japansociety
Japan Book Review

Volume 1 No. 1 January 2006

Editor: Sean Curtin
Assistant Editor:Clare Barclay
elcome to the first edition of Japan Book Review. We hope
the new-look format for the reviews will enhance yourenjoyment of this highly popular feature. The theme for thisinaugural issue is memoirs and we are featuring four newly
released books under this heading ranging from the lifetime
memories of the distinguished scholar Geoffrey Bownas to Crown
Prince Naruhito's account of his two years at Oxford. You will alsofind several other reviews of recent Japan-related publications.

W

The Society is working hard to ensure we provide you with thevery best and most up-to-date book reviews. Our newly redesigned
website currently has the full complement of all our recent reviews
and will soon be expanded to include a comprehensive archive
section. We hope this additional feature will make the Japan Society
the best source for on-line reviews, giving you plenty of reasons forregularly visiting our website.
Visit our website at: http://www.japansociety.org.uk
Book reviews: http://www.japansociety.org.uk/reviews.html

Contents
1) Japanese Journeys - Writings andRecollections
2) The Thames and I - A Memoir of
Two Years at Oxford
3) Spitfires in Japan: From
Farnborough to the Far East
4) The Magatama Doodle - One
Man's Affair with Japan, 1950-2004
5)
The
Turbulent
Decade:Confronting the Refugee Crises of the1990s6) Valuing Intellectual Property inJapan, Britain and the United States
7) Reporting the Russo-Japanese War,
1904-5: Lionel James's first wirelesstransmissions to The Times

Japanese Journeys
Recollections,-

Writings

and

By Geoffrey Bownas,
Global Oriental, 2005, 264 pages, ISBN 1-905246-01-3
Review by Mike Barrett"That night, Mishima was less brusquely cheerful thanusual. We ate dinner in sombre silence …At about 2.30 a.m.,Mishima stood up, barked gruffly that he would be back in aminute and shuffled out. Ten minutes later, he swaggeredback into the study with the panache of the overlord in aclassical samurai film. He had stripped down to afundoshi…He was carrying a long sword…"
Geoffrey Bownas, who turned 82 in 2005, is a master of the
mot juste and as this vivid scene from the introduction to his
memoir of a lifetime's involvement with Japan illustrates, thisfascinating book can grip like a novel at times. His sharp eye
and keen ear range from poetry to politics and bring alivesome of the key figures and incidents in Japan's progress frompoverty to prosperity in the second half of the twentiethcentury. As the pioneer of Japanese studies at Oxford andSheffield, he can call on a depth of scholarship that few canmatch, but he writes with the warmth and humanity ofjapansociety

Japan Book Review: January 2006

someone who loves the sights and sounds of daily life inJapan.

this is just asking for more icing on the cake, which might have
spoiled this very readable account of a lifetime's achievement.

Those readers who are fans of Alan Bennett may also
recognise a familiar tone and quality in the writing stemmingfrom Geoffrey Bownas' Yorkshire boyhood. Precisely
observed details convey incident and character without everfalling into sentimentality. Recalling the courage of his
mother, a former teacher, for example, he writes, "Finally,
when her own physical and mental health became too frail for
her to live alone, she moved to a nursing home. Even then, shefound it hard to tolerate having everything done for her…Twodays before she died, she had spent an hour happily - and, sothey said, with great expertise - peeling vegetables."The mixture of reminiscence, incident and erudition gives"Japanese Journeys" a kaleidoscopic effect, but this is a richand beautifully written mine of material combining "intellectand feeling in harmony." It also conveys Geoffrey Bownas'
enormous sense of fun. A pure treat for all Japan hands.

