The Japan Society Review 43
Book, Stage, Movie, Arts and Events Review

Issue 43 Volume 8 Number 1 (February 2013)

Forgotten Lives
More history uncovered in Britain & Japan: Biographical Portraits Volume VIII
ANJIN at Sadler’s Wells
Our reviewers track down the Shogun in North London

The ties between the Japanese and British archipelagoes
form the heart of this issue’s reviews, with articles on new
performances and retrospectives linking the history of the twoisland nations.
The Japan Society is pleased to mark the publication of theeighth volume in the Britian and Japan: Biographical Portrait
Series. This series covers the biographies of hundreds of British
and Japanese personalities, whose lives and achievements areworthy of record. From great collectors to poets, journalists,
scholars and diplomats, the series contains a great depth ofresearch and some wonderful insights missing from general
histories of Anglo-Japanese dealings. Sean Curtin considers
the diversity of this latest addition and its value for futurescholarship and research.
Following this, two of our regular reviewers give criticalappraisals of Anjin: The Shogun and The English Samurai, aproduction that’s arrival in London coincides with the 400th
Anniversary of the start of relations between Britain and Japan
in 1613.
After our theatre reviews, Hugh Cortazzi delves into twobiographies; that of internationalist Matsumoto Shigeharu andnaval commander, Yamamoto Isoroku. Authors Kaimai Jun
and Mark Stille both offer new perspectives on these famous
figures in Japanese 20th century history.
Finally, we round off this issue with a trip down memory lane,
again in the company of Hugh Cortazzi, reviewing a book by
a contemporary of his in occupied Japan, Bernard T. Smith.
Smith offers an arresting snapshot of the realities of post-war
Japan and an important reminder of the country’s changing
fortunes.
Jack Cooke, February 2013

Contents

1) Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits, Volume VIII
2) Anjin (Part 1)
3) Anjin (Part 2)
4) Matsumoto Shigeharu: Bearing Witness
5) Yamamoto Isoroku, Leadership Strategy Conflict6) Memoires of Japan, 1946 (A People Bowed But Not Broken)........................................................

.........................................................­........................................................................................................................................
EditorSean Curtin
Managing Editor
Jack Cooke
Staff Reviewers
Susan Meehan and Michael Sullivan
Special Reviewer
Sir Hugh Cortazzi
New reviewswww.japansociety.org.uk/resources/the-japan-society-review

Britain and Japan:
Biographical Portraits,
Volume VIII
Compiled & Edited by Sir
Hugh Cortazzi
Global Oriental in association
with the Japan Society, 2013768 pages
ISBN: 978-90-04-24602-7
Review by Sean Curtin

Britain and Japan: BiographicalPortraits – Volume VIII marks a significant milestone in
the acclaimed Biographical Portraits project which now
strides towards its second decade of publication withthe first volume coming out in 1994. The well respected
series primarily profiles people who have enhanced
and contributed to various aspects of Anglo-Japaneserelations from the time of the Meiji Restoration (1868) tothe present day. This new volume along with the previous
Biographical Portraits books and associated Japan Society
publications brings the number of individuals chronicled
to well over 400, an impressive achievement which makes
this series such a significant reference source.
This latest work is brimming with energy and represents
the largest volume in the series to date. As in the previous
editions, the individuals profiled cover a broad spectrumof professions, in this particular volume ranging fromthe art world (Part three) to toponymy (John Mathews
James – pp. 649-662 by Sebastian Dobson). The featured
personalities range from the well known (Benjamin
Britten – pp. 419-431 by Jason James, Virginia Woolf – pp.
383-393 by Noriko Kubota and Beatrix Potter pp. 394-402
by George Wallace) to the lesser known (Tsurunosuke
Matsubayashi – pp. 312-323 by Shinya Maezaki, Charles
Alfred Fisher – pp. 544-558 by Gordon Daniels andGeorge Gorman pp. 507-524 by Deborah McFarlane).
As the very first editor of the series, Ian Nish, observed inVolume I, ‘there is no prototype’ for those documented in
the series.
As with previous volumes, writing a comprehensive
review of a work containing such a plethora of diverse
essays is an impossible task. One can only illuminate a tiny
fraction of what this impressive work has to offer. Keeping
this important caveat in mind, the following observations
merely reflect my own personal interests and the essays
I found particularly fascinating. In reality, I barely scratch
the surface of this superb work.
While many prominent figures are covered, the profilesof the lesser known personalities are perhaps the mostappealing aspect of this work and certainly make forgripping reading. They demonstrate that from Japan’s
global re-emergence in the late 1860s ordinary people
from both countries have worked extremely hard anddedicated themselves to building lasting cultural bonds.
2

