Category: Japan

Yukio Mishima’s lost film version of “Patriotism” found

The Japan Times reports that the film version of Yukio Mishima‘s famous short story “Patriotism,” thought to have been destroyed by his wife following his suicide, has now been found.

Mishima’s widow, Yoko, who died in 1995, was believed to have destroyed the original along with all copies of the film.

But the negative was found in a wooden box by Hiroaki Fujii, producer of the 30-minute black-and-white film, according to publisher Shinchosha Co.

Fujii had persuaded Yoko, who pulled all copies of the film from theaters and burned them after Mishima’s suicide in 1970, to hold onto the original.

The film includes scenes that foreshadow Mishima’s suicide in 1970 at the Ground Self-Defense Force’s regional headquarters in Tokyo’s Ichigaya District.

A character in the film, a lieutenant involved in the Feb. 26 Incident, a failed 1936 military coup, commits hara-kiri.

Mishima also committed hara-kiri at the GSDF regional headquarters after calling on officers to launch a coup d’etat.

I managed to find a digital copy of the story from a dead website with the help of google cache, and I’ve mirrored it here.

Patriotism, by Yukio Mishima

Walmart to Open in Japan

All these history posts are making my head hurt! Now let me depress you big time:

Seiyu To Open ‘Wal-Mart’ Supercenters Next Year

TOKYO (Nikkei)–Seiyu Ltd. (8268) will in 2006 start opening stores developed with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and named after the U.S. retail giant, The Nihon Keizai Shimbun learned Tuesday.

Seiyu plans to open large outlets that combine supermarkets and discount stores. All of these so-called supercenters — Wal-Mart’s mainstay — will be developed jointly by the two companies, with some of them bearing the name “Wal-Mart Seiyu.” Candidate areas to host new supercenters include Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture.

These supercenters will offer discount prices on a regular basis under Wal-Mart’s everyday-low-prices concept. Although this marketing method is not widely popular among Japanese consumers, Seiyu will emphasize that the stores are operated under the Wal-Mart philosophy.

Personally, I am not the type to beatify Japan’s traditional culture or superior egalitarian values, but Walmart, I hope you agree, just sucks the big one. I went in there late at night the other weekend just to get soda and I was almost run over by some shitty teenager messing around on the fat-people-scooter they keep around. I mean, I go there to buy razors, but every time I’m there I silently pray that the big ugly Walmart will one day cease to exist, much as the Iraqis are friendly to American troops to their faces but secretly pray for their country to go back to normal as soon as possible.

Imperial Japanese propaganda and the history of Kodansha

Boingboing linked to scans of a Japanese propaganda booklet for kids from the Japanese Imperial period. The low resolution of the scans (not to mention the old-fashioned katakana orthography) makes it a bit hard to read, but that hasn’t stopped two different bloggers from posting translations before I even saw it. Kyle Goetz and Paul Battley both have translations, but Paul Battley’s, in which he places the translation in captions around the original images, is far more readable. Kyle Goetz’s translation, which has more comments and translation notes, is recommended only for those who also know some Japanese. Kyle theorizes that the booklet was written for foreigners, but I believe it is quite clearly a children’s book.

Unfortunately, the book seems to be undated, but from the cover we can see that it was published by Dai-Nihon Yuubenkai Kodansha (大日本雄弁会講談社). Anyone who has even a passing acquintance with Japanese media or publishing will probably recognize Kodansha, which is still a major publisher of magazines, comics and various types of books.

According to the history section of Kodansha’s English language site:

Seiji Noma, the founder of the company, published his first magazine, Yuben (Oratory) in 1909. This was followed in 1911 by Kodan Club, a monthly collection of kodan or traditional stories from which the company was to take its name. The success of Kodan Club assured the future of the new company and, by the mid-1930s, Kodansha had taken a leading position in the magazine publishing industry through the publication of nine magazines.

Looking at the timeline in the more detailed history section of their Japanese language website, we can see that Dai-Nihon Yuubenkai and it’s spinoff, Kodansha, were merged in 1925, creating a company with the combined name of Dai-Nihon Yuubenkai Kodansha. Since this remained the companies name until 1958 (when it became simply Kodansha Corporation) and this booklet is very much a product of the Imperial era, it must have been published between 1925 and 1945.

