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

Issue 29 Volume 5 Number 5 (October 2010)

The theme of this issue is biographies and memoirs,
offering a fest of fascinating new books looking at a host of
extraordinary Japan-related lives. Our first review is of Britain
and Japan: Biographical Portraits VII which is another superb
volume in the acclaimed Biographical Portraits series thatprofiles people who have contributed to enhancing AngloJapanese relations. This seventh volume in a series, which
also includes publications such as Britain and Japan 18591991: Themes and Personalities and Japan Experiences: Fifty
Years, One Hundred Views Post-War Japan Through British
Eyes, 1945-2000, is again edited by Sir Hugh Cortazzi. It charts
the achievements of 44 diverse individuals, the chronicles
ranging from Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain to theNobel Prize winning playwright George Bernard Shaw.
Our second book, Private Yokoi’s War and Life on Guam,
1944-1972, is a gripping tale of hardship and fortitude telling
how Private Yokoi, who was sent to Guam in March 1944,
refused to stand down after Japan’s defeat in 1945. Instead ofsurrendering, he spent 27 years hiding in the island’s jungle
until his captured in January 1972.
In My Work: 10 Years as the U.N. High Commissioner for
Refugees and Construction of Peace (私の仕事 ― 国連難民高等弁務官の十年と平和の構築) Fumiko Halloran looks at
Sadako Ogata’s Japanese language account of her turbulent
decade as the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR). Ogata faced immense challenges witha worldwide refugee problem of over 15 million people incountries ranging from Albania to Rwanda.
Next, Susan Meehan explores the soul-searching film
portraying teenage angst How to Become Myself (あしたの私のつくり方). It attempts to capture the elusive essenceof what make us a distinctive individual in our formativeadolescent years. It’s a fictional biographical film that also
resonates with adults making us recall our own teenage trials
and tribulations. Hugh Purser reviews A Life in Aikido: The
Biography of Founder Morihei Ueshiba, which is the official
English language biography of Morihei Ueshiba, Aikido’s
founding father. It details his life, the formation of his religious
teachings and his legacy. This issue rounds off with a look at
So Lovely A Country Will Never Perish: Wartime Diaries ofJapanese Writers by Donald Keene. As the title implies, thisbook looks at the diaries of some of Japan’s best known, as
well as not so well known, wartime writers and their attitudes
towards the Pacific War and its traumatic aftermath.
Moving away from our theme, the final review looks at a
photographic catalogue of buildings by modern Japanesearchitects together with descriptive commentaries. ProjectJapan and Art Media, Edo to Now also contains some essays
on Japanese architecture.
Sean Curtin..........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Editor: Sean Curtin
Contents(1)
Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits VII
Managing Editor: John Toppon(2) Private Yokoi’s War and Life on Guam
Layout & Production Assistants: Kai Prakosay/Abbie Martin(3) My Work: 10 Years as the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees
and Construction of Peace (私の仕事 ― 国連難民高等弁務官の十年と平和の構築)(4) How to Become Myself (あしたの私のつくり方)(5) A Life in Aikido: The Biography of Founder Morihei Ueshiba(6) So Lovely A Country Will Never Perish(7) Project Japan and Art Media, Edo to Now....................................................................................................
New reviewswww.japansociety.org.uk/resources/the-japan-society-review
Archive
http://www.japansociety.org.uk/reviews_archive.html

We are grateful to our regular reviewers:
Sir Hugh Cortazzi
William Farr
Fumiko Halloran
Adam House

Mikihiro Maeda
Susan Meehan
Ian NishBen-Ami Shillony....................................................................................................

Britain and Japan:
Biographical Portraits VII
Complied & Edited by
Sir Hugh Cortazzi
Global Oriental and the Japan
Society, 2010, 665 pages,£50.00
ISBN: 978-1906876265
Review by Sean CurtinThis is another superb volume
in the Biographical Portraits
series which profiles people
who have contributed toenhancing Anglo-Japanese relations. In this impressive
publication, edited by Sir Hugh Cortazzi, the achievementsof 44 diverse individuals are chronicled ranging from Prime
Minister Neville Chamberlain to the Nobel Prize winningplaywright George Bernard Shaw. There are also five
additional essays focusing on Anglo-Japanese related topics
which include Japanese garden designers (by Jill Raggett),architecture (by Anna Basham), football (by Derek Bleakley),an engaging memoir on what life was like for British diplomats
in Tokyo during 1941 (by Douglas Busk) and a stimulating
historical piece on horse racing (by Roger Buckley).
Any review of this absorbing book, which represents theresearch of almost 40 different writers, cannot possibly dojustice to its 47 fact-packed, informative chapters. One canonly hope at best to scratch the surface and illuminate a small
fraction of the excellent articles presented in this substantive
scholarly work. Each reader will find their own personal
favourite essays, which are divided into 10 sections exploring
the accomplishments of such well known personalities as thephilosopher and writer Bertrand Russell, who was singularly
unimpressed by Japan (page 261), to relatively obscure......................................................................................................................................................................................................