Some of my favorite examples of the life stories of relatively
obscure characters are Hansen’s disease (leprosy) activist
Mary Helena Cornwall Legh (pp. 609-622 by Shigeru
Nakamura), wartime RAF pilot Ron Duckenfield (pp. 636643 by Koji Hoashi) and the Japanese garden designer Taki
Handa (pp. 332-350 by Jill Raggett, Yuka Kajihara-Nolan &Jason Nolan). Thanks to the efforts of these almost forgot
people, and many others like them, the ties between thetwo countries have blossomed. Their lives illuminate theintricate centuries-long weave that has created the finetapestry of today’s Anglo-Japanese relationship.
While the book covers a diverse range of professions andinstitutions, there are some unifying features and themes
which emerge from the work as a whole. The Japan
Society is one such unifying force cropping up in a host of
essays spanning over a century. This fact reminds us thatsince its founding in 1891, the Japan Society has been at
the forefront of Anglo-Japanese relations. For example,
in this publication we can effortlessly cross a century byreading about a lecture given by Douglas Sladen in 1912
(p. 367) to the Society and introduced by its chairman
Sir Joseph Dimsdale and then enjoy the recollections ofcurrent Society CEO Heidi Potter in 2012 about Charles
Dunn (pp. 526-528).
As a long-standing member of the Society, who has
worked with four chairmen, I was especially fascinatedby Anthony Best’s analysis of Major-General F.S.G. Piggott(pp. 102-116) who led the Society from 1958 to 1961,
succeeding Ambassador Robert Craigie who headed
the reconvened Society from 1949. Piggott was fluent inJapanese, having lived in Tokyo for four years as a childwhen his father, Francis Taylor Piggott, was stationed
there. Upon returning to the UK Piggott senior was acentral figure in the founding of the Japan Society in 1891.
Piggott himself served twice as military attaché in Tokyo
but according to Ambassador Sir Robert Clive (1934-37),‘in regard to Anglo-Japanese relations his feelings haveoutrun his sense of realities and that his judgement iswarped (p.105).’ Best is also highly critical, describing his
major fault as ‘undiscriminating love of Japan (p.113).’ Thisessay illustrates the need to temper one’s enthusiasm
with a strong dose of objectivity. Piggott remained
dedicated to improving bilateral relations his entire life.
His son, Major General Francis James Claude Piggott,carried on the family Japan connection from a different
perspective, fighting against Japan during the war and in1946 was posted to Japan as an intelligence officer on thestaff of the Supreme Allied Commander, General Douglas
MacArthur.
Another fact which emerges from the various articles isthat while many of the Japanese featured in this volume
spent some time in London, the majority lived in various
parts of West London. Thus the artist Busho Hara (pp.
235-246 by Hugh Cortazzi) spent time in Willesden Green(which hopefully had some green in his time), Chuji
Kurihara (pp. 247-256 by Libby Horner) seems to haveenjoyed life in Shepherds Bush along with several other
Issue 43 Volume 8 Number 1 (February 2013)

Japanese artists who also loved nearby Hammersmith,
while Kenkichi Tomimoto (pp. 303-311 by Hugh Cortazzi)
stayed in the more upmarket South Kensington witha small community of fellow designers and artists. It
might be possible to produce a historic map of Japaneselodging, which from this book would appear to centre onWest London.
Having been in Japan during the early nineties, I especiallyenjoyed Arthur Stockwin’s essay on Prime Minister Kiichi
Miyazawa which succinctly summed up his long politicallife and philosophy. In many respects the 2013 Liberal
Democratic Party (LDP) leadership, as represented by PM
Shinzo Abe, Shigeru Ishiba and Taro Aso, are the antithesis
to the Miyazawa outlook (p. 48). Yet Stockwin reminds usthat Miyazawa, who was a strong supporter of the warrenouncing constitution, was actually responsible forpassing legislation which allowed Japanese troops toparticipate in UN peacekeeping missions.
Ian Nish, Editor of the first two volumes of the BiographicalPortrait series, produces a fascinating essay on Edward
Grey (pp. 73-84), the long serving Liberal Foreign Secretary(1905-1916) and his stance towards Japan. Grey holds therecord for the longest continuous tenure of any person in
the office of Foreign Secretary, so his approach towards
Japan shaped policy for decades. I got the impressionthat the capable Grey, Eton and Oxford educated, could fit
perfectly into the current cabinet especially as the majorityof ministers have an identical educational background.
David Burleigh provides a stimulating look at the workof the travel writer James Kirkup and poet (pp. 370-382)
while Dr. James Hoare, a former editor of the BiographicalPortrait series, produces an insightful piece on Britain’s
consular service in the Japanese Empire (pp. 130-146).
The current editor and complier, Sir Hugh Cortazzi,
has divided this new work into eight thematic sections
which cover: (1) Politicians and Officials; (2) Lawyers; (3)Artists, Art Collectors and Art Dealers; (4) Potters andGarden Designers; (5) Writers; (6) Music, Sport, Filmand Media; (7) Scholars; (8) Other Notable Individuals
plus two impressive appendices (The Times and Japanin the Nineteenth Century by Sir Hugh Cortazzi and abibliography by Ian Ruxton of Publications from theSatow Papers in Chronological Order). Additionally, there
are two select bibliographies, one in English and one inJapanese, which cast light on British people who lived inJapan and Japanese who lived in the UK.
This new publication also has a very handy up-to-dateindex at the front of the volume that lists all those people
so far covered in the entire Biographical Portraits andrelated series, where to find each one as well as a list of
the authors of the respective essays.
Long term it is hoped that the entire series will be available
to access on the internet, which will make it an incredibly
useful global scholarly resource. Certainly, as I add volume
VIII to my bookcase to sit alongside the preceding seven,equally weighty, volumes the merits of online access are
Issue 43 Volume 8 Number 1 (February 2013)