Yorkshire crops up again when describing his memorable
encounter with Honda Soichirô, at a time when Bownas was
acting as a consultant to UK motor manufacturers and writingon Japanese industry for the Financial Times. His literary flair
stretches to dialogue as well as description: "Stung by yet
another repeat of 'You should've brought an interpreter,' I
forgot my cool and came back with, 'If I'd known yourJapanese was as bad as it is, I'd have brought one.' A look ofshock was followed by a smile which turned into a broad
grin…Then he said, 'That was a real good'un, lad' - to put his
Japanese into my equivalent broad Yorkshire dialect."
The book includes many such lively incidents andpersonalities from the business world as well as other nonacademic involvements with Japan, ranging from the Tokyo
Olympics in 1964 to filming for the BBC's "Inside Japan"
series, and an exhausting portfolio of varied commitments
right up to 2005, including the Vice-Chairmanship of theJapan Society. But it is of course as Professor Geoffrey Bownasthat he is known for his authorship of books such as "ThePenguin Book of Japanese Verse" and "New Writing in Japan,"among others, and it is perhaps in his cultural sensitivities
and aesthetic analysis that he is at his very best, offering
revealing insights into the penumbra of Japanese poetics andthe atmospherics of the Japanese spirit. The culture isnevertheless always related to the changing social scene.
"Senzogaeri sentiment was widely felt and soon became thespur to action. Japanese canons were slowly put back into
place alongside newly adopted Western values and, by 1956,
the Japanese had settled down - their term, ochitsuita - andhad created a synthesis with which the great majority could
live happily."
The essay on "Japanese Aesthetic" is a master-class in itself
and it is Geoffrey Bownas' legacy as a great teacher thatcompletes the impact of "Japanese Journeys." The final
chapter, "From Japanology to Japanese Studies," although
based on his inaugural lecture as Professor of JapaneseStudies at Sheffield in 1966, is a fitting challenge to those who
still fail to recognise the importance of teaching language andculture in a social and economic context. He continues to fightthe fight whenever possible in public and in private.
The author himself describes the form of this book as a
miscellany. "Those who are familiar with Japan's literature
will recognize the zuisô or zuihitsu style. Zuisô is 'following athought, ' 'pursuing ideas,' zuihitsu is 'following the brush.'"One occasionally looks for more than the personal memoir,
and wishes there could have been a fuller account or more indepth analysis. There are a few unfulfilled hints, some minor
trivia remains undeveloped and the cross-referencing could
have been even more extensive for the curious reader. But all

2

The Thames and I - A Memoir of Two
Years at Oxford
by Crown Prince Naruhito,translated by Sir Hugh Cortazzi,
Global Oriental, 2006, ISBN 1-905246-06-4, 150 pages including
bibliography and index,
Review by Sean Curtin
Beyond the carefully crafted public personas, mostJapanese actually know relatively little about what theirimperial family are really like as private individuals. While thepersonal lives and intimate secrets of European Royals are
regularly splashed across newspapers, their Japanesecounterparts remain distant, cocooned above the clouds. It is
this inaccessibility which makes Crown Prince Naruhito's
memoir of his time at Oxford between 1983-85 such acompelling read.
The prince's book - basically a diary-cum-travel guide - isno great literary masterpiece, but it does reveal something of
his inner thoughts, offering an exceptionally rare glimpse of
the man who will one day occupy the Chrysanthemum
Throne.
Oxford has left a deep impression on him, which he openly
acknowledges: "This had been a happy time for me - perhaps
I should say the happiest time of my life" (page 142). It wasprobably the only extended period in his life he could live a
free, anonymous, semi-normal existence. The modern day
prince is sadly condemned to eternal pursuit by hordes ofrelentless paparazzi. Thus, a two-year release from suchtorment made Oxford a fantastic haven, constituting asignificant thread in the life-tapestry of the future monarch.

japansociety Japan Book Review: January 2006

A very limited, and hard-to-obtain, edition of the book was
original published in 1993 as part of the celebrations to markthe 125th anniversary of the founding of Gakushuin
University in Tokyo, so its emergence in English is extremely
welcome. The book was primarily aimed at Japanese
university students, and as such it also functions as a good testof the English reader's cross cultural knowledge. Those withlimited experience of Japan may occasionally find some of the
Prince's observations odd.
The early stages of the account read like Robert Heinlein's
Stranger in a Strange Land as the intrepid Prince struggles tomake sense of the alien world he now inhabits. Of his maiden
Oxford drinking foray he notes: "I wondered what sort of a
strange place I had come to….I can still remember that it wasat this moment sitting in the midst of the aroma of the beer andwatching the forms and gestures of the students in the gloomthat I realized I was in Oxford so far away across the sea" (page26). To ease the transition into this bewildering realm, heassumes a new name explaining, "I thought that 'Hiro' wasmuch easier for people to remember than 'Naruhito'"
One definite fact we gleam from this memoir is that the
Prince is a man who can hold his liquor, an ability which
greatly helps him navigate the liquid customs of Oxford aswell as smoothes his hob-knobbing with European Royals andaristocracy.
Sadly, the Prince does not reveal if he found love while at
Oxford, and his account is free of romantic references except
for one cryptic note: "On Valentine's Day there were cards
from various unknowns."

