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Japan-UK Review
Japan Book Review - Japan Stage, Movie, Arts and Event Review

Volume 2 No. 1 February 2007

Editor: Sean Curtin

Contents

Managing Editor: Clare Barclay
ur first issue of 2007 features a major new Japanese book on theSecond World War, "Who Was Responsible?" which has generated
considerable international debate. We also review other books on
the topic which examine different aspects of Japan's wartime past. You will
also find the usual broad selection of stimulating reviews on the latest books
about Japan. In this issue we look at new works on Japanese literature, Sake
brewing, administrative reforms and have a special section on books about
early European travellers to Japan. You will find exclusive special offers on
many of the books reviewed. Please remember that this publication only
represents a fraction of the reviews available on our website. We also review
movies, the stage, arts and Japan related events. Japan-UK Review isconstantly adding new on-line articles, so it is definitely worth a weekly visit
to the homepage.

O

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

1) Who Was Responsible? From
Marco Polo Bridge to Pearl Harbor
2) Hirohito and the Making ofModern Japan
3) Representing the Other inModern Japanese Literature4) The Book of SAKE, a
Connoisseur's Guide
5) Administrative Reform in Japan
6) Secret Memoirs of the Shoguns:
Isaac Titsingh and Japan, 1779-1822
7) Japan Extolled and Decried Carl
Peter Thunberg and the Shogun's
Realm, 1775-1796

Japan Book Review
Who WasResponsible? From
Marco Polo Bridge
to Pearl Harbor,
Edited by James E. Auer,
The Yomiuri Shimbun, 2006,
ISBN4-643-06012-3, 410 pages
including index, £20, available
through JP-Books (UK) Ltd,
Lower
GroundFloor(Mitsukoshi), Dorland House,
14-20 Regent Street, London
SW1Y 4PH. Tel:. 020 7839
4839. Fax: 020 7925 0346
(e-mail: jp-bookslondon@lineone.net.)
Special 10% discount on this book by quoting your Japan
Society membership at the store or in mail order purchases.
Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi
Tsuneo Watanabe, the editor-in-chief of the Yomiuri
Shimbun, which has a circulation of over ten million, thelargest of any Japanese newspaper, established in 2005 a
committee of Japanese journalists. The committee was toproduce a careful historical analysis with the aim of telling theJapanese people, a majority of whom were born after the war:
"Who was responsible for starting the Sino-Japanese War and
the Pacific War, why they did so and why the nation kept
fighting until many of its cities had been almost completely
reduced to ashes." The committee worked for fourteen months
studying a wide range of documents and sources. This book in
English and two volumes in Japanese contain the findings ofthis committee.
While this book inevitably cannot tell the whole story it is adevastating critique of Japan's leadership in the Showa War
which the Yomiuri calls the period 1931-45. It does not pull
any punches. It states boldly that "Japan misread theprevailing international situation in 1941 when it went to war
against the United States." Japan failed to formulate
realistically its war aims or an exit strategy. "For Tojo andothers the establishment of the Greater East Asia Coprosperity Sphere through war with the United States andBritain was Japan's last resort to make China surrender." TheJapanese army's refusal to withdraw from China scuppered
any hope in 1941 that War could be avoided. A comparison in1940 between the national strength of Japan and the USA in
1940 (page 115) reveals the extent of Japan's gamble inattacking America. The misreading of intelligence,
assessments based on wishful thinking, combined with coverups of failures made defeat inevitable. Prime Minister General
Hideki Tojo was for instance only informed of the defeat at thebattle of Midway "more than a month later (page 149)."
The report makes clear that the army and the navy werejapansociety

