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

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

Issue 20 Volume 4 Number 2 (May 2009)

Our bimonthly eclectic mix of stimulating Japanrelated book, film and stage reviews kicks off withSir Hugh Cortazzi’s look at the centennial book of
the Tokyo-based Japan-British Society. This Society
was established in October 1908, having grown outof the Tokyo branch of our own Society. The work
charts the first 100 years of its accomplishments,
which include attracting several Japanese Prime
Ministers to its events. The fact that there havebeen considerably more Japanese PMs than British
ones, no doubt has given the Society an advantage
over its British parent. Susan Meehan looks at
the mesmerising 2009 Oscar winner Okuribito(Departures), while Fumiko Halloran explores theinsightful and best-selling Japanese language book
“Saraba Zaimusho!” (Farewell, Ministry of Finance!)
which gives an insider’s view on the secretive
world of Japan’s tight-lipped bureaucrats. We thenexplore the much talked about Japan-influenced
production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at
the Southwark Playhouse. William Farr offers his
sobering assessment of “The Book of Sake” while
Helen McCarthy examines the superbly colourful“Japanese Quilt Blocks” publication. We also
analyze the merits of the Meiji Restoration from amodern day Tokugawa spin doctor perspective in“The Edo Inheritance.” This issue also introduces a
new semi-regular feature called East Asian Corner
where we look at significant recent books on the
East Asian region related to Japan. Our first offeringin this category is Peter Lowe’s “Contending with
Nationalism and Communism: British Policy towards
Southeast Asia, 1945-65.

Contents(1) The Japan-British Society Centenary Book
(2) Okuribito (Departures)(3) Saraba Zaimusho! (Farewell, Ministry of Finance!)(4) A Midsummer Night’s Dream(5) The Edo Inheritance(6) The Book of Sake: A Connoisseur’s Guide(7) Japanese Quilt Blocks to Mix and Match(8) Contending With Nationalism and Communism

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

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

The Japan-British Society the Society was changed to “The Japan-British
Society” in April 1923. Its last meeting before theCentenary Book
The Japan British Society,
Tokyo, 2009, hardback.
Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi
The Japan-British Society
celebrated its centenary in
2008. It was established as“The British Society” at an
inaugural meeting on 20
October 1908. Its first annual dinner was held at
the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo on 27 November 1908.
A branch of the Japan Society in London had been
set up in Tokyo in 1902 and the British Society inJapan developed from this branch. The name ofoutbreak of war was a lunch held at the Imperial
Hotel in Tokyo on 28 March 1940. The Society was
revived at a general meeting on 25 October 1951.
Since then it has maintained and expanded a wide
range of activities which like the work of the Japan
Society in London have contributed to AngloJapanese understanding and friendship.
This centenary volume is the result of muchpainstaking research and is a valuable record of
the activities of the Society over the last 100 years.
It begins with forewords from the honorary patron
HIH Prince Tomohito, from David Warren, theBritish Ambassador and current president of theSociety, and from Sadayuki Hayashi, the chairman

