The Japan Society Review 56
Book, Stage, Movie, Arts and Events Review

Issue 56 Volume 10 Number 2 (April 2015)

Contents

Guest Editor

1. Japan’s Modern History, 1857-1937: A New Political Narrative

William Cottrell

2. Destroying the World to Save it: Aum Shinrikyou, Apocalyptic
Violence and the New Global Terrorism

Reviewers

3. Men to Devils, Devils to Men: Japanese War Crimes and Chinese
JusticeSpecial Reviewer

4. Strange Weather in Tokyo

Chris Corker, Richard Coxford, Susan Meehan & Mike Sullivan
Sir Hugh Cortazzi
New reviewswww.japansociety.org.uk/resources/reviews

5. The Guest Cat
6. International Politics in Northeast Asia: The China-JapanUnited States Strategic Triangle

Cover image by Hishida shunso (1874-1911)

Japan’s Modern
History, 1857-1937:
A new politicalnarrative
by Banno Junji, translated
by J.A.A. Stockwin
Routledge (2014)
ISBN 978-1-138-77517-6
Review by Hugh Cortazzi
Professor
Banno’sbook was publishedin Japanese under thetitle Nihon Kindai Shi (日本近代史) in 2012. Professor
Stockwin, the translator of this work and former directorof the Nissan Institute at Oxford, in his introduction
describes Professor Banno as ‘a prolific and widely
read writer on the political history of modern Japan.’This book is the story of ‘early attempts at reform, thedynamics of revolution, nation building, consolidation,
reconstruction and finally crisis leading to war.’
The six chapters are: (1) Reform, 1857-1863, (2) Revolution,
1863-1871, (3) Construction, 1871-1880, (4) Management,
1880-1893, (5) Reorganisation, 1894-1924, and (6) Crisis,
1925-1937. Professor Banno gives an interesting andstimulating analysis of political developments in Japanin the eighty years covered in this book. He frequently
quotes from diaries, records and articles, which throw
new light on many developments, and challenges someof the commonly held views and assumptions of modern
Japanese historians.
Professor Banno’s book does not purport to be acomprehensive narrative of the political history of Japan
from 1857-1937. It assumes that the reader has a fair graspof the history of modern Japan and some knowledge of thepersonalities involved. It is thus a book intended primarily
for historians and is not an introduction to Japanese political
history for the newcomer to the subject. It is, however,a significant contribution to the literature in English on
modern Japan by an eminent historian. In the conclusion
Professor Banno declares with humility that it is ‘composedwith (his) personal judgments and prejudices,’ but wholly
objective historical judgments are difficult if not impossible
to achieve. The historian’s first need is to get his/her facts
right and base their judgments on these and on the writingsand diaries of participants and observers. Professor Banno
follows these principles.
I was struck by the importance which Banno in the
opening section of this book attaches to the role of Saigo
Takamori (an influential samurai of the 1860s and 1870s) indeveloping a ‘multi-party alliance’ combining the faction
which put priority on ‘opening the country’ and the groupwhich emphasized ‘expelling the foreigner.’ I had not
realized before reading this book how hard Saigo (西郷 隆盛) had worked to ensure that Chōshū (an influential feudal
domain occupying the whole of modern-day Yamaguchi
2

