On My Mind - Seventy Years Since World War II
ONO Goro / Emeritus Professor, Saitama University
September 17, 2015
At this juncture of 70 years after the end of the war, there is no end to Japan's squabbling with its immediate neighbors over the question of postwar settlement. Admittedly, when most Japanese have no direct knowledge of Japan's aggression or war in the past, they may well feel fed up with the demand that they apologize for actions committed by their forebears. At the same time, the people in the countries and areas where the scars of Japan's acts of aggression and destruction remain directly or indirectly would naturally be reluctant to tolerate Japan, the nation that inflicted those damages on them.
That said, in this age of increasing globalization, if the neighboring countries continued to reject mutual reconciliation and try to cultivate friends in the distance while antagonizing those nearby, it would only benefit the countries in other regions. It would be too self-serving for Japan as the perpetrator of past actions to suggest that it is time to let bygones be bygones. Some Japanese who are conscious of this have begun to engage in acts of atonement one by one, each within the realm of his or her capability, without asking for anything in return. These actions have little by little prompted some people in our neighboring countries to understand the value of reconciliation. We should not allow these efforts to come to naught.
If you look back on several thousand years of Japan's history, Japan first imported from the Chinese Continent innumerable products of Chinese civilization directly or through the Korean Peninsula, and digested them to shape Japan's own culture. Thus, in East Asia, China is the eldest sibling, Korea is the second, and Japan is the third. If these three siblings kept quarreling, it would only trouble younger siblings in the region.
As Western-style modernization proceeded since the Meiji era, it would have been natural for this tradition of absorbing and digesting the products of foreign civilizations to continue under the banner of "Japanese spirit, Western learning". However, as "hakurai sūhai" (addiction to things imported) became more prevalent through "seiyōka" (Westernization) and "datsua nyūō"(Leave Asia, enter the West) advocated by the self-styled intellectuals, things traditionally Japanese came to be dismissed altogether as being antiquated. This trend has become more pronounced since Japan’s defeat in the last war. If things were left as they are, we could even lose what people abroad have appreciated as the "good qualities" of things Japanese.
Further, seen at least from Japan's point of view, Japan, China and Korea had each maintained its independence before the Meiji era. There had been many wars and regime changes on the Chinese Continent, within the Korean Peninsula and within the Japanese Archipelago, but none had led to total domination or occupation of one by another. The Mongolian invasions of Japan in 1274 and 1281, Toyotomi Hideyoshi's invasion of Korea in 1592-1598 and the Wokou piracies in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries can be seen as temporary aberrations.
This equilibrium was broken after the Western major powers started their invasion of Asia with the Opium War. Amidst this challenge, Japan lost little time in ending its isolation, and launched itself at breakneck speed on the path of Westernization and modernization, in order to preserve and strengthen its independence that it had barely kept. As a result, it deluded itself that it had succeeded in becoming a strong power on a par with the major Western powers.
This in turn led Japan, which had long had an inferiority complex toward China, to wallow in an undue sense of superiority over China and Korea, making up for its inferiority complex toward Europe and the United States. It drove Japan to its annexation of Korea, aggression of the Chinese Continent and, fueled by the impetuous urge to free itself from its long-standing inferiority complex toward Europe and the United States, its rousing call to the nation to fight the demonic and beastly United States and Britain (kichiku beiei) and finally to its defeat in the last war. If we are to look to the future, we will first of all have to rid ourselves of such a short-circuited thinking pattern of the modern Japanese.
