覇権願望はかつてなく強く、一方米国は「もはや世界の警察官ではない」（オバマ大統領）。競う米中の狭間で日本は日米同盟の強化だけでなく、豪州やインド、東南アジア諸国などとの連携強化が重要になっている。また戦後70年でもっとも冷え込んだ隣国・中韓との関係をどう再定義するか、もはや「友好の時代」に戻ることはできないが、対決も解決策でない以上、冷静にしてしたたかな外交がいまほど必要な時はない。さらに内では、世界史に例のない急速な少子高齢化が社会を脅かす。
とは言え、これらは戦後日本の平和と幸運の集大成の結果でもあるのだから、いたずらに自己否定したり慄いたりしても始まらない。むしろ、すでにここに在るこうしたモロモロの危機に、今日の日本人が「見ざる、聞かざる、言わざる」ごとく、依然として安穏としている感度の鈍さにこそ、戦後70年を迎えた私たちの本当の危機があるのかもしれない。
（筆者は産經新聞客員論説委員。）
「そう、もうモンペで寝なくてよくなったのがうれしかったわ。それと、夜、電灯を堂々とつけられるようになったのもうれしかったわね」
半世紀以上も昔のある昼下がり、まだ幼かった私と母が交わした会話である。どこまで分かったのか分からないが、「ふーん」と頷いた遠い日の記憶は今も鮮やかだ。モンペという非日常着が女性の日常着と化したのがあの戦争だった。
それが1945（昭和20）年8月15日をもって終わった。「国富の3分の1、全所得の3分の1から2分の1を喪失」（マッカーサー司令部）するという完膚なきまでの敗北に大多数の日本人は涙したが、一方、心の底で虚脱感とは異なるホッとした思いを抱いていたことも確かだろう。主要都市の市街地の多くは焼け野原となったが、広々とした地平線に人々が心理的解放感さえ覚えたのも決して負け惜しみではあるまい。
開戦の大義名分を天皇から問われた東条首相は「目下研究中」と答えたという（文春新書『「昭和天皇実録」の謎を解く』）。この挿話はいかにもこの戦争の性格をよく物語っている。国民にもよく分からぬままに戦線は拡大、独伊降伏後も絶望的戦いをズルズルと続け、未曾有の敗戦を迎えたのである。
恐らくこれらへの反動もあってのことだろう。平和を尊び、日本人は再建に邁進した。今日より明日、明日より明後日の生活が豊かになることを信じて働いた。実際、事はほぼその通りに運んだ。
とは言えそれは自分たちの努力だけの賜物ではなかった。第1に日本は国際環境に恵まれた。ドイツのように分断の悲劇も、イタリアのように君主制の廃止もなかった。日本との中立不可侵条約を一方的に破棄したソ連でなく、米国による占領だったことも幸運だった。その後も日本は米ソ冷戦の恩恵を受けた。さらに日本列島の地殻変動が戦後の復興期に極めて穏やかだったことも、今となってみれば天佑というほかない。
日本は世界第2位の経済大国となり（2010年まで）、90年代は世界のトップドナーとして途上国の発展に貢献し、一発の銃弾も他国に向けて撃たず、ひたすら平和主義に徹した。そこにはPKO（国連平和維持活動）への参加にすら反対する自己中心的な平和至上主義が潜み、自分たちの命も他国の軍隊に守られていたのだが、これまた幸運にもその矛盾は破綻には至らなかったのである。
戦後70年、このようなモロモロの幸運は今後も続くのであろうか。
いや、幸運はすでに終わっていると考えた方がよい。
何より国際環境が変わった。第1にグローバリゼーションの進展で経済はますます一蓮托生の時代となった。ギリシャ危機や中国株式市場の急落は東京市場に瞬時に跳ね返る。第2に日本を取り巻く安全保障環境も激変した。軍事・海洋大国を目指す中国の覇権願望はかつてなく強く、一方米国は「もはや世界の警察官ではない」（オバマ大統領）。競う米中の狭間で日本は日米同盟の強化だけでなく、豪州やインド、東南アジア諸国などとの連携強化が重要になっている。また戦後70年でもっとも冷え込んだ隣国・中韓との関係をどう再定義するか、もはや「友好の時代」に戻ることはできないが、対決も解決策でない以上、冷静にしてしたたかな外交がいまほど必要な時はない。さらに内では、世界史に例のない急速な少子高齢化が社会を脅かす。
とは言え、これらは戦後日本の平和と幸運の集大成の結果でもあるのだから、いたずらに自己否定したり慄いたりしても始まらない。むしろ、すでにここに在るこうしたモロモロの危機に、今日の日本人が「見ざる、聞かざる、言わざる」ごとく、依然として安穏としている感度の鈍さにこそ、戦後70年を迎えた私たちの本当の危機があるのかもしれない。
（筆者は産經新聞客員論説委員。）
一般社団法人 日本英語交流連盟