even more apparent as are the structural limitations of
the book shelf.
Anyone familiar with Japan is certain to find several essaysof special interest within this generally fascinating volume
which boasts over forty distinguished English speaking
and Japanese contributors furnishing fifty-two uniqueportraits of known and lesser known personalities. This
volume is particularly noteworthy because of the large
number of Japanese contributors, demonstrating how
this series has truly become a vibrant bilateral venture.

Anjin: The Shogun and The
English Samurai
by Mike Poulton with Sho
Kawai (Part 1)
Sadler’s Wells Theatre, 31 January
2013 – 9 February 2013
Review by Susan Meehan

Anjin The Shogun and theEnglish Samurai premiered inJapan in 2009. Following two
successful seasons there, its finale
is now being held at Sadler’s Wells. This special production in
London is a launch event for Japan400, which is celebrating
the 400th anniversary of Japan-British relations that beganwith the arrival of the English ship the Clove in 1613. Various
events are being held throughout the UK in 2013 to celebrate
this landmark.
This production opened on 31 January, the date of Ieyasu
Tokugawa’s birthday, marking 420 years since his birth. It is
a completely bilingual production combining the talent ofJapanese and British actors and relying, for the translation,
on surtitles. The play was written by a British and Japanese
author, Mike Poulton and Shoichiro Kawai.

Anjin The Shogun and the English Samurai covers aremarkable period of Japanese history, set at a time of an
emerging new world witnessing the establishment of new
networks of trade and plunder and a new understanding of
the universe which challenged the old certainty of the earth
being at the centre.
Will Adams (1564-1620), the future ‘Anjin’ was a native of
Gillingham, Kent and believed to be the first Englishman toreach Japan on the Liefde in 1600. He was also one of Britain’s
most picturesque and daring maritime traders. This is an epic
tale of rare adventures and his rise to become confidant andadvisor to the Shogun.
Gregory Doran, the director of Anjin, is Artistic Director of theRoyal Shakespeare Company. In a brief conversation before
the start of the play, he told me he had approached the play as
one would a Shakespeare History. The themes in Shakespeare’s
Histories tend to focus on kingship, love, good and evil, destiny
and fate and all these are certainly explored in Anjin.
3Though the play covers a span of 16 years, from the wreckingof the Liefde to the death of Ieyasu Tokugawa in 1616, it seems
ten times longer, purely due to the detailed amount of history
it rams in. With all the politicking between the Tokugawa andthe Toyotomi and other clans within Japan, the history can, attimes, seem a little impenetrable.
Nevertheless, anyone who has watched the 1980s TV miniseries with Richard Chamberlain or read the blockbuster it
was based on, Shogun, by James Clavell, should be able tokeep up. In 2 hours and 40 minutes, the characters aren’t, ofcourse, developed to the same extent.
The sumptuous staging of this production is unveiled to thebeautifully haunting shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute)music played by the accomplished Dozan Fujiwara.
Yuichiro Kanai, the set designer, whose award-winningstaging of the 2006 Shochiku Grand Kabuki’s production of
Twelfth Night after William Shakespeare directed by Yukio
Ninagawa, outdid himself once more, ingeniously recreating
battle scenes, Japanese castle interiors and lavish screens.
Anjin’s first scene, set in April 1600, is extraordinarily
atmospheric. A few crosses on the set bear crucified men anddraw the audience in. Screened onto the background, a ship
is being tossed around on the waves. The Liefde, with a crewof about 20 sick and dying out of an original crew of 100 or
so, is shipwrecked close to Usuki, Oita Prefecture at a time ofpolitical turmoil in Japan.
As the survivors, including Will Adams, the ship’s pilot, emerge
onto stage they are met by locals as well as Spanish Jesuit
priests. The priests, afraid that these newly-arrived anti-Papists
will challenge their influence, claim that the sailors are pirates
and clamour for their crucifixion.
Domenico, a young and seemingly naïve Japanese Jesuit
novice, winningly played by Yuki Furukawa, clocks his
superiors’ dishonest and cynical behaviour.