Prefecture) was exonerated from the charges made against
the fief of plotting against the court. I also found particularlyinteresting his comments on the power struggle between
the lower ranking samurai and the leading daimyō. Banno
clarifies the way in which the proposals for what he calls‘a feudal parliament’ were sidelined and a national army
created as a means not only of defense but also of unifying
the country. I had not appreciated fully before how theparticipation of forces from Northern domains in support of
Aizu (a western region of Fukushima Prefecture) had led to
the low priority given to the Tohoku region (northeasternpart of the main island of Honshu) in the post-revolution
development of Japan.
Banno is frank about the way in which Japan adopted‘gunboat diplomacy’ in its relations with both Korea andChina. He notes that ‘the first person in the Meiji Government
to express the view that China was a threat was perhaps
the Chief of the General Staff at the time’ (November 1880)
Yamagata Aritomo (p.104). He emphasizes (page 123)that from the time of incidents in 1882 and 1884 ‘a directconfrontation between Japan and China over control of
the Korean peninsula was only a matter of time.’ The SinoJapanese war of 1894/5 led to the strengthening of themilitary who grabbed the indemnity which Japan obtained
from China. The appetite of the Japanese armed forces
grew again after the Russo-Japanese war of 1904/5.
Banno has some interesting comments on the Japaneseconstitutional provision under which the leaders of the army
and navy had the right of direct access to the Emperor anda veto on the appointment of the army and navy ministers.
This was undoubtedly an important factor in Japan’s drift towar, but other factors were the inability of Japan’s politicalleaders to agree on consistent policies and win popular
trust, and ultimately the unwillingness of the Kanto army
in China to obey orders from Tokyo. He notes incidentally(page 170) that Takahashi Korekiyo (高橋 是清), who was an
outstanding Minister of Finance, was unpopular with thegenrō (elder Japanese statesmen) because he advocatedthe abolition of the General Staff office.
Banno gives an interesting account of the problems which
Meiji governments faced in raising revenue, in particularover the land tax. He elucidates the development ofrelations between the government and the Diet and theimportant role played by the bureaucracy. He has much ofinterest to say about the development of political parties
in Japan and the personalities of Japanese politicians. In
his comments on such issues as universal male suffrage
he draws attention to the role of Yoshino Sakuzō (吉野 作造), who advocated what he termed minponshugi latercalled ‘democracy’ in the years 1916-20. He is scornful of theassertion that Hara Kei (原 敬) was really the progenitor ofwhat came to be termed Taishō democracy pointing outthat Hara was opposed to universal suffrage and refused toendorse a two-party system for Japan.
I cannot in this review do more than refer to some of theimportant themes in Banno’s book, but I hope that I have

Issue 56 Volume 10 Number 2 (April 2015)

shown why this is a valuable book for the serious student ofmodern Japanese history.
Professor Stockwin has obviously worked hard to produce
an accurate translation of Professor Banno’s text, but it is notan easy read and I did wonder whether a freer translation orparaphrase in English might have resulted in a more easilyreadable text.
It is a great pity that this book is so expensive not only in
hard back (over £90 from Amazon) but also in the electronic
version (£85). This inevitably means that many students ofJapanese history will be forced to consult the book in libraries
rather than have a copy on their bookshelves or even in theirelectronic books library. The costs of production of scholarly
books, for which sales of more than a few hundred copies
cannot be expected, are high, but for important works suchas this it should be possible to attract subsidies sufficient
to ensure that the electronic version at least is available toserious students at a reasonable price.

Destroying the World
to Save It: Aum
Shinrikyō, Apocalyptic
Violence and the New
Global Terrorism
by Robert Jay Lifton
Henry Holt and Company
Inc. (2000)
ISBN-10: 0805065113
Review by Chris Corker‘On March 20, 1995, Aum
Shinrikyō,afanatical
Japanese religious cult, released sarin, a deadly nerve gas, onfive subway trains during Tokyo’s early-morning rush hour[...] On the trains, in the stations where they stopped, andat the station exits, people coughed, choked, experienced
convulsions and collapsed. Eleven were killed. [...] Had
Aum succeeded in producing a purer form of the gas, thedeaths could have been in the thousands or hundreds ofthousands.’
New religious cults are not unique to Japan, but they are aphenomenon that is deep-rooted in its culture, and havereceived a large amount of publicity, especially in the caseof Aum, which had already committed a host of murders
and dealt in many forms of corruption. They had alreadyreleased toxic gas into a city (on that occasion Matsumoto)by the time their sarin attack on the Tokyo undergroundgained them global infamy. New religious cults in othercountries had tended to be inward-looking – keeping atight control over their members – rather than extrovert
in their campaigns of intimidation, coercion and violence.
Similarly, while many groups had believed in an impending
Armageddon, none had actively attempted its realisation.
Aum was the first to make concerted attempts to catalyse
Issue 56 Volume 10 Number 2 (April 2015)