figures such as the pioneering missionary Florence May
Freeth, who spent 44 years in Kyushu (1896 to 1940), or
the chemistry professor Edward Kinch, who promoted
the development of agricultural chemistry in Japan andalso helped internationalize Japanese food culture (page365). I found each article contained some rewarding
gems of information and was frequently amazed by the
extraordinary life courses of some of those profiled.
Another facet of this work is that one learns of the strong
Japan connections held by a host of historical figures notnormally associated with Japan. A good example of thisis Peter Kornicki’s profile of General Sir Ian Hamilton, most
famously associated with the disastrous 1915 Dardanelles
Expedition and the bloody Gallipoli landing (page 162),
who it turns out was a key British military observer during
the 1904-5 Russo-Japanese war.
The majority of readers will most likely be unfamiliar withmany of the personalities profiled in this volume, such as thegifted Japanese print artist Mokuchu Urushibara (漆原木虫) or the early Meiji architects Wells Coates (pages 456-68),
Thomas James Waters (pages 469-86) and Kingo Tatsuno(辰野金吾), who lived in England for two years (1880-2) and
was widely travelled (pages 443-55). Nevertheless, theselesser known figures often made significant contributions
to bilateral relations as well as leading extremely interesting
lives. A typical Biographical Portrait of one of these less wellknown persons, which I personally enjoyed, was Dugald
Barr’s piece on the parliamentarian Sir Julian Ridsdale(1915 – 2004), who took a special interest in Japan during
his long career as a lawmaker and who the speaker of theHouse of Commons, Bernard Weatherill, once referred toas (page 93) “the member for Tokyo.” Ridsdale had studied
Japanese at SOAS and was a military intelligence officer
during the war specializing in Japan. I was especially
fascinated by Ridsdale’s childhood in which he frequently
encountered a host of illustrious relatives including theformer Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin and writer Rudyard
Kipling.
Carmen Blacker was another subject with a fascinating
childhood and gripping life course leading her fromwartime Bletchley code-breaker to a greatly accomplishedJapan scholar. Peter Kornicki brilliantly illuminates her
youthful yearning and determination to learn Japanese,
which led to her demand “at the precocious age of twelve,
for a Japanese grammar [book] for her birthday (page217).” Such informative and human profiles help us tobetter understand the person and put their achievements
in context.
Nicolas Maclean provides a warm portrait of the
distinguished academic Keith Ernest Thurley, charting
his dynamic career while providing some interesting
anecdotes and insights along the way. Maclean observes,“For Keith, research was not a matter of experts producing
articles for other experts to read: there were no ‘Forbidden
Cities’ for intellectuals. It was instead a process of education
and re-education for both the researcher and theaudience (page 244).” Such personal insights are one of
the charms of this book.
2

Not all the profiles are as intimate as the ones on Blacker andThurley, others are more analytical such as Anthony Best’s
piece of the Chamberlain brothers, Austen and Neville. I
must confess that I found this chapter of particular interestas these two prominent politicians have a modern parallelin the Miliband brothers. There are also some intriguing
similarities, elder brother Austen, like the contemporary
David Miliband, had been foreign secretary and a risingstar of his generation, yet it was Austen’s younger brother,
Neville, who was destined to be party leader and Prime
Minister. This essay does not examine sibling rivalry but
instead explores how Japanese diplomats viewed thetwo brothers. Austen was seen as being unsympathetic
towards Tokyo, a shift which is charted up to his visionary
1933 pronouncement on the direction of Japanese foreign
policy, “. . .an adventure the end of which may be far distantand the expenditure of which in blood and treasure may
be far greater than her people now foresee (page 72).”
Neville on the other hand is seen as being “pro-Japanese,”
especially during his time as Chancellor of the Exchequer,“Japanese observers in the 1930s felt that as long as NevilleChamberlain was in a powerful position there was always
the possibility of a rapprochement being achieved (page75).” However, Anthony Best believes Tokyo’s diplomats
got it wrong and there is no real evidence to substantiate
this view.
Bernard F. Dukore looks
at George Bernard Shaw’s
1933 whirlwind tour ofChina and Japan where
the great man of lettersmeets the renowned
Chinese writer Lu Xun(鲁迅), Soong Ch’ing-ling(宋庆龄), the influential
widow of the Republic of Editor, Sir Hugh Cortazzi
China’s founding father Sun Yat-sen (孫中山), and Japan’sPrime Minister Makoto Saito (斎藤 実). He only spent 10days in Japan, but managed to visit Beppu, Kobe, Tokyo,
Yokohama and Osaka, the latter which he describes (page254) as “a huge industrial hell.” This portrait will be ofparticular interest to Shaw fans as it contains a previously
unpublished article Shaw wrote after his trip to Japan.
However, while he was undoubtedly a literary giant, his
political analysis was less impressive, Shaw observed, “In
the future Japan and all the other Powers will have tocompete with Russia in promoting the welfare of theirpeople. If you shut your eyes to this you may live to see astatue of Lenin and a bust of Marx in every Shinto temple(page 253).”
The rich reference material in this publication alone would
warrant merit, but it forms just one part of a larger series ofJapan Society supported volumes which record the lives
and accomplishments of people who have contributed
in a variety of ways to UK-Japan relations. This current
publication also has a very handy index that lists all thosepeople so far covered in the entire Biographical Portraits
related series, where to find each one as well as a list ofIssue 29 Volume 5 Number 5 (October 2010)

