The Japan Society Review 76
Book, Stage, Film, Arts and Events Review

Issue 76 Volume 13 Number 4 (August 2018)

This issue of The Japan Society Review is dedicated to the memory of
Sir Hugh Cortazzi, former British Ambassador to Japan (1980-1984) and
Chairman of the Japan Society (1985-1995), who died on Tuesday 14
August 2018, at the age of 94. Sir Hugh was the most distinguishedJapanese specialist of his generation in the Foreign Office, and his
association with the Society began long before he became Chairman.
He was Chairman of the Society during its centenary year (the year of
the Japan Festival 1991), and his involvement continued undiminisheduntil his death.
One particular aspect of the contribution Sir Hugh made to
the Society was his invaluable work as reviewer for The Japan Society

Review. From the first issue of this publication in January 2006, Sir
Hugh contributed reviews about an impressive variety of topics andbooks related to Japanese politics, history, economy and art. He didso out of intellectual curiosity and a genuine desire to encourage theunderstanding of Japan and of the history of Anglo-Japanese relations.
His writing always offered the reader a critical and informed perspectiveon the content of the books and on Japan itself.
Reviews by Sir Hugh have appeared in almost every single issueof The Japan Society Review for more than 12 years (previous issues
are available on our website). This issue includes two reviews he wrote
only a few weeks before his death and that show the wide breadth ofcommentary on the book and I realised that he could do a much betterhis knowledge and interests. Van Gogh & Japan is the catalogue of anreview than I could”. The last review in this issue, Lansdowne: The Last

exhibition held this year at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam which

Great Whig written by Simon Kerry also has a strong connection with

explored the influence of Japanese prints in the paintings of Van Gogh.

Sir Hugh. Thanks to his help, this biography of the British politician Lord

Return from Siberia. A Japanese Life in War and Peace, 1925-2015 is an

Lansdowne was reviewed by Professor Antony Best, co-editor with Sir

unusual biography tracing the life of an ordinary Japanese man andHugh of British Foreign Secretaries and Japan 1850-1990, launched

how he coped in war and peace and adapted to a changing Japan.

at the Society’s AGM in July 2018. An essay on Lord Lansdowne was

The active support of Sir Hugh for The Japan Society Review

included in Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits, volume X, thewas not limited to his own writings as reviewer, but this publication

final volume - compiled and edited by Sir Hugh - of a series which

also greatly benefited from his contacts and position as a prominent

profiles people, organizations, and themes related to Anglo-Japanesefigure in relation to Japan in the UK and beyond. Thanks to Sir Hughengagement.

many authors and books have been covered in these pages by expert

Sir Hugh was a driving force behind The Japan Society Review

reviewers and made known to our interested readers, including theand he will be greatly missed. As Sir David Warren, Chairman of thetwo volumes reviewed in the second part of this issue. The review

Society, wrote in his obituary, Sir Hugh “was an inspiration to many (...),of The State of the Japanese State: Contested Identity, Direction andboth as a diplomat and as a scholar. He epitomised the virtues of bothRole by Gavan McCormack was commissioned personally by Sir Hughdiplomacy and scholarship – industry, expertise, objectivity, truthfulness

to Professor Arthur Stockwin after attending a book launch at Daiwa– and he never stopped working, writing, learning, and pushing for

Anglo-Japanese Foundation in June 2018. He found the book verya better understanding between our two countries”. Rest in peace.

interesting but commented: “I had thought of offering to review the
Alejandra Armendáriz-Hernández

book, but Professor Arthur Stockwin gave at the presentation a masterly

Contents
1)

Van Gogh & Japan

2)

Return from Siberia. A Japanese Life in War and Peace,
1925-2015 by Oguma Eiji

3)

The State of the Japanese State: Contested Identity,
Direction and Role by GavanMcCormack

4)

Lansdowne: The Last Great Whig by Simon Kerry

EditorAlejandra Armendáriz-Hernández
Reviewers
Sir Hugh Cortazzi, Arthur Stockwin, Antony Best.
Image by Jeremy HoareVan Gogh & Japan
Catalogue for an exhibition
held from 23 March to 24
June 2018 at the Van Gogh
Museum in Amsterdam
Van Gogh Museum,
Hokkaido Shimbun Press,
Mercatorfonds – distributed
by Yale University Press(2018)
ISBN-13: 978-0300233261

The catalogue shows how much Van Gogh was
inspired and influenced by Japanese prints and by theimage of Japan which was reflected in the Japanese
prints in his collection. Van Gogh was never a copyist
nor derivative artist. Even his famous ‘reproduction’ ofa Hiroshige print of a bridge in the rain is much morethan just a copy (see image 1).

Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi
I was unable to get to Amsterdam to see this exhibition,
but I bought this fine exhibition catalogue of works
by Van Gogh and of Japanese prints that inspired
him. Although a catalogue, however good, is not anadequate substitute for viewing a picture with one’s
own eyes, this is a book which all admirers of Van Goghas an artist and anyone interested in learning more
about Japanese influence on western art will want to
add to their library.
The scholarly essays in this catalogue include‘The beginnings of the “Japanese Dream”: Van Gogh’s
acquaintance with Japan’, ‘In the light of Japan: Van
Gogh’s quest for happiness and a modern identity’, ‘Van
Gogh’s Japan: Embracing an idea’, ‘After the dream: Van
Gogh and Japan in his last months in Paris and Auverssur-Oise’, ‘Van Gogh’s Japanese prints: From dealer’s
stock to artist’s collection’ and ‘Chronology: Van Goghand Japanese Art’. The book also contains a bibliography
and list of the works exhibited.
In the winter of 1886-1887 Van Gogh bought fromthe art dealer Siegfried Bing for 100 francs 660 Japanese
prints. He made a down payment of ten francs, butnever paid the ninety francs he owed Bing. This seems
to have been an impulsive purchase. The prints were,
Van Gogh recognized, ‘run-of –the-mill’ prints with anaverage price of three sous, which at the time was theequivalent of the price of an aperitif.
Almost all the prints he bought are now in the
Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam. Japanese artists
whose prints feature particularly often in the collection
were Kunisada, Kuniyoshi and Hiroshige. Hiroshige
was the Japanese artists whose prints first attracted
the attention of the impressionists and early western
connoisseurs of Japanese art. Van Gogh’s collection did
not include any prints by Hokusai although he musthave seen many Hokusai prints and recognized theincomparable genius of the latter’s prints.
2

Img. 1 - Bridge in the Rain (after Hiroshige)
Paris, October-November 1887

The vibrant colours of Japanese prints stimulated
his imagination and the strong sunlight of southern
France made him think he was in the Japan of his
dreams. Some of his paintings were of subjects beloved
by Japanese artists such as the paintings of a peach inblossom (img. 2) or orchards in Arles (img. 3).
The way Japanese artists painted seascapes wasreflected in some of his paintings of boats such as theone of St Marie de la mer (img. 4). The painting of thegarden of St Paul’s Hospital of 1889 surely was inspiredby the way Japanese artists depicted trees (img. 5).

Issue 76, Volume 13, Number 4 (August 2018)

Img. 5 - The Garden of Saint Paul’s Hospital (‘Leaf-Fall’)Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, October 1889

Img. 2- Peach Tree in Blossom
Arles, April 1888

Van Gogh’s kingfisher by the waterside in oils on
canvas could have been found in a Japanese album ofbird prints and his painting in oils also of 1887 of a crab
on its back could have been inspired by a Japanese
print (imgs. 6, 7).

Img. 3 - Orchards in Blossom, View of Arles
Arles, April 1889

Img. 6 - Kingfisher by the Waterside
Paris, July-August 1887

Img. 4 - Seascape near Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer
Arles, June 1888

Img. 7 - A Crab on its Back
Paris, August-September 1887

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3

The way in which Japanese artists portrayed their
human subjects in their prints inspired Van Gogh as canbe seen in his painting of a peasant woman perhaps
influenced by the way in which Japanese peasant
women were depicted (imgs. 8-9).

