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

Editor: Sean Curtin
Managing Editor: John Toppon.....................................................................................................................................

Issue 14 Volume 3 Number 2 (2008)

In this issue our regular review team offers you anotherexcellent selection of the latest books on Japan. Sir HughCortazzi looks at a stimulating new book by Bill Emmott“Rivals: How the Power Struggle Between China, India andJapan will Shape our Next Decade.” As the title indicates,
it explores how the future dynamics between Japan,
China and India might evolve and the possible regionaland global impact. This is followed by Fumiko Halloran’s
review of a Japanese language book which examines thedissenting legal opinion of Indian Judge Radhabinod Pal,
who out of the 11 Allied judges was alone to argue for theacquittal of all Class A war criminals at the International
Military Tribunal for the Far East. This work is of particularinterest as Justice Pal has become a key figure for somerevisionist Japanese historians and former Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe visited Pal’s son while on a prime-ministerial
visit to India in August 2007. On the popular literature
front Anna Davis gives us the rundown on a highly
readable new novel Death of a Salaryman. This issue alsosees a return to our focus on important new Japanese
language books with some insightful reviews by ourregular reviewers Takahiro Miyao and Mikihiro Maeda.
One of this publication’s key objectives is to highlightinfluential and popular Japanese language books in orderto give readers a flavour of the contemporary Japanesebook scene.
Sean Curtin

Contents(1) Rivals: How the power struggle between China, India andJapan will shape our next decade(2) Pal Hanji, Tokyo Saiban Hihan to Zettai Heiwa-shugi(3) Waga Jinsei No Utagatari - Showa No Aikan(4) Minka, My Farmhouse in Japan(5) Death of a Salaryman(6) Japan’s Imperial Forest, Goryorin, 1889-1945(7) Netto Senso

New reviews: www.japansociety.org.uk/reviews.html
Archive: http://www.japansociety.org.uk/reviews_archive.html

We are grateful to our regular reviewers:
Sir Hugh Cortazzi
Fumiko Halloran
Takahiro Miyao
Ben-Ami Shillony
Mikihiro Maeda
Ian NishSean Curtin
Anna Davis
Susan Meehan
William Farr
Tomohiko Taniguchi......................................................................................................................................................................................................

Rivals: How the Power
Struggle Between 		
China, India and Japan
Will Shape Our Next
Decadeby Bill Emmott
Allen Lane, London, 2008,
314 pages including notes
and index.
Hardback £20.00
ISBN -13: 978-1-846-14009-9
Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi
This new book by Bill Emmott, the former editorof The Economist and author of two books aboutmodern Japan, has been widely reviewed in thepress. In this review I propose to concentrate
primarily on his comments about Japan, although
Japan is only one of the three powers whose future
Emmott discusses in this thought provoking book.
In chapter 1 “Asia’s New Power Game” and chapter