the authors of the respective essays. Astonishingly,
this new volume along with the previous BiographicalPortraits books and associated publications brings thenumber of individuals chronicled to well over 350, making
this a significant reference source. This is an impressive
accomplishment, which is certain to grow in the years
and decades to come, and all those associated with thisproject deserve our admiration.
Looking at this wide ranging book as a whole, it struckme that despite the great diversity of the subjects andthe high number of profile writers, there were some
additional unifying features besides the basic guidelineof Anglo-Japanese relations which bind this work andthe wider series. One such element that personally struck
me was how, despite a considerable number of decades,
Hugh Cortazzi would frequently appear somewhere in
the latticework of the individual narratives. To illustrate thispoint, when Carmen Blacker arrives in Japan in October
1951 she bumps into a young Hugh in Tokyo (page 220), fast
forward several decades to April 1982 and Julian Ridsdale
has just arrived in Japan only to be told by “Ambassador Sir
Hugh Cortazzi” that Argentina had invaded the Falklands(page 90). Sir Hugh is so interwoven in the fabric of
Anglo-Japanese relations that it almost seems he has
encountered nearly every significant figure spanning
his adult lifetime. Such a unique perspective makes him
the perfect editor for this new work as well as several of
the earlier books in the series. He most certainly deserves
special praise for the tremendous amount of effort hehas put into producing this new book and propelling thevaluable and substantive Biographical Portraits project
forward.

Private Yokoi’s War andLife on Guam, 1944-1972,
The story of the JapaneseImperial Army’s longest
WWII survivor in the field
and later life
by Omi Hatashin
Global Oriental, 2009, 237
pages including index and a
black and white plate section,£90 .00
ISBN 978-1-905246-69-4
Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi
This is an extraordinary story of hardship and fortitude.
“His faith in the Japanese Emperor and his hope of
the Japanese Empire’s final victory were formidable,
but they turned out to be utterly hollow. . . He did notcompletely lose his last traces of humanity even when
he was reduced to the habits of a wild animal in orderto survive in the Guam jungle. He humorously saidback in Japan to young children that he was simply
Issue 29 Volume 5 Number 5 (October 2010)

good at ‘hide and seek’ (page 215).” After his returnto Japan he insisted on putting up a memorial in
Guam to the animals he had killed in order to survive.
Private Yokoi, a tailor by trade, was sent to Guam in
March 1944. When American forces invaded the island
and annihilated the Japanese defence forces. Yokoi andhis section took to the jungle. They dismissed American
calls to surrender and assertions about Japan’s defeat
as deceitful enemy propaganda. Eventually Yokoi andtwo other soldiers who had survived American attacks
banded together, scavenged for food and lived roughin the jungle. Not surprisingly in the circumstances there
was friction and Yokoi came to live largely on his own.
However the three came together from time to time. In
1963 they climbed the main mountain on the island in
the hope that they could somehow see a way to escapefrom the island, but they soon realised that this would
be impossible. His two companions became sick and in1964 died in their underground shelter. Yokoi managed
to hang on despite stomach ulcers and malnutrition
until January 1972 when his hide-out was discoveredby the local inhabitants. He was taken to hospital in a
traumatized state and was sent back to Japan where he
was a sensational news story. He fairly quickly recovered
and in November 1972 got married. In 1974 he stood
unsuccessfully for the Upper House. He then took up
pottery and managed to hold a one man show of his
works at the Mitsukoshi in Tokyo. He died in 1997 aged 82.
His training as a tailor had enabled him to make his own
clothes and a fishing net. He also managed to weave
baskets which he used as traps. The fact that he was sofully occupied in finding food, building and looking after
his hide-outs on an island where tropical storms were
frequent probably saved his sanity during his
many solitary years.
Anyone who has enjoyed the story of Robinson Crusoe
will be fascinated by Yokoi’s story. One of the mostdaunting aspects was how to make and preserve fires
when they had no matches or flints and wood was often
saturated by the rains. They also had no salt but managed tosurvive like the beasts in the jungle. Their diet of breadfruit,waterpotatoes,bananasandcoconutswassupplemented
by fresh water shrimps and occasional animals
which they slaughtered. The mosquitoes tormented
them and the flies soon contaminated their meat.
It is hard for us to understand the fact that Yokoi despite
his sufferings and deprivation could not contemplate
surrender even over a quarter of a century after the
war had officially ended, after Japanese resistance
had collapsed and after Japanese forces had totallydisintegrated. He had been so effectively brainwashedthat even in 1972 he feared that he might be tried bycourt martial and might bring disgrace on membersof his family, a family in which his parents had been
divorced and he had been brought up by an aunt.