the world’s destruction.
In this informative and chilling book, Psychiatrist Robert
Jay Lifton takes a look at the structure and appeal of Aum,as well as the influences that brought it into existence.
Through interviews with former members, he gives aninsight not only into the organisation, but into the psycheof those who joined, both before and after the Tokyo sarin
attack. The interviewees are mainly low-level members, but
their testimony contains more than enough substance forthe reader to fill in the remaining gaps. Lifton chronicles
the history of the cult, right up to the modern day, before
discussing the similarities found in other destructive cults in
America, including Heaven’s Gate and The People’s Temple.
Any discussion of Aum will revolve around its leader,
Asahara Shoko. What is most chilling about the interviews
with Aum’s former members – and this is reinforced by their
testimonies in court – is that almost all of them retain a senseof fondness and even reverence for Asahara, some claimingthat they still believe in his divinity. Many of the interviewees
express a marked distrust of the press, amounting to the
feeling that Aum was the victim of a conspiracy and unfairly
accused. Lifton paints Asahara as a man whose superiority
complex stems from growing up in a school for the blindwhen he was, at worst, partially sighted. Later in life he would
have his brush-ins with the law, being convicted of assault
and the sale of fake Chinese Medicines. Following a spiritual
awakening, he became obsessed with the Hindu goddessof destruction, Shiva. When he felt he was losing control
over his followers, he became obsessed with the idea thatsomeone – typically the government or other cults – wastrying to have him killed. Paranoia seemed to fuel his vices
and his hypocrisy deepened. His driver recalls him binging
and drinking while his followers fasted, chastised for their
desire to eat. This paranoia also led to violence. One of his
high-ranking followers, Murai Hideo, was assassinated by amember of the Yakuza, shortly after he let Aum secrets slip
in a media interview.

For a cult whose members had grown up inspired by suchseemingly innocent sci-fi animation as Battleship Yamato,things soon became dark, technology always intertwinedwith their final solution. Murder became an obsession,
justified by their distortion of the concept of pao, where ahigher being killing a lesser one is considered an act of mercy.
Asahara was the highest, and his orders, however severe,
were followed. In the book there are reports of memberswith doubts being strangled or injected with poison. A
lawyer, about to bring a case against Aum, was killed in his
3home along with his wife and young son. Their bodies wereseparated and left in barrels, their eyes and teeth removed
to hinder identification. If Aum had succeeded in their goals,
these deaths would have been the tip of the iceberg; it was
only the means to genocide that they lacked. Envoys weresent to countries such as Russia, with the aim of securing
nuclear warheads. At home, Asahara began to talk of deathrays that would evaporate people by the million. Were it notfor the ineptitude of Aum’s scientists, they may have comecloser than they did to their aims.
After the attacks took place and Aum was formerly
investigated, the police discovered Asahara in a safe room,
soaked in his own urine, surrounded by piles of money. He
was given the death penalty but has yet to be executed.
The book is well-written and easy to read, avoiding manytechnical terms that may confuse the psychiatry layman.
The intimacy of some of the confessions is intriguing for anation stereotypically regarded as reserved. They provide
narratives in themselves, and the book is, in places, hard to
put down.
Lifton concludes with a look at Aum at the turn of theMillennium. The cult continues to exist under the nameof Aleph, although Asahara’s charismatic protégé , Joyuu
Fumihiro, has left, beginning his own faction in the hope