of the council of the Society and former Japanese
Ambassador to Britain.
The first part deals with the activities of the Society
in the years up to the outbreak of the Second
World War. As the pre-war records of the Society
were destroyed during the war this is largely basedon newspaper reports and is thus not as full as
the subsequent parts covering the post-war era.
The second dinner of the Society was held on 14
November 1909. Whereas the menu for the firstdinner had consisted of French cuisine, the menu
on this occasion was Japanese. The dinner washeld in three large Japanese tatami rooms withvarious Japanese objets d’art on display including
a painting by Kano Tanyū in the toko no ma. The
guest of honour on this occasion was Field Marshal
Lord Kitchener.
In 1911 the Society was reported to have had 213
members. Its objective was described as being “theencouragement of the study of British affairs andthe furtherance of Anglo-Japanese friendship”（
目的―英国の事物に関する研究を奨励し且つ日英両国の交誼を増進せしむろにあり.）The Society’s first
honorary patron was Prince Fushimi; its second
was Prince Yamashina.
It is interesting to note that a speaker at a meetingof the Society on 9 October 1911 was the Fabiansocialist Sydney Webb who was visiting Japan withhis wife Beatrice. Colin Holmes gave an accountof the Webbs’ visits to Japan in Britain and Japan
1859-1911 Themes and Personalities, (Routledge1991).
The visit of the Prince of Wales (later King Edward
VIII) to Japan in 1922 attracted much publicity
and he was given a warm welcome by the Prince
Regent (later the Showa Emperor) and by Japanese
crowds. Somewhat oddly this volume records thevisit by quoting comments on it by the French
Ambassador Paul Claudel. There are accounts of thevisit in The Prince of Wales Eastern Book publishedby Hodder and Stoughton for St Dunstan’s in 1922
and in With the Prince in the East by Sir Herbert
Russell, published by Methuen also in 1922. The
former includes many photographs of the visit,
but neither account mentions a Japan British
Society occasion, although no doubt members of
the Society attended many of the functions whichmarked the prince’s visit.
A noteworthy pre-war development was theestablishment of a Shakespeare medal. This wasawarded every year from 1929-1938 and revived
after the war. The last Shakespeare medal wasawarded in 1982 to NHK, the Japanese publicbroadcasting organization, for broadcasting theseries of productions of Shakespeare plays madefor the BBC.
Anyone interested in obtaining a copy of this book2

should contact the Japan British Society in Tokyo:
http://www.japanbritishsociety.or.jp). The Japan
Society library has several copies which may beborrowed by members.

Okuribito (おくりびと)
directed by Yōjirō
Takita2008, 131 minutes
Review by Susan Meehan

Okuribito(Departures),winner of the 2009 Oscar
for “Best Foreign Language
Film,” upsetting the muchtalked about Waltz With
Bashir ,
opens
with
a
mesmerising winter scene
in the photogenic Shōnai
area of Yamagata Prefecture and doesn’t fail tocontinue impressing, amusing and tugging at theheart strings.
His career as a cellist in tatters, halted when theorchestra he plays with is rudely dissolved, Daigo
Kobayashi, played by heart throb Masahiro Motoki- who erupted onto the scene in the 1980s withthe all boy band “Shibugaki Tai,” then going on
to star in several films, including “Sumo Do Sumo
Don’t” - returns to his native Sakata from Tokyo.
With hardly a penny to his name, the idea is to live
rent-free in his deceased mother’s home.
Eager to find work, in order to support his
steadfast wife, Mika, Daigo applies for a job at
NK Agency “assisting departures.” He is invited to
an interview and in the humorous scene which
ensues, is given the job on the spot. Having
imagined NK Agency to be a tourist agency,
Daigo is perturbed to find that he will, in fact,
be assisting those “departed” from this world.
Receiving a wad of money from his lugubrious
new employer and with no other job prospects insight, Daigo becomes an unwitting and unlikely“mortician.” He has never been near a dead body –his grandparents died when he was very little, hismother died when he was abroad and his father
has not been seen since leaving home when Daigo
was six – so how will he fare with cleaning cadavers
and making them look beautiful?
Daigo regards his newfound work as a trial or
perhaps a punishment for having left his mother. He
takes his job seriously, soon finding it fulfilling andbecomes extremely fond of his quirky colleagues.
(I found it improbable, but not a real problem, that
Daigo’s occupation is, on the whole, portrayed as
Issue 20 Volume 4 Number 2 (May 2009)