3

My Work: 10 Years as the
U.N. High Commissioner
for Refugees andConstruction of Peace(私の仕事 ― 国連難民高等弁務官の十年と平和の構築)
by Sadako Ogata(緒方 貞子)
Soshisha, 2002, 285 pages,
1600 yen
ISBN: 978-4-7942-1170-5
Review By Fumiko Halloran
When Sadako Ogata began her work as the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) early in thewinter of 1991, she was immediately challenged with 15
million refugees all over the world. Barely one month into
her new job, she was confronted with three crises; (1) the
sudden flow of Kurds escaping from Iraq to Iran and Turkey,(2) the return of Ethiopians from Somalia and Somalis fleeing
to Ethiopia; (3) and Albanians fleeing to Italy.
Having been a professor at Sophia University (上智大学)
in Tokyo, and at the age of 64, Mrs. Ogata’s life drasticallychanged. She moved to the UNHCR’s headquarters in
Geneva leaving behind her husband and two grownchildren in Tokyo. She was reappointed twice and served
until the end of 2000, all the while maintaining a commuting
marriage. She retired to universal acclaim but continued
to be influential in the reconstruction of Afghanistan andbuilding international networks to deal with refugees.
This book is a collection of her writing about her life
as an official of an international organization and herinterviews and speeches from 1991 to 2001. With a nicemixture of personal accounts of her life of challenge andstraightforward speeches on refugee issues, this bookilluminates the complexity of fluid, global scale of conflicts
that affect millions of people. Readers may be struck by her
quiet passion and organized mind in rescuing refugees
whom she sees as individuals, not statistics.
Parts of her diary were printed in the Gaiko Forummagazine. One example: In May 1993, Ogata flew from
Geneva to London, gave speeches at the London School of
Economics and Oxford University, then flew to Bangladesh
to meet with government officials and visit a refugee camp.
She returned to Geneva and two days later began a tourof Canada and the United States. In Ottawa, she met with
the Prime Minister and officials at the Foreign Ministry,the Employment and Immigration Ministry, the Defence
Ministry and the Foreign Aid Agency. In the U.S., she gave
the commencement speech and received an honorary
degree at Amherst College; visited Washington to meetwith Vice President Albert Gore, Defence Secretary Les
Aspin, and Attorney General Janet Reno, was interviewed
on television, and spent a day meeting with senators andcongressmen. She went to New York to give a speech at4