However, it wasn't all books, he also found time for tennis,
squash and rowing.
Hiro frequently proclaims his deep enchantment with thecity and its river, which he honours in the book title. He
confides, "even though the river is on the other side of the
globe the name of the Thames conjures up in me feelings ofaffection and nostalgia transcending distance and time. WhileI was at Oxford, the Thames was the prop of my life and of mystudies" (page 126).
As the book closes, Hiro departs Heathrow Airport toresume his life above the clouds as Crown Prince Naruhito,
observing, "As the London scene gradually disappeared fromview, I realized that an important chapter in my life wasover….I felt a large void in my heart and as I stared out of thewindows of the plane, I felt a lump in my throat."
Finally, a review would not be complete without a mentionof the considerable contribution made by the invisible man of
the saga, the translator Sir Hugh Cortazzi. The text flows
smoothly, with helpful, yet unobtrusive, footnotes. In the
preface the Prince thanks Sir Hugh "for the zeal and efforts hehas put into this project." It is true to say that without his
phenomenal energy and patient negotiations with theImperial Household this intriguing publication might never
have made it to the English printing press.
A different version of this review originally appeared in the Asia
Times.

However, his passionate love of music and deep intellect docome across clearly. At heart he is a thoughtful, gentle man
who has led a sheltered existence. Sometimes, his
unworldliness gives him a Peter Pan like air. For instance, headmits to feeling sorry for a parrot in an Oxford pet shop
because it "had not found a buyer." His ability to be constantly
moved by events and places also amplifies the sense ofyouthful wonder he experienced as he journeyed throughEngland's green and pleasant land.
He greatly enjoys photograph, telling us that he took over2000 pictures of Oxford. Before the dawn of the digital camera,
this meant frequent trips to the local photo shop where hestruck up a warm friendship with the staff. One day, they
invite him to a going-away tea party for one of their number.
Little did these ladies realize that the polite oriental gentleman
they are supping tea with is a prince and heir to the
Chrysanthemum Throne. In his own unique way, our Hirounwittingly reworks a scene from Shakespeare's Henry V.
Such ordinary encounters with everyday folk would be
impossible in his native land. When the jean-clad Prince wasoccasionally spotted by Japanese tourists as he wanderedaround Oxford, most could not believe the apparition. Such asight was almost irreconcilable with the immaculately clothedand saintly image of the Japanese Imperial family. It was thisfreedom and the alter ego it afforded that has made Oxford soimportant to the future emperor.
The Prince meticulously describes Oxford University lifeand Merton College traditions, which will probably fascinate
those who have not experienced them first hand. He alsodetails his research into the history of transport on the riverThames between 1750-1800. He is full of praise for his tutors,
especially Professor Mathias, Dr. Highfield and Dr. Morgan.

japansociety Japan Book Review: January 2006

Spitfires in Japan: From Farnborough to
the Far East,
by Air Vice-Marshal Sir Cecil (Boy) Bouchier,
Edited by Dorothy Britton (Lady Bouchier),
Global Oriental, 2005, 358 pages, ISBN 1-901903-44-3
Review by Ian Nish
This interesting book can be looked at from many different
perspectives. Basically it is the autobiography of a serviceman,
Cecil 'Boy' Bouchier (1895-1979) who, despite setbacks anddisappointments, worked his way through the ranks to3