‘Adams increasingly finds the English contingent
boorish. He is told that one of the crew has burnt
down a brothel and that another has beenaccused of rape.’
Lord Ieyasu Tokugawa, regent of Japan since the death of
Hideyoshi Toyotomi, the first lord of Japan, sends word tospare the crew of the Liefde. It would be unforgivable hefeels to treat the visitors so barbarously. Adams visits Ieyasu
Tokugawa in Ozaka. The young Domenico is entrusted withkeeping an eye on the likeable Adams, played by Stephen
Boxer with a convincing and light touch, and acts as his
interpreter. He teaches Adams the necessary protocol for his
audience with Ieyasu.
Fortunately for Adams, Ieyasu is an enlightened, welcoming
and intellectually curious man and they hit it off. Ieyasu isdazzled by Adams’ knowledge of seafaring vessels and the
19 cannon, muskets and cannonballs in the Liefde’s load andtakes him into his favour, much to the dismay of the Jesuits.
Not long after, in October 1600, Ieyasu Tokugawa, aided by4

the cannon brought over by the Liefde, is victorious over
the Toyotomi clan at the Battle of Sekigahara. This gives him
virtual control over all Japan.
Meanwhile, Domenico, thrilled by the excitement of battle,
realises that he has made a wrong career choice and decides
to revert to being a samurai.
Ieyasu Tokugawa’s victory is duly recognised by the emperor
who makes him Shogun in 1603. A grateful Ieyasu, meanwhile,
gives Adams the name Anjin, meaning pilot, and promotes
him to hatamoto (‘bannerman’), a prestigious position as
direct retainer in the Shogun’s court.
Adams wants to refuse these honours and return to England.
In a humorous exchange, Domenico is revealed to be startledand deeply worried at the fact that anyone could reject a
Shogun’s wishes. Adams is effectively barred from leaving
Japan. This is a touching scene and at this point the man who
had been sleeping next to me, not even waking up during
the raging scene of the Battle of Sekigahara and the firing of
the cannon, briefly woke up. I was pleased that he was able
to enjoy this touching and affecting moment.
It is Adams’ destiny to remain in Japan with his new wife
Oyuki and his son, Joseph, and daughter, Susanna. As theplay evolves, Adams continues a divided man much as
Domenico is, but in his case it is between being divided
between England and Japan and land and water.
In 1613 an English ship, the Clove, sails into Hirado, Nagasaki
Prefecture. This is an exciting point in the play, which packs ina few too many battle scenes. Captain John Saris has arrived
intent on establishing a trading post for the British East India
Company. The crew meet Adams and suspiciously observethat his Japanese heart has turned him Dutch or Spanish
or Portuguese – in any case, they can’t quite trust him andfind him conceited. Adams is extremely helpful however inorchestrating Saris’ audience with Tokugawa Ieyasu.
Saris has brought letters from the East India Company andfrom Adams’ wife Mary, and a likeness of his daughter. All thisgoes to making Adams rather homesick.
A tiring and weary Ieyasu confides in Adams. He has outlived
six of his sons; and his friends and enemies are dying. He
fears that the imminent battle in Ozaka will finish him off andsuggests that Adams, who’ll be left without a patron, may
want to return to England.
Adams prepares to return to England much to the grief ofOyuki who, for the first time, hears about Adams’ family inEngland from Saris and is heartbroken.
Adams increasingly finds the English contingent boorish. He
is told that one of the crew has burnt down a brothel andthat another has been accused of rape. Combined with his
antipathy towards the coarse Saris, despite being deeply
divided, he decides to remain where he is for the present
and becomes involved with the Hirado trading factory from1613.
Not long after, Lady Yododono, a veritable Lady Macbeth
played wonderfully by Yoshiko Tokoshima, advances against
Issue 43 Volume 8 Number 1 (February 2013)

the Tokugawa once more with her son, Hideyori Toyotomi,
and the rest of the Toyotomi family and supporters. The
staging again is marvellously atmospheric depicting Ozaka
engulfed in a ball of fire. The Tokugawa decisively beat the
Toyotomi.