the Council on Foreign Relations, briefed the U.N. Secretary
General and senior officials on the status of refugees, andreturned to Geneva. She kept up this pace for ten years, halfof the year on the road, visiting refugee camps.
She defined her role as protector and negotiator forrefugees, as well as a fund raiser. She ran the office of
UNHCR that had five hundred people at the headquarters
in Geneva and 1500 working in countries with refugees. She
paid particular attention to training the staff in the field todeal with unpredictable situations as they often lived withrefugees under harsh conditions facing civil war, kidnapping,murder, and unfriendly mobs. She says she gave as muchautonomy as possible to the local offices.
Mrs Ogata cites three decisions as the hardest. First was 1.8
million Kurds fleeing from the Iraqi Republican Guard in 1991
shortly after the Gulf War was declared over. Some 1.4 million
crossed the border into Iran but 400,000 who headed forTurkey were barred by the Turkish government from entering
the country. The demise of Kurdish refugees in the mountains
was reported in media around the world. Multilateralcoalition forces set up a safety zone for the refugees, whowere usually defined as those who crossed national borders.
In this case, the Kurds were displaced persons within theircountry. Ogata agreed to help the Kurds and work with themultilateral forces and U.N. security force.
Second, in 1992 the UNHCR began an air lift of cargo
to Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia Herzegovina. This washumanitarian aid during the hostilities, which broke UN rules
allowing entry to a country only after a ceasefire. The UNHCR
took over from the International Red Cross after its envoy
was killed in an ambush. In addition to French and Canadianforces, the U.N. sent 1500 protective forces to open the
airport. Ogata was in Sarajevo five days after the air lift began
and the UNHCR was in charge of logistics for the three year
operation.
Her most controversial decision was what to do about 1
million refugees created in 1994 Rwandan Genocide. The
Hutu-dominated government massacred about 500,000
people, most of whom were ethnic Tutsis. A Tutsi groupthen succeeded in toppling the government and its armed
supporters who fled on mass to Zaire (now the Democratic
Republic of the Congo), and blended in with the civilian
refugees there. As the UNHCR began its operations in theregion, it became apparent that many armed Hutu soldiers
were in the refugee camps. The UNHCR was not equipped
to disarm them and no country stepped forward to take on
the task. Ogata decided she had to to save the civilian refugees,
mostly women and children, without separating them fromformer combatants. The UNHCR helped both Tutsi and Hutu
refugees, which led to criticism from both sides and someNGOs. In the end Ogata was declared “A Friend of Rwanda”
by the new Tutsi-dominated government.
At the end of 2000, Mrs. Ogata presented her final report asshe finished her term as UNHCR. According to her balance
sheet “success” meant the return of refugees to their homes
once security had been restored or, if that was not possible,
settlement elsewhere. In Africa 1.7 million refugees returned
Issue 29 Volume 5 Number 5 (October 2010)

to their hometowns. In Asia, 400,000 Cambodians finallyleft camps to go home, ending two decades of operationsin Indochina. In Central America, refugees from Guatemala
returned home but some settled in Mexico. Refugees from
Bosnia and Rwanda were in the process of returning to their
homelands. But in 2000, the prospect for refugees returning
to their homelands was dim in Afghanistan, the Caucasus
region, especially Chechen, Sudan, and West Africa.
After retiring, Ogata witnessed from her apartment in New
York City the terrorist attacks on the Trade Centre buildings
on 11 September 2001. She was soon called back to public
service by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to become
Japan’s special envoy on Afghan reconstruction. She had a
special interest in Afghanistan as there had been 6.3 million
refugees when she took over as UNHCR. After the Soviet
military withdrawal from Afghanistan, many returned home
but because of the subsequent prolonged civil war, there
were still 2.5 million refugees when Ogata retired and thus
she saw Afghan refugees as her unfinished work. As of 2006,
according to the UNHCR website, there were still 2.1 million
Afghan refugees in 72 countries, including 900,000 internallydisplaced people.
Ogata was the co-chair of International Conference on
Reconstruction Assistance to Afghanistan, held in Tokyoin 2002 to which 61 countries and 21 internationalorganisations sent their representatives. The conference
received a commitment of US$4.5 billion from the participants;
Japan committed US$500 million for various initiatives
including mine removal, health, education, refugees, restoring
radio and television stations, as well as sending economic
consultants to the central government, etc.
Nicknamed “Field Marshall” by those who worked for her,
Ogata served not only with UN peace keeping forces but alsowith the multilateral military forces and negotiated with thevery governments that created refugees. Ever a pragmatist,she believed that rather than criticizing those who caused
refugee problems, finding a common ground to protect
the refugees was more productive. At the same time, as
the co-chair of the Commission on Human Security, shepursued a broader concept of security by looking at nonmilitary threats that create refugees.
Born in 1927, Sadako Ogata graduated from the Universityof the Sacred Heart in Tokyo (聖心女子大学), earned her
Masters at Georgetown University and her doctorate at
the University of California at Berkeley. She served as theenvoy in the Japanese delegation at the United Nations
and as mentioned earlier taught international politics at
Sophia University before assuming the post of the U.N. HighCommissioner for Refugees.
Related review

You may also be interested in Sir Hugh Cortazzi’s review of
Sadako Ogata English language version of this book which
was published as “The Turbulent Decade: Confronting theRefugee Crises of the 1990s” (see Japan Society Review
Issue 1)