positions of power and prestige in the Royal Air Force. At
another level it is a history of the RAF as a fighting force in the
UK and the British Empire. It is therefore a commentary on the
military history of Britain in the first half of the twentiethcentury.
The early chapters deal with Boucher's background,
education and service during the first world war in the
Honourable Artillery Company in the middle east. He thenswitched to the Royal Flying Corps, initially in Cairo. The
story then turns to a blossoming career in the RAF, much ofwhich in the 1930s concerns postings in India. Inevitably its
terminology is redolent of a former age, almost Kiplingesque :gharis, solar topis, tongas, shikar, chaukidar, for example. But
it was a time when Bouchier grew in confidence and we find
him in the 1930s training Indian pilots, both Hindus andMuslims, to serve in the embryo Indian Air Force.
His life-story hitherto had been a preparation for the war of
1939-45. He had become acquainted with Spitfires prewar andit was natural that he should command the station at
Hornchurch, on the Thames east of London, during the Battleof Britain. In 1944 he drew up the Fighter Air Cover Plan tocover the troop landings in Normandy as part of the allied
continental invasion. He was also involved in defence against
the attacks on London by V-I and V-II bombs in 1944-5.
Bouchier had 'a good war.' Despite all the unpleasantness inthe upper reaches of the RAF establishment (which are fully
chronicled), he survived and enhanced his reputation.
For the historian the last forty pages of the book are of
special significance. When the war in Europe ended, Bouchierbecame Air Vice-Marshal with command in Burma in time totake the Japanese surrender. He then served briefly inIndonesia and finally in the British Commonwealth Air Force(BCAIR) in Japan. He established a base at Miho on the JapanSea coast where he operated squadrons of Spitfires. Hence thetitle of this work. At times he acted as commander in chief ofthe British Commonwealth Occupation Force (BCOF) itself.
He stayed in Japan till 1948 when he retired from the service.
After a brief career with the Confederation of British
Industries (CBI), he was called back to duty in the summer of1950 after the start of the Korean War. His role was to act as gobetween between General Douglas MacArthur as Supreme
Commander Allied Powers (SCAP) and the British Chiefs ofStaff. Told by the latter not to commit Britain to sending any
British troops to Korea, Bouchier in one of the major
revelations of this book visited the front, surveying the Pusan
Bridgehead where the allied troops were engulfed, andstrongly recommended that a British force should be sent,
possibly a brigade from Hongkong. In London the Labour
government after weighing advice from many quarters
agreed. This is clearly a point of great historical interest andspecialists will wish to compare Bouchier's account with thatgiven by General Sir Anthony Farrar-Hockley in the official
history of British participation in Korea. But clearly theaccount left by a first-hand participant like Bouchier who had
the temerity to make recommendations contrary to his
instructions adds detail and colour to the hitherto publishedaccounts (p.301).
During the active phase of the Korean War Bouchier seems
to have played an influential role as a channel ofcommunication with MacArthur and his successors in Tokyo
and, by dint of travelling frequently to Korea itself, to haveliaised usefully with the troops there and their commanders.

4

The war dragged on and in November 1952 Bouchier asked tobe recalled after "two-and-a half years without a break"(p.330).
This life-story ends on a high note with a meeting with
Winston Churchill who had returned to power as prime
minister in 1951. Churchill saw Bouchier's daily reports from
Tokyo to the Chiefs of Staff and apparently wrote "I like
Bouchier's stuff." He was shown special courtesy when hewent as special guest to Sunday lunch at Chequers on 18
November 1952. Bouchier praises the "incredible warmth andkindness of Churchill" (p.338) as he had earlier praised thequalities of MacArthur with whom he had a specially cordial
relationship.
This volume presents us with a story of a kind which we are
not likely to see again after the end of empire. It was a life
made possible by the growing sophistication of aircraft andthe mobility that it gave to commanders like Bouchier. His
career had its high points but this was combined with personaltragedies. The sheer isolation of a service career and theconsiderable sacrifices entailed in separation from family in
war and peace were things that only a strong and optimistic
temperament like Bouchier's could bear. This straightforward
and attractively expressed memoir is accompanied by 35
illustrations which capture the many aspects of a variegatedcareer.