Anjin: The Shogun and The
English Samurai

Ieyasu dies the following year, having left a legacy of peace
as he had wished. Adams managed to have a last chat with
Ieyasu, who had been a mentor and friend. They are obviously
fond and respectful of each other. Adams gives Ieyasu a globe
which he has made himself. Ieyasu is very happy. It represents
the world, which he had desperately wanted to explore forhimself.

Sadler’s Wells Theatre, 31 January
2013 – 9 February 2013

Adams will continue as a hatamoto under Ieyasu’s son
Hidetada’s rule, on the condition that he doesn’t consort with
the Christians. In a scene with Hidetada, his son Iemitsu andAdams, they look into space and see a comet, a signifier ofchange. Adams foresees a worsening of the conflict between
Protestants and Catholics in his western world and counsels
caution in dealing with the West.
Maybe the comet is Ieyasu, the trio marvel.
In any case, the speeding comet represents the brief period ofa British trading post in Hirado, closed after ten years in 1623,
and the end of Ieyasu’s enlightened and welcoming attitude
to the outside world.
Britain wouldn’t engage in meaningful links with Japan again
for over 200 years.
The play didn’t leave me with any particular new insights
or particularly memorable quotes. It seemed a bit too
similar to the 1980s mini-series, Shogun, featuring Richard
Chamberlain and based on James Clavell’s blockbuster ofthe same name. I had hoped it would take a new perspectiveon the story. Given the fact that so much was going on andthere was little opportunity to fully develop the characters, I
failed to fully warm to them, though recognise the wonderfulperformances given by Stephen Boxer, the legendary
Masachika Ichimura as Ieyasu, Yuki Furakawa as Domenico,
Yoshiko Tokoshima as Lady Yododono and the rest of theJapanese cast.
The irony it left me with is that Will Adams, so welcomedby Ieyasu, may have influenced the closing of Japan having
warned him against Catholic and Spanish approaches. The
Jesuits were expelled in 1614, and the isolationist policy of
sakoku was enforced in 1639 by Ieyasu’s grandson, Tokugawa
Iemitsu.
An enjoyable evening, I’d give the play 3.5 out of 5.

Issue 43 Volume 8 Number 1 (February 2013)by Mike Poulton with Sho
Kawai (Part 2)

Review by Michael Sullivan
Born in Kent in 1564 William
Adams (Muira Anjin 三浦按針)
was an English navigator who
was employed by the Dutch
on an expedition to South America, however should theirtrading plan fail, they had a backup plan to try for Japan.
After a disastrous journey in April 1600 only Adams’ shipout of a fleet of five arrived at Bungo (present day Usuki,
Oita Prefecture) with Adams and just a few others able to
do much more than stand. Over the next twenty years
he would become an important advisor to the shogun,
he would be instrumental in helping establish an English
trading post and eventually despite having the option isreturn to Britain he would choose to stay in Japan. In 1620
Adams died in Hirado near Nagasaki where even until
today his grave can be seen.
This inspiring play brings his story to life in a production
written by Mike Poulton and Shoichiro Kawai, and directedby Gregory Doran (Royal Shakespeare Company’s Artistic
Director). It stars veteran actor Masachika Ichimura (市村正親) as the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu (徳川家康) andStephen Boxer as Adams. An international supporting
cast includes a superb performance by up and coming
actor Yuki Furukawa (古川雄輝) as a Japanese Catholic
priest who at first is Adams’ translator but becomes his
friend despite their differences over religion. The play uses
both Japanese and English with subtitles, and this adds tothe truly fascinating moments between Adams and the
Shogun as they face their differences and similarities. It
should also be noted that this is an appropriate time forthis play as Britain and Japan mark the 400th anniversaryof relations being established between our two countries.
In 1613 Adams helped Captain John Saris in his meetingwith the shogun and in establishing the English factory in
Hirado. The shogun then sent with Captain Saris to Britain
two suits of armour as gifts for King James I. These 400
year old suits of Japanese armour can still be seen in the
Tower of London today.
As the play opens it is possible to vaguely see a crucified
man and a well-covered and bent over figure in Japanese
dress, this mysterious scene is left unexplained as they
disappear off stage and Catholic Jesuits stride onto thestage. The Portuguese had been present in Japan for sometime at this point and this is demonstrated by their use ofJapanese and the presence of Yuki Furukawa, training tojoin the Jesuit order and fluent in European languages.
The sighting of a ship in distress prompts the priests tocall for rescue, presuming the ship to be from Portugal or5