Japan-UK Review: February 2007

frequently in discord. The cliques in both services exacerbatedthe situation. After the war ended Tojo told (page 150) former
foreign minister Mamoru Shigemitsu: "The fundamental
reason [for Japan's defeat] was the lack of control. The Prime
Minister…did not have the authority to control the reins of its
military forces."
Intrigues and deliberate disobedience by relatively juniorofficers of orders from Tokyo led to the escalation of the war
in China and to appalling mistakes in other theatres which
resulted in vast numbers of military and civilian casualties.
The Guadalcanal campaign in 1942 in which 20,000 Japanese
troops died (15,000 as a result of starvation) was "a tragedy
born in a war without strategy."
Japan's political leaders are shown to have been criminallyculpable. Hideki Tojo is held by the Yomiuri as "mostresponsible." The second most guilty man was Prime Minister
Fumimaro Konoe who allowed "the Japanese military to act
on its own." But others, including middle-ranking officers,
some of who did not face trial before the Tokyo International
Military Tribunal, are also condemned by the Yomiuri. These
include other politicians as well as military and naval figures.
Prime Ministers Hirota and Koiso as well as Kido, the Lord
Privy Seal, are sharply criticized. Foreign minister Matsuoka
and Lt General Oshima, Japanese ambassador to Nazi
Germany, who consistently overestimated Germany's chancesof victory, are condemned not least for pushing the disastrous
tripartite pact with Germany and Italy. The members of theDiet are rightly censured for their failure to do anything
effective to hold the government responsible for its failures.
The list is long and convincing.
Tojo's cabinet was described (page 204) by Prince
Takamatsu, the Emperor's younger brother, as "a regime ofterror which will stop at nothing." He is said to have asked
Morisada Hosokawa: "Is there no one who will assassinate
him?" The plots which were made to oust Tojo from office arean appalling indictment of the machinery of government in
war-time Japan.
The Yomiuri emphasises that more than 3.1 million
Japanese died in the Showa war. Of these some 800,000 were
civilians. Although Japan initially won some astounding
victories there was never any chance that Japan could be
victorious in a full scale war with the United States. By 1944 at
the latest it should have been clear to Japanese leaders thatJapan had lost and should sue for peace, but Japan's militarywere fanatical, blind and obstinate. They would not admit
defeat. Even after the devastating fire-bomb raids on Tokyo in
March 1945 and the occupation of Okinawa following aninternecine struggle involving huge casualties on both sides
they preferred to fight to the death on the mainland. Prime
Minister Admiral Kantaro Suzuki, who was old and deaf,
wanted to find a way out, but Foreign Minister Togo wrongly
thought that the Soviet Union could be used as anintermediary. Suzuki unwisely responded to the Potsdam
declaration that Japan's position was one of mokusatsu which
was interpreted as meaning that Japan would ignore it. The
atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August1945 were the American response and delivered the coup degrace. Admiral Mitsumasa Yonai, one time Japanese Prime
Minister, is recorded as having said (page 201) that "the atomic
bombings and Soviet entry into the war are, in a sense, agodsend because we don't have to say that we'll stop the war
due to the domestic situation."
The Yomiuri, however, for understandable reasonscriticises the Americans for the use of the atomic bombs andfor the indiscriminate bombing of civilian targets. It alsocondemns Soviet behaviour in violating the non-aggression
pact and for the mistreatment of Japanese prisoners after the2war.
The role of the Showa Emperor has not been ignored. The
Yomiuri concludes that his behaviour was within theframework for a constitutional head of state. He did from time
to time express misgivings often in elliptical language such as
quoting a poem by his grandfather the Emperor Meiji and it isclear that he was not always properly and fully informed ofwhat was happening in the field. He did finally intervene,
when the cabinet asked for his decision, and he confirmed that
the Potsdam declaration should be accepted. Could he andshould he have been more explicit in his criticisms? Would
attempts have been made to replace him by his brother Prince
Chichibu if he had done so? These are some of the questions
which remain unanswered.
This book deserves to be widely read and the Yomiuri are
to be congratulated on producing this study in the face of theattempts of Japanese revisionist historians to declare that the
war was a defensive one. It does not, however, tell the wholestory. While a brief account of General Mutaguchi's campaign
at Imphal is given the war against British possessions in East
Asia is hardly covered at all. The appalling treatment of the
population of Singapore by General Yamashita is not
mentioned. Nor is there any mention of the building of the
Burma-Siam railway and the mistreatment of allied prisonersof war there and elsewhere in South East Asia. Even the
horrific Bataan death march is ignored. While these events
may not be considered to justify the atom bombs they do
explain why Japan was so widely hated in allied countries in
1945.
The book does not exempt Japanese leaders for theirwanton sacrifice of Japanese youth in the kamikaze attacks,
but these together with the fanatical behaviour of someJapanese soldiers in the field and the absurd rhetoric ofJapanese military leaders were important factors inpersuading allied leaders that extreme measures had to betaken if mass casualties were to be avoided in an attack on theJapanese mainland.
The debate about whether the atomic bombs should or
should not have been used will continue for generations.
More attention should perhaps be paid to the question ofwhether the allied adherence to "unconditional surrender"
was wise and sensible in the wars against Germany and Japan.
If the allies had indicated that they were willing to negotiate,
could the war have been ended earlier?
The main lacuna in this book is that it fails to analyse how
it came about that the Japanese military took independentaction and were allowed to get away with insubordination if
not treason. Reference is made to the ordinance first instituted
in 1900 whereby the Ministers of the Army and the Navy had
to be senior serving officers thus giving the army and the navy
a veto on the formation of Japanese cabinets. But this is a
symptom not the cause of the problem which lies in thegrowth of Japanese nationalism and imperialism. The Meiji
government decided that to unify the country the position of
the Emperor should be strengthened. Unfortunately this led tothe development of the cult of the Emperor and of state
Shinto. Concepts of "national polity" were elaborated andextreme nationalist and right wing organizations wereallowed to develop. If these facets had been covered in any
depth it would have meant discussing the whole of modern
Japanese history, but a chapter could surely have been
devoted to the philosophical and psychological background to
Japanese actions and behaviour in the Showa war.
The book points out some of the lessons to be learnt. Someof these are relevant to the current conflict in Iraq. These are
the importance of accurate intelligence and unbiased
reporting, objective interpretation and analysis of intelligence,japansociety Japan-UK Review: February 2007

a willingness to recognize the facts of what is happening on
the ground, and a readiness to acknowledge failure. War aims
need to be fully thought through and an exit strategy worked
out in advance.
Although this is a minor point, the bibliography ismisleading. It states that "There are only a small number ofEnglish language academic books about Japan's war history
covering the first half of the 20th century up until World War
II." I am not an expert in this field but there are many books in
English known to me which should have been listed.