Yoichi Takahashi,“Saraba Zaimusho!”
さらば財務省(Farewell, Ministry of
Finance!)
Kodansha, March 2008
(11th printing in August2008), 282 pages.
Paperback ￥1700
ISBN-13: 9784492211793
a 9-5 job despite the fact that death doesn’t abideby this routine.)
Daigo tries to keep the exact nature of his job secretfrom his wife – she knows he works in “ceremonies”
and imagines this to mean weddings. When Mika,
played by Ryoko Hirosue, finally discovers the true
nature of Daigo’s job, she becomes disgusted andfinds him filthy. A childhood friend also deserts
him, regarding him as “polluted.” Daigo, theconsummate professional, resolutely carries onwith his job, ultimately earning his detractors’ andaudience’s respect and admiration.
The film, hilarious and sad in turns does a lot todispel the taboo of death and rehabilitate those
who have jobs which involve dealing with thedead. My only complaint is that some of the scenes
drag. Other than this it is a fine and enjoyable film
despite the subject matter. I pondered how such afilm would be made in a multicultural country. Set
in the UK there would be scope to focus on all sortsof eccentricities: eco-friendly coffins; references
to Mr Ghai, the devout Hindu hoping to overturna Newcastle Council decision preventing funeralpyres; humanist ceremonies and unusual funeralsongs for starters.
Motoki plays the role of his life in this film, showing
tremendous versatility and sensitivity, and is welldeserving of the accolades it has brought him.
The director of NK Agency and Daigo’s boss,
Shōei Sasaki, played by Tsutomu Yamazaki, is also
outstanding.
The film won Best Film, Best Director (Yojiro
Takita), Best Screenplay (Kundo Koyama), Best
Actor (Masahiro Motoki), Best Supporting Actor(Tsutomu Yamazaki), Best Supporting Actress(Kimiko Yo), Best Cinematography, Best Film
Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Lighting at thisyear’s 32nd Japan Academy Prize.

Review by Fumiko Halloran
Yoichi Takahashi, a former career official at the
Ministry of Finance (formerly the Okura-sho [大蔵省]
before it changed its Japanese name to Zaimu-sho[財務省] – although the English translation remains
the same) has written an explosive book criticizing
his own ministry. His forthright critique propelled
the book into a national best seller.
As implied in the subtitle, “Kanryo Subete O Teki Ni
Shita Otoko No Kokuhaku” (官僚すべてを敵にした男の告白), which translates Confessions of a Man
Whom All Bureaucrats Hated as Their Enemy, he wassomeone the Ministry hated because he kept pointing
out the flaws in its policy. His proposals to reform thebureaucracy upset those who wielded power overpoliticians and interest groups.
The Ministry could not ignore him, however,
because of his expertise in collecting and analyzing
numbers which often pinpointed an unpleasantreality in the Ministry’s fiscal management. The
Ministry could not fire him because they could not
find an instance where it could claim he violated thecivil service code. Ministry officials used every tactic
possible to force him to resign, from demotion toleaking damaging information to the press andeven refusing to associate with him. But Takahashi
refused to capitulate and succeeded in launchingbureaucratic reforms while serving Prime Minister
Jun’ichiro Koizumi, Minister for Economic and Fiscal
Policy Heizo Takenaka, and Prime Minister Shinzo
Abe after Koizumi left office. He finally resigned
in 2007 after Prime Minister Abe resigned and iscurrently a professor at Toyo University.
A graduate of Tokyo University with a major inmathematics, Takahashi joined the Ministry at theage of 25 in 1980. He says he was not particularlyinterested in government, preferring an academic
career, and was pursuing a second degree in
economics at the University. The Ministry, however,actively recruited him.
Takahashi admits that, from the start, he was an
outsider as the Ministry was dominated not only
by graduates of Tokyo University but by its Facultyof Law. He asserts that when he joined, only threemathematics majors had joined the Ministry