Men to Devils, Devils
to Men: Japanese
war crimes andChinese justice
by Barak Kushner
Harvard University Press(2015)
ISBN:
978-0-674-742891-2
Review by
Richard Coxford
The latest tour de force
by senior Cambridge
lecturer Dr Barak Kushner covers the ambiguous post-war
period in East Asia where congealing Cold War divisions andpower vacuums created by the absence of peace in China
criss-crossed and tempered Sino-Japanese relations andthe fate of Japanese war criminals. Dr Kushner is possibly
the only academic brave enough to have written a bookon ramen, his last work being the exciting social and foodhistory Slurp (2012). This book is braver in a different sense,and by his own admission the preliminary context for still
further planned publications coming out of the very strong‘War Crimes and Empire’ research group he leads and afive year European Research council grant (2013-2018) toinvestigate the full effect of the Japanese empire’s fall in
East Asia. Reviewing the treatment of ‘B’ and ‘C’ class war
4of dispelling the taint of Aum’s reputation. He still, however,refers to Asahara as their ‘exalted leader’ and a ‘spiritual
being’. Lifton finishes with a worrying fact that demonstrates
how deeply Aum had infiltrated into Japanese society, andthe impotency of the authorities when dealing with them:‘In late February and early March of 2000, it was discoveredthat a number of Aum-owned companies had createdelaborate software for many of Japan’s government offices[...] Aum had provided computer systems for the Defense
Agency and the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department,
meaning the cult could help design the patrol routesof the very police department that was supposed to bemonitoring it.’____Those interested in religious cults might also like to read
Cults: Faith, Healing and Coercion by Marc Galanter, amore theoretical and statistic-based look at different
cults, specifically The Unification Church. Those interested
in further Aum reading might find Murakami Haruki’s
Underground useful. The book takes a closer look at theplight of the victims and the impact that the attack had on
their lives. It is probably no coincidence that a religious cultand its enigmatic leader play a key role in Murakami’s recent
novel 1Q84.

criminals, i.e. normal crimes in wartime, and crimes against
humanity (or ‘humaneness’ as he puts it), this fills an historicalgap many did not know existed by analysing the trials ofJapanese Imperial ‘war criminals’ by the Guomindang (KMT)and Chinese Communist Party (CPC). China is a crucial andfascinating case study compared to the experiences ofAllied or Colonial powers precisely because there the war
continued; the USSR barrelling down into Manchuria andthe Chinese civil war still in full swing, with one million
Imperial Japanese troops lingering on. As a result both
Chinese parties sought to try Japanese criminals, and to
do so in a way that legitimised their international moral
standing. Thus within the fresh post-war peace-making
movement towards ‘durable peace’, seeking public opinion
and remembering the past, Dr Kushner seeks to argue that
East Asia had its own distinct variety. Taking as his starting
point some real gems unearthed in recently declassified
archives in China, Japan and Taiwan, he effortlessly blends
the highest academic insight with literature, film, andanecdotal evidence that can sometimes bring a chill tothe spine. By taking a ‘peripheral’ rather than ‘metropolitan’angle to his post-imperialism, which is to say observing theempire at its fringes rather than its centre, the home isles ofJapan, he aims to emphasize that the Japanese empire did
not vanish overnight.
In the case of the KMT, Dr Kushner outlines how Chiang KaiShek’s announcement, on the day Japan surrendered, ‘torepay malevolence with benevolence’ saw good treatment
and fair trials of the Japanese military, and the evacuation
Issue 56 Volume 10 Number 2 (April 2015)

of those prisoners to Taiwan as the Communists began
winning the civil war. Ultimately after the war, there wasenough recruitment of ex-China Expeditionary force
officers to train and assist the KMT that one questions
whether it was truly ‘secret’ or whether it was sanctionedby the Americans. For the Communists, proper Confucian
tolerance was ordered, but Japanese PoWs provided as a
gift by Stalin – in theory unsolicited – were used as part ofan extensive programme of propaganda. The most famousof those PoWs, from whom the book’s title derives, were reeducated and repatriated, thereafter perennially admitting
their guilt and praising CPC justice. The KMT trials fizzled out
in the late 1940s, and the CPC version had ceased by 1964,
but in a darkly ironic fashion, those legal experts behind
the trials were themselves arraigned, or more accurately,
purged. The CPC trials arguably failed because they did notplacate the population suffering after Japanese invasion,
and we still have no normalized relations on the matter
today; similarly, the KMT trials did little for the forgotten
Taiwanese. Abandoned by the Japanese empire, which
was understandably occupied rebuilding the home islands,
Taiwanese presented a complex entanglement of identity
and involvement issues, the civil war’s competing parties
fighting over the veracity of Taiwanese identity and noagency for the Taiwanese within that. As such, today thishistory is poorly employed by both pro-Independence andKMT supporters.
In the Rawlsian sense that an action cannot be good if it
is not first just, this Asian brand of justice seems shoddy
and fraudulent, because ‘usefulness after war’ became
the key factor determining defendants’ guilt. However the
Chinese trials were a natural reaction to the well-known
Tokyo War trials which had a thoroughly disproportionate
focus on crimes committed against the Allies, and Allied
recalcitrance to help the Chinese proves Dr Kushner’s pointthat this is competitive justice, where victory is scrambling
to prosecute the worst suspects yourself first.
Somewhat appropriating the transnational approachto justice that Rana Mitter takes at Oxford, there aresome very good reflections on the difficulty of assessing
responsibility for colonial subjects performing roles thatneed differentiating between collaborator and criminal.
Also of special interest are the details of Japanese treatmentof their own PoWs and trials. Returning PoWs had tobe publicly defended by Japanese press to ensure theirsmooth transition to a defeated Japan, and then handled
delicately as only ex-soldiers in disbelief at their ‘loss’ canbe under a fledgling democracy. Dr Kushner’s analysis of
the Japanese use of prevarication to frustrate trials in Japaneven raises the scintillating tale of how the usually unsullied
IJN (Imperial Japanese Navy) utilised a plethora of defence
mechanisms to escape opprobrium and let indictment
crash down squarely on the Army.