These are essential facts that should be known to every Japanese. The biggest reason why, in actuality, they hardly figure in the consciousness of the Japanese of today is the governing principle laid by the all-powerful Allied Occupation Forces in the immediate postwar period that "All the blame lay with the Japanese military, and the Japanese people were also the victims." Most Japanese found this to be expedient and gladly accepted it. It somehow led them to consign into oblivion the fact that they, too, had been a part of the perpetrators. The victims, for their part, would never allow this to be forgotten. Further, there have been adverse feelings among the Japanese about the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, which seemed to be on dubious grounds in terms of international law, and the lop-sided accusations against Japan regarding its past unlawful or wrongful conducts, for example, on comfort women. Some felt that similar actions have been widely committed with impunity in cases other than wartime Japan. It cannot be denied that these feelings served to weaken or dissipate the sense of remorse that the Japanese people should have felt as a matter of course.
Be that as it may, it remains a historical fact that Japan and the Japanese invaded other countries and ruled over their people. We should forthrightly admit and repent it. It is shameful that we abused or destroyed the cultural assets of China and Korea, who are our cultural elders. This is a serious issue, and the debate should not be trivialized into such questions as whether there was government involvement in the recruitment of comfort women or how many were killed in the "Nanjing Massacre".
Today, the Western (European and American) consensus, which has led the world, has begun to show its limitations. It is perhaps time for Japan to act with dignity and forthrightly admit its past wrongdoings. Then, the three East Asian siblings, each with its long history and rich culture, can work hand in hand to show how to shape the world in the future. At the risk of injecting a jarring note, let me add that we should also recognize that the existing "postwar order" is nothing more than a strand of the order that the Western major powers had introduced to East Asia since the Opium War.
Goro Ono is Emeritus Professor of Saitama University.
That said, in this age of increasing globalization, if the neighboring countries continued to reject mutual reconciliation and try to cultivate friends in the distance while antagonizing those nearby, it would only benefit the countries in other regions. It would be too self-serving for Japan as the perpetrator of past actions to suggest that it is time to let bygones be bygones. Some Japanese who are conscious of this have begun to engage in acts of atonement one by one, each within the realm of his or her capability, without asking for anything in return. These actions have little by little prompted some people in our neighboring countries to understand the value of reconciliation. We should not allow these efforts to come to naught.
If you look back on several thousand years of Japan's history, Japan first imported from the Chinese Continent innumerable products of Chinese civilization directly or through the Korean Peninsula, and digested them to shape Japan's own culture. Thus, in East Asia, China is the eldest sibling, Korea is the second, and Japan is the third. If these three siblings kept quarreling, it would only trouble younger siblings in the region.
As Western-style modernization proceeded since the Meiji era, it would have been natural for this tradition of absorbing and digesting the products of foreign civilizations to continue under the banner of "Japanese spirit, Western learning". However, as "hakurai sūhai" (addiction to things imported) became more prevalent through "seiyōka" (Westernization) and "datsua nyūō"(Leave Asia, enter the West) advocated by the self-styled intellectuals, things traditionally Japanese came to be dismissed altogether as being antiquated. This trend has become more pronounced since Japan’s defeat in the last war. If things were left as they are, we could even lose what people abroad have appreciated as the "good qualities" of things Japanese.
Further, seen at least from Japan's point of view, Japan, China and Korea had each maintained its independence before the Meiji era. There had been many wars and regime changes on the Chinese Continent, within the Korean Peninsula and within the Japanese Archipelago, but none had led to total domination or occupation of one by another. The Mongolian invasions of Japan in 1274 and 1281, Toyotomi Hideyoshi's invasion of Korea in 1592-1598 and the Wokou piracies in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries can be seen as temporary aberrations.
This equilibrium was broken after the Western major powers started their invasion of Asia with the Opium War. Amidst this challenge, Japan lost little time in ending its isolation, and launched itself at breakneck speed on the path of Westernization and modernization, in order to preserve and strengthen its independence that it had barely kept. As a result, it deluded itself that it had succeeded in becoming a strong power on a par with the major Western powers.