Issue 20 Volume 4 Number 2 (May 2009)3

in the post-war period. That was a major flaw,
according to him, because those who studied
law were not necessarily familiar with the latest
financial and fiscal theories and were not capableof mathematical analysis.
Early in his career, he was once praised as asaviour of the Ministry. Takahashi proposed to
install an assessment of risk in fiscal investment
policy, which was handled by the rizai (finance)
bureau. The bureau took postal savings deposits
and social security premiums and lent them togovernment financial institutions and special
public corporations. During high economic growth,
this was useful to improve infrastructure but over
the years the waste in many public corporations
was criticized. Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimotoin 1997 ordered an overview of the system.
When Takahashi was assigned to the financebureau, he discovered that there was little risk
management in the system. While the bureau
acted like a large national bank, there was little
consideration given to the ever-present risks due
to fluctuations in interest rates and the time lag
between deposit and lending. Total deposits at thetime were 400 trillion yen; even a slight change ininterest rate could thus mean a huge loss.
His report was ignored but on his own, he
formulated a plan for Asset Liability Management(ALM) that had been developed in the US in the
1990s. He wrote a book with co-authors entitled“ALM” (Ginko Kenshu-sha -銀行研修社), 1996.
When a new director general of the finance bureau
read Takahashi’s paper outlining the disasterapproaching in the ministry’s own bankruptcy, he
was called back on to install ALM, which he did ina short time.
In 1982, Takahashi befriended Dr. Heizo Takenaka
who was his superior at the Ministry’s Zaisei Kinyu
Kenkyusho -財政金融研究所 (Institute for Capital
Investment Studies). Takenaka had been seconded
from the Development Bank of Japan. He was 31
years old, a graduate of Hitotsubashi University,
another outsider. Takahashi was 27, and they
organized various study groups and co-authoredpapers and articles for economic and businessnewspapers and magazines.
In 1998, Takahashi went for three years to Princeton
University where he befriended Prof. Ben Bernanke,later to be the head of the Federal Reserve System.
On his return to Japan, Takahashi got a call from
Takenaka who had become the minister for
economic and fiscal policy in the Koizumi cabinet.
In secret meetings, they began to discuss specificideas about government reform. Takahashi’srole was at first hidden from his superiors andcolleagues because he was suspected of being
4

someone who would propose ideas that would
diminish their power. They also feared losing
a comfortable retirement in cushy positions in
special public corporations and government
financial institutions, a practice called “amakudari”(天下り - descending from heaven).
Takahashi’s vision of the future of government
was clear; he advocated smaller government
with an efficient bureaucracy and would transfer
many government functions to the private sector.
By reducing the government programs andincreasing efficiency, tax spending and waste
would be reduced. That, in turn would stimulate
the economy. His argument was not ideologicalbut was based on simulations of scenarios. He
asserted that without reforming big governmentand cutting spending, Japan’s economy could not
be sustained. Prime Minister Koizumi began in2001 to push for reform of the postal system, which
included banking and insurance businesses.
However, specific plans to privatize the postal
system were not clear cut at the beginning, andit took three years to overcome opposition fromsupporters of the existing postal system, to build
consensus on plans for privatization, and toreprogramme the postal system’s software.
Four corporations took over mail, revenue
stamp, banking, and insurance, and an umbrella
corporation supervises the entire operation. While
the format on the surface had not changed thatmuch, postal corporations have to compete withcommercial banks and insurance companies
to retain customers. Complete privatization
including joining the stock market would be
finalized by 2011. Takahashi recalls fierce criticism
and counterattacks from politicians who were
supported by the postal service interest groups.
Takahashi’s talent was well known among senior
LDP leaders. Each time Prime Minister Koizumi or
Prime Minister Abe tapped Takahashi to lead atask force, he willingly accepted as he believed hewas essentially a government official serving eachcabinet’s policy. However, this cost his promotions
within the Ministry of Finance where he wasbranded as a trouble maker who would upset thestatus quo and would not obey orders.
When you read this kind of book, it is easy to beswayed by the image of a knight on a white horsedemolishing a giant enemy called government.
Indeed, this book generated much interest
among people who had little knowledge about
the fierce power struggles within and among theministries considered to be filled with the best
and the brightest. Takahashi takes credit where
it is due, showing little humility. I can imagine
he must have been like a yapping dog or a Siren
Issue 20 Volume 4 Number 2 (May 2009)