How to Become Myself(あしたの私のつくり方)
directed by Jun Ichikawa(市川準)
97 min, Release Date April 2007
Review by Susan MeehanThis is a soul-searching film of teenage angst centering on
Juri (Riko Narumi -成海璃子) and Hinako (Atsuko Maeda- 前田敦子). Both attend the same junior high schooland have solid groups of friends. We are made awarethat at home Juri is suffering with her parents’ constantbickering and demands to get her into a good seniorhigh school; despite these pressures she does her best
to act the role of supporting, conciliatory daughter andexemplary student. We know less of Hinako’s home life,
but suffer with her when she falls out of favour at school.
Having been the most popular at the start of the film, she
is soon ostracized in a reversal of fortunes and roles as her
position is usurped by Manami Kubota, formerly the bullied
student. To Juri’s chagrin, Manami also ends up winninga coveted place at the school which she fails to get into.
Juri and Hinako chat to each other on their final
day of school, before going their own senior highschool ways. They dwell on the existentialist themeof identity and who they are –Hinako in particularrefers to her fall of grace and uncertainty as to whetherthe ‘real’ Hinako is the popular or bullied character.
Juri is well aware of the varying roles she has to fulfill,especially now that her parents are divorced – not only did
she have to feign a certain indifference about the divorce,
she has to continue being a model and understanding
daughter to both mother and father, disguising her pain.
Two years on, Juri overhears classmates at her seniorhigh school referring to Hinako and the fact that she has
moved city. Guilty at not having kept in touch with her
and curious about her well-being, she obtains Hinako’s
phone number. A member of her school’s creative writing
club, she is simultaneously agonizing with writer’s blockand ends up solving this through constantly texting
Hinako guidelines– how best to behave at school in order
to be popular and how to feed her boyfriend’s interest.
Under the pretext of helping Hinako, Juri ends up basing
a story on this mobile phone exchange which ends
up garnering her teacher’s praise. She feels remorse at
having benefited in this way, but the most important
thing is that both girls have fed on each other and grown
as a result. They become aware that they are products ofthe totality of their roles, sometimes discordant, and are
loved by family and friends for who they are as a whole.
In a moving valedictory speech to her school, Juri recognizes
that various facets go to informing her personality. An
adolescent film in many ways, it nevertheless resonateswith an older audience who remember the teenage
angst so well captured by the film and are relieved tohave left this stage behind. The acting, showcasing superb
young female talent, and the mood music are fantastic.
5

Issue 29 Volume 5 Number 5 (October 2010)

A Life in Aikido: The audiences (and later, students) included military officers,
Biography of Founder members of the imperial household, financiers and leadingbusiness figures – patronage which we might only envy
Morihei Ueshibaby Kisshomaru Ueshiba(植芝 吉祥丸)
Kodansha International,
2008, 320 pages, £13,99
ISBN-13: 978-4770026170
Review by Hugh Purser
One would be forgiven forthinking that this book was
designed for the connoisseur(of aikido [合気道], if not
Japanese history and culture as well) rather than the casual
reader. Maybe this is the intention: the official biography of
Aikido’s Founder (開祖), known to all as O Sensei (大先生– the great teacher), written by his son for the communityof aikidoka (合気道家 - aikido practitioners). But that would
be a pity. There is much more here to satisfy broader
interests, especially in the detailed accounts of life in Japanin the early part of the 20th century, the birth of the Omoto
religion (大本教) and Japanese involvement in Mongolia
and Manchuria. One is well into the second half of the bookbefore the author writes “from this day in 1925, our Aikido
took its first step forward.” By then, Ueshiba was already42 years old, and he had just experienced enlightenment
or what he called “a divine transformation.” In fact, the firstchapter is given to describing his art as “kami-waza [神技]– an ability that seems heavenly rather than merely human.”For some, this could be a pretty intimidating concept.
Morihei Ueshiba’s (植芝 盛平) martial arts abilities andexploits are legendary. But how did a ‘new’ martial art
come about? And what were the influences on, and thecharacteristics of, the man who was responsible for it?
The picture that emerges is complex: a man of immense
physical strength, dedicated to a severe discipline ofphysical and mental training in several martial arts; anentrepreneur, farmer, community leader and activist; atonce both selfish in terms of seeking his own path, yet withthe greater good in mind, with little interest in personal
financial gain. One commentator wrote: “He was simply
a person with a very high sense of responsibility andmission.” A man, too, influenced deeply by life changing
events, such as the time in 1924 in Mongolia, when he wasminutes away from a premature end at the hands of a firingsquad; and his profound experiences in his companionshipwith Master Onisaburo (出口 王仁三郎), the founder of
the Omoto religion. These latter events may explain why
someone already heralded as the leading martial artist
in Japan (at least in jujutsu [柔術] and aiki bujutsu [合気柔術]), would proceed to forge a new art which centeredon “universal harmony, protection and divine love,” witha major role to play in everyday life. By 1926 Ueshiba wasproviding demonstrations to the great and good in Tokyo
as a guest of Admiral Isamu Takeshita (竹下勇). The
6