2 “A Continent Created,” he sets the scene, stressingthat the future belongs to Asia. He notes that
although the concept of Asia is meaningless tomost Asians and that there are as yet few unifying
regional institutions, Asia is becoming more like
Europe in the way in which its economies are
becoming increasingly integrated.
Chapter 3
is devoted to China. In this he reminds readersthat a major problem in considering the Chinese
economy is the unreliability of Chinese statistics.
He notes the view that communist rule in China isthere to stay.
Chapter 4 contains his main discussion of modern
Japan. In this he comments on the way in which theJapanese economy has developed since the war
and he draws attention to the ironic comment by
Lech Walesa, who led Poland’s solidarity movement
and who visited Japan several times, that Japanwas “the only truly successful example of socialismthat had ever existed.” He also repeats a joke hehad heard in 2005 about Chinese students studying
at a university in Tokyo: “The Chinese students are
asked why they spend so much of their spare timewith other Chinese rather than with the Japanese
students. ‘Because we are afraid they might teachus communism,’ comes the answer.’” But, of course,
as he points out “Japan is not like communist China.
It really is a free country.”
Emmott reminds his readers of the reasons for
Chinese hostility towards Japan. These are notconfined to the Nanking Incident where there can be
no doubt that terrible things happened but where
the numbers of the dead and injured may be open
to question. Unit 731, where Japanese scientists
and soldiers experimented on Chinese and otherprisoners, was, he points out, “not an extermination
factory like Auschwitz,” but it was a terrible
example of the inhumanity and cruelty of somemembers of the Japanese imperial army. It is deeply
regrettable that the Americans gave immunity fromprosecution to those involved in return for handing
over the results of their experiments. Rightly he has
no sympathy for Japanese historical revisionists. He
notes that “Concern about China is now a central
feature of Japanese politics and policy. Since thatconcern is only likely to grow as China’s strengthand reasonable interests grow too, more and more
Japanese policy will be shaped by it.” He quotes
the reply by Taro Aso, now Secretary General of
the LDP, to a question about recurrent tensions
between Japan and China: “China and Japan have
hated each other for a thousand years…Why should
things be any different now?”
After discussing the problems posed by an ageing
and declining population Emmott concludes that “If
the OECD’s forecast turns out to be accurate, Japan
will have little chance of standing tall and strong
alongside Asia’s new rising power, China. In thatcase the task in Japan would be one of managing
the country’s relative decline, and of preventing
China from exploiting that decline or America frombecoming disenchanted with its main ally in the
Pacific.”
Emmott notes the continuing existence of informal
trade barriers in Japan and points out that Japan is
not a very globalized country, but he is encouragedby signs, in the face of increased competitive
pressure, of a “stealth revolution in corporate law,
in politics, in its labour markets, in capital markets,in its banking system, in the role of the state, theeffects of which will become clear only during thenext decade or so.”the brief premiership of Yoshiro Mori in 2000-2001
that the first overtures were made to India. Now atlast it seems that the significance of the growth ofIndia has been recognized in Japan.
Emmott’s chapter on India is headed alliteratively andaptly “Multitudes, Muddle, Momentum.” In Chapter
6 “A Planet Pressurized” he discusses the hugeproblems of pollution and climate change which
will continue to grow as India and China continue toexpand. Chapter 8 “Flashpoints and Danger Zones”
reminds readers of the many historical anomalies
which continue to exist in Asia and which could leadto wars that might be difficult to contain.
In his last chapter “Asian Drama”, Emmott makes
a number of sensible recommendations for action
by governments, with many of which I agree. But
I cannot endorse two of his recommendations.
He suggests (page 267) that the Yasukuni shrine
should be restored to public ownership so that the
Yushukan museum at the shrine “can become aproper publicly controlled museum and so that thestatus of the ‘martyrs of Showa’, the war criminals,
at the shrine, can be a matter of public debate andpolicy rather than under the control of the shrine
authorities.” Any such steps would be hugely
controversial and I fear that the process would behigh-jacked by Japanese nationalists and would
undermine the principle of separating the statefrom religion. He also suggests that a commission
be set up to re-examine the status and basis of theTokyo trial, the International Military Tribunal for
the Far East. While I accept that there were many
flaws in this trial nothing should in my view be done
which might undermine the principle that crimes
against humanity, wherever they take place and bywhomsoever they may be committed, should be
subject to international justice.
Bill Emmott’s book contains much food for thought
and should be read widely by all who are interested
in the future of the planet.

India is the other growing power in Asia and theworld. The Japanese government and Japanesebusiness showed little interest in India for decades
after the war. Despite the fact that Buddhism wasborn in India, few Japanese felt any cultural affinity
to the country which they tended to dismiss as
over-populated, unclean and poor. It was not until
2