The Wikipedia article also contains a fun piece of trivia about Kodansha. Before World War II, the company attempted to branch out into other industries, marketting a nutritional beverage called Dorikono. However, due to a wartime sugar shortage, they were forced to cease production of the drink, and completely withdrew from the food industry.

U.S. paid Unit 731 members for data

WASHINGTON (Kyodo) The United States paid money and gave other benefits to former members of a Japanese germ warfare unit two years after the end of World War II to obtain data on human experiments conducted in China, according to two declassified U.S. government documents.

It has been known that the Allies offered to waive war crime charges at the tribunal for officers of the Imperial Japanese Army’s Unit 731 in exchange for experiment data.

But the latest findings reveal Washington’s eagerness to obtain such data even by providing monetary rewards, despite the horrific nature of the unit’s activities, in an attempt to beat the Soviet Union in the arms development race.
Continue reading U.S. paid Unit 731 members for data

SWEET! Japanese Govt To Lead Effort To Realize Virtual Reality TV By 2020

My new job as a “Japan researcher” gives me a lot of fringe benefits, like free subscriptions to the Economist, Businessweek, Asahi and Nikkei daily newspapers, and Nikkei Net Interactive, a web service that provides translated Nikkei articles and some features like Japanese company profiles. I’m often unsure of what to do with the information — does passing along pay articles that I get from work constitute a violation of licensing agreements? Well, I’m sure a partial copy-paste here and there couldn’t hurt.

So it is with that in mind that I bring you this article. Something tells me this is a lot more realistic than Japan’s “Atom Project” (to create a robot with all the humanity of a 5-year-old boy by 2040 or so), and also probably a lot more fun.

Govt To Lead Effort To Realize Virtual Reality TV By 2020

TOKYO (Nikkei)–The Communications Ministry will establish an industry-academia-government R&D organization this year that will work to commercialize VR (virtual reality) television by 2020.

VR TV will enable images to be seen in 3-D from any angle at a quality equivalent to that offered by high-definition TVs, in addition to allowing viewers to feel and smell the objects they are watching.

The government hopes that by supporting the project, it can help Japan maintain its technological edge.

When these features are used on home shopping programs, for example, viewers will be able to examine products by seeing them from various angles and feeling them. VR TV technology will also likely be used in telemedicine and other fields.

Recreating tactile sensations and odors is expected to be the biggest hurdle to commercialization.

To simulate the sensation of touch, researchers are considering using means including ultrasound, electrical stimulation and wind pressure. For smells, the development of a device that mixes natural aromatic essences to recreate particular scents will likely be given a major focus.

Decades After Abuses by the Japanese, Guam Hopes the U.S. Will Make Amends

Decades After Abuses by the Japanese, Guam Hopes the U.S. Will Make Amends
By JAMES BROOKE

MERIZO, Guam, Aug. 11 – In July 1944, American warships were bobbing on the Pacific horizon when a squad of Japanese soldiers swept through this old Spanish fishing port. Jogging down sandy alleys and bursting into stucco homes, they rounded up 30 villagers, all known for their ties to the United States.

“They didn’t want any leaders to be around when the military landed,” Ignacio Cruz said as he recalled the roundup he watched as a 17-year-old. “Then, they machine-gunned them, they grenaded them, and if they found them surviving, they bayoneted them.”

“Dad got killed, and a lot of young babies were brought up without fathers,” continued Mr. Cruz, who grew up, joined the Marines and became the village mayor, the post his father once held. “I managed to survive, and go to school, and build a house for my mother and continue my education.”
Continue reading Decades After Abuses by the Japanese, Guam Hopes the U.S. Will Make Amends

If you thought politicians in your country were immature — Part II

In keeping with Roy’s recent post on immature politicians, my previous post on a past dissolution of the Japanese Lower House, and the recent dissolution of the current Lower House by Koizumi, I thought it apropos to write today about a past instance in Japanese politics where immatuure politics led to the dissolution of the Lower House — the バカヤロー解散, or “name-calling dissolution.”