Reviews List
The following reviews are available on our website
www.japansociety.org.uk/reviews

AuthorGregory Ivine
Louis Frederic
John Swenson
WrightJeff Kingston

TatsuoKobayashi
Dr Ruth Taplin

Sadako Ogata

John Mock

Peter Slattery

Crown Prince
Naruhito
Sir Cecil
Bouchier
Hans
Brinckmann
Geoffrey
Bownas

Title

Reviewer

A Guide to Japanese Art
Collections in the UK
Japan Encyclopedia

Marie Therese
Barrett
Susan House
Wade
Unequal Allies? United States Sir Hugh Cortazzi
Security and Alliance Policy
towards Japan, 1945-1960
Japan's Quiet Transformation: Sean Curtin
Social Change and Civil
Society in the 21st century,
Jomon Reflections: Forager
life and culture in the prehis- Sir Hugh Cortazzi
toric Japanese archipelago
Valuing Intellectual property
in Japan, Britain and the
Sean Curtin
United States
The Turbulent Decade:Confronting the Refugee
Sir Hugh Cortazzi
Crises of the 1990s
Culture, Community and
Sean Curtin
Change in a Sapporo
Neighborhood, 1925-1988:
Hanayama
Reporting the Russo-Japanese Sir Hugh Cortazzi
War, 1904-5: Lionel James's
first wireless transmissions to
The Times
The Thames & I
Sean Curtin
Spitfires in Japan: From
Farnbourough to the Far East
Magatama Doodle

Ian NishJapanese Jouneys - Writingsand Recollections

Mike Barrett

Hazuki Saishojapansociety Japan Book Review: January 2006

wrote in his journal, Our destiny is to embrace life, not to
confront it."Did Hans bid farewell to Japan for good? I am not going totell you. All I can say is that his thoughts on Japan are moreconvincing than those of any other commentator, because
Hans witnessed first-hand how Japan recovered from defeat.
He lived through that period as a young man.
After putting the book down, I looked at the cover photo of
the young Hans standing on the ramp in front of an
airplane.For a moment I saw General McArthur arriving at
Atsugi airport superimposed on the image. But that's all
wrong - for Hans is far from an intimidating figure. He wears
a suit and a flower in his lapel, and he smiles. A boyish,mischievous smile.
This review originally appeared in Japanese in the national
edition of the mass-circulation Asahi Shimbun (24 April 2005) andwas translated by Hiromi Mizoguchi. The review is of the Japaneseedition of the book.

The Magatama Doodle - One Man's
Affair with Japan, 1950-2004,
by Hans Brinckmann,
Global Oriental,2004, 256 pages, ISBN 1-901903-73-7
Review by Hazuki Saisho
This is a memoir written by a former Dutch banker, Hans
Brinckmann. At the age of eighteen, he came to Japan, which
was still under US occupation.
He recalls that the Japanese could not travel abroad andlacked any signing authority. Such humiliating times theJapanese people had to live through, yet they were notbothered much by their situation. Although most of the
anecdotes are personal - about his Japanese colleagues at thebank, his friends in Kyoto, his wedding with a Japanese from
Nagoya - the book gradually takes shape through the writer's
sensitivity and firm, observant eye, and what emerges are twomain themes: an account of post-war Japan's high growth era
and the story of a young man's journey to maturity.
Hans was perhaps unaware that he was part of an elite:
foreigners who believed in Japan and helped the country getback on its feet. At the age of twenty-nine, he became Tokyo
branch manager and raised finance for Japanese industry,'guaranteed' by his own confidence in Japan - a task that musthave been more arduous than one can imagine. How did heconvince the headquarters? "I had faith in Japan." No wonder
he felt proud of Japan at the opening ceremony of the Tokyo
Olympic Games.
However, eventually the enchantment broke. Afterbecoming Japan area executive for an American Bank, hebegan to lose patience with the people from the Bank of Japanand the ministries. He could not stand their amae[presumption on the indulgence of others] and their stubborn
refusal to open the Japanese market to the world. The title ofthe book, The Magatama Doodle, derives from a habit henoticed among some Japanese men of authority: that ofdoodling imaginary comma-like figures [which to him
resembled ancient magatama beads] on the table wheneverthey wanted to avoid a decision. Hans, caught in the middle,

japansociety Japan Book Review: January 2006

The Turbulent Decade: Confronting theRefugee Crises of the 1990s,
by Sadako Ogata
W.W. Norton and Company of New York and London, 2005, ISBN
0-393-05773-9, 402 pages including index, appendices and maps.
Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi
Sadako Ogata was United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) between 1991 and 2000. Her book should
be read by all politicians and officials involved with issues ofinternational peace. It is a searing account of a series ofhumanitarian disasters which sadly show that man's
inhumanity to man has not altered despite the tragedies andslaughter of two World Wars.
Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General in his foreword, paying
tribute to the efforts of Sadako Ogata to relieve suffering,
noted that she left no stone unturned in her efforts to protect
the World's disposed.
While the end of the cold war brought to an end long-standing
conflicts it was followed by a proliferation of ethnic, tribal andreligious conflicts "in which population displacement was no5