Issue 14 Volume 3 Number 2

’Pal Hanji, Tokyo Saiban
Hihan to Zettai Heiwashugi’ (Judge Pal: His
Criticism of the Tokyo
Trial and His Absolute
Pacifism)by Takeshi Nakajima
Hakusui-sha, 2007, 308
pages.
Hardback￥1,890
ISBN-13: 978-4560031667
Review by Fumiko Halloran
Professor Takeshi Nakajima of Hokkaido University
says he wrote this book because he was concernedthat a recent revival of interest in Judge Radhabinod
Pal of India, who alone argued to acquit all ClassA defendants in the International Military Tribunal
for the Far East after World War II, might be goingin the wrong direction. In the movement to reexamine modern Japanese history before, during,
and after World War II, some Japanese critics ofthe tribunal, also known as the Tokyo War Crimes
Tribunal or the Tokyo Trial, have tried to paint Judge
Pal’s opinion as seeking to absolve Japan of all war
responsibility or even supporting Japan’s Great
East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. Prof. Nakajima
criticizes these opinion leaders for what he says
are often quotes from the judge’s opinions takenout of context. He asserts that they are interpretingthe judge’s findings arbitrarily and without reading
the whole text which ran to a quarter million words
in English. Further, he contends that they lack fullunderstanding of the position from which thejudge was coming.
Nakajima’s ambitious goal in describing Judge Pal
in totality and giving readers a better picture of
his way of thinking is mostly successful, although
not without shortcomings. The author targets
the general reader, not the specialist, which may
explain why his bibliography does not cover theentire spectrum of documentation in Japaneseand English, the Tribunal’s two official languages.
In spite of these shortcomings, this book has put
Judge Pal’s dissenting opinions into perspective,
since the vast majority of Japanese, particularly theyoung generation, have little knowledge not onlyof Judge Pal but of the trial itself. (The judge diedin Calcutta in 1967 at the age of 80.)
Critics of the trial, often those who resent theblanket condemnation of Japanese wartime
behaviour, have become more vocal and begun totake action ranging from erecting statues of Judge
Pal at a temple in Kyoto and at the Yasukuni Shrinein Tokyo, to producing movies or even publishing
popular comic books. Nakajima believes that suchmoves have distorted Judge Pal’s true intentions,Issue 14 Volume 3 Number 2 (2008)

which were to criticize the trial’s flaws in legalistic
concepts, not to justify Japanese wartime
behaviour.
Criticism of the Tokyo Trial is not new. Indeed, evenamong the eleven judges at the trial, not only Judge
Pal but judges from the Provincial Government of theFrench Republic, the Netherlands, the Philippines
and Australia rendered dissenting opinions.
Among them, however, Judge Pal presented
the most sweeping and formidable criticism of
the legitimacy of the trial itself. Consequently,
publication of his dissenting opinions was bannedby the Occupation Authority until the occupation
ended in 1952. Publication of that dissent wasalso banned in Great Britain. In the United States,
Amazon lists “International Military Tribunal for Far
East; Dissenting judgment by Radhabinod Pal” butsays it is currently unavailable. The National Archives& Records Administration and private collections
such as the Justice Erima Harvey Northcroft Tokyo
War Crimes Trial Collection at the University ofCanterbury, New Zealand, list the record of thedissenting opinions including that of Judge Pal.
Judge Pal asserted that all judges were appointed
by the winning nations, therefore the trial wasbiased and partial, negating the hope that futurewars could be prevented. That, he argued, shouldbe the purpose of the trial, not revenge. Secondly,
he objected to establishing new concepts of war
crimes by which Japanese defendants were charged,
namely “crimes against peace” and “crimes against
humanity.” He believed, however, that conventional
war crimes established by international law should
be applied. The established concept of not charging
war crimes retroactively was violated as “crimes
against peace” and “crimes against humanity,” two
new legal concepts, were introduced to charge thedefendants for their actions in the past when suchconcepts had not existed.
At what point did the war begin was his nextquestion. This was connected with the concept ofa conspiracy to wage war, which was the core of
the strategy by the prosecutors. Japan launchedmilitary action on multiple fronts from Manchuria to
the Soviet Union to Mongolia to China in the 1930s
before its attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Judge Pal
asserted that Japan had been at war against one ormore nations since July 7, 1937 at the time of the
Marco Polo Bridge incident in China.
Since the definition of “invasion” was not clear
in international law, Judge Pal asserted that theSoviet Union and the Netherlands had declared war
against Japan and therefore should be defendants.
Because the definition of invasion had not been
established nor had war itself been considereda crime in the past, the two countries could not becharged. Judge Pal sharply criticized the Western3