warning of dire consequences and disrupting the
Ministry’s comfort zone. I cannot help but feel,
however, that the senior leaders in the MOF could
have used Takahashi’s talent wisely. Too bad their‘bureaucratic training to smooth over differences‘pushed Takahashi out. He has come out with thisbook that does not paint a pretty picture of theelite class.
Takahashi’s book disclosed a lack of accountability
for wasted tax revenues, the inability of seniorbureaucrats to remedy troubles, and theunwarranted elitism of government officials,
particularly in the Ministry of Finance. They banded
together to protect their power and disregarded
the national interest, according to him. He warns
that soon the government will not be able toattract bright and dedicated talent, pointing outthat between 2002 and 2006, some 300 career
officials from all ministries left the government.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream
directed by Jonathan Man
Performed at the Southwark Playhouse, 19th
February 2009
Review by Susan Meehan
The
Japan
Society’s
Contemporary
LifestyleCommittee organised a
special theatre evening on
19 February, for Society
members to watch A
Midsummer Night’s Dream
followed by a Question
and Answer session withthe actors, director andtechnical crew - all inclusive
at a bargain rate.
Noticeable on entering the intimate theatre was
the Kabuki -inspired walkway, reminiscent of thehana-michi ; the Noh -inspired pine tree or kagamiita painted on the back of the stage and the actors
clad in simple kimono. The Japanese influenceon this production was no surprise given that the
British Chinese director, Jonathan Man - of the
Yellow Earth Theatre - lived in Japan for a numberof years.
He transported the action of the play to feudal
Japan, placing it in Kaga, the old name for Ishikawa
Prefecture, where Man has lived. This relocation
to samurai Japan with rigid hierarchical strictures
was entirely plausible given the prominence ofthe court and ancient laws in this play, apparent
right from the start as the play begins with Egeus,
Hermia’s father, ready to invoke an ancient law andIssue 20 Volume 4 Number 2 (May 2009)see her killed if she refuses to marry Demetrius, his
choice of suitor, in favour of Lysander, whom she
professes to love.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream pits the fantasticaland magical world of the forest fairies against theworld of the Duke and Duchess. Man goes one
step further by clearly demarcating the world of
the mechanicals, or labourers, by expertly drawing
on the Japanese theatre traditions of Noh, Kabuki
and Kyogen.
Noh , a classical form of stylised and slow Japanesetheatre which has been performed since the 14th
century was used to define the court; while theless formal, less solemn and more dynamic kabuki ,was reserved for the fairies. Kyogen , a moreslapstick and comical type of theatre, was used by
the mechanicals.
Man additionally used language as a demarcator.
The fairy world, dominated by Oberon and Titania,
largely spoke Japanese as opposed to the nobles
and the mechanicals who spoke English pepperedwith the odd Japanese word.
The insertion of Japanese was great fun for anyone
with a smattering of the language. I picked out
the use of dame, honto ni, utsukushii, anata anddemo amongst other expressions. When Helenaand Hermia squabble in the forest, I was amusedby Helena being called gobo (burdock root)and Hermia being called issun boshi , the fabled
Japanese dwarf, and stored up these words for
future use! I also enjoyed hearing Mustard Seedcalled Wasabi in Japanese. It all made such sense.
The actors were very good and energetic and must
be commended for having handled multiple roles,
multiple theatre styles and the use of English andJapanese so effortlessly.
Lysander, the versatile Matt McCooey, who also
played Bottom with characteristic self-importanceand bombast stood out, as did You-Ri Yamanaka,
playing a very coquettish Titania and regal
Hippolyta. The greatest laughs were reserved for
Puck, Jay Oliver Yip, who stole the show with his
impish antics and ninja- style flights across thestage.
Though Kenji Watanabe’s (Theseus/Oberon)
English was noticeably less fluent than that of therest of the cast, his bursts of Japanese, ironically,
did not seem to bother the audience in the least.
Memorable was his angry outburst in Japanese
having lost his temper with Puck’s ineptness.
All in all, it was a thoroughly entertaining
performance with good casting. Trying to gauge
the reactions of non-Japan Society members in
the audience, I spoke to an older woman during
the intermission who told me it was the best5