today, particularly in the West. This gave aikido a soundplatform for its advancement in the years ahead. It is also
noteworthy that even at this early stage, aikido rapidly
became popular with women, and continues to be so.
The outbreak of war caused setbacks, especially inattendances and revenue, and it took until the early 50s
for stability and growth to resume. In 1941 Ueshiba began
the development of the dojo and shrine at Iwama (岩間町), still considered the spiritual home of aikido (theterm itself coming into popular use at the same time).
New dojos opened across Japan, and then internationally,
arriving in the UK in the mid-50s. Many well known
senseisspread the art far and wide – with a fair degree ofdiversity, it should be said. This is because Ueshiba’s aikido wascontinually evolving, and those who trained with him
at specific periods of his life would have witnessed
different elements of that evolution. Perhaps thiswas the Founder’s most fundamental gift to modern(mostly part time) practitioners – that, within theframework of the core principles he laid down, we
should seek to continuously evolve, in mind and body,and above all, apply his teachings in our everyday life.
This book is a fascinating read, although a future printing
would benefit from additional notes as well as an index(the Japanese original dates from 1978, but it has only
recently been translated and published in English). It is
recommended to all with an interest in Japan: then go
and find your nearest dojo, and experience the real thing!

So Lovely A Country Will
Never Perish: Wartime
Diaries of Japanese Writers
by Donald Keene
Columbia University Press, 2010,
216 pages including index,£16.95
ISBN 978-0-231-15146-7
Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi
Professor Donald Keene, who is the doyen of
Japanologists and who has unparalleled knowledgeof Japanese literature throughout the ages, gives afascinating insight in this book into the way in which
Japanese writers saw the Pacific War and its aftermath.
One of Japan’s many outstanding novelists of thetwentieth century was Kafū Nagai (永井 荷風). His “chief
literary activity during the war was writing the diary which
he had begun in 1917. He took his diary with him (alongwith his bank books) wherever he went.” Almost every
Issue 29 Volume 5 Number 5 (October 2010)

page of his diary contained expressions of disgust withthe military. Fortunately his well-known eccentricity saved
him from the attentions of the police. But his diary is also
very much a personal record. He particularly missed Lipton
tea and other western products! Keene quotes how Kafū
visited the famous writer Jun’ichirō Tanizaki (谷崎 潤一郎)
in the country on 14 August 1945, the eve of the Emperor’sannouncement that the war was being ended. Herecorded that the food was good and the sake delicious.
“Mrs Tanizaki became slightly tipsy, helping to make theconversation enjoyable (page 92).”
The most extensive diary was that of the novelist Jun Takami(高見 順), who had been arrested as a Marxist in the early
1930s. He also managed to avoid incriminating himself
because he was employed by the military on overseas
missions. His most vivid impressions in China and Manchuria“were of witnessing the harshness of the Japanese military
towards the Chinese (page 4).” Takami “desperately hoped
for an end to the war even if it meant Japan’s defeat.”particularly silly. It is also hard to credit now that Tanizaki’s
modern Japanese version of The Tale of Genji was notallowed to be printed until offending chapters (thoserelating how a prince, born of Genji’s affair with the emperor’sconsort, had ascended the throne) had been deleted.
Many Japanese had been brainwashed at school and in
the armed forces and it is understandable that so manyat least initially supported the war. It is sad, however, that
intellectuals such as Ken’ichi Yoshida, who ought to havebeen able to see through the propaganda, supported
a war in which Japanese forces often behaved badly. It
must have been apparent to any intelligent person by late1944 that Japan could not win the war and that gyokusai
hysteria would only lead to the destruction of Japan.
Donald Keene’s book throws valuable light on Japanese
attitudes to the war and its aftermath as well as on leading
Japanese writers.

Professor Kazuo Watanabe of Tokyo University wrote hisdiary in French in order to prevent the police from reading
his comments on the war. Three days after the end of thewar he wrote (page 17) in his diary: “At last I can write in mynative language again.”
Other Japanese writers such as Sei Itō (伊藤整), Fūtarō
Yamada (山田 風太郎), who was an admirer of Adolf Hitler,
Sohō Tokutomi (徳富 蘇峰) and the poets Mokichi Saitō(斎藤 茂吉) and Kōtarō Takamura (高村 光太郎) were invarious degrees ardent supporters of the war. Even the
Anglophile Ken’ichi Yoshida (吉田 健一) wrote happily (page19): “The sky of our thought has been cleared of Englandand America.” Keene notes that “The reaction of mostJapanese on learning of the attack on Pearl Harbor and thedeclaration of war with America and Britain was exultation;
this was as true of the intellectuals as of the poorly educated(page 29).” Japanese poets gloried in the sacrifice ofJapanese lives at the battle for Attu. This was termed gyokusai(玉砕) meaning that it was better to perish like a broken
jewel than to remain whole like a worthless tile (page 34).
Many Japanese writers were happy to support the Greater
East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere and took part with varying
degrees of enthusiasm in the congresses which met toboost the concept. Among these was Ken’ichi Yoshida.
Keene points out that after Japan’s defeat “Few writers
were ready to admit that their impassioned support of
the war had been a serious mistake of judgement (page154).” The post-war occupation of Japan aroused mixed
feelings. Jun Takami for instance felt “gratitude for the
freedom it had brought, but anger over the discrepancy
between the professed principles of the Americans andreality (page 137).” Japanese were understandably put
out by the way in which Japanese girls played up to
American soldiers, forgetting the Japanese use of comfort
women in territories occupied by the Japanese military.
American censorship which replaced Japanese censorship
was often inept and insensitive. The ban on Kabuki was
Issue 29 Volume 5 Number 5 (October 2010)