colonial powers that had invaded and established
European colonies in Asia. Therefore, theoretically,
they should be charged as well as Japan ofcrimes against peace.
The judge reserved his strongest criticism for theatomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by
the United States. However since “crimes against
humanity” had not then been established ininternational law, he said, the U.S. could not be tried.
A major reason he sought to acquit the Class A
defendants on the charge of crimes against peace
was, he asserted, that the prosecutors had failed
to establish that there was a conspiracy to plan
and wage war. To conspire, there had to be clear
intent, chain of command, plans, and executions of
the plans. During the period in which the twentyeight Japanese leaders, both military and civilian,
were charged with war crimes against peace,
however, Judge Pal saw mistakes, misjudgements,
and uncoordinated actions by separate groups orindividuals, but no overall conspiracy.
By the same logic, Judge Pal examined the questionof conspiracy by the Class A defendants on the
Nanking Massacre (Nanking Gyakusatsu Jiken),atrocities committed by the Japanese military, andmistreatment of prisoners of war. While he strongly
criticized Japanese behaviour in each case, he did
not find a clear conspiracy within the government.
He criticized, in the strongest terms, the lack of
ethical conduct by Japanese who had committed
such crimes but did not find evidence that thedefendants had ordered and authorized theexecution of the plans.
Prof. Nakajima details why Judge Pal thoughtthat way. His identity as an Indian under Britishcolonial rule was crucial. He was deeply influenced
by Mahatma Gandhi, leader of the non-violent,
independence movement against Britain. Indian
leaders had sought haven in Japan, organized theIndian National Army, and hoped the Japaneseinvasion of India would end British colonial rule.
Although the British offered autonomy in exchange
for cooperation against Japan, the Indian National
Congress refused to cooperate with British. Whensoldiers of the Indian National Army returned to
India after the war, the British began to try themon charges of treason, which provoked widespread
resistance. Judge Pal was then vice president ofCalcutta University. His understanding of the war
in Asia was not limited to Japanese behaviour but
took a longer historical perspective. He believedthat western colonial powers had done great
injustice to Asian nations, creating consequencesthat culminated in Japanese military action against
the Allies. This thinking did not prevent himfrom criticizing Japanese for war responsibility in
specific cases. This fine line between adherence4

to international legal concepts and immoral orunethical behaviour of the Japanese military madefor a danger of arbitrary interpretation, particularly
by those who wanted to defend Japanese behaviour
as self defence. At the same time, he raised serious
issues on the conduct of war.
Judge Pal’s dissent opinion upset Prime Minister
Jawaharlal Nehru, although the Indian press
favoured his argument. The Indian government did
not criticize Judge Pal in public and recommended
that the seven defendants sentenced to death
have their punishments reduced to life sentences,emphasizing the differences in its position fromthat of the judge and seeking support in India.
Notwithstanding Judge Pal’s dissent, the Tokyo
Trial sentenced seven Class A defendants to be
executed, 16 to be given life sentences, and two toserve limited sentences. Three died in prison and
one was judged to be mentally unfit to stand thetrial. In addition, 5700 Japanese were tried as Class
B defendants on war crimes and Class C defendants
on crimes against humanity. The trials were heldin Japan and overseas at 49 courts. Among thoseindicted, 984 were sentenced to death, 475 weresentenced to life, 2944 were sentenced to limited
jail terms, 1018 were acquitted and 279 were neverbrought to trial. Chinese communists and Soviet
military held separate trials. All these numbers werelisted in Wikipedia which in turn relied on various
publications. If some readers have authoritative
numbers from primary sources, please advise.
A different version of this review first appearedon the National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR)
Japan-U.S. Discussion Forum and is reproducedwith permission.