portraying the fringe of Japanese politics as representative of
said people. During the same time-frame, Japan progresses
fully into its narrative of victimization, with its roots inlegitimate queries as to whether American fire bombing
and the nuclear bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima
were war crimes. As a result of this divergence, these trials
are almost unknown in China and Japan outside of tiny
academic communities, and he argues understanding has
deteriorated still more in the highest echelons of Japanese
PM Abe Shinzo’s government, which cannot even agree
who should determine war crimes. Possible criticisms
include the sense that terming Japan ‘bipolar’ for acting
differently in global and domestic politics is stating theobvious nature of democracy, and that it is only slightly
overstated in Japan’s case because electoral mechanisms
allow unsavoury extremists like Ishihara Shintaro tosomehow flourish. Or that to say Japan never moved onfrom the war belies some dissatisfaction with the historicalpraise for leaders like Yoshida Shigeru and latterly Ikeda
Hayato, whose achievements are cited but not attributed.
Yet these hardly mar the argument.
Overall, this is a timely, considered and thought-provoking
book that any fan of Japanese history would enjoy
regardless of the connotations behind ‘war criminals’. It
develops the notion of trials conforming to and shaping
public opinion to build peace and is itself also a vital toolin that regard by seeking truth through historical oversight.
Given the trajectory of Chinese, Japanese and Taiwanesereactions, both political and public, to the evidence it isfurther proof that history can change the present, not justby persisting in it, but through active interaction with it.
Besides those outlined in the book, and for related topics
of war memory, I recommend Hugo Dobson, Nobuko
Kosuge, and Philip Seaton as authors of the same calibre. I
am unaware of the specification for the planned, no doubt
grander in scope sequel, but Dr Kushner’s work shows there
is still much academic leeway on the matter and we should
all look forward to reading more.

Interested in writing for theJapan Society Review?
Please write to:
info@japansociety.org.uk with examplesof your work and information about yourknowledge of and interest in Japan.

Dr Kushner depicts the evolution of the fraught internallygenerated divergences between Japan and China as
China shifted from limiting their blame to the Japanesemilitarist clique to blaming the Japanese people as a whole,
Issue 56 Volume 10 Number 2 (April 2015)5Strange Weatherin Tokyoby Kawakami Hiromi,
translated by Allison Markin
PowellPortobello Books (2013)
ISBN-10: 1846275083
Review by Susan Meehan
Kawakami Hiromi won
the Tanizaki Jun’ichiro
Prize for her best-sellingnovel Sensei no Kaban(Strange Weather inTokyo [UK edition] or The Teacher’s Briefcase [USAedition] in 2001. In 2003 the story was adapted fortelevision by the writer and director Kuze Teruhiko.
I am not surprised by these accolades, for Strange
Weather in Tokyo is an understated, poetic, gentle,
profound, thoughtful, poignant, beautiful book
centring on the friendship between Omachi Tsukiko
and Matsumoto Harutsuna. They both frequent thesame small bar near a Tokyo station. Having noticed
her and their shared taste in food and drink, one
day Mr Matsumoto addresses her, wondering if she
is indeed Omachi Tsukiko. It dawns on Tsukiko that
this gentleman had been her Japanese teacher atsecondary school. As she did at school, she refers to
him as ‘Sensei’.
37 year-old Tsukiko and 67 year-old Sensei forge afriendship around encounters at the bar. They neverarrange to meet there, but are always happy when
they meet by chance. They both enjoy their drink.