longer a mere consequence of war, but often its very purpose.
The result was massive disorder, from the disintegration of
Yugoslavia to the genocide in Rwanda."
Mrs Ogata in her ten years as High Commissioner saw moretragedies and suffering than can be imagined by us who live
comfortable lives in developed countries. Rightly she does notpull her punches in her criticisms of governments and theirleaders for their failures to prevent the tragic consequences of
their action or inaction and the often inadequate responses ofthe leading powers represented on the UN Security Council tothe crises and tragedies brought to their attention.
Her book concentrates on four main crises although she wasinvolved in many more. She starts with the Kurdish refugee
crisis in Northern Iraq following the first Gulf War. She goeson to discuss the problems encountered in protecting refugees
in the Balkan Wars where the situation was complicated by
ethnic and religious aspirations and prejudices and where theinternational community failed to prevent massacres such asthat at Srebenica.
A major section of the book is devoted to the crises in the Great
Lakes Region of Central Africa where the international
community failed to prevent genocide. Her final section deals
with Afghanistan where the conflicts there led to huge
numbers of refugees.
Mrs Ogata stresses that while refugees had hitherto been
defined as people who had fled from their own countries
because of war and persecution the definition was inadequate
in the 1990s when the main problems were often those ofinternally displaced persons.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees was not supposed
to take sides in conflict situations or to be involved in politicaland security issues, but these limitations often could not be
adhered to for practical reasons, not least that of the safety ofUN personnel. Fortunately Mrs Ogata is a pragmatist with
common sense and sound judgement. She also has a strongly
developed sense of compassion for others.
The sights and sufferings which she saw with her own eyes
aroused her just anger and her determination not to be
browbeaten by anyone from Presidents downwards. The term
"ethnic cleansing" was to her "an aberration." In her heart she
knew that it was obscene and a perversion of the words.
She had, however, to accept that "the international response tohumanitarian crisis situations is largely determined by the
degree of strategic interests held by the major states." This
meant that she faced the greatest difficulties in Central Africa
where the interest of the major powers was limited although"The spreading conflict over Congo, if not a war between
France and the United States, had the character of a proxyrivalry, which adversely affected the settlement of peace in the
Great Lakes region with prolonged humanitarianconsequences." None of the major powers were prepared toprovide the military back-up needed to prevent genocide.
Among Mrs Ogata's biggest problems was how to protect
refugees and internally displaced persons as well as her own
staff and those of NGOs. In the Great Lakes area, she also had
to try to deal with the militarisation of refugee camps and theirinvolvement in local civil wars. Soldiers from the Rwandan
Hutu regime intimidated the refugees, preventing them fromreturning home, harassed international relief workers and6even confiscated their vehicles and equipment.
In Bosnia the UN Security Council failed to deal with the Serb
offensive over Srebenica. "It pronounced the designation ofsafe areas without providing adequate deterrent strength tothe peacekeepers to protect the areas. Then it prolonged
decisions on resorting to the use of air power.""Watching the bombs dropping from fifteen thousand feetwhile humanitarian agencies waited in vain to come to therescue of the people under bombardment, I began to question
the effectiveness of high technology warfare." As she also
points out, "The problems of refugees could not be settled
without resolving the conflicts that drove people to flee.""The donor countries were generally sympathetic to UNHCR's
needs…" but "they would not overstep the boundaries of theirgeopolitical or domestic interests in determining their positionin the Security Council or in resorting to bilateral action."
Mrs Ogata stresses that "The Administration of international
criminal justice was crucial to correcting the gross violations ofhuman rights and enforced displacements," but she deplores
the slowness of the system.
The failures of the international community in the final decadeof the twentieth century were overshadowed by the terrorist
attacks on the twin towers and a series of other terrorist
incidents. None of these were justified by the failures of theprevious decade, but the world powers should at least havelearnt the limits of armed force in solving the problems arisingfrom instability, tyranny and extremism whether inspired byreligion or ethnic jealousy.
Saddam Hussein in Iraq was a threat to peace, but his removal
was so mishandled that it may well have created more
problems than it solved. The war in Iraq also sadly diverted
attention from what many believe was genocide in Darfur
where huge numbers of people have been killed, persecutedand forced to flee. The international community has once
again failed to ensure the safety of the refugees and to punish
the Sudanese perpetrators of the persecution. The situation inother parts of Africa remains dire and we tend to overlook the
problems caused by civil strife in countries such as Sri Lanka
and Nepal.
Mrs Ogata, following her retirement from her post of UNHCR
and writing her book, was persuaded by Prime Minister
Koizumi to take on the task of President of JICA and thus
given responsibility for the administration of Japanese aid.
Sadly Japanese aid has been cut back and finance officials
seem determined to cut it back further. The fiscal problems of
the Japanese government are well known, but Japan is one of
the wealthiest countries in the world and the Japanese people
can hardly be proud of the fact that whereas in the past Japan
was the biggest donor of aid, her government is being
increasingly stingy.
Mrs Ogata must find the situation very galling especially after
she has devoted ten years of her life to the gruelling tasks
which she faced as UNHCR.