Hirohito and theMaking of Modern
Japan,
By Herbert P. Bix,
Harper-Collins, New York, 2000,
800 pages, ISBN 0060931302
Review by Ben-Ami Shillony

More than ten years after his death, Hirohito (or Emperor
Showa as he is now called) continues to draw attention andgenerate controversy. To many people in the world hepersonifies Japan's aggression before and during World War II,
its extraordinary postwar recovery, and the intricate
continuities between the two periods. Most of the writings
about him focus on his role in the "Fifteen Year War" (whichlasted for less than fourteen years). Almost everything he didprior to that upheaval is considered as preparation for it, andmost of what he did after the war is treated as a consequenceof it. The book under review, the largest and most detailed
biography of Hirohito in English, follows that pattern.
Superbly written, meticulously researched, and vigorously
advertised, it received the 2000 National Book Critics Award
for Biography and Autobiography, and the 2001 Pulitzer Prize
for General Non-Fiction. Its main thesis contends that
Hirohito, contrary to the conventional view that he was mostly
a titular figure, was the actual wartime leader of Japan who
decided on strategy and operations. After the defeat, with thehelp of the American occupation which needed hiscooperation, he contrived a massive cover-up of his wartime
role. This enabled him to conceal his culpability and to remainon the throne. Hirohito's refusal to assume responsibility
distorted the nature of postwar democracy and pacifism andprevented the Japanese from confronting their past.
Blaming Hirohito for the war is not a new idea. Thirty years
ago, David Bergamini, in his controversial book Japan's
Imperial Conspiracy (William Morrow, 1971), accused theemperor of instigating the war and of personally ordering theatrocities. Four years later, the Japanese historian Inoue
Kiyoshi, in his Tenno no senso sekinin (Gendai hyoron-sha,1975), described Hirohito as a reckless reactionary responsible
for the war. In the last decade, Herbert Bix broached his theoryof the emperor as the war leader in his article "The Showa
Emperor's 'Monologue' and the Problem of War
Responsibility" (Journal of Japanese Studies, Summer 1992),
while Irokawa Daikichi in his book The Age of Hirohito: In
Search of Modern Japan (Free Press 1995) accused Hirohito forjapansociety Japan-UK Review: February 2007

failing to prevent the war. The postwar cover up has been
expounded in John W. Dower's book Embracing Defeat: Japan in
the Wake of World War II (Norton, 1999).
In this volume, Bix puts to final rest the belief that theemperor was an uninformed, helpless puppet in the hands ofthe military. Very few would argue with him over that. But heturns to the other extreme, claiming that Hirohito was the"major protagonist" (p. 520) of the war. Other historians,
examining more or less the same material, reached different
conclusions. Stephen S. Large, in his Emperor Hirohito & Showa
Japan (Routledge, 1992), found that the emperor was involvedin the war as an informed observer and as a sanctioner ofmilitary plans, but he never initiated, decided or dictatedpolicy. Hata Ikuhiko, in his Showa tenno itsutsu no ketsudan(Bungei shunju, 1994), claimed that during the years 19371945 Hirohito made only one important decision, that ofending the war. Peter Wetzler, in his recent book Hirohito andWar: Imperial Tradition and Military Decision Making in Prewar
Japan (University of Hawaii Press, 1998), pointed out that inaccordance with the political tradition of Japan, the emperor
was only one of several participants in the decision making
process. Therefore he had to be consulted, but could notdictate to others. Wetzler dismisses the theory that Hirohito
was a frustrated peace lover, but he rejects Bix's claim (aspresented in the 1992 article), that the emperor led Japan inwar. On the basis of the wartime records, he concludes that
Hirohito was well informed on military planning, was often
consulted, occasionally made suggestions, but at no time did
he determine strategy in the manner of a Western commander
in chief.
Bix bases his theory on the vast powers that the emperor
wielded, on the aggressive edicts, orders, and declarations that
he issued, and on the hawkish persons that he appointed toleadership positions. Indeed, the Meiji constitution establishedthe emperor as a supreme ruler, invested him with the powers
to declare war and determine policy, and gave him directcommand over the armed forces. Bix claims that this derived
from "the ancient notion that the emperor was the medium
through which the gods worked their will (p. 54)." Therefore
Hirohito was burdened with "enormous responsibilities fromwhich he could have no escape so long as he ruled (p. 442)."
Yet the historic facts are different. In both the ancient tradition
and the modern practice, the emperors were symbolic rulers,sanctioning the policies of those whom they had officially"chosen," but who in fact gained power by their own means.
The Meiji constitution removed responsibility from theemperor and invested it in his government. All the rescripts,
edicts, and declarations of the emperor, which Bix quotes
extensively and to which he attaches great importance, werecomposed by the cabinet or other government organs. All theappointments that he "made" had been decided in advance byothers and "humbly submitted" to him for approval. All the
military orders that he "issued" had been formulated by thearmed forces and presented to him for signature. On someoccasions his personal views were taken into consideration,but except for August 1945, he was never expected to make amajor decision.
The rest of the review is online:
http://www.japansociety.org.uk/reviews/07hirohito.html

3Events Review
Lord
Memoirs
Asia

Mayor'son EastDavid Brewer, the former Lord
Mayor of London: "The Japan
Society is doing a great job in promoting UK-Japan relations andemphasizing the importance ofJapan to the UK economy."
Read this review online
http://www.japansociety.org.uk/reviews/06lordmayor.html

Europe andPerspective,

Japan:A

Historicalby Sir Hugh Cortazzi,
Annual Meeting of the Canon Foundation in Europe, theCanon Foundation, Windsor, Saturday 11th November 2006
Read this review online
http://www.japansociety.org.uk/reviews/06canonfoundation.html