Spain. To their consternation the sailors dragged on stage
turn out to be Dutch, and one Englishman. As the ship isransacked the priests tell everyone that these half deadsailors are pirates.
In fear of death at any moment, and at a disadvantage
due to his inability to speak Japanese, Adams is selected
to represent the crew and to travel to speak to the shogun
himself. A troubled Yuki Furukawa perfectly portrays
innocence and confusion as he continuously tries totranslate honestly Adams’ words while being berated by
his Catholic superior and pushed into actions which hefinds to be against the teachings of the bible that he sofaithfully follows. Meanwhile Stephen Boxer presents us
with an Adams who is perhaps a little too full of himself,
but who quickly appreciates the beauty of the land he has
found himself in.
Although Tokugawa is suspicious of Adams, in particular
as his ship had many cannon and because of the wordsof the Portuguese priest, he finds some merit in what
Adams has to say and as we will find out later he haspossibly already spotted an advantage in keeping Adams
around. The meeting is quickly interrupted by news ofa rebellion around the son of the last ruler of Japan, it isperhaps here that the play has one of its weakest points
as all of the lords in rebellion are introduced, too many tokeep track of, and as the battle commences it becomesvirtually impossible to follow who is doing what. However,immediately before and also towards the end of thebattle it becomes clear one of the uses Tokugawa saw for
Adams as he commands him to build a western ship andas Adams supervises the use of cannon which help turnthe tide of the war.
The second half of the play sees the years go by andAdams becoming Japanized, he serves as an advisor andtranslator to Tokugawa, he marries and has children, andfinally with the arrival of an English ship he is forced to
face the reality of his situation. The English not only bringreminders of how his native people behave but also bringletters from an almost forgotten wife and the miniature
portrait of a much loved daughter. Faced with the ability
to finally go home he becomes a torn man, his Japanesefamily’s happiness is threatened, and appalled by Adams’
unchristian decision to abandon his family and return to
London, his Jesuit friend loses faith and leaves. Events
come to a head as Catholics help forment a new rebellion
again around the son of the last ruler while an aging
Tokugawa attempts to advise his son, the new shogun,
who is disinclined to listen.
The focus of the play is the relationship between Adams
and Tokugawa, and despite being from such different
worlds they strike up an amazingly close and strong
friendship. However, in the background the differences
between the West and the East seem to be laden withobstacles as Japanese people are eventually forced togive up their Catholic faith and deceitful Portuguese
priests run in fear as they are targeted in the wake of the6rebellion. Stephen Boxer finds his moment in the second
half as he represents a man at peace in Japan but tornwhen given the opportunity to return home, he decides
to stay, but Japan, and the world, are no longer the sameplace.

Matsumoto Shigeharu:
Bearing Witness
by Kaimai Jun, English
adaption by Waku Miller
LTCB International Library Trust andInternational House of Japan, 2012
219 pages
ISBN: 978-4=924971-33-2
Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi
Shigeharu Matsumoto [松本重治]
was a well-known internationalist with many friends outside
Japan including politicians, journalists and diplomats. He
is particularly remembered as the founder and developerof the International House of Japan in Roppongi in Tokyo
which with its seminar rooms, library and accommodation
for scholars has contributed so much to exchanges between
Japanese and foreign scholars. But he was much more thana major participant in international exchanges. He was an
influential journalist who was able to view from his post as
correspondent of Rengo [新聞聯合社] and later of Domei[同盟通信社] the course of Japan’s war in China with its
tragic consequences. He was an active participant in theinternationalization of Japan in the latter part of the twentiethcentury. As Jun Kaimai declares in his introduction, Japan as it
grapples with globalization and ‘diversity’ has much to learn
from Shigeharu Matsumoto.
The translator in his preface explains that Matsumotoreferred to himself as the ‘old liberalist’ whose worldview was
one of ‘a broad-minded receptivity tinged by a sometimes
touching, sometimes troubling naïveté. Matsumoto cameto prominence in 1936 as the journalist who broke the newsof Chiang Kai-shek’s detention in the Xi’an incident. And he
subsequently played a central role in initiatives aimed atending the conflict that had broken out between China andJapan.’
Shigeharu Matsumoto (1899-1989) was brought up in Osaka.
He studied law and English at Tokyo University before goingin 1923 to the USA to study economics and history at Yale. He
went on to Europe in 1925, where he interpreted for Japanesedelegates at an ILO conference in 1926. His ambition of
becoming a professional journalist was fulfilled when he wasappointed as the head of the Shanghai bureau of the Rengo(later Domei) news agency, In 1936 his reporting of the Xi’an
incident was a news scoop which marked him out as a wellconnected and influential journalist and brought him into
contact with Japanese leaders including Fumimaro Konoe
Issue 43 Volume 8 Number 1 (February 2013)