production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream she had
ever seen; no exaggeration. Having no connection
or familiarity with Japan, she wasn’t disconcerted
by the mixture of languages and said she’d loved
the energy and movement of the production.
Sitting next to some students from the local John
Ruskin School, on an evening out with their drama
class, I gleaned an insight into their enjoyment of
the play. They enthused about Lysander, laughedat Bottom and Titania’s flirting, found Nina Kwok’s
lion very cute and were intrigued by the versatilityof the fan as a prop to symbolise cups and themechanicals’ scripts and the love-juice and doubled
over with laughter each time Puck darted aroundthe stage. Their interaction gave the play a life ofwhich Shakespeare, or indeed the Globe Theatre,
would have been more than happy.
In the Q+A session following the play, we heardthat 2000 local school children had been to see it,
unfazed by the use of Japanese. As Jonathan Man
explained, they wouldn’t have understood all the
English either, so not understanding every wordof the play was simply not an issue. We also heardthat the actors had only three weeks in which toprepare for the production – an incredible featgiven that they had to learn Japanese words inaddition to different Japanese theatrical styles.
Asked about specific instances in which Japanesestyles were used in the play, the actors said they
drew on Japanese-style “eye-movement andexpression” and Nina Kwok said her lion sketch
was entirely inspired by Japanese kyogen .
Speaking with Man after the play, we heard that
his next project with the Yellow Earth Theatre isa production of Medea . We wish him all the bestwith his next venture.

The Edo Inheritanceby Tokugawa Tsunenari, translated by
Tokugawa Iehiro
International House of Japan, Tokyo, 2009, 200 pages.
Hardcover, ¥2,500
ISBN: 978-4-903452-14-2

history of this fascinating
period in Japanese history.
His book sadly contains
almostnothingabout
thevibrant
merchant
civilization of Tokugawa
which is surely one of themost important elements in‘The Edo Inheritance.’ Thereis nothing in this book to
explain the colourful andfascinating culture whichdeveloped despite thestultifying and often cruelbureaucracy which was a feature of the Tokugawa
Shogunate. The index contains no reference toany of the great literary and artist figures of the era
such as Basho, Saikaku, Kenzan, Korin, Harunobu
and Hokusai to name only a few of the leading
artists and writers who contributed so much morethan the Tokugawa shoguns to the greatness ofJapanese civilization.
The writer is right to emphasise that the Meiji
Restoration was not the complete break with thepast which some Japanese and foreigners havesuggested that it was. He is also correct in drawing
attention to positive features such as educationin Tokugawa Japan. But his attempts to compare
Tokugawa Japan with Europe, drawing special
attention to the barbaric treatment of witches
and the unsanitary behaviour of European courts,
suggests that his study of European history has
been at best superficial. His treatment of the third
Tokugawa Shogun Iemitsu and of the fifth Shogun
Tsunayoshi paints too rosy a picture of both men.
In his chapter on “The Natural and SpiritualFoundation of Japanese Culture” he asserts that
“Japan is the only industrial nation in the worldthat has a civilization with a tradition of choosing
to coexist with nature.” Perhaps, but Japanese
governments over the last half-century have donemuch to destroy Japan’s natural heritage withconcrete excrescences and roads to nowhere.

The Book of Sake:
A Connoisseur’s Guide
Tokugawa Tsunenari is the eighteenth head of by Philip Harper
Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi

the main Tokugawa family (honke). He used to
be an executive at the leading Japanese shipping
company NYK. In 2003 he established the Tokugawa
Memorial Foundation in Tokyo. He gave a lecturein London in the spring of 2009.
Tokugawa Tsuneari has tried in this book to present
the Tokugawa Shogunate’s achievements. This isunderstandable in view of his position as head of thefamily, but his book cannot be read as an objective
6