The incident in question occured on February 23, 1953 during a meeting of the Lower House Budget Committee (衆議員予算委員会) as then Prime Minister Yoshida Shigeru (吉田茂) was questioned by Nishimura Eiichi (西村栄一) of the rightist faction in the Japan Socialist Party (右派社会党). Yoshida’s outburst during the questioning session would eventually lead to Yoshida’s dissolution of the Lower House, and finally to elections.

Here is an abridged transcription of the exchange:

西村「総理大臣が過日の施政演説で述べられました国際情勢は楽観すべきであるという根拠は一体どこにお求めになりましたか」

吉田「私は国際情勢は楽観すべしと述べたのではなくして、戦争の危険が遠ざかりつつあるということをイギリスの総理大臣、あるいはアイゼンハウアー大統領自身も言われたと思いますが、英米の首脳者が言われておるから、私もそう信じたのであります(中略)」

西村「私は日本国総理大臣に国際情勢の見通しを承っておる。イギリス総理大臣の翻訳を承っておるのではない。(中略)イギリスの総理大臣の楽観論あるいは外国の総理大臣の楽観論ではなしに、(中略)日本の総理大臣に日本国民は問わんとしておるのであります。(中略)やはり日本の総理大臣としての国際情勢の見通しとその対策をお述べになることが当然ではないか、こう思うのであります」

吉田「ただいまの私の答弁は、日本の総理大臣として御答弁いたしたのであります。私は確信するのであります」

西村「総理大臣は興奮しない方がよろしい。別に興奮する必要はないじゃないか」

吉田「無礼なことを言うな」

西村「何が無礼だ」

吉田「無礼じゃないか」

西村「質問しているのに何が無礼だ。君の言うことが無礼だ。(中略)翻訳した言葉を述べずに、日本の総理大臣として答弁しなさいということが何が無礼だ。答弁できないのか、君は……」

吉田「ばかやろう…」

西村「何がバカヤローだ。バカヤローとは何事だ。（以下略）」

(My) Translation:


Nishimura: What exactly was the basis of the Prime Minister’s statement during a recent policy speech that the international situation was optimistic?

Yoshida: I wasn’t saying that the international situation should be optimistic. I think that the British Prime Minister and President Eisenhower themselves had said that the danger of war was receeding and because the American and British heads of state said so, I also belive it to be so (abbv.)

Nishimura: I’m asking for the Prime Minister of Japan’s outlook on the international situation. It’s not like I’m asking for a translation of the British Prime Minister`s outlook. (abbv.) This isn’t about the optimism of the British Prime Minister or some other foreign Prime Minister (abbv.) The Japanese people are questioning the Prime Minister of Japan. Isn’t it natural that Japan’s Prime Minister should state his outlook and policy on international affairs? I think it is.

Yoshida: My answer just now is my answer as the Prime Minister of Japan. There’s no doubt about that.

Nishimura: I don’t think the Prime Minister should get so excited. There’s no need to get that worked up, is there?

Yoshida: Don’t be so impudent.

Nishimura: What’s impudent?

Yoshida: You’re impudent.

Nishimura: I’m just asking you questions. What’s so impudent about that? What you’re saying is impudent. (abbv.) What’s impudent about my asking you, as the Prime Minister of Japan, without using [Churchill’s*] translated words, to answer me? Can’t you answer? You…

Yoshida: You Idiot!

Nishimura: Who’s the idiot! Who are you calling an idiot?

The transcription ends here, but Nishimura went on to demand that Yoshida retract his comments, which Yoshida finally agreed to do. However, this was not enough to mollify Nishimura, whose party introduced a disciplianry measure (here’s a great new Japanese word one does not often run across –> 懲罰動議•ちょうばつどうぎ) on March 2. The measure passed in part due to the absence of a number of Yoshida’s own Liberal Party (自由党) members (it would still be two years before the formation of the LDP), notably those members close to Hatoyama Ichiro, who would later suceed Yoshida as Prime Minister, and Hirokawa Kozen, who at the time was serving as Agriculture Minister in Yoshida’s third cabinet.

But the retaliation did not stop there. Tweleve days later a motion of non-confidence was passed, which resulted in Yoshida’s dissolution of the Lower House and call for elections. Yoshida managed to be reelected Prime Minister and would hold on to power for almost two more years before resiging as Prime Minister and head of the Liberal Party.