In a brief review only a few of the fascinating
images in this catalogue can be reproduced but I hopethat the few I have chosen above will inspire readers
to seek out copies of this catalogue and go to the Van
Gogh Museum when they visit Amsterdam next.§

Img. 8 - Peasant Woman Binding Sheaves (after Millet)
Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, September 1889

Img. 9 - Woman Gathering Shells, right sheet of the
triptych View on the Tideland in the Third Month
Edo, first month 1855 Utagawa Kunisada (1786 – 1865)* Images courtesy of Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam(Vincent van Gogh Foundation)

Return from Siberia. A
Japanese Life in War andPeace, 1925-2015
by Oguma Eiji
translated by David Noble
International House ofJapan(2018)
ISBN-13: 978-4924971455
Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi
Most biographies are about famous people. This is thestory of a Japanese man who has no particular claim
to fame. He had a tough time before, during and after
the war. Its interest lies primarily in the light it throws
on Japanese life and how one quite ordinary Japanese
coped in war and peace and adapted to a changing
Japan.
4

This account of the life of Oguma Kenji by his
son was based on a series of in depth interviews andfamily papers. It traces the life of a Japanese, born in1925 who survived the war and lived into his nineties.
The book begins with an account of Kenji’schildhood in a disjointed family in Saroma in Hokkaido
and from 1932 in Tokyo. His mother died of tuberculosis
and he hardly remembered her. His father who camefrom Niigata remained in Hokkaido while Kenji who
had been sent to Tokyo was looked after by relatives.
His grandfather ran a sweet shop selling Japanese
cakes. The family was poor although not destitute.
Living standards in Japanese cities before the war
were low. As the war in China developed, shortagesof basic essentials grew and life became harder. Kenjimanaged to get to a technical high school and founda job with a company, which in due course became
Fujitsu. Although he was not in good health he was
Issue 76, Volume 13, Number 4 (August 2018)

called up at age 19 in November 1944 and enrolled asa private soldier.
His unit was sent to Manchuria almost
immediately, without adequate training andequipment. Their area was soon overrun by Soviet
forces following the Soviet’s late entry into the war in
East Asia shortly before Japan surrendered. Inevitably
Kenji and his comrades were transferred to Siberia
where they were little more than slave labourers. The
book’s account of these difficult years in which many
Japanese prisoners died in appalling conditions is themost interesting section of the book.
The clothing available for Japanese prisoners
was inferior to that of the Soviet army and many
suffered from frostbite in the harsh Siberian winter.
The crowded, the inadequate diet and poor living
conditions reduced prisoner morale and work
efficiency. Their labour value began to seem even tosome of the Soviet authorities to be outweighed by
the cost of keeping them as prisoners, and pressure torepatriate most of the prisoners grew.
During the latter half of 1947 the prisoners were
subjected to intensive indoctrination and self-criticism
sessions. ‘If you didn’t participate enthusiastically youwere labeled a reactionary’, Kenji declared, so heplayed along for fear that his repatriation would befurther delayed.
He was eventually repatriated in 1948, but had
no home to go to and his old employer had no job
for him. The small amount of money he received
was eroded to practically nothing by the postwar
inflation. Kenji had returned to a homeland in ruins
and devastated by the war. He drifted from one job toanother and was unable to settle down. He was weakfrom his years in Siberia and in 1951 was diagnosed
with TB. The only method of treatment at that timein Japan was to live as a patient in a sanatorium inthe country. Once admitted he could only be releasedback into the community when he was declared freefrom infection. This took five years and when in 1956
he was released he only had one lung.
Kenji had once again to look for work. He
eventually settled down and developed a businessselling sporting goods. In 1961 he married Hiroko, theauthor’s mother. She was five years younger than him.
Their accommodation in those days was still primitive,
but the Japanese economy was developing quickly
and life gradually improved.
Kenji had never been to university, but he wasa reader. In the 1970s he bought all six volumes of
the Japanese translation of Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag
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Archipelago. These volumes evoked memories of hislife in Siberia and his political awareness, but Soviet
efforts to win his support for communism had failed.
When he learnt of the atrocities committed by US
soldiers in Vietnam he thought that ‘they seemedalmost child’s play compared with what the Japanesearmy had done’ (p. 235). He could not understandhow Japanese could attempt to deny the facts of the
Nanking massacre and told his son: ‘The perpetratorsof the atrocities had been complete animals on thebattlefield’ (p. 236). He was not impressed by thenationalism of Mishima Yukio whose suicide ‘simply
seemed to prove that he was crazy’.
In 1988 the Japanese government was finallyinduced to establish a programme to prove a ‘solation’to former Soviet internees. The Japanese government
had consistently refused compensation to all victimsof the war, Japanese and foreign alike. Kenji at first
did not apply for a ‘solation’. He was not impressedby the scheme. The government, he declared to hisson, ‘paid out full pensions to high-ranking military
personnel but guys like me were supposed to becontent with Yen 100,000 in government bonds and asilver cup from a foundation whose executives were abunch of former bureaucrats parachuting into a cushy
retirement. This is bullshit, I thought’ (p. 265). He laterchanged his mind and applied, but he was appalled
to discover that Korean and Taiwanese membersof the Japanese forces who had become Soviet
prisoners did not qualify. So he sent half his ‘solation’to a Korean comrade. In 1997 the Korean brought acase in the Japanese courts for compensation. Kenjijoined this application. The case eventually came
before the Supreme Court, which rejected it in 2002.
Kenji suffered a stroke that caused some temporary
paralysis.
This book has been well translated and put
together although I noted a few repetitions. I
commend it to anyone interested in the social historyof modern Japan and to anyone who wants to know
more about what Japan was like for ordinary Japanesein the twentieth century.
In reading about Kenji’s life I could not help
recognizing how lucky I had been. I was born a year
before Kenji and joined the RAF in 1943 in which I
remained until 1948. I saw Japan in its desolation in1946 and was able to observe at first-hand how thecountry and the Japanese people managed to go frompoverty to riches in little more than a generation.§