japansociety Japan Book Review: January 2006

Reporting the RussoJapanese War, 1904-5:
LionelJames's
firstwireless transmissions to
The Times
by Peter Slattery

Global Oriental, 2004, ISBN 1-901903-57-5, 144 pages including
appendices, bibliography, endnotes and index, plate section.
Review by Hugh Cortazzi

The bland title does not do justice to this little book which
can be read as an exciting adventure story as well as being aninteresting account of episodes in modern history.
These days with our mobile phones, satellite dishes anddigital radio sets we have come to regard instant worldwide
communication as a matter of course. In fact it was only one
hundred years ago that wireless telegraphy was first used bynewspapers to report on a war.
It required ingenuity and resourcefulness at The Times to
put in place a system using wireless telegraphy to report on
the Russo-Japanese War of 1904/5. This gave them initially a
few news scoops in a war in which an Asian power for the firsttime in the modern era defeated a major European state.
The 'hero' of this story is Lionel James, who had joined The
Times in 1899 and had reported for the paper on the Boer War.
In 1904 he was chosen by Charles Bell, then editor of the paper,to go to the Far East as a war correspondent.
James had become interested in wireless telegraphy toreport quickly on newsworthy events and was impressed by
the system developed by Lee de Forest, an American engineer.
James managed to travel from Liverpool to New York on the
Majestic on which de Forest was also booked. de Forest
persuaded James that his system, which enabled Morse code
to be sent faster than via the Marconi system, could be madeto work from ship to shore in the Far East over a range of up
to 170 miles. James would need a suitable ship and a shore
station with access to land cables. Bell was persuaded to allow
him to charter at the paper's expense a ship, the Haimun,
under an experienced British Master, and to establish a land
based station at Weihaiwei on the China coast which was thenadministered by Britain.
James and his team faced considerable technical difficulties
in rigging up sufficiently high masts both for the ship and on
land. Fortunately in Weihaiwei James, who was assisted byanother Scot, David Fraser, won the help of the civil and naval
authorities in the base where Scots held all the important
positions. James also initially gained the support of theJapanese authorities through Admiral Saito, who agreed to
put a Japanese naval officer Commander Tonami on board toact as censor of their reports.
Initially in the spring of 1904 James from the Haimun,
operating in the Yellow Sea, managed to achieve some
impressive scoops. His ship was also a useful source ofjapansociety Japan Book Review: January 2006