Waga Jinsei No
Utagatari - Showa No
Aikan (Song Story in My
Life - The Joys andSorrows of Showa Era)
by Hiroyuki Itsuki
Kadokawa Shoten, 2007,
250 pages.
Hardback ￥2,500
ISBN - 13: 978-4048839693
Review by Mikihiro Maeda
How can we describe the author of this book,
Hiroyuki Itsuki? Novelist, essayist, songwriter,
producer, or radio personality? Regardless of hisrole, he is widely respected as a spiritual voicein Japan. He was born in 1932 and grew up in
Pyongyang, now the capital city of North Korea,
Issue 14 Volume 3 Number 2due to his parents’ jobs as teachers. After the endof the war his family had to be “repatriated” toJapan due to Japan’s unexpected defeat, where
they experienced hardships beyond description
according to his other books and essays. Suchexperiences caused severe trauma for him for along time even after many years had passed, andmany of his writings uhave been based on this“repatriation” experience.
There are many songs in this world. One might thinkof the famous jazz standard “On the sunny side of
the street” image as a cheerful song, but the songs
referred to in this book do not necessarily havesuch happy and bright images. Rather, they often
have melancholy, gloomy and depressing images.
But even sad songs could have opposite images,
so in the “Showa era” Itsuki cherished them in his
mind and now he is telling how he managed toovercome the turbulence of his younger days withthe help of those songs.
Itsuki was a radio personality with his own weekly
TBS programme on Sunday nights from 1979 to
2004. On this program he talked about himself,
introduced many of his books to the audienceand invited guests for interviews. He was also on
NHK’s midnight radio program and talked about
his hard and heroic experiences in the past, eachwith a song that he heard or sang at that time.
This book is a collection of those NHK midnight
radio programmes (as a footnote, two sequels will
be published soon).
This book consists of six long chapters: 1. First
songs heard in childhood; 2. Popular songs in war
time; 3. Sad songs in extreme severity (after Japan’s
defeat); 4. Songs at the time of repatriation (from
Pyongyang to Japan); 5. Songs born in poor Japan(soon after the war); and 6. Songs in poor student
life (in Waseda, Tokyo).
One of the most impressive passages in thisbook is about a very sad song entitled “A bordertown”, which Itsuki as a fourteen year old boy sangwith his adult co-workers in Pyongyang, which
was seized by the Soviet Army after the defeatof Japan in the war. It is a very sad song about aman travelling alone, remembering his loved one
and weeping in a remote town near the border,
but somehow this song sounded comforting to
him and helped him overcome his hardship as abreadwinner supporting his family, after his motherdied and his father became mentally devastated
due to Japan’s defeat.
As a result, he has come to a conclusion that “in an
extremely sad condition, one could not necessarily
be encouraged by cheerful songs, but rather be
supported by singing sad songs and shedding
tears, which tend to help rescue one’s soul” (p. 116).
Issue 14 Volume 3 Number 2 (2008)

Those experiences of the author and the songs heheard each time overlapped, and his memories
each time recalled the songs he listened to atthat time. He weaves empirical essays by quoting
beautiful and alluring lyrics of the songs withmemories of bitter experiences.
There are both bright and dark sides of the earth. Asmuch as the beauty of its bright side is impressive,
as we saw in the video sent from Japan’s lunar
explorer, “Kaguya,” late last year, its dark side is fullof regrettable incidents and actions such as crimes,
violence, environmental destruction, etc. In spite ofthese problems, however, we can cherish our songs
and sing or listen to them to relieve our tension andstress and to encourage our hearts and minds sothat we may find a way to survive in the real worldof darkness, hoping for our bright future.
Finally, one of the remarks that Itsuki made on his TBS
radio program is worth noting. On that program heonce said that he was reluctant to have his literaryworks translated into other languages, because
translated versions could not convey accurate
original Japanese meanings. As a result, only one
book of his, “Tariki (Embracing Despair, Discovering
Peace),” was formally translated into English in
2004. Hopefully, more of his splendid works,
including this one, will be translated into otherlanguages, despite his wishes otherwise, to be readworldwide in the future.
This review was produced in collaboration with
Global Communications Platform and first publishedon the Platform: http://www.glocom.org