5

The State of the JapaneseState: Contested Identity,
Direction and Role
by GavanMcCormack
Renaissance Books (2018)
ISBN-13: 978-1898823711
Review by Arthur Stockwin
Gavan McCormack is an Australian scholar wellknown for his critical analyses of Japanese politics
and government, author of The Emptiness ofJapanese Affluence (1996 ); Client State, Japan in theAmerican Embrace (2007), and several major works
on Okinawa, as well as extensive writings on Korea.
He is quintessentially a scholar engagé, who also has
unrivalled knowledge of relevant sources in both
English and vernacular languages.
The present work brings his scholarship to bearon the successive governments of Abe Shinzo (20067 and 2012 to the present). McCormack divides Abe’s
career into “Abe 1” (1993 – when he first entered the
National Diet – to 1997, (when he stepped down after
a year as prime minister); “Abe 2” (2012-2016), andAbe 3 (2017-2018). He regards the rise to power of
Abe both in 2006 and in 2012 as substantially basedon two right wing nationalist organisations, the Nihon
Kaigi (Japan Association) and the Shinto Seiji Renmei(Shinto Political Association). Nearly all members of
his cabinets have belonged to one or both of thesebodies, as have many back bench members of the
Liberal Democratic Party. Their members in general
are illiberal, sceptical about human rights, intent onrevising the “Peace Constitution”, and coloured by
nostalgia for the pre-war regime.
He discerns a break early in 2017 (Abe 2 to Abe3) with the election of Donald Trump as President of
the United States. This leads him to identify Abe as
strengthening Japan’s “servile” relationship with the
US. He was the first major world leader to meet Trump
after his inauguration, and has been on close termswith him ever since. McCormack points to a “paradox”(his term) that the most “nationalist” Japanese prime
ministers have also been the most “servile” (p. 47).
This suggests that any contemporary Japanesenationalist faces the dilemma of how to promote
Japanese interests and prestige while requiring
American military support, leading to accusationsof subordination to American priorities. McCormack
favours the kind of Japanese autonomy that might
follow a radical reorientation of foreign policy towards
engagement with Asian powers, including China. He
6sees Hatoyama Yukio (Prime Minister under a nonLDP administration in late 2009 and early 2010) as
attempting but failing to implement such a policy. He
argues that the failure of the Obama administration tocooperate with the aim of the Hatoyama Government
to remove the US marine base out of Okinawa was
the main reason for his fall (though Hatoyama’s failure
to provide himself with a fall-back position was also
important).
There is much argument in this book withwhich it is easy to agree. Successive (mainly LDP)
governments have been illiberal, both domesticallyand internationally. This has worsened since the1980s (ever since Nakasone, Prime Minister 1982
to 1987). For many years Japan has been run by
a power elite comprising the political leadership,
government bureaucracy, big business, other interest
groups including agriculture, and not least fromthe government of the United States. Successive
governments have given lip-service to liberalismand democracy, particularly the Abe administrations.
Freedom of speech and human rights are under attackat the present time.
A striking feature of the present book is thelarge amount of space devoted to the vexed issuesof Okinawa and its US bases. I know of no other workon recent Japanese politics and government giving
Okinawa so great an emphasis. McCormack should be
regarded as the world expert on the detail of Okinawan
politics and local struggles against American militarybases. Okinawans have had a raw deal over many
decades, and from a Tokyo perspective they seem
remote, for some nationalists not properly Japanese,and essentially expendable. Okinawa island is also small(a minor fraction of the size of Yorkshire), yet some 20
per cent of its land is used for US bases. And this after
the sanguinary battle for control of the island towards
the end of the war, in which a staggering proportion of
its population was slaughtered, or ordered to commit
suicide. The struggles over the proposed relocationof the US Marine base from a densely populated
urban area to an area of outstanding environmental
importance on the coast has taken over 22 years toresolve, but the opponents of the move appear now
to face defeat.
Some of the book’s arguments are contestable.
Japan may be a client state of the United States, butduring the 1980s Japanese economic boom Detroit
auto-workers were smashing up Toyotas in protest
against a Japanese “economic threat”. “Client state”