realised quite how profound her dislike of the Giants
was, gritting her teeth at Sensei’s delight, cursing
and wondering why Giants’ fans are so ubiquitous.
She is such a child and Sensei is taken aback by her
stroppiness.
Perhaps the secret to their friendship is the differencein age. As Tsukiko herself recognises, she is somehow
becoming more childlike as she ages, having beenrather grown up when she was at primary school. She
doesn’t ‘seem able to ally herself with time.’
Each chapter of the book is like a haiku, incorporating
seasonal references to the moon, mushroom picking
and cherry blossoms. The chapters are whimsical andoften melancholy, but humour is never far away.
As the novel progresses Tsukiko once again defiantly
avoids Sensei. He annoys her so much – albeit
unwittingly – and Tsukiko hopes that distancing herself
from him will ensure she gets over the co-dependent
drinking partnership that has become routine andwhich is cramping her style.
There is no real surprise as to how the book unwinds,
but this does not make it any less enjoyable. It continues
to spellbind, and the book’s gentle yet powerfulsentiment lingers on with the reader. It is a celebrationof friendship, the ordinary and individuality, and arumination on intimacy, love and loneliness.
I cannot recommend Strange Weather in Tokyo
enough, which is also a testament to the translator
who has skilfully retained the poetry and beauty of theoriginal.

The Guest Cat

Sensei is old-fashioned, didactic and often upbraids
Tsukiko on her unladylike behaviour while Tsukiko
enjoys listening to Sensei recounting haiku or telling
her about his collection of teapots. She is unaffected,
refreshing, modern, capricious and quirky.

by Hiraide Takashi

Tsukiko had not excelled in Japanese at school, but
as an underhanded compliment Sensei commends
her on being ‘an excellent student when it comes todrinking.’ Their research into drinking is key to theirfriendship.

Hiraide Takashi, now in his
mid-sixties, is one of theforemost post-war poets inJapan. He has won a litany ofawards and released works
covering an array of different
genres and forms. The Guest
Cat, considered to be both
autobiographical and surrealist, won the Kiyama Shōhei
Literary Award in 2001.

Both Tsukiko and Sensei live alone. He is a widower
and she is single. They are both rather obstinate. Whenit comes to drinking he doesn’t like being poured for,though Tsukiko insists at times, much to his irritation.
She is a lousy pourer anyway, with no interest in
learning from Sensei how to pour well.
Tsukiko struggles with her stubbornness and awkward
behaviour. On one occasion she cannot bear talking
to Sensei any more as he gloats over the victoryof his baseball team, The Tokyo Giants, over theirperennial rival, the Hanshin Tigers. Tsukiko had never6

Picador (2014)
ISBN-10: 1447279409
Review by Chris Corker

Having read novellas by poets before and becoming
accustomed to their rich imagery, I was surprised to findthe prose in The Guest Cat bare and clinical. The pace of thebook is lethargic, leaving the narrative to meander a little
too often. Whether or not this lethargy is the appeal thatsaw The Guest Cat reach both The New York Times and The
Issue 56 Volume 10 Number 2 (April 2015)