Minka, My Farmhouse inJapan
by John Roderick
Princeton Architectural Press,
New York, 2008, 255 pages,
many black and white
illustrations.
Hardback £14.99
ISBN - 13: 978-1-56898-731-6
Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi
Many visitors to Kamakura know the Zeni-arai
Benten shrine where they can wash their moneyin the hope that it will multiply. It lies up a narrowroad from the back of Kamakura station. Beyond
that up the winding lane lies another shrine andGenjiyama. From here on a fine day the visitor will
have an excellent view of Enoshima with Mt Fuji risingin the distance. As the sun sets the view has a magicalquality. Imagine having not just any old house here,5but a traditional Japanese farmhouse in the gasshōzukuri style of Gifu and Fukui prefectures! This is
the house which the late John Roderick (seeobituary in The Times of 25 March 2008) used as his
home. This book tells the story of the house andhis relationship with the Takishita family, especially
Yoshiro (Yo-chan) whom in due course he adopted
as his son.
John Roderick, an American of French ancestry, wasa foreign correspondent for AP. He had studied
some Japanese during the war and his first contacts
with Japan were coloured by memories of Pearl
Harbor and Japanese maltreatment of prisoners ofwar. He became AP correspondent in China and waswith Mao Tse Tung in the run up to the Communist
victory. In 1959 he was posted to Tokyo. He foundmuch that was appealing in Japan but disliked thefast industrialisation of the 1960s and was readyto move to Paris when he got to know Takishita
Yoshiro, a Japanese university student. Takishita
took Roderick to his home in Gifu. There Roderick
was persuaded to accept an old farm house for thetoken sum of 5,000 yen. The farm house was taken
down and eventually moved to Kamakura where it
was rebuilt on Genjiyama.
Roderick recounts the problems which heencountered with Japanese real estate agents andneighbours on Genjiyama and his difficulties infinding the necessary money for rebuilding. One of
the first problems was water. Another was roofing.
The fire department in Kamakura would never agree
to thatch as had been used in the original house.
But the house was built and Roderick and Yo-chanwere able to live there. He was greatly impressedby the carpenters who came from Gifu and by the
resourcefulness of Yo-chan.
While Roderick covered world events for AP
including Nixon’s ping-pong diplomacy with
China, Yo-chan developed a business in high-class
Japanese antiques. His business prospered andanother house was brought from Gifu and tastefully
rebuilt as a showroom. His success in saving
and transporting old Japanese farm houses soon
attracted Japanese as well as foreigners to seek his
help and expertise. In due course he rebuilt overforty Japanese farm houses including large-scale
projects in places as far away as the Argentineand Hawaii. By the time John Roderick died thisyear in his nineties Takishita-san had become aleading architect in reconstructing and transferring
old farm houses (see Takishita’s book JapaneseCountry Style published by Kodansha Internationalin 2002). He had also established for himself areputation as a connoisseur dealer in Japanese
antiques. Yo-chan is what the Japanese term ‘mekiki’ (literally the effective eye); this means that
he knows instinctively as well as from experience
6

what was in the best Japanese taste.
John Roderick had many friends in high places
and was a generous host. He helped Yo-chan todevelop his business interests and the bond
between them was a strong one as the adoptionof Yo-chan as John’s son demonstrates. One of thevisitors to Yo-chan’s and John’s house was Hillary
Clinton during a state visit by the Clintons to Japan.
John decided that, although he was Democrat, hewould not come back to receive the visitor as he feltthat his presence might take some of the attention
away from Yo-chan.
For anyone interested in Japanese traditional
farmhouses and in human relationships this isan enjoyable book. For us it brings back happy
memories of visits to Kamakura and reminds us of
the objects which over the years we amassed inJapan, including some choice items from Takishitasan’s ‘House of Antiques’ (info@house-of-antiquesjapan.com).