Representing the
Other in Modern
Japanese
Literature: A
Critical Approachby Rachel Hutchinson andMark Williams
Routledge, 2006, 345 pages
including notes and index,
ISBN 978-0-415-36185-9
Reviewed by Suefen Tsai
Identity is the product of the process of associations anddissociations that simultaneously shapes and is shaped bysocial and discursive practices. As such, self-definition is often
posited in the binary structure of phenomenology, with a Self
that engages in an ongoing dialogue and negotiation with an
Other. As editors Rachael Hutchinson and Mark Williams notein their introduction to Representing the Other in Modern
Japanese Literature: A Critical Approach, a new substantive volume in the discussion on Japanese identity, "We define one
thing in terms of another thing, or indeed in terms of a 'notthing,' in order to seek some kind of truth as to the essence ofthe thing defined" (page 3). The Self and the Other are thus
symbiotic agents in the formation of identity which are attimes complementary and inclusive and at other times contrasting and exclusive. The fluidity and complexity of the Self
and Other relationship is what invites attention and interrogation, or as Hutchinson and Williams explains, "Rather thanspeaking in terms of a binary system of two opposed singular
entities, therefore, we must speak in terms of negotiation,
blurred and shifting boundaries, and conclude that it is in theprocess of contact, observation, and representation that identi-

4

ty is defined" (page 7). The goal is to advance the discussionof identity from a reductive and essentialised understandingof the Self and Other to a nuanced exploration of their dialogic relationship.
The product of this endeavour is Representing the Other inModern Japanese Literature: A Critical Approach, a collection of
essays by a select group of accomplished Japan scholars
analysing the narrativisation of the Self and Other by various
Japanese writers of the twentieth century, with a particularfocus on how these constructions are mediated by socio-political contexts at various junctures in Japan in the last century
and these writers' personal persuasions and experiences.
These essays tease out the motivations that drive the deliberate (dis)associations with the Other crafted by Japanese
authors and how the Japanese identity is molded by the intersubjective contestations between the Self and Other.
The Japanese authors whose works are studied in this volume range from those whose names are familiar to westernreaders, such as Natusme Soseki and Yukio Mishima, to those
not so well-known outside of Japan, such as Kajii Motojiro andOshiro Tatsuhiro in order to show what Hutchinson andWilliams have termed, "the wide spectrum of writers engaged
in the critical apprehension of the Other" (page 9). The essays
in this volume reveal how the malleable Self and Other are
shaped by a confluence of issues ranging from gender, race,(post)colonialism, orientalism, modernity, national identity,
power dynamics, to materiality and spirituality.
Underpinning these essays is Michel Foucault's theory of discursive power which asserts that power and knowledge ismanifested through the language of creation and Jacques
Lacan's theory of unfulfilled and fragmented yearning for theother, whereby the imagined Other becomes a Doppelgänger
of the Self's own desires and uncertainties.
Irmela Hijiya-Kirschnereit's essay "Hermes and Hermès:
Othernesses in modern Japanese literature" and Susan
Napier's chapter entitled "Meet me on the other side:
Strategies of Otherness in modern Japanese literature" are fitting works to initiate this discussion on the Self and Other as
the former provides a necessary discussion on how Japan's
encounters with foreign cultures (from Chinese to Americanand European) developed concepts of Otherness in Japanese
literature and the latter engages issues of gender tension, division and unity of the Self and Other, and the permeability ofthe boundary between Self and Other. These ideas form thefoundation that the remainder of the book rests on, which is
divided into three parts, each engaged with a particular category of "Other."Part I concerns "The Outside Other," which focuses on theconceptualization of foreign others by Japanese writers who
were traveling abroad such as Nagai Kafu, Tanizaki Jun'ichiro
and Yokomitsu Riichi. Rachael Hutchinson's discussion of
Nagai Kafu's Tales of America, Adrian Pinnington's essay on
Tanizaki Jun'ichiro's relativisation of orientalist paradigms,
and Stephen Dodd's exploration of Kajii Motojiro's negotiationof Selfhood in the face of encroaching western influences show
how the Western Other is used as a trope through whichpower, freedom, agency gender roles, and colonial legacy arenegotiated by the Self and Other. Furthermore, Japan's
ambivalence towards its identity vis-à-vis the foreign Other isrevealed in Douglas Slaymaker's analysis of Yokomitsu
Riichi's works, which demonstrates how "Japan oscillated
between its identity as a colonizing imperial power even as it
was a member of a subjugated, colonized Asia" (page 111). In

japansociety Japan-UK Review: February 2007

some cases, the foreign Other is a symbol of advancement andfreedom that juxtaposes against Japan's restrictive Confucianworld-order; while in others, it is a metaphor for the anxietiesof modernity that are overtaking traditional Japanese society.
In all cases, however, the foreign Other functions as a mirror
for self-reflection and self-critique for the Japanese Self.

of 'Orientalism' that turns against its Asian neighbors the superiority of a Western modernity that it had only recently
acquired for itself" (page 272). The liminal Other thus
becomes a vehicle to challenge the notion of a monolithic
Japanese Self as well as a driving force in the hybridization of
the Japanese identity.

