Ways of Forgetting, Ways of Remembering (46 page)

11
. Statement by Assistant Secretary of State U. Alexis Johnson,
U.S. Security Agreements and Commitments Abroad: Japan and Okinawa Hearings
, 91st Cong., 2d sess., pt. 5, January 26–29, 1970, 1166; cited in Hideki Kan, “The Significance of the U.S.-Japan Security System to the United States: A Japanese Perspective,” in Glenn D. Hook, ed., special Japan issue of
Peace and Change: A Journal of Peace Research
12, nos. 3–4 (1987): 20.

12
. See Michael Schaller,
The American Occupation of Japan
(Oxford University Press, 1985), 104, on “independent identity”; see Dower,
Empire and Aftermath
, 420, on Dodge; see U.S. Department of State,
Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954
, vol. 14, pt. 2, pp. 1724–25 (September 12, 1954), on Dulles; cf. ibid., p. 1693 (August 6, 1954).

13
. See the concise summary “Economic Relations with the United States, 1945–1973” by Gary Saxonhouse in
Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan
(Kodansha, 1983), 8:161–64.

14
. For the Korean War boom and “special procurements,” see Takafusa Nakamura,
The Postwar Japanese Economy: Its Development and Structure
(University of Tokyo Press, 1981), 41–48; G.C. Allen,
Japan's Economic Recovery
(Oxford University Press, 1958), 19–22, 34–35, 166–69, 203. For the Vietnam War boom, see Thomas R.H. Havens,
Fire Across the Sea: The Vietnam War and Japan, 1965–1975
(Princeton University Press, 1987), 96. This is a useful source on this period in general. Japan's entry into economic “maturity” is commonly dated from 1964, when the country was accorded full membership in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and “advanced country” status in the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

15
. See Dower,
Empire and Aftermath
, and Masumi,
Postwar Politics in Japan
, for general political developments in the first postwar decade. The evolution of U.S. policy is closely documented by Howard Schonberger in
Aftermath of War: Americans and the Remaking of Japan, 1945–1952
(Kent State University Press, 1989). I have dealt at length with the extensive presurrender legacies to the postwar state and society in “The Useful War,”
Daedalus
, Summer 1990, 49–70; see also Dower,
Japan in War and Peace
, 9–32.

16
. Chitoshi Yanaga,
Big Business in Japanese Politics
(Yale University Press, 1968), 83–87; Haruhiro Fukui, “Liberal Democratic Party,”
Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan
4:385.

17
. For catchphrases, cf. Takahashi Nobuo,
Sh
ō
wa ses
ō
ry
Å«
k
ō
go jiten
(
Ō
bunsha, 1986), 142–43, 148–49. The “shallow economy” is discussed in Dower,
Empire and Aftermath
, 449–63. For the origins of the famous white paper phrase, see Nakano Yoshio, “Mohaya ‘sengo' de wa nai,”
Bungei shunj
Å«
, February 1956, reprinted in Bungei shunj
Å«
, ed. “
Bungei shunj
Å«
” ni miru Sh
ō
wa shi
(Bungei shunj
Å«
, 1988), 2:349–59; cf. K
ō
no Yasuko, “‘Sengo' no owari,” in Watanabe,
Sengo Nihon no taigai seisaku
, 182. On the five-year plan, see Masumi,
Postwar Politics in Japan
, 237–39.

18
. K
ō
nosuke Odaka, Keinosuke Ono, and Fumiko Adachi,
The Automobile Industry in Japan: A Study of Ancillary Firm Development
(Kinokuniya Company and Oxford University Press, 1988), 46, 102–5; Takahashi,
Sh
ō
wa ses
ō
ry
Å«
k
ō
go jiten
, 146, 149, 151; Sakakibara Sh
ō
ji,
Sh
ō
wago
(Asahi Bunko, 1986), 124. On bestsellers, cf. Ueda Yasuo,
Gendai no shuppan: Kono miryoku aru katsuri sekai
(Ris
ō
Shuppansha, 1980), 162.

19
. Miyake et al., “‘Goj
Å«
go-nen taisei,'” 83, 88, citing Kamishima Jir
ō
on the difference between the two camps.

20
. Takahashi Shin and Nakamura Ky
Å«
ichi, “Sengo Nihon no heiwaron,”
Sekai
391 (June 1978): 202–25, esp. 202–7.

21
. Miyake et al., “‘Goj
Å«
go-nen taisei,'” 83–84, 89–90, 117. The “four weak” parties were the Communists, Socialists, Democratic Socialists, and K
ō
meit
ō
.

22
. See Packard,
Protest in Tokyo
, for the 1960 struggle and Havens,
Fire Across the Sea
, for the anti–Vietnam War movement in Japan. The grassroots movements are discussed in Margaret A. McKean,
Environmental Protest and Citizen Politics in Japan
(University of California Press, 1981). On the university disturbances, see Henry D. Smith II, “University Upheavals of 1966–1969,” in
Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan
8:171. I also have drawn on an as yet unpublished manuscript on the New Left by Mut
ō
Ichio.