Death of a Salaryman
by Fiona Campbell
Chatto and Windus, 2007,
320 pages.
Paperback £7.99
ISBN 13: 978-0099503699
Review by Anna DavisI enjoyed this book, but then I took it for what it is –a quirky narrative that portrays, exactly as it says on
the tin, the death of a salaryman (and his resultant
reincarnation): a book set in Japan, featuring
an all-Japanese cast, living an all-Japanese life.
Remarkably, it was penned by a British woman withvery little experience of the setting she features.
Those who’ve spent time in Japan will pull up a
few inconsistencies and jump upon one or two
moments that have been written in western ink, but
I thought Fiona Campbell had an awful lot down
pat for someone whose in-country experiences
extend only to a few months of working at
Unilever in Tokyo before she completed an MA increative writing.
On paper, Kenji Yamada’s life is a cliché. He wakes
at dawn, commutes from another prefecture, works
long hours, has a few beers with colleagues and justabout makes it home to his wife by midnight. He’s
Issue 14 Volume 3 Number 2

a decent sort of a chap, but hardly the sort of man
you’d want to read about. That is until fate knocks
him for six and loyal Kenji loses his respectablecareer on his 40th birthday.

themselves warming to Kenji. Expect an offbeat,entirely readable journey as Kenji journeys frominsignificance to interesting.

As lost as a gaijin on the Yamanote-sen, Kenji lets
a series of bizarre encounters shape his suddenlyinteresting life. Most of these are masterminded by
the collection of odd characters who move swiftly
into his world. Somehow, he manages to eek out aliving playing pachinko machines, whilst his uptightwife and bitter mother-in-law wonder why thecompany trip to Disneyland has been cancelled.

Japan’s Imperial Forest, Goryōrin, 1889-1945:
With a supporting study of the Kan/Min
division of woodland in early Meiji Japan,
1871-76)

Of course poor old Kenji is found out and his
interfering, embarrassed wife secures him a job ina post-room. A few of Kenji’s layers peel away andwe begin to see his pride, his dreams and his anger(long-awaited, believe me). And then he is struckby lightening.
Kenji Yamada, battered, bruised and now with a fullhead of white hair is a new man. A determined man.
Well, sort of. Fiona Campbell has a firm grip on
Kenji – this is not a Clark Kent to Superman rebirth.
In his own way though, Kenji manages to begin a
new career, creating the odd game show that he’s
longed for years to produce. It’s an uphill journey
but I believe I actually verbalised my inner ‘hurrah’
when Kenji finally pulls himself together and raises
his fist to a foe (you might do the same during ahilarious incidence with some rotten apples). Is
Kenji getting some gumption? Again, sort of.
What I like about this book is that despite all of theunlikely mishaps that fill Kenji’s new life, there are no
miracles here. The journey is unpredictable, bizarre
and unlikely, but as Kenji’s world is remodelled,
he remains himself, perhaps just a slightly cooler,slightly tougher version.
Does Fiona Campbell get it right? I believe shedoes. What she occasionally misses in accuracy,
she nails in understanding of her characters. Kenji
Yamada feels real. I have a clear image of him in
my mind and there’s something about him that I
couldn’t help liking.
It’s remarkable that just a few months in Japan havenetted so much fodder for Campbell’s debut novel.
She manages to interweave references to things
she must have seen with her own eyes. I can’t
help smiling as I read about the notice attached to
the keypad of Kenji’s office door showing the new
security code. Next to it, a memo sellotaped to thedoor reads “Don’t tell anyone, but here’s the newaccess code.” I have no doubt that Campbell once
smiled at the original version.
This book will, I suppose, appeal more to thosewith limited experiences of Japan, but I think thateven picky Japan enthusiasts like self will findIssue 14 Volume 3 Number 2 (2008)

by Conrad Totman
Global Oriental, 2007, 184 pages, including index andbibliography.
Hardback £50.00
ISBN - 13: 978-1905246304
Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi
Conrad Totman, Emeritus Professor of Yale University
and author of this work, is a specialist in Japanese
history and has published many books especiallyabout the Tokugawa (Edo) period and Japan’senvironmental history.
This book is likely to be primarily of interest to
students of forest history and silviculture, but thepreservation of forests is now such an importantconsideration in the preservation of the environment
and in combating global warming that it should beof interest to a wider audience. The way in which
forests provided funds for the imperial household
is also relevant to students of the imperial system.
After setting out thehistoricalbackground,including a discussion of
Meiji land reform, Totman
describes the steps leading
to the establishment of theGoryōrin (imperial forest).
He draws attention to theway in which Meiji leaders
advocated the case forusing national forests as asource of income for theimperial household, but henotes that the imperial
forests “never achieved complete stability of size,
location, or character.” They were “continuallysubjected to outside pressures and gradually shrank(page 43).” Totman discusses the management of
the imperial forests stressing the importance ofafforestation and aftercare and underlines the
improvements in the technology of silviculture.
Totman makes some interesting comparisons
between Britain and Japan. He concludes (page97) that “in Britain, even though woodland hadlargely disappeared by the twentieth century, what7