[近衛 文麿] whom he warned ‘Japan mustn’t humiliate theChinese by taking Nanjing.’ Unfortunately his warning fell on
deaf ears and his efforts to find an accommodation between
Japan and China failed.
Matsumoto was in a position to know what Japanese troops
did in Nanjing when they occupied the city. He was awarethat ‘Japanese soldiers had undeniably run amok, raping,looting, and murdering with abandon. He bore a profoundshame about what his countrymen had perpetrated in
Nanjing(page 94).’
Matsumoto contracted typhoid fever and his healthdeteriorated. He retired temporarily to Karuizawa, but when
Yukichi Iwanaga [岩永 裕吉], President of Domei, died in
1939, Matumoto agreed to become editor in chief of Domei,
a post which he held until 1943 when illness forced him
to relinquish this post. As he had served for some years inJapan’s official news agency it was perhaps inevitable that heshould be purged by the occupation authorities. But he wasfairly soon rehabilitated and began to play an influential rolein developing overseas exchanges especially with the US. His
friendships with leading Americans did not inhibit him as a‘liberalist’ from criticizing mistaken American policies e.g. in
Vietnam.
Shigeharu Matsumoto deserves to be remembered asa liberal minded internationalist. He would have been
depressed by the illiberal inward-looking tendencies today ofsome Japanese, old, middle-aged and young.
Note
The subtitle of this book is: ‘Through the eyes of a self-styled‘liberalist’ . . . Events that led to Japan’s war in China, Efforts
to avoid the worst, Postwar reflection and renewed global
exchange.’

Yamamoto Isoroku:
Leadership, Strategy,
Conflict
by Mark Stille,
illustrated by Adam
Hook
Osprey Publishing, Oxford,
2012
64 pages
ISBN: 9781849087315
Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi
Mark Stille was a Commander in the US Navy and has
worked in intelligence for over 30 years. He has written
widely about naval history in the Pacific. This slim volume
provides an introduction to the life and strategy of one of
the leading Japanese naval commanders in the Pacific War.
Isoroku Yamamoto [山本 五十六] is supposed by many toIssue 43 Volume 8 Number 1 (February 2013)

have opposed war with the United States. Yet he ‘personallyadvocated the attack [on Pearl Harbor] and went to great
extremes to execute it, in spite of almost universal opposition
within the Imperial Japanese Navy.’ Stille points out that
Yamamoto was not opposed to war with the United States
as such but only to a drawn out conflict which Yamamotorecognized Japan could not win. The surprise attack which
Yamamoto devised was ultimately disastrous for Japan as it
galvanized the Americans ‘with a thirst for revenge and an
unwillingness to negotiate anything short of total victory,
thus removing any hope of a peace favourable to Japan.’
Stille explains that initial Japanese naval victories in the Pacific
war were more due to ineffective and limited Allied resistancethan to the skill of Yamamoto. In his view Yamamoto’s ‘faulty
planning and poor execution resulted in a seminal defeat’ atthe battle of Midway which was the only occasion on which
Yamamoto took a fleet to sea under his direct command.
Yamamoto, who graduated from the naval academy at
Etajima in 1904, was badly wounded while serving on board
a Japanese cruiser at the Japanese victory at the battle of
Tsushima in May 1905. He recovered and was duly promoted
afterstaffcollegeandserviceatseato LieutenantCommander.
In 1919 he began one of his first tours of duty in the UnitedStates where he studied English intensively. In 1923, becauseof his knowledge of English, he accompanied the Navy Vice
MinisteronatouroftheUSAandEurope. Heservedagaininthe
US as an attaché from 1926-28 and in 1930 he was appointed
assistant to the Japanese delegation to the London naval
Conference. Yamamoto had therefore plenty of international
experience. He was also well informed about naval aviation
as in 1924 he had been assigned to the Kasumigaura Aviation
Corps where he worked hard to master aviation technology.
In the years leading up to the Pacific war Yamamoto andother senior naval officers worked hard ‘to curb the influenceof the Army and stop the march to war.’ Following theconclusion of the German non-aggression pact with theSoviet Union in August 1939 Yamamoto who had become
Naval Vice-Minister was forced to resign from this post but
was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet
despite the fact that he ‘had had little command experience.’
Stille gives a clear account of the way in which Yamamoto
forced through ‘his vision’ of an attack on Pearl Harbor which
he hoped would break American morale. In fact its effects
were the opposite of that intended. If Japan had limited
itself to attacking the British and the Dutch in South East
Asia it would have been difficult for Roosevelt to declare war
on Japan and American isolationism could have revived.
Stille gives an interesting analysis of the battles of theCoral Sea and Midway and discusses Yamamoto’s rolein the Guadalcanal campaign. He also describes how
Yamamoto came to his death when the aircraft in which
he was flying was ambushed by American fighters.
Japanese intelligence was frequently poor. In the naval
battles in the Pacific in which Yamamoto was involved
he ‘possessed almost no credible intelligence and filledin the gaps with a series of incorrect assumptions.’
7