23
. See Kan in Hook,
Peace and Change
, 27, for the 1959 NHK survey. Welfield,
Empire in Eclipse
, 197, cites a 1968
Sh
Å«
kan Asahi
poll showing 66 percent support for neutralism; an
Asahi Shimbun
poll in 1969 showed 56 percent support.

24
. Welfield points out conservative disagreements on international policy throughout
Empire in Eclipse;
see esp. 210–14. On internal LDP debates on China policy, see Haruhiro Fukui,
Party in Power: The Japanese Liberal Democrats and Policy-making
(University of California Press, 1970), 227–62.

25
. Takeshi Igarashi, “Peace-making and Party Politics: The Formation of the Domestic Foreign-Policy System in Postwar Japan,”
Journal of Japanese Studies
11, no. 2 (1985): 323–56.

26
. For an extended critique of the conceptual shortcomings of the opposition as reflected in the 1960 struggle, see Takabatake Toshimichi, “‘Rokuj
Å«
-nen anpo' no seishin shi,” in Najita Tetsuo, Maeda Ai, and Kamishima Jir
ō
, eds.,
Sengo Nihon no seishin shi
(Iwanami Shoten, 1989), 70–91.

27
. Welfield,
Empire in Eclipse
, 364–68, 413; on Japan's military industries, see 434–41.

28
. Kenneth B. Pyle, “Japan, the World, and the Twenty-First Century,” in Takashi Inoguchi and Daniel I. Okimoto, eds.,
The Political Economy of Japan
, vol. 2,
The Changing International Context
(Stanford University Press, 1988), 455–56.

29
. The committee was established in 1956, met from 1957 to 1964,
and dissolved in 1965. Its final report made clear that a majority favored revision, but no recommendation was made and the cabinet did not forward the report to the Diet. The nadir of the movement to revise the constitution is commonly dated from this time. This situation changed drastically after the Gulf War of 1991, when U.S. and European criticism of Japan facilitated the conservatives in dispatching an overseas “Peacekeeping Force” under United Nations auspices and thereby invigorated the movement to revise the constitution.

30
. Welfield,
Empire in Eclipse
, 109–13.

31
. K
ō
no in Watanabe,
Sengo Nihon no taigai seisaku
, 192.

32
. For a general contemporary overview of the Japanese economy in the 1970s, see Daniel Okimoto, ed.,
Japan's Economy: Coping with Change in the International Environment
(Westview Press, 1982), especially the contributions by Gary Saxonhouse (123–48) and Hugh Patrick (149–96).

33
. John W. Dower, “Japan's New Military Edge,”
The Nation
, July 3, 1989; Steven K. Vogel,
Japanese High Technology, Politics and Power
, Research Paper No. 2, Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy, March 1989.

34
. See Pempel, “Unbundling of ‘Japan, Inc.,'” for an analysis of this diversification among the ruling elites. This is generally seen as marking the end of the 1955 System. This same theme permeates many of the articles in Pyle,
Trade Crisis
.

35
. In 1976, the year the “1 percent of GNP” ceiling was first singled out as a formal guideline, Japan's military spending ranked seventh in the world—after the two superpowers, China, West Germany, France, and Great Britain. Its military budget was more than triple that of South Korea, far greater than that of any of the Warsaw Pact powers, and far greater than that of neutral powers such as India, Sweden, and Switzerland. Japan's 1976 military budget was almost 14 times that of 1954. For Britain over the same period the increase was 2.5 times, for France roughly 5 times, and for West Germany a little less than 7 times. Welfield,
Empire in Eclipse
, 366–69, includes useful tables of these expenditures.

36
. Publishing houses such as Iwanami, which includes the monthly
Sekai
among its periodicals, continued to address these issues with a rigor reminiscent of the earlier period, and scholars such as Sakamoto Yoshikazu remained devoted to “peace research” in the broadest sense. See Sakamoto,
Shinpan: Gunshuku no seijigaku
(Iwanami Shinsho, 1988).
For critical evaluations of the course of democracy in postwar Japan, see Rokur
ō
Hidaka,
The Price of Affluence: Dilemmas of Contemporary Japan
(Penguin Books Australia, 1985); Gavan McCormack and Yoshio Sugimoto, eds.,
Democracy in Contemporary Japan
(Hale and Iremonger, 1986); and Takeshi Ishida and Ellis S. Krauss, eds.,
Democracy in Japan
(University of Pittsburgh Press, 1989).