remained was of such little material consequence
to British life that forest issues were not a source ofsevere and sustained conflict between rulers andruled. In Japan, however, even though the realm
was far more richly forest-clad, competition for theyield remained so intense as to constitute a central
focus of ruler-ruled conflict until 1950 or so, as
exemplified by the vicissitudes of Goryōrin.”

Netto Senso(The Net War)by Izumi Harada andYasuhide Yamanouchi
NTT Publications,2007, 285
pages, including notes andindex.
Hardback ￥3,360
ISBN -13:978-47571-0223-1
Review by Takahiro Miyao
This publication is based on a research reporton the role of nations and cyber governance in
the information age, which was prepared by theInstitute for International Socio-Economic Studies(IISE) in Tokyo with the support from NEC in fiscal
2006. The subject matter is quite important andurgent in this age of information and globalization
with increasing conflicts of various kinds not onlyin the real world but also in the virtual cyberspace.
The content of this book consists of two parts:
Part 1 deals with some recent cases of national
conflicts involving internet use by nations and othersocial groups, and Part 2 focuses on the current
status of discussions on internet governance in theinternational community, mainly progressing inEurope. Some of the key words that are taken up
in this book are: “hacktivism”, “Internet censorship”,”cyber terrorism” and “cyber security”, to namejust a few.
Probably one of the most fascinating episodes inthis field is several cases of Chinese hacktivism
attacking Japan, the US and other countries in
the past, which is well-documented in Chapter 2(“Risks and Threats in Net Society,” written by Y.
Yamanouchi). This highlights hacktivist groups inChina which have conducted “social hacktivism,”
meaning relatively large-scale political activities
against various, mostly official, websites, in foreigncountries. In the case of China, there were wellknown hacktivist groups such as the “Chinese
Honker Union,” but their activities have been
suppressed for the last couple of years, due to strict
regulations by the central government in China.
8

The most recent case, still vividly remembered bymany Japanese, is Chinese attacks against Japan’s
intention to become a permanent member of
the UN Security Council in 2005, when a group ofChinese hacktivists called for cyber attacks against
some official and personal websites including
those of the Japanese Embassy in Beijing, theJapanese Prime Minister’s Office, Yasukuni Shrine,
Meiji Shrine, 2 Channel as well as some “antiChina” specialists in spring and summer 2005.
What is interesting is the fact that a Japanese
hacktivist group launched a counterattack against
the Chinese group, and the situation appeared
to have been out of hand, almost looking like a “NetWar” between the two countries, at one time. As
is well known, however, the crisis was avoided by
the Chinese government’s actions later that year to
curb any anti-Japanese activities in the real as wellas the cyber world.
This episode seems to signify the phenomenonof rising nationalism and its popular expression incyber space in many of the emerging countries aswell as the urgent need for the implementationof cyber security and appropriate regulations, if
necessary. This book is full of important ideas andsuggestions in this regard.
Hopefully, the authors will be able to work further
on the “Net War” theme to write a book in English fora wider audience, including some of the key issues
that governments, businesses as well as individuals
are currently facing in the era of increasing
cyber crimes, virus attacks, and cyber terrorismof various kinds.
Postscript:
The foreword of this book was contributed byformer NEC Chairman and IISE Honorary Advisor,
Tadahiro Sekimoto, who passed away soon after
the final editing of his foreword. In a sense, thisbook might be regarded as a final tribute to him.
This review was produced in collaboration with
Global Communications Platform and first publishedon the Platform: http://www.glocom.org

Issue 14 Volume 3 Number 2