Sunday Times best seller lists, I couldn’t say. Perhaps somereaders were enticed by the understated but beautiful
cover and the papyrus-like paper. After reading, I was left
with the feeling that nothing had really happened and, had
the characters or the story developed at all, they had done
so only infinitesimally. With certain authors, such as Flaubert
or Wilde, a certain lack of content can be forgiven in light of
their artistry with words, but it is hard to defend a story thatsays very little without that beauty.
Living with his wife in a quiet suburb of Tokyo, a writer isworking hard to realise his ambition of becoming a full-time
poet. The book opens with a description of a view througha window, highlighting the monotony of the protagonist’s
protracted days. The couple live a slow, almost separate life;
they say little to each other beyond the necessary. One day
their chemistry is altered by the appearance of a beautiful
young kitten they name ‘Chibi’ (roughly meaning smallchild in Japanese). Chibi gives the couple a common topic
to discuss and a child-surrogate to fawn over. At all times,
however, it is clear that Chibi is the neighbours’ cat, and her
visits are accompanied with a sense of loss. Highlighting theJapanese notion of self and other, insiders and outsiders, thestory discusses ideas of ownership and the selfishness thisbrings.

supporting cast have very much to say. I remember readinga review of Murakami’s recent novel Colourless Tsukuru, inwhich the reviewer questioned the wisdom of having a dull
central character. I feel the same question could be asked
here.
On a positive note, there is an obvious appeal here for the
cat-lover, despite Chibi’s appearances being brief. Havinggrown up with cats myself, there were certain descriptions
that were nostalgically familiar and Chibi’s assumed role
as muse and child makes her by far the most intriguingcharacter of the book.
There’s no denying that at times The Guest Cat has thepleasant, laconic pace of a Sunday afternoon. A Sunday
afternoon, however, is valued only in its position at the endof an active week, as a needed respite. Here the eventful
contents of the week are absent. I found in The Guest Cat
the reality of an endless chain of Sundays, and for the firsttime I eagerly awaited Monday.

International Politics
in Northeast Asia: The
China-Japan-United States‘If the issue involved permission, then would things have Strategic Triangle
been different if permission had been given? After all, a catleft outside on its own will cross any border it wants... Why
do they hate us so much for taking care of Chibi?’

The idea of transient company – of transient love, even – isso entrenched in Japanese society that several businesses
have been set up around the idea. Starting with Maid Cafes
and Hostess Bars, where the focus is not sex but rather
companionship, there are now cafes where patrons caninstead be with cats and dogs, as well as other domestic
animals. The proliferation of dating simulators is yet anotherindicator of this trend. As technology simultaneously
connects and isolates the modern world, human lonelinessprovides a demand that businesses have recognised,offering fleeting remedies for a premium. In The Guest Cat,
whether due to a lack of financial stability or simply out ofpreference, the couple are childless and never mention thepossibility of having a baby. Their unlooked-for solution
to loneliness and isolation is Chibi. This remedy, like Chibi
herself, is ethereal and bound to end in heartache.
There are meditative moments in The Guest Cat thatpromise profundity, but often they are centred on dry
subjects like geometry or the housing market and the tone
is one more suitable for a lecture than a piece of prose.
There are references to figures in antiquity which poets are
traditionally fond of, but again this only adds to a feelingof academic sterility. Throughout, there is also an attempt
at a Zen, nature-driven wisdom, but the book never reallyreaches those heights nor offers much aside from that failed
aspiration. The themes of the fragility of life and lonelinessare intriguing, but the way they are discussed is neither
fresh nor particularly interesting; neither does the narrator or
Issue 56 Volume 10 Number 2 (April 2015)