Issue 76, Volume 13, Number 4 (August 2018)phenomena have emerged during more recent
economic stagnation and now demographic decline.
It is not entirely clear what alternative there
might be to the Japan-US Security Treaty. An American
general famously stated that the Security Treaty is
the “cork in the bottle”, having the ulterior motiveof blocking independent Japanese defence policies
under a nationalist government. It is at least arguablethat if Japanese defence policy were detached fromthat of the United States, this might disturb regional
stability.
Whereas McCormack tends to emphasise
political continuity, structural change over the past
twenty years has been striking. The system of factions
within the LDP created pluralism within it up to the1990s. Leaders such as Miyazawa Kiichi, a supporterof the 1997 Constitution and Minister of Financefor long periods, were highly influential, while thenon-LDP opposition parties had some blocking
power. Today, after the 1994 reform of the lower
house electoral system, a much more monolithic
LDP, weakened opposition parties, weakened LDP
factionalism, weakened LDP committees, much more
power to the executive (after the Hashimoto reformsof the late 1990s), Abe can do more or less what hewants, though he is putting his power at risk throughscandals where he is accused of cronyism. To someextent factions are coming back, but essentially asorganisational support groups for rival LDP leadership
candidates.
The book does not sufficiently acknowledge
that since 1945 Japan has been essentially at peace,by contrast with the period 1868-1945 which Japan
was at war on average every 10 years. This wasbrought about by a combination of the Constitution’s“peace clause” and the Security Treaty, and is surely amagnificent achievement. But this may be breaking
down to some extent, in the context of a resurgent
imperialist China and a still unresolved situation in
Korea, not to speak of nationalist attitudes within
Japan.
McCormack has unearthed fascinating material
about the role of the Showa Emperor in the immediate
aftermath of the Second World War, though theconclusions he draws from this may perhaps be
exaggerated. But he says little about that Emperor’srefusal (and that of the present, liberal-minded,
Emperor) to visit the Yasukuni Shrine since 1978 when
the souls of 14 alleged war criminals were enshrined
there.
In conclusion, the present work focuses on someextremely unhealthy aspects of Japanese politics,
not least in the area of human rights and freedom ofspeech. But in anatomising governments under Abe,he perhaps underestimates the very real problems
Japan has with China, not to speak of the fluid situationin the Korean peninsula.§