Kodansha, 2006, 96 pages including glossary,
photographs.
Hardcover, £16.99
ISBN: 9784770029980
Review by William Farr
The growth of sake drinking in the West has gone
hand in hand with the growth of books on thesubject, as well as the consumption of JapaneseIssue 20 Volume 4 Number 2 (May 2009)food and drink. In the lastten years in particular, andespecially within the UnitedStates, specialist shops andwriters have emerged. The
United Kingdom though islucky enough to have theonly non-Japanese Master
Brewer in the form of Philip
Harper. In “The Book ofSake” Harper, accompanied
by tasting guidance fromthe esteemed sake critic
Haruo Matsuzaki, puts his
knowledge into a well-written tour of the worldof sake for the connoisseur. Additionally, having
been fortunate enough to meet Harper as recentlyas October 2008 at a British Sake Association
function, his wit, enthusiasm, and energy for sakeis clearly apparent in writing as well as in person.
This writer has the utmost respect for all those in
the sake industry who toil through the long cold
winter months, the months when the bacteria
needed to brew sake can be best controlled.
Philip Harper not only toiled through many cold
winter months over many years but also learnt thecomplete art of sake brewing from the hardest andmost physically demanding jobs upwards, and somust be applauded all the more for entering thesake world the hard way. Not only that but the sakeindustry is a traditional element of Japanese society
and so to break into that world, gain acceptance,and reach the highest standard as a master brewer
makes Philip Harper’s views on sake all the morepoignant.
Early chapters in this book – unlike others in thegenre - do not swamp the reader with scientificfacts and figures on how sake is made. Rather weare drawn into the sake world gradually using abottom-up approach that focuses on the versatilityof sake. Whether sake is chilled and drunk alone,served with food, heated, or imbibed with fugu-fin(hire-sake) the diversity of methods available for theenjoyment of sake is on show. Delicate photographysuch as the wonderful picture on page 25 show
the grades of colour that sake can possess fromclear varieties through to rustic copper coloured
versions.
It is particularly heartwarming to read that at Philip
Harper’s brewery they are unapologetic as theydrink sake by pouring a bottle into a kettle andthen proceeding to warm the kettle on a stove.
This image may sound very abrupt and basic, but
this clear simplicity of personal yet enriched design
stands as a hallmark of Mr. Harper’s philosophyof sake. We are positively encouraged to explore,
increasing our understanding of subtle sake flavours
in isolation or in relation to food.
Issue 20 Volume 4 Number 2 (May 2009)

At various points in the book, green indented boxes
reveal a little more of the language of sake fromnihonshudo (sake metre value) to umami (hearty
deliciousness) and so we are gradually educated in
the ways of the sake world. Regional variations are
discussed in chapter three, as is the master brewers
system of which Mr. Harper is part. The science ofsake brewing is left to the end of the book. What is
excellent is that the reader can take from the booksnippets of information at leisure, and so graduallybuild up a view of sake.
A good glossary, with sake specifications of top
brands, and then a wonderfully indented Brewer’s
Notebook on the inside back page made me wish
for a pocket version of the book, along the lines of
popular Japan Travel Bureau “Japan in Your Pocket”
series. The book is well illustrated and all photographs
are accompanied by good explanations. Any sakelover, or any British sake lover should ideally havethis guide on their bookshelf.
Unabashed, clear, always seeking to make thereader think about sake and in particular why
you like it in the way you do, this is a refreshingaddition to the canon of Western writing on sake.
The overwhelming impression from the book is that
however you drink sake, you will not be judged, aslong as you enjoy it. Super Kanpai.

Contending With
Nationalism andCommunism:
British policy towards
Southeast Asia, 194565 (Global Conflict andSecurity Since 1945)
by Peter Lowe
Palgrave Macmillan, 2009,
312 pages including notes,
bibliography and index.
Hardcover, £55.00
ISBN-13: 978-0230524873
Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi
Peter Lowe presents in this study a clear accountof the complex and often inter-related problems
in Southeast Asia which faced British ministers andofficials in the first twenty years after the end of
the Second World War. It is based on meticulous
research in the National Archives. Memoranda,
minutes, official despatches and telegrams from
British missions in the various capitals are quoted
in ways which bring out the difficulties faced by the
British government in an area of the world which
was no longer central to British world interests but
which could not be neglected, if only because of7