By Thomas L. Wilborn,

Strategic Studies Institute(February 2013,
first published 1996)
ISBN-10: 1482339471
Review by Michael Sullivan
In order to understand the events of today it is vital toanalyse the past; however by understanding the present it
is possible to see a glimpse of the future. Nearly twenty years
ago Thomas L. Wilborn completed one of his final papers
regarding the strategic triangle between China, Japan andthe USA and its possible future. Reading it today provides
an intriguing insight into recent developments in Japan.
Thomas L. Wilborn was a research professor of National
Security Affairs and an Asian Specialist with the Strategic
Studies Institution of the U.S. Army War College. In the 1990s
he published several studies on Japan’s military, on dangers
in North East Asia and also on US policy in this region.
As an overview into the background of North East Asia an
important consideration is that during the Cold War there
was a bipolar world which saw Japan and South Korea as
key allies of the US while China and Soviet Russia supported
North Korea. To complicate this, a breakdown of relations
between China and Soviet Russia meant that China alsocollaborated with the US to frustrate Soviet expansion, a
result of which was that the border between Russia andChina was heavily manned. At the time of the Cold War
China maintained hundreds of thousands of troops as wellas thousands of pieces of hardware in this area, since theCold War the Russian military presence has been greatly
7reduced while trade and relations have improved. This isa relevant fact as it has meant that China could focus its
military resources in other areas, for example on its navy,
and establish new approaches with its neighbours. Without
the priorities of the Cold War, Japan as well could be more
independent with its policies, which is partly why Wilborn
could describe the Northeast Asian political system in 1996
as ‘characterized by great uncertainty and unpredictability.’This point is as true now as it was nearly twenty years ago
as we have seen with the nuclear tests in North Korea, theshelling of South Korea and sinking of a ship in 2010, and therecent escalation in the dispute over the Senkaku/Diaoyu
islands including the alleged radar lock on a Japanese naval
ship by a Chinese frigate. Rather chillingly Wilborn theorisedthat Northeast Asian countries would be more likely to‘revive historic grievances, and [...] pursue them even at therisk of conflict.’
Within the background of the Senkaku/Diaoyu disputeWilborn provides a convincing explanation about how
the leadership of China has evolved from those who led to
the revolution to those who achieved their rank within thestate bureaucracy, meaning that officials are less likely to
be secure in their position while ‘contenders for power willemphasize nationalistic symbols and causes.’ This has beenreflected in the rather high profile fall of Bo Xilai in 2012 aswell as the more aggressive dialogue over of territory in
the China South Seas and also over the islands mentioned
above. When Wilborn wrote his paper China often rebuked
Japan for claiming sovereignty over the islands, he described
this as being ‘largely pro forma exercises, however, partly to
exploit the Japanese sense of guilt’ (in reference to historicalevents). As we now know this has developed to a moreaggressive claim on the islands.
For Japan the end of the Cold War, as well as fear of
disengagement in Northeast Asia by the US, has had
important implications on its military, its foreign policy
and international role. For example, the Self Defence Forcewas established in 1954 and has since been authorised
to be deployed abroad since 1992, more recently Japan
increased its defence budget for the first time in 11 years,
although Wilborn described Japan’s military forces as ‘notvalued institutions’ clearly territory disputes can change thisattitude quickly.
This paper regarding the strategic triangle of China, Japanand the US also covers the other players in this importantarea of the world such as Russia, South Korean, North Korea,
and Taiwan. However, what is most clear, then and now,
is how complicated the relations are between all of thedifferent countries as strong economic ties are laid overdifferent political ideologies and foreign policies. Insightfulcomments are made on the on-going situation with North
Korea such as how expensive reunification would be (inthe region of a trillion dollars) and therefore is not desirable,
while China has a commitment to North Korea that it can’t
easily withdraw, nor could it allow a US friendly government
to be in control. This leaves North Korea in limbo as there
is no clear resolution, while as shown in recent years Japanand South Korea frequently face tense situations due to
provocative actions.
The entire original paper can be downloaded as a PDF file
here: http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pubs/
display.cfm?pubid=96

Japan Society Publications: Call for Proposals
The Japan Society has long engaged in the publication of books which further the UK-Japan relationship and / or the understandingof Japan in the UK. These have included works produced or commissioned by the Society, as well as those which have been
initiated by others and published under the Japan Society imprint.
As a general rule, the Japan Society aims to issue one publication each year and is now inviting
proposals for future projects. We welcome proposals for books of any genre, including, but notlimited to, academic works, guides, children’s books and translations of works in Japanese. The
only criteria are that proposed publications should further the aims of the Japan Society as set
out on the ‘About’ page of our website, should represent quality in their field, and must be ofinterest to more than specialist scholars.
Further details on how to apply: japansociety.org.uk/38450/call-for-proposals/
All expressions of interest will be considered by the Publications Committee in April each year,
and those selected will then be presented to the Board for final approval.

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Issue 56 Volume 10 Number 2 (April 2015)