37
. Kenneth Pyle has summarized the range of opinion on Japan's world role in two useful articles: see “Japan, the World, and the Twenty-First Century,” and “In Pursuit of a Grand Design: Nakasone Betwixt the Past and Present,” in Pyle,
Trade Crisis
, 5–32.

38
. For extended critical analyses of the
Nihonjinron
genre, see Ross E. Mouer and Yoshio Sugimoto,
Images of Japanese Society: A Study in the Structure of Social Reality
(KPI, 1986), and Peter N. Dale,
The Myth of Japanese Uniqueness
(St. Martin's, 1986).

39
. The full text appears in
Asahi Shimbun
, January 17, 1968. The LDP also defined “the inherent form of the Japanese people” (
Nihon kokumin no konzen no sugata
) as consisting of “human love and public duty, love of the motherland and racial spirit, defense consciousness, etc.” (
ningenai to k
ō
tokushin, sokokuai to minzoku seishin, b
ō
ei ishiki nado
).

1
. Asahi Shimbunsha, ed.,
Koe
(Voice) (Asahi Bunko, 1984), I: 264–65. This is a selection of letters to the editor originally published in the “Koe” section of the
Asahi Shimbun
: vol. 1 covers 1945 through 1947. See also the lengthy “Picture of Tokyo” printed in the February 20, 1947, issue of the
Asahi
and quoted in T
ō
ky
ō
yakeato yamiichi o kiroku suru kai, ed.,
T
ō
ky
ō
yamiichi k
ō
b
ō
shi
(S
ō
f
Å«
sha, 1978), 55–57.

2
. Examples of the search for a usable past appear throughout John W. Dower,
Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II
(W.W. Norton and The New Press, 1999). “Bridges of Language” is the title of chapter 5 in that study.

3
. For a good sample of such “reapplication” of old proverbs and clichés, see the series of photographs accompanied by satirical captions in
Asahi gurafu
, January 1946. This clever graphic commentary is another early example of the
iroha
associations discussed in this essay. The captions alone are reproduced in
Iroha karuta
, a Winter 1974 special
volume (
bessatsu
) of the elegant magazine
Taiy
ō
, 102 (hereafter cited as
Iroha karuta
).

4
. T
ō
ky
ō
yakeato yamiichi o kiroku suru kai,
T
ō
ky
ō
yamiichi k
ō
b
ō
shi
, 52.

5
. Torigoe Shin,
Kodomo no kaeuta kessakush
Å«
(Heibonsha, 1998), 109–11. This was by no means the only wartime song subjected to mockery before the defeat. The same fate, for example, befell the lyrics of the “Patriotic March” (“Aikoku k
ō
shinkyoku”), a song that appeared shortly after the initiation of war with China in 1937 and enjoyed explicit government support. The tasty flavor of this particular parody is suggested by the metamorphosis of the march's opening line, where “Look, dawn comes to the Eastern Sea” (
Miyo T
ō
kai no sora akete
) became “Look, T
ō
j
ō
's head is bald” (
Miyo T
ō
j
ō
no hage atama
). Another patriotic song, in this instance dating from 1940 and celebrating the purported founding of the Yamato state 2,600 years previously, inspired several parodies. Entitled “Twenty-six-hundred Years Since the Founding” (“Kigen wa nisen roppyaku nen”), the song dwelled on mythical birds and glorious radiance and concluded with heartfelt evocation of “ah, the pounding heart of the hundred million” (
aa, ichioku no mune wa naru
). In the parody, the names of cigarette brands replaced the nouns in the original, and the song became a lament about inflation driving up the price of tobacco. The lyrics concluded with the sad observation that “ah, the hundred million has no money” (aa,
ichioku wa kane ga nai
)—or, in a slightly different rendition, “ah, the hundred million weep” (aa,
ichioku no tami ga naku
). Most shocking (and surely most intriguing for the practitioner of psychohistory to ponder) were the parodies of a 1930s children's song entitled “I Love Soldiers.” The first verse of the original lyrics ran as follows: “I love soldiers / When I grow up / I'll put on medals and don a sword / Mount a horse and gallop off” (
Boku wa gunjin daisuki yo / Ima ni
ō
kiku nattaraba
/
Kunsh
ō
tsukete ken sagete / Ouma ni notte hai d
ō
d
ō
). Children sang several variations of this, all apparently ending with essentially the same first three lines. Here is one such version: “I hate soldiers / When I become small / I'll be held by Mother and drink her milk / Get a coin and go buy candy” (
Boku wa gunjin daikirai /Ima ni chisaku nattaraba / Ok
Å«
san ni dakarete chichi nond
ā
/ Issen moratte ame kai ni
). In other versions, children sang about drinking Mother's milk, after which “I'll disappear into her stomach” (
Onaka no naka e kiechau yo
)—or “I'll sleep soundly on her lap” (
Ohiza de suyasuya nenne suru
). For these examples, see ibid., 183–94.