This in turn led Japan, which had long had an inferiority complex toward China, to wallow in an undue sense of superiority over China and Korea, making up for its inferiority complex toward Europe and the United States. It drove Japan to its annexation of Korea, aggression of the Chinese Continent and, fueled by the impetuous urge to free itself from its long-standing inferiority complex toward Europe and the United States, its rousing call to the nation to fight the demonic and beastly United States and Britain (kichiku beiei) and finally to its defeat in the last war. If we are to look to the future, we will first of all have to rid ourselves of such a short-circuited thinking pattern of the modern Japanese.
These are essential facts that should be known to every Japanese. The biggest reason why, in actuality, they hardly figure in the consciousness of the Japanese of today is the governing principle laid by the all-powerful Allied Occupation Forces in the immediate postwar period that "All the blame lay with the Japanese military, and the Japanese people were also the victims." Most Japanese found this to be expedient and gladly accepted it. It somehow led them to consign into oblivion the fact that they, too, had been a part of the perpetrators. The victims, for their part, would never allow this to be forgotten. Further, there have been adverse feelings among the Japanese about the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, which seemed to be on dubious grounds in terms of international law, and the lop-sided accusations against Japan regarding its past unlawful or wrongful conducts, for example, on comfort women. Some felt that similar actions have been widely committed with impunity in cases other than wartime Japan. It cannot be denied that these feelings served to weaken or dissipate the sense of remorse that the Japanese people should have felt as a matter of course.
Be that as it may, it remains a historical fact that Japan and the Japanese invaded other countries and ruled over their people. We should forthrightly admit and repent it. It is shameful that we abused or destroyed the cultural assets of China and Korea, who are our cultural elders. This is a serious issue, and the debate should not be trivialized into such questions as whether there was government involvement in the recruitment of comfort women or how many were killed in the "Nanjing Massacre".