Part II is focused on "The Other inside Japan," which deals
with those who are considered Japanese but who perceive
themselves on the periphery of the Japanese society, such as
the burakumin (whom Mark Morris calls "Japan's invisible
minority" (page 128) and the hibakusha (the atomic bomb survivors). Mark Morris and James Raeside's respective analysis
on the treatment and representation of the burakumin alterityin Shimazaki Toson and Noma Hiroshi's works highlight theothering process existent within the Japanese society andinterrogate the constitution of the Japanese Self. David Stahl's
analysis of Oe Kenzaburo's reconstitution of the postwar identity of the hibakusha further questions how the progressively
reified hibakusha became "objects of political manipulation andcontestation" (page 213) and how "self-serving conflation ofcollective Self and Hiroshima Other" (page 212) gave voice tothe myth of national victimization. The perennial struggles
by the burakumin to gain acceptance and agency in the wider
Japanese society, often by effacing their own identity, reveal
the cleavages within the Japanese Self just as the constructionof the hibakusha as an abstracted symbol of the victimized
Japanese Self functions as a manifestation of Japanese wartime
and postwar ideology and politics. The soul-searching
regarding Japan's role during and after World War II is further
elucidated in Mark Williams' essay on the works of Shiina
Rinzo, who is traditionally recognized as the representative
writer of the Sengoha (après guerre) literary coterie. According
to Williams, the legacy of Sengoha's literary texts is best
assessed as the voice of theJapan's marginalized andoppressed working-class masses. Namely, Sengoha's mostenduring contribution is "the concomitant vision of otherness
as a more positive element, as a liberating concept, one inwhich difference is celebrated and in which the existence ofsuch an opposition can be used as a means of positive affirmation as opposed to negative rejection" (page 238). The
essays in this section direct attention to not only the complicity and culpability of the Self in the formation of these various
constituents of the Internal Others, but also (and perhaps
more interestingly), to how the emerging agency and empowerment of the Internal Other complicates the Self.

An interesting motif found in all three parts of this volume
is the use of the female as a site for identity exploration. Susan
Napier introduces a vision of the female extrapolated from
Natsume Soseki's works as "an uncanny repository of the past"and "a mediator to an Other world that the contemporary malecan no longer penetrate" (page 41). Rachael Hutchinson analyses how feminist readings of Nagai Kafu's narratives wade
into implications of power relations between men and womenand how the domination and submission in these relationships
are "read as metaphors for racial domination, colonialism, andslavery" (page 59). Rebecca Copeland discusses how the rendering of the Japanese female into a marginalized Other is subverted by the female protagonist in Uno Chiyo's epistolary
work, who "uses her pen not only to bridge the gap between
herself and her husband, but to reaffirm, to rewrite herself"(page 178). Leith Morton expands on the agency of Oshiro
Tatsuhiro's yuta in re-asserting the Okinawan identity against
the double-coloniality of Japanese control and American occupation. Faye Yuan Kleeman reads the Taiwanese female protagonists in Sato Haruo's fiction as a symbol of a "modern
protest against the feudalistic disencranchisement of women."
These examples are only a handful of the unique and thoughtprovoking themes on women found in Representing the Other inModern Japanese Literature: A Critical Approach. The richness of
this topic justifiably argues for an independent section of "theFemale Other." Perhaps the readers will be privileged to an
expanded edition including such a section in the near future.

Part III analyses "The Complicated Other of the Liminal,"
those who weren't Japanese but were forced to become
Japanese as a result of Japanese colonialism in Asia, such as
the Taiwanese, Koreans, and Okinawans. The liminal Other
are those who occupy the middle ground and question
whether the Other can ever become the Self. Leith Morton
examines the Okinawan Other through yuta, the mantic
female (shamans), in Oshiro Tatsuhiro's fiction and concludes
that "Okinawa and its culture became an 'other' inside Japan,
a mirror in which the Japanese could re-envision and re-interpret their own cultural and literary tradition" (page 257).
Similarly, Cahterine Ryu asserts that Yi Yang-Ji's texts show
how "the presence of zainichi Koreans has necessitated a more
finely calibrated notion of 'Japaneseness,'" and that "at thelevel of perception, zainichi Koreans confound the very physical and linguistic distinction between the Japanese Self andthe Other" (page 313). Using Sato Haruo's writings as examples of how the Japanese marginalized the Taiwanese with aconstructed "primitiveness," Faye Yuan Kleeman illustrates
how "Japanese colonialism is founded upon a Japanese brandjapansociety Japan-UK Review: February 2007

The textualisation and contextualisation of the Other is brilliantly and convincingly argued in Representing the Other inModern Japanese Literature: A Critical Approach, enlightening thereaders to not only multiple interpretations of the Other but
the elasticity of the Self as well. Taken together, the essays inthis volume successfully persuade the reader to view identity
as a process of "becoming" rather than of "being" and recognizethat identity is a shifting consciousness conditioned by theinteraction and negotiation between the Self and Other. Thisdelightfully well-written book is a highly recommended reading for all students of Japan studies.

Japan Perspectives
Japan's
Strategy,

GlobalKoji Omi, Japan's Minister ofFinance,
Chatham House, London,
Friday 12 January 2007
Koji Omi, Minister of Finance:"It is important to improve
cultural relations between
Japan and the UK."
Review by Sean Curtin
Read this review online
http://www.japansociety.org.uk/reviews/07omi.html

5

The Book of SAKE, a
Connoisseur's Guide,by Philip Harper,
Kodansha International, 2006, 96 pages, 150
colour photographs, ISBN 4770029985,
hardback £14.99

traditional pattern of sake being brewed and consumed in
one-and-a-bit year cycle is still prevalent" but there areyounger types coming to the market as well as more mature
varieties. So we don't have to drink our sake young although"vintage" is not a term to apply to good sake.
Interesting aspects of sake which emerge from Harper's study
are the colourful labels with their often idiosyncratic
calligraphy, the shapes of the bottles and other containers
including the kegs or barrels used in celebrations.

Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi
I used to be asked sometimes by people who had neverbeen to Japan "Do you like sake?" This is rather like asking
you when you have been to France whether you like wine!
Sake, as this guide explains, is as varied as wine. It can bequaffed simply as a good drink or savoured by the
connoisseur.
Sake used not to be generally available in Britain. Now sakebrands can be bought in some supermarkets as well as inJapanese food shops and of course in the proliferating
Japanese restaurants. Sake is becoming an increasingly
popular beverage in Britain. But there are still far fewer sakeconnoisseurs than wine buffs over here. This guide should
help to redress the balance and increase the enjoyment of sake,even if it is likely to be many years before there are as manydifferent sake brands on sale in Britain as there are of wine.
While sake has been brewed outside Japan e.g. in
California, it is essentially a Japanese drink and it seems
unlikely that sake will ever be produced in as many countries
as wine and beer. Most imbibers of sake understandably
consider that sake goes best with Japanese cuisine, but Philip
Harper notes the Japanese saying "nihonshu wa ryori wo
erabanai" which he translates freely as "sake does not get into
fights with food." He declares that "sake goes well with many
non-Japanese dishes" including Western, Chinese and Indian
food. Many readers will take some convincing that the true
flavours of sake can be tasted with a hot Indian curry, but
Harper is a true sake convert and like many converts is anextreme enthusiast for his favourite tipple!
The book is in four chapters. The first explains to the reader
what sake is all about and deals among other topics with suchquestions as the temperature at which sake should be drunk
and the type of cups to use. Sake can be drunk hot, luke- warmor cold depending on the mood and taste of the drinker, theseason and the food which accompanies the sake. The second
chapter describes the different types of sake and thespecialised vocabulary which is part of sake lore.
The third chapter, which introduces the reader to local
breweries and sake styles, includes twenty pages devoted to
local sake types and producers. Once you get to know a few ofthese "jisake" you may well find that you develop a contempt
for the popular brands in much the same way as theconnoisseur of 'real ale' feels about the run of the mill pub
beers belonging to the major chains.
The fourth chapter entitled "The Brewer's Craft" explains
the various stages in brewing sake from the treatment of the
raw material (polished rice) to storage and shipping. As withbeer and whisky water is a key element (80% of sake is water).
So are the types of rice used, but "their influence on the final
flavour is not as all-pervasive as is true of the various strainsof grape used in wine-making." The author notes that "the6Administrative Reform in Japan,
by Toshiyuki Masujima,
Institute of Administrative Management, 2006, ISBN 906596037
Review by Sean Curtin
To properly understand Japan's spectacular postwar economic transformation and its subsequent struggled to adjustin the post-bubble nineties, it is vital to grasp the administrative dynamics which uniquely underpinned its economic success and are determining its future. This book is an enlightening overview of the major administrative reforms spanningthe early postwar years to the present day. It explains the significance of all the main changes that have shaped Japanese
government and seeks to rank their individual importance. In
this context, the reform policies initiated by Prime Minister
Ryutaro Hashimoto (1996-98) receive the highest rating andare singled out for particular praise.
The author, Toshiyuki Masujima, is a former high-ranking
bureaucrat who became an academic after retirement.
Occupying these dual realms allows him to offer a rare academic-insider's perspective on some of the key reforms of the
postwar era. The book greatly benefits from the fact that theauthor personally knew and closely worked with many of the
key political reformers of the last decades, including former
Prime Ministers Yasuhiro Nakesone, Morihiro Hosokawa andRyutaro Hashimoto.
The author was at the very heart of some of the major postwar reforms, which elevates the insights of his analysis far
beyond that of a normal academic study and provides truly
unique angles on how key reforms evolved and the forces
which ultimately forged their final forms. The study is also
especially valuable because it is one of the few English language books on administrative reform written by a Japanesescholar.
While the author meticulously charts the evolution ofadministrative reform in the latter half of the last century, hisprime objective is to highlight the significance of the so called"Hashimoto reforms," which trace their origins back to 1996.
By placing these reforms in their proper context, it becomes
possible to appreciate their "revolutionary" aspects and better
comprehend their likely long-term impact on Japan.
The analysis begins with an examination of why the first
Provisional Commission on Administrative Reform (Rincho I)
was established in 1961, its aims and eventual impact.
Likewise, the second Provisional Commission on
Administrative Reform (Rincho II) of Prime Minister Zenko
Suzuki in 1981 is skillfully dissected, furnishing the reader
with a comprehensive overview of their characteristics andaccomplishments. This creates the necessary benchmarks withwhich to compare and assess the reforms started under Prime
Minister Hashimoto in 1996 and continued under his successor Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi.

japansociety Japan-UK Review: February 2007

The Hashimoto reforms finally came into effect on 6th
January 2001 when among other things the number of central
government ministries were reduced by half and the framework upon which Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi would
later develop his own reform drive was established.
This is a well-written and superbly researched book inwhich Professor Masujima provides a clear step-by-stepanalysis of Japanese postwar administrative reform and therelative importance of each one. There are many easy to follow
charts which summarize the key developments and factpacked appendices. The footnotes also deserve a mention as
they are laced with gems of information that only an insider
would have access to and enhance the analysis in the text. This
book is a valuable resource and contributes to our understanding of how Japanese government functions.