Lansdowne: The Last Great Whigby Simon Kerry
Unicorn (2017)
ISBN-13: 978-1910787953
Review by Antony BestThe 5th Marquess of Lansdowne was one of themost important political figures of his age. Between
1883 and 1917 he was a constant figure in British
imperial, foreign and domestic politics, serving insuccession as Governor-General in Canada, Viceroy ofIndia, Secretary of State for War (during the first halfof the Boer War), Foreign Secretary, and the Leaderof the Opposition in the House of Lords. For thoseinterested in Japan he is best known as the Foreign
Secretary who negotiated for Britain in talks that led
to the Anglo-Japanese alliance. Despite this stellar
career, Lansdowne has been comparatively ill-servedby historians. In 1929 a biography was written by
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7

Lord Newton but since that date there has been no
overview of his life, despite the attention paid to his
contemporaries, such as Lord Salisbury, Arthur Balfour
and Sir Edward Grey. The book under review, whichis written by one of Lansdowne’s descendants, is anattempt to fill this gap.
In this volume Simon Kerry has had the advantage
of being able to draw on the large collection of
Lansdowne papers that have recently been depositedat the British Library. Combining these with a thoroughcombing of other archival sources both public andprivate, he presents us with a fuller picture of the
5th Marquess than we have ever had to date. As thetitle of the book suggests, Kerry sees his forebear asa man primarily shaped by Whig values. Lansdowne
is thus presented as a pragmatic figure devoted to
public service and the common good, but one who
found himself challenged by the increasing radicalism
and rapid social change of the period. Kerry clearlyadmires his ancestor and the reader too may well be
impressed by Landowne’s devotion to duty and to his
reasoned and reasonable approach to politics. Somemay even be led to lament that we no longer seem tohave such figures of balance and authority who arewilling to contribute so eminently to public life.
Kerry recognizes, though, that Lansdowne did
make errors, none more so than his rejection of Lloyd
George’s ‘People’s Budget’ of 1909 which helped
to spark a two-year long constitutional crisis. Kerryis not, however, willing to criticize Lansdowne forthe most controversial act of his political career; the‘peace letter’ that he sent to the Daily Telegraph inNovember 1917. Kerry sees this as a profoundly moral
act that had beneficial consequences in that it forced
the Allies into a more open debate about war aims
and helped to influence some of the more positive
thinking that would emerge over the following two
years. This is an interesting point, but not one that thisreviewer is particularly well-placed to interrogate.
In regard to British relations with Japan, Kerry
does not deviate much from what is already known
from the work of Ian Nish. He rightly observes that

Lansdowne was more flexible than his predecessor
as Foreign Secretary, Lord Salisbury, and that heskilfully handled the various questions raised by his
Cabinet colleagues as the alliance moved towards its
conclusion in late 1901 and early 1902.
Where one might differ from his interpretation
is in his assertion on p.157 that Lansdowne always
knew that there was a risk of Japan’s going to war,
while others believed the alliance would force Russia
to retreat and thus negate the chance of conflict. It
is probable, although not clearly stated, that Kerry’s
stance is based on the letter that Lansdowne sent
to King Edward VII in 1904 in which he made a claim
along these lines. But a letter two years after the act
does not necessarily indicate what one felt at the time;certainly Lansdowne’s argument in December 1903
that Britain should act to prevent war from breaking
out makes him look less assured than Kerry would
suggest. In addition, Kerry goes too far in taking theline that the decision to sign the alliance met withlittle opposition as foreign policy was approachedlargely from a bipartisan perspective.
The reality is that a notable section of the press
had nothing good to say about the alliance and thatbehind the scenes a number of Liberal politicians
were critical of the treaty, including Sir Edward Grey.
This is important because in 1905 the Conservative
perception of Liberal disdain towards Japan was
one of the factors that persuaded Balfour, the Prime
Minister, from an early resignation. The government
was determined to negotiate and sign the second
alliance with Japan before the Liberals came into
power.
In conclusion, this book fills a significant gap in
the literature. It works by not only providing a thoroughand informative biography of an important politicalfigure but also by shedding light on a fascinating if
troubled period in our national life. It leaves behindthe lingering impression of a reasonable man
wrestling with strong forces in a rapidly changing andincreasingly unfamiliar world.§