Today, the Western (European and American) consensus, which has led the world, has begun to show its limitations. It is perhaps time for Japan to act with dignity and forthrightly admit its past wrongdoings. Then, the three East Asian siblings, each with its long history and rich culture, can work hand in hand to show how to shape the world in the future. At the risk of injecting a jarring note, let me add that we should also recognize that the existing "postwar order" is nothing more than a strand of the order that the Western major powers had introduced to East Asia since the Opium War.
Goro Ono is Emeritus Professor of Saitama University.
The English-Speaking Union of Japan
戦後70年―わたしはこう考える
小野 五郎 / 埼玉大学名誉教授
2015年 9月 17日
戦後70年という節目を迎えたにもかかわらず、未だに日本の戦後処理に関し近隣諸国との間に諍いが絶えない。なるほど、日本人の大半がかつての侵略も戦争も直接知らぬ今、その心情としていつまでも先人の為した行為に対し贖罪を求められるのは敵わないというのも分かる。が、その一方で、未だにかつての日本による侵略・破壊行為等の影響が直接・間接に残る国・地域の人々からすれば、被害を及ぼした国家としての日本を許せないというのも当然である。
とはいえ、グローバリゼーションが進展する中、近隣諸国同士が互いにいつまでも和解せずそれぞれ遠交近攻策に走れば徒に他地域を利するだけである。もちろん、加害者たる日本の側から「そろそろ忘れてくれてもいいじゃないか」と言い出すのは少々虫が良すぎよう。だからこそ、日本人の中からも、相手に何らの見返りをも求めることなく、自分の出来る範囲で一つ一つ贖罪行為を積み上げようと努める人物も出ており、それによって近隣諸国民の中にも少しずつ理解者が現れはじめたところである。我々は、そうした人々の努力を水泡に帰してはなるまい。
振り返ってみれば、数千年に及ぶその歴史の中で、日本は、まずは中国大陸から直接あるいは韓（朝鮮）半島経由で無数の文物を受け入れ、それを咀嚼して自らの文化を築き上げてきた。すなわち、東アジアでは、いわば中国が長兄であり、韓国（朝鮮）が次兄、日本は三番目の子どもということになる。それが兄弟喧嘩に明け暮れたのでは、もっと小さな弟たちには迷惑なだけではないか。
欧米型近代化を進めた明治以降も、この外から文物を受け入れ咀嚼するという伝統は、「和魂洋才」として受け継がれたはずだった。ところが、いわゆる知識人たちの唱えた「西洋化」「脱亜入欧」などを通じ徐々に「舶来崇拝」が幅を利かせるようになると、日本の伝統的なものはすべて旧弊として否定されることとなった。特に、その傾向は、先の敗戦以降強まったように感じられる。このまま行けば、海外から評価される「日本の良さ」そのものが失われることになろう。
また、少なくとも日本から見る限り、明治以前は、それぞれ大陸内部・半島内部・日本列島内部で多くの戦乱と政権交代はあったものの、相互間では１２７４年の元寇、１５９２−１５９８年の秀吉の朝鮮出兵、１４，１５、１６世紀の倭寇など一時的侵略を別とすれば、全面的な占領統治に至ることはなく、それぞれが独立を保ってきた。
この均衡が破れるのは、阿片戦争以降、西洋列強がアジアへの侵略を始めてからである。この時、逸早く開国した日本は、辛うじて保った独立を維持・強化するため、猛スピードで西洋化・近代化へと踏み切り、結果として西洋列強と肩を並べうる強国になったと自惚れることになった。
それが、長いこと対中劣等感を抱いて日本をして、対欧米劣等感と入れ代わりに不当な対中・対韓優越感に浸らせた。挙句、朝鮮併合から大陸侵攻、さらに嵩じて積年の対欧米劣等感をも脱せんとの焦りが「鬼畜英米」へと転じ、先の敗戦へと駆り立てた元凶である。我々が求める「未来志向」とは、そんな近代日本人の短絡的思考から決別することにほかなるまい。