Secret Memoirs of the Shoguns: Isaac
Titsingh and Japan, 1779-1822,
Annotated and introduced by Timon Screech,
Routledge 2006 pp 265 including illustrations, glossary, notes,
bibliography and index, ISBN 10: 0-700-71720-X and 13: 978-0700-71720-0
Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi
Isaac Titsingh was one of the more interesting andintelligent heads of the Dutch trading post at Dejima off
Nagasaki. He first went to Japan in 1779 and spent some fortyfour months there before his final departure in 1784. He
wanted to compile a compendium of papers based ontranslations from Japanese sources, covering 'all there was toknow about the shogun's realm'. Unfortunately the project
was too great for any one man and it is not clear how
proficient he really became in Japanese. He was also not afinisher. When he died in 1812 he 'had virtually nothing inprint'. However, a French edition of some of his papers
appeared in 1820 entitled Mémoires et anecdotes sur ladynastie régnante des djoguns. This text was translated into
English and published in 1822 under the title of Illustrations ofJapan.
Professor Screech's edition presents selections from theEnglish version. Part I consists of the 'Secret Memoirs' which islargely a series of anecdotes about the shoguns and theirentourage. Some of these shed an interesting light on life andmores in Tokugawa Japan but cannot claim to be a history of
the shoguns. Part II includes a series of 'essays on Japanese
civilization' including a short account of Japanese ritualsuicide, a subject which clearly fascinated Titsingh who often
refers to it in his 'anecdotes'. His essay on Japanese poetry ismainly concerned with satirical verse and as Screech notes histranslations 'are not particularly close'. The main item in Part
III 'Other Observations' is the so-called 'Secret Diary' of Isaac
Titsingh which deals principally with his negotiations with
the Japanese on trade matters. The final item is 'Titsingh's'Philosophical Discourse', an essay sent by Titsingh to his
friend Goto Shozaemon, head of the Nagasaki office. Screech
comments that this discourse marks 'an important moment in
the transmission of Enlightenment thought in Japan'.
The introduction of seventy-four pages includes muchfascinating information about Titsingh's life and career. Afterleaving Japan, Titsingh served in Bengal where he met the
famous Indian diarist William Hickey. He later led a Dutch
Mission to Peking. Sadly his collection of artefacts which hehad received in his ambassadorial collection was lost. Butjapansociety Japan-UK Review: February 2007

when he was in London during the Napoleonic wars he met
Sir Joseph Banks, the president of the Royal Society to whom
he donated his collection of minerals from Japan.
Screech's introduction contains much of interest about theDutch life and trade in Japan. He reminds us that one of thetasks imposed by the Japanese authorities on the head of the
Dutch was to report on events in the rest of the world. 'Always
the VOC [The Dutch East India Company] filtered out what itwas not in their interest for the shogunate to know, though
Edo sometimes found out such matters via the Chinese.'
Towards the end of the eighteenth century there was anincreasing interest in the outside world. The Komo Zatsuwa(Tales of the Red-haired Barbarians) published in Japan in1787 after Titsingh had left was often inaccurate but it carrieda print of a hot air balloon oddly described as being called'Tuilleries'.
The Dutch found it very frustrating having to deal with thebureaucracy of the bakufu. The Dutch interpreters were often
more of a barrier than a help to trade. There were too many ofthem; their linguistic abilities and knowledge were strictly
limited. He records that on one occasion two of them came tohim 'oozing with pomposity. After much circumlocution, theysang the old song that the governor could not change anything
this year…'
In Titsingh's time the main export from Japan bought by the
Dutch was copper which they traded in India, but this trade
became less and less profitable as European copper reachedIndia. The Japanese governor at one point proposed to export'Chinese satin, silk pansies [sic] and gold bullion in return for
bird's nests'. Titsingh rejected this arguing that the Dutch
traded direct with China. The Japanese expected the Dutch tosend two ships a year to Japan to trade, but Titsingh foundthat there was not enough profitable trade to justify the costsof these ships and the number of voyages was cut much to theannoyance of the Japanese.
Titsingh took advantage of the women provided by the
Maruyama pleasure quarters but did not father any children
in Japan. Screech has some interesting comments on this
aspect of the Dutch life in Japan noting that 'the Maruyama
was known as the sole accessible site of international sexual
encounter, and this spawned many comments, salacious andhumorous, and many pictures'(page 45).
Professor Screech has performed a valuable service forstudents of Tokugawa Japan and of contacts between the Westand Japan by resurrecting Titsingh's writings from obscurity.
They are not as interesting or informative about Japan as thoseof the three famous doctors to the Dutch enclave Kaempfer,
Thunberg and von Siebold, but they do provide some
information which the others did not learn or record.