Stille’s assessment of Yamamoto is that while hepossessed charisma and was far-sighted he was nota military genius. He hated pomposity, but could besentimental. He could also be hard if not brutal, but was
an inspirational leader. He was ‘a womanizer who largely
ignored his family.’ He was a gambler in his personal
life and ‘This trait carried over into his professional life.’
Stille’s assessment may not accord with Japanese viewsof their naval hero, but anyone interested in the history of
the Pacific War will find this brief study thought provoking.

Memoires of Japan, 1946
(A People Bowed But Not
Broken)by Bernard T. Smith
Trafford Publishing, North America& international, 2012
199 pages
ISBN: 978-1-4669-6309-2
Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi
Bernard Smith describes in thismemoir his life as an RAF officer on the staff of the British
Commonwealth Air Force (BCAIR) Headquarters at Iwakuni
in 1946. BCAIR was part of the British CommonwealthOccupation Force (BCOF), which had been allocated byGeneral MacArthur, the Supreme Commander Allied Powers(SCAP) responsibility for the allied occupation of prefectures
in western Honshu and the island of Shikoku. But military
government remained in the hands of the Americans and
BCOF’s role was a limited one.
Smith quotes in this context a parody of the Lord’s prayer
written ‘by one our own troops.’ This began: ‘Our General
who art in Tokyo. Douglas MacArthur be thy name, . . . Giveus this day our daily directive, And forgive us for trespassingin the US zone, . . . And lead us not into insanity, But deliver
us from Iwakuni . . . ‘
His job at BCAIR headquarters was a frustrating anddifficult one. He had to cope with a plethora of problems
from arranging accommodation for the AOC (Air Vice
Marshal Bouchier) to ensuring that the multifarious needsof the headquarters were met. One of the most trying was
dealing with local procurement at a time of great scarcity.
It is difficult for those who did not get to Japan until after
the economic ‘miracle’ to realise not only the destructionof Japanese infrastructure and cities which resulted fromthe bombing raids, but also the very real poverty not to sayhunger which Japanese faced in 1946. That these were theresult of the failure of Japan’s leaders in 1945 to face the factof Japan’s defeat does not mean that we should overlook
the suffering. Smith was conscious of these facts from his
arrival in Kure, from his passage through Hiroshima and8from the devastation even in the small city of Iwakuni.
Smith who had learnt some Japanese at the School ofOriental and African Studies before he went out to India
and Burma soon established friendly relations with local
families and tried to develop cultural exchanges. He wasfrustrated by the anti-fraternisation rules which BCOF tried
to enforce. These stemmed not only from anti-Japanesesentiments in British Commonwealth countries, but were
‘justified’ by the mistaken belief that they would reduce
black-market activity by allied personnel and reduce therisk of men contracting sexual diseases. Anti-fraternisation
rules which were much more stringently applied in areas
occupied by British Commonwealth forces than in areas
under American control were silly and mistaken. Fortunately
the more intelligent officers, including Bernard Smith, andsome other ranks in BCAIR found ways of getting round therules.
Bernard Smith arrived in Iwakuni in February 1946. I arrived
in late June of that year and spent six months working with
the RAF Provost Unit on security duties before going on to
Miho and Yonago in Tottori prefecture for eight months.
Bernard Smith says that our paths did not cross (althoughsurely we must have met at least in the officers mess?).
At any rate we shared many local friends not least the
Namiwakis, especially Shizue who acted as an interpreter
first at headquarters and later at the RAF police unit in
Iwakuni town where I worked.
Reading Bernard’s account of his time in Iwakuni broughtback many nostalgic memories of my own time there which
was briefly touched on in my memoir, Japan and Back andPlaces Elsewhere, Global Oriental, 1998.
Members of the Japan Society may have seen the mock-up
of Iwakuni’s famous Kintai bridge which was exhibited at
the Japanese Embassy in London last year. They will also no
doubt have seen copies of the colour prints of the bridge
by Hiroshige. This book will give them another picture ofthis city in Yamaguchi prefecture in western Japan which
remains a Naval air base and was once the castle town of
the Kikkawa family.
We must be grateful to Bernard for keeping such detailed
notes which have enabled him to give us this snapshot of abrief episode in his service in the RAF 67 years ago.
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Issue 43 Volume 8 Number 1 (February 2013)