intelligence for the Japanese, but James soon ran into trouble.
The Russians protested and accused him of being a spy. The
naval authorities in the Far East were angry with him forerecting a base station without permission from thecommander-in-chief in the Far East.
The Admiralty, the Foreign Office and the Colonial Office
were not prepared to support him and the Japanese decided
not to allow his ship to return to anywhere near the fighting.
Bell in London was impatient and fretted at the costs. James's
hopes of further scoops were thus dashed. The Haimun
charter was ended, the masts at Weihaiwei were dismantled
and the American signallers sent home.
James had to join the other war correspondents, whom theJapanese army treated roughly. He nevertheless got to
Manchuria and witnessed the Japanese victory at Liaoyang.
He managed to send his lengthy and uncensored report on
this victory by a telegram sent from Chinese territory after adifficult escape from Manchuria, having borrowed thenecessary funds for the cable from George Morrison, thePeking correspondent of The Times.
Not all the personalities who appear in the book were men.
Yei Theodora Ozaki, who also features in the Japan Society's
Biographical Portraits Volume V, joined the Times staff on theship but could not cope with sea-sickness in the bad weather
in the Yellow Sea. Anne Vaughan-Lewis, the wife of a senior
RN officer, who was given a passage on the ship, made adrawing of the Japanese fleet as it left Port Arthur andwitnessed the sinking of the Russian ship Petropavlovsk with
Admiral Makaroff on board after it had struck a mine.
Sir Claude MacDonald, the British Minister in Tokyo, who
was the subject of a portrait by Ian Nish in BiographicalPortraits Volume I and British Envoys in Japan, was regarded
as feeble by both James and Morrison.

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7divisions within the universities are being created to promote
this process.
Japan is attempting to invent its way out of economic inertia as it has done in the past and in the process is re-evaluating
everything from brand valuation to the role of entrepreneurship to university-industry relationships; providing lessons
that can be learned from globally.
In many respects, Japan has been neglected, despite it being
the second largest economy in the world, especially in relation
to patents and IP. According to the book, Japan has not been
given prominence in specialized literature because of the language barrier, its inward looking tendencies, the complexity ofthe patent system, which is the book skilfully demystifies, andvarious cultural practices.

Valuing Intellectual property in Japan,
Britain and the United States,by Dr. Ruth Taplin (Ed)
RoutledgeCurzon Press, May 2004, ISBN 0-415-34112-4, 160 pages
Review by Sean Curtin
Ruth Taplin has compiled a stimulating, and in many
respects ground-breaking, book which comprehensively covers a topic of vital importance to the rapidly evolving global
economy. The book addresses the urgent need to re-evaluate
risk and understand the true value of intellectual property (IP)in the light of the fact that intangible assets comprise up to 70
per cent of the assets of most major companies today.
The book's various contributors provide the reader with aclear and balanced overview of the emerging issues surrounding the valuing of intellectual property.
It also points to profound changes occurring in Japan concerning IP that have hitherto been unrecorded, especially inEnglish language literature. The days of valuing IP as the solepreserve of accountants and lawyers are apparently in thepast, and it has now become an interdisciplinary exercise
involving business practitioners, insurance specialists, financiers, business analysts, venture capitalists and those who holdintellectual property assets such as media publishing, pharmaceuticals, electronics, software and universities.
In the book, experts in their field explain how the interdisciplinary nature of valuing IP is evolving with for example thegrowth in insurance solutions to protect IP. Within this context, the work assesses the growth of IP in different sectors in
relation to national agendas in the countries that have mostinfluenced these developments, mainly the USA, Britain andJapan. The United States recognised the value of IP with thelandmark Bayh-Dole amendment which also influenced
Britain and Japan.
The reader also learns that the Technical Licensing
Organisation (TLO) has spread to Britain and Japan where it
has been modified and cross-influenced the USA's TLO systemwith the latter now bringing forth issues concerning the reappraisal of valuing IP at the point of commercialisation fromuniversities to industry.

This book redresses such omission, especially in English
language literature, by chronicling and explaining all the current changes happening in Japan with respect to IP in a clear
and coherent fashion, which shows the inter-connections
between these processes in the USA and Britain all within aninterdisciplinary context.
The valuing of intellectual property is an art not a scienceand this stimulating book is a must-read for all those involved
or connected to intellectual property and its valuation in any
form.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE A REVIEWER?
We are currently looking for members who would like tojoin the review team. If you are interested in becoming areviewer please fill out the slip below and return it to the secretariat:
The Japan Society
Swire House
59 Buckingham Gate
LondonSW1E 6AJ
Email: culture@japansociety.org.uk
We would particularly like to hear from those memberswith the following areas of specialization:
Arts
Business
Education
Film
History
History of Trade Relations
Photography
Political Diplomacy
Translation
We would ask reviewers to review one or two books per year
according to their preference and availability of books intheir chosen area.

Japan has recently privatised all its universities to facilitate
cooperation with industry in licensing inventions. Unique IP

japansociety Japan Book Review: January 2006

8