Annual Talk by the
British Ambassador inTokyo,
Sir Graham Fry,
East
India
Club,
London,Wednesday 17th January 2007
(event supported by ANA)
Sir Graham Fry: "Improving the relationship between Japan andthe UK is precisely what the Japan Society is all about."
Read this article here:
http://www.japansociety.org.uk/reviews/07fry.html

7Japan Extolled andDecried Carl Peter
Thunberg and the
Shogun's
Realm,
1775-1796,
Annotated and Introduced byTimon Screech,
Routledge, 2005, 319 pages
including notes and index, ISBN
0-203-02035-9, £75.
Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi
This is a parallel volume to Secret Memoirs of the Shoguns,
Isaac Titsingh and Japan, 1779-1822, also annotated andpresented by Professor Screech. The writings about Japan by
Thunberg and Titsingh are important for students of Japan's
relations with the outside world in the Edo period andProfessor Screech has provided a valuable service by ensuringthat they are available in more than a limited number of
specialist libraries. His meticulous introductions and endnotes
clarify many obscure points and fill in the background as wellas providing details of the lives of Thunberg and Titsingh. Of
the two, students are likely to find Thunberg more interesting
than Titsingh. It is a pity that the books are so expensive, but
limited demand probably makes this inevitable.
Thunberg, who was Swedish, studied at Uppsala
University under the famous botanist Linnaeus who
formulated modern scientific classification of plants. In theend he succeeded to Linnaeus' position at Uppsala. As ayoung man he qualified as a doctor of medicine and became
an expert botanist, a field in which he determined to make hismark by studying plants in various parts of the world. Inorder to do so, he joined the Dutch East India Company(VOC) as a physician and after spending some time at theCape of Good Hope reached Batavia where he managed to gethimself appointed as doctor to the Dutch factory at Dejima in
Nagasaki. He arrived there in the summer of 1775 and stayed
nineteen months. While in Japan, Thunberg accompanied thehead of the Dutch factory on the annual mission sent to the
shogun in Edo. In Edo Thunberg, who was much more highly
qualified than the usual "barber-surgeon" to the Dutch
mission, met a number of prominent Japanese physicians towhom he taught aspects of western medicine including thetreatment of syphilis. He also collected, while in Japan, a large
number of plants which he recorded and illustrated in his
Flora Japonica published in 1784. He gave an account of his
travels in the four volumes of his Resa (Travels), whichappeared between 1788 and 1793. The third volume and partof the fourth volume covered Thunberg's observations on
Japan. Professor Screech's book reproduces all Thunberg's
writings about Japan with only very minor omissions oflargely technical botanical information.
According to Hopton, who produced the English
translation of the Resa, Thunberg did not write with "thegreatest elegance or precision" but "had the strictest regard fortruth." Certainly Thunberg's account of his stay in Japan
contains much of interest and information about Japan which
added significantly to what had been known in the Westabout Japan hitherto. Thunberg rightly emphasised that Japan
had changed in the century which had passed since Engelbert

8

Kaempfer had been in the country in the final decade of theseventeenth century and whose History had appeared in
1727-8. But, as Screech points out, Thunberg's account ofJapan was at times, e.g. in his description of religion in Japan,
little more than "fiction."
The following description of the Japanese by Thunberg,
which contains twenty-five adjectives, has, according to
Screech, "to be read as Thunberg's polemic. Many of thecomments are flatly contradicted by his own remarks
elsewhere":"The Japanese are in general intelligent and provident, free
and unconstrained, obedient and courteous, curious andinquisitive, industrious and ingenious, frugal and sober,cleanly, good-natured and friendly, upright and just, trusty
and honest, mistrustful, superstitious, proud and unforgiving,brave and invincible." In his preface Thunberg had said ofJapan with rather less hyperbole: "Here…are found both
useful and pernicious establishments, both rational andabsurd institutions, yet still we must admire the steadiness
which constitutes the national character, the immutability
which reigns in the administration of their laws and in theexercise of their public functions, the unwearied assiduity ofthis nation to do and to promote what is useful…"
His descriptions of events during his stay and of what hesaw in Japan are more interesting than these generalisations. I
particularly liked his account of how the Dutch tried tosmuggle goods into Nagasaki. The captain "dressed himself
in a blue silk coat trimmed with silver lace, made very large
and wide and stuffed and furnished in front with a large
cushion… the captain was frequently so loaded with goods
that when he went ashore he was obliged to be supported by
two sailors, one under each arm." However the Japanese
officials had rumbled what was going on and put a stop to
such subterfuges.
Japanese bureaucracy must have added hugely to theexpenses of the Dutch trade. The reverence for precedents,
which anyone who has served in Japan knows is still verymuch part of bureaucratic life, was strong among the Japanesebureaucrats controlling the movements of the Dutch.
Thunberg as a botanist wanted to explore for plants in theneighbourhood of Nagasaki. All sorts of obstacle were thrown
up. The Japanese looked for precedents and discovered thatmany years earlier an assistant surgeon had been given
permission to look for plants. At first this was regarded as
sufficient grounds to give Thunberg the necessary permission.
"But on closer examination, it was found that the surgeon had
been only a surgeon's mate and that consequently I, as
principal surgeon, could not enjoy the same privilege!"
Readers of Kaempfer will recall that when he was amember of the Dutch mission to Edo they were forced to act,
dance and sing for the amusement of the court. In Thunberg'scase the head of the mission merely had to make formal
obeisance to the shogun and the mission to pay their respects(and of course give presents) to the various senior officials.
Thunberg's descriptions of life at the Dutch factory inNagasaki and of their journey to Edo are very readable andgreatly help us to understand what life was like in Japan overtwo centuries ago.

japansociety Japan-UK Review: February 2007