Project Japan and Art Media, Edo to Now
by Graham Cooper
with essays contributed by Japanese architects
Fumihiko Maki, Kisho Kurokawa, Tadao Ando,
Kengo Kuma and Makoto Sei Watanabe
Images Publishing, Australia, 2009, 240 pages,
numerous colour illustrations,ISBN 978 1 86470 300 2
Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi
Graham Cooper introduced his book to an audience at
Daiwa House in London on 28 October 2010. He had been
awarded a Japan Foundation Artist Fellowship in 1995
with a brief to study “Art in the context of Contemporary
Architecture in Japan.” He explains in his “Author’s
Statement”thatthissurvey“isarecordofpersonalassignments
and captures the many sites” which he has visited. He“discovered a distinct lack of understanding and awarenessin the wealth of creativity currently on display in Japan.”
Following a preface by Tadao Ando, one of Japan’s
outstanding modern architects, Graham Cooper sets
the scene by a brief survey of the history of Japanesearchitecture. This is followed by an essay entitled “Mass
Culture and Self-Restraint: a Japanese Aesthetic.” He7then discusses the urban context which he describes
as “Ancient and Modern Cheek by Jowl.” In describing
modern Japanese architecture he notes Fumihiko Maki’s
perceptive comment that “architects have an obligation
to involve existing craft skills in the construction industry.”He thinks that “The design of cities and public spaces
in future will be driven by society’s desire for a more
healthy and sustainable quality of life.” However, heconsiders architecture to be an “ornamental art form.”
After these introductory essays the book contains a‘catalogue’ (photographs) of buildings by modern Japanesearchitects together with descriptive commentaries. The
personal contributions of modern Japanese articles arefollowed by a number of reviews beginning with an essay
about the Japanese-American sculptor Isamu Noguchi.

The fruit museum at Yamanashi by Itsuko Hasegawa, whoaccording to the commentary “combines her interest in newmaterials and the natural environment with her concerns
for the user” may also seem quirky to some:This book was published somewhat earlier than New
Architecture in Japan [review on the Japan Society website
and in forthcoming issue 30] by Yuki Sumner, Naomi Pollock
with David Littlefield and photographs by Edward Sumner,
published by Merrell, London and New York in 2010
which I reviewed earlier this year for the Japan Society. The
approach of the two books differs but they both shed lighton architectural trends in modern Japan. This book wasalso published before our volume VII of Britain and Japan:
Biographical Portraits [review in this issue] which contains
a number of portraits of British and Japanese architects
namely Tatsuno Kingo, who studied under Josiah Conder
and then in Britain and Europe, Wells Coates, describedby Anna Basham as “Modernist Japonisme,” and Thomas
James Waters who designed among other Meiji buildings
the mint in Osaka, Takebashi barracks in Tokyo and who
inspired ‘Ginza Bricktown.’ The essay in the same volume
by Ann Basham on “The Changing Perceptions of JapaneseArchitecture, 1862-1919” provides a valuable accountof how British attitudes towards Japanese architecturedeveloped over the years. Although there are an increasing
number of books about Japanese architecture in English
there is still much work to be done on the AngloJapanese relationship in the context of architecture.

An example of the close relationship between Japanesearchitecture and garden design is shown in the following
photo of rocks at the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo:

Graham Cooper’s book is informative but his style does
not make for easy reading and this book cannot be
considered as a definitive account of modern Japanesearchitecture. The illustrations are not in my view as
good as those in New Architecture and it is not always
easy to envisage the impact of the buildings selected
for illustration on their surroundings. Neverthelessthey provide valuable information which contributes
to our appreciation of modern Japanese architecture.

Some of the best illustrations are of traditional Japanesearchitecture such as this of old houses in Kanazawa:

I found it difficult to select typical illustrations for thisreview. Some such as Tadao Ando’s Chichu Art Museum
Naoshima need to be seen from many angles andare difficult to reproduce in a short review. A quirky
example of ornamental Japanese architecture is thatof a straw shopping bag (Tang Da Wu) (page 139):

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Issue 29 Volume 5 Number 5 (October 2010) Issue 29