こうした本来全日本人が知覚すべき事実が、現実にはほとんど意識されていない最大の理由は、終戦直後絶対者だった占領軍の打ち出した「全責任は軍部にあり、国民もまた被害者」という統治理念にある。これは多くの国民にとって好都合だったから喜んで受け入れられ、いつの間にか自分たち自身が加害者の一員だったという、被害者側からすれば決して忘れて欲しくない事実まで忘れさせてしまうことになった。その上、国際法上疑義もある極東裁判とか、戦中の日本以外でも広く認められる従軍慰安婦その他の不法・不当行為に関する一方的な対日批判への反発が、本来日本人が抱かねばならない反省心を弱め、あるいは奪ったことも否定できない。
しかし、たとえそうであっても、史的には日本ないし日本人が異国を侵略し異民族を支配したのは事実であり、その点は潔く認め反省すべきである。特に、文化的には兄たる中韓の文化を破壊・凌辱したことは恥ずべきことであり、それを慰安婦への国家関与の有無とか南京虐殺の被害者数とか矮小化された争点にすりかえるべきものではない。
むしろ、これまで主導してきた欧米方式が行き詰まりを見せた今日、日本は自らの矜持を示し非は非として潔く認め、しかる後に各自長い歴史・文化を誇る東アジア三兄弟が手を携え、世界に向け新たな形を提示すべきではなかろうか。なお、その際、多少の摩擦は覚悟の上で言えば、現行の「戦後秩序」というものは、阿片戦争以来の欧米列強の持ちこんだ秩序の系にすぎないのだということも認識して欲しい。
（筆者は埼玉大学名誉教授）
とはいえ、グローバリゼーションが進展する中、近隣諸国同士が互いにいつまでも和解せずそれぞれ遠交近攻策に走れば徒に他地域を利するだけである。もちろん、加害者たる日本の側から「そろそろ忘れてくれてもいいじゃないか」と言い出すのは少々虫が良すぎよう。だからこそ、日本人の中からも、相手に何らの見返りをも求めることなく、自分の出来る範囲で一つ一つ贖罪行為を積み上げようと努める人物も出ており、それによって近隣諸国民の中にも少しずつ理解者が現れはじめたところである。我々は、そうした人々の努力を水泡に帰してはなるまい。
振り返ってみれば、数千年に及ぶその歴史の中で、日本は、まずは中国大陸から直接あるいは韓（朝鮮）半島経由で無数の文物を受け入れ、それを咀嚼して自らの文化を築き上げてきた。すなわち、東アジアでは、いわば中国が長兄であり、韓国（朝鮮）が次兄、日本は三番目の子どもということになる。それが兄弟喧嘩に明け暮れたのでは、もっと小さな弟たちには迷惑なだけではないか。
欧米型近代化を進めた明治以降も、この外から文物を受け入れ咀嚼するという伝統は、「和魂洋才」として受け継がれたはずだった。ところが、いわゆる知識人たちの唱えた「西洋化」「脱亜入欧」などを通じ徐々に「舶来崇拝」が幅を利かせるようになると、日本の伝統的なものはすべて旧弊として否定されることとなった。特に、その傾向は、先の敗戦以降強まったように感じられる。このまま行けば、海外から評価される「日本の良さ」そのものが失われることになろう。
また、少なくとも日本から見る限り、明治以前は、それぞれ大陸内部・半島内部・日本列島内部で多くの戦乱と政権交代はあったものの、相互間では１２７４年の元寇、１５９２−１５９８年の秀吉の朝鮮出兵、１４，１５、１６世紀の倭寇など一時的侵略を別とすれば、全面的な占領統治に至ることはなく、それぞれが独立を保ってきた。
この均衡が破れるのは、阿片戦争以降、西洋列強がアジアへの侵略を始めてからである。この時、逸早く開国した日本は、辛うじて保った独立を維持・強化するため、猛スピードで西洋化・近代化へと踏み切り、結果として西洋列強と肩を並べうる強国になったと自惚れることになった。
それが、長いこと対中劣等感を抱いて日本をして、対欧米劣等感と入れ代わりに不当な対中・対韓優越感に浸らせた。挙句、朝鮮併合から大陸侵攻、さらに嵩じて積年の対欧米劣等感をも脱せんとの焦りが「鬼畜英米」へと転じ、先の敗戦へと駆り立てた元凶である。我々が求める「未来志向」とは、そんな近代日本人の短絡的思考から決別することにほかなるまい。
こうした本来全日本人が知覚すべき事実が、現実にはほとんど意識されていない最大の理由は、終戦直後絶対者だった占領軍の打ち出した「全責任は軍部にあり、国民もまた被害者」という統治理念にある。これは多くの国民にとって好都合だったから喜んで受け入れられ、いつの間にか自分たち自身が加害者の一員だったという、被害者側からすれば決して忘れて欲しくない事実まで忘れさせてしまうことになった。その上、国際法上疑義もある極東裁判とか、戦中の日本以外でも広く認められる従軍慰安婦その他の不法・不当行為に関する一方的な対日批判への反発が、本来日本人が抱かねばならない反省心を弱め、あるいは奪ったことも否定できない。
しかし、たとえそうであっても、史的には日本ないし日本人が異国を侵略し異民族を支配したのは事実であり、その点は潔く認め反省すべきである。特に、文化的には兄たる中韓の文化を破壊・凌辱したことは恥ずべきことであり、それを慰安婦への国家関与の有無とか南京虐殺の被害者数とか矮小化された争点にすりかえるべきものではない。
むしろ、これまで主導してきた欧米方式が行き詰まりを見せた今日、日本は自らの矜持を示し非は非として潔く認め、しかる後に各自長い歴史・文化を誇る東アジア三兄弟が手を携え、世界に向け新たな形を提示すべきではなかろうか。なお、その際、多少の摩擦は覚悟の上で言えば、現行の「戦後秩序」というものは、阿片戦争以来の欧米列強の持ちこんだ秩序の系にすぎないのだということも認識して欲しい。
（筆者は埼玉大学名誉教授）
一般社団法人 日本英語交流連盟