residual imperial responsibilities and the wider
international ramifications of the issues involved.
Not the least of these were the implications for
Anglo-American relations which is a theme running
throughout this book.
Lowe concludes (page 247) that “Overall British
politicians revealed a certain arrogance in theirdiplomacy with their counterparts in Southeast Asia;
at the same time they understood the processes
at work and British policy demonstrated flexibility
and a willingness to compromise.” He notes that
“Communism was identified as the principal threat
in 1948. The menace was exaggerated in the later
1940s and early 1950s…The communist threat wasreal but not as comprehensive as feared.” Britain wasforced to recognize that independence for Malaysia
and Singapore was the price they had to pay todefeat the communist threat. “British ministers
and officials employed a blend of pragmatism andjudicious concession in negotiating with nationalist
leaders; they knew that time was not on the side ofcolonial empires.” There were reactionary British
officials especially in Burma in the early post-war
years, but French and Dutch ministers and officials
were more wedded to colonial rule than the British.
Such colonialist attitudes complicated and delayed
solutions in Indo-China and Indonesia.
Peter Lowe’s study does not deal directly withJapanese involvement with the problems ofSoutheast Asia in the years covered by this study,
but the unrest and destruction throughout the area
were, of course, the result of the war and Japanese
occupation. The Japanese were also responsible for
inflaming nationalism in the Asian countries which
they occupied, although as Lowe points out (page12) “The Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere, as
implemented by Japan between 1942 and 1945,
represented the imposition of Japanese imperialism
rather than liberation: most Japanese wereinterested primarily in exploitation of Southeast Asia
for economic and military purposes.” In Indo-China
after the Japanese surrender “the British suspectedthat the Japanese were assisting Vietnamese
revolutionaries” (page 31).
Japanese forces inIndonesia were also a problem for British and Indianforces which moved into Java in September 1945.
Esler Dening, who was sent to Java in October 1945,
and who had served for many years in Japan before
the war (he later became the first post-war British
Ambassador to Japan) (page 35) “was alarmed at
the role played by the Japanese: ‘I have come to theconclusion that the Japanese have left undergroundorganizations throughout South-East Asia, and inview of their known methods …they are likely to
be very hard to detect’”. “Between 1945 and 1948
British ministers and officials wrestled as best they
could with the legacy of Japanese occupation ofSoutheast Asia” (page 41).
8

Against this background and with memories ofJapanese atrocities still fresh in ministers’ minds it
was not surprising that the British were reluctant
to see Japanese adherence to the Colombo
plan (designed to assist recovery in the area)
when the issue was discussed in 1951/2 (page76). The Japanese were in due course admitted
and a Foreign Office planning paper produced in
1959 declared (page 79) that “The West should
work with Japan for three reasons: to discourage
cooperation with communist states; to build Japanas a counterweight to China and to utilise Japan’svaluable experience as ‘the only fully industrialised
Asian power.”’ Japanese membership of SEATO
was never a possibility. The British regarded Japanas “disruptive” (page 92); in any case Japan would
have been precluded by the post-war constitution
from joining such a defence pact.
Lowe in his chapter on “Britain, Indonesia and theCreation of Malaysia” refers to the Japanese rolein attempts to end “confrontation,” but does notcomment on this in much detail. Perhaps we in
the British Embassy in Tokyo put too much stresson what we saw as Japanese meddling and on theundisguised pro-Sukarno attitude of many Japanese
officials particularly Oda Takio, the vice-ministerat the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who had been
Japanese Ambassador in Djakarta. In this context
readers should look at pages 196/7 of my portraitof Sir Francis Rundall, the British Ambassador atthat time, in British Envoys in Japan 1859-1972,
published by global Oriental in 2004 and “Marked
for Peter Lowe”
Peter Lowe’s carefully researched study should beread by anyone interested in the end of empire
in Southeast Asia and the various conflicts andtragedies which disturbed the peace in the area in
the first twenty years after the Second World War.

Issue 20 Volume 4 Number 2 (May 2009)