(For the single, but excellent, online English language account I was able to locate, please see Mayumi Itoh’s article The Depurging of Hatoyama Ichiro: Power Struggles in Postwar Japan in the online journal E-ASPAC I should point out that it is from this source that I have used the english translation, “name-calling dissolution.”)

* Because the transcription provided by Wikipedia was abridged in several places it does not specifically mention Churchill’s name. However, this additional transcription found here fills in some of the gaps, including Nishimura’s criticism of Yoshida’s frequent quoting of foreign leaders, Churchill among them.

I thought I had something to say but I lost my train of thought completely

1) Hip Hop Gospel Mimes — The best in the business. (Thanks SA)

2) Link to DPJ Candidate’s Website Goes to Porn Site Instead — Remember last year’s vice presidential debate? NO?! Well in it Cheney kept repeating some site name, and I thought it would be totally within the realm of possibility for the link he gave out to automatically forward you to goatse.cx.. You know, since he’s so evil and all. Well anyway, Hiroko Mizushima, an opposition party member running for office in Japan’s upcoming election, came close to fulfilling my fantasies. A link to her site posted on the Osaka Prefectural Chapter of the Democratic Party of Japan’s website mistakenly pointed instead to German site “Porn Diamonds” (LINK NOT SAFE FOR WORK). According to Mizushima’s staff, she had changed her site’s address after her provider went out of business, but the Prefectural Chapter just never updated it. Oops!

The face of international togetherness...

3) U.S. Targets Sex Abuse of Exchange Students — Think of it as a little like that scene in American Pie, only instead of an American supermodel faking an accent and stripping in front of a camera it’s a pathetic biology teacher (pictured above) sneaking into a girl’s bedroom and begging for head. Or it’s a fat Asian man feeding booze to Scandinavian boys and then trying to grab their ding-ding-dongs.

I wasn’t molested when I spent my senior year of high school in Japan, but I easily could have been, as the article explains:

Foreign students are among the most vulnerable minors because they usually do not know U.S. laws, are unfamiliar with customs, are dependent on host families or sponsors, don’t know what to do when abused or are afraid to act, according to Lt. Frank Baker of the Allegan County Sheriff’s Office…

“For a predator, this is the ideal situation,” Baker said.

Continue reading I thought I had something to say but I lost my train of thought completely

A Happening Happpening.

Since Roy and I seem to be trading rather interesting posts on language (here, here, and here), here’s another great Japanese word that I just happened upon and happen find amusing. It’s also an example of how as words become transplants from one language to another, they often undergo slight changes in meaning or nuance.

From today’s Asahi online edition:

ヤンキースタジアムで３階席の少年がネットに転落

2005年08月10日22時29分

９日の大リーグ、ヤンキース―ホワイトソックスでファンが観客席から転落するハプニングがあった。

I’ll be nice this time and spell it out, but it says: Kokonoka no dai ri-gu, yanki-zu- howaitosokkusu de fan ga kankyakuseki kara tennraku suru hapuningu ga atta.

I’m not quite sure how to translate that literally using the actual word “happening” as it is used in the original Japanese without adding additional, implied information. I guess it would read something like this: “At Tuesday’s Yankees – White Sox game there was a happening (where a fan) fell from (his) seat.”

The reason I find this word so amusing is that the word happening is overwhelmingly used in English as a verb, not as a noun – though it also occasionally shows up as an adjective. Nevertheless, it somehow managed to make the jump to Japanese as a noun and has survived. I tried to think of common usages as a noun in English, and the best I could come up with is “fortuitous happening.” A few fruitless Google searches later, I gave up and just turned to the The Columbia Guide to Standard American English, which had this to say:

A happening is an event, especially a noteworthy or dramatic one, or one staged deliberately for theatrical effect, as in Her parties were always planned to be happenings, intended to be talked about for weeks afterwards. The word is Standard.

Being very unscientific about this inquiry, I feel that using happening as a noun has always had a slightly antiquated feel to it. It’s the type of word that I might expect to hear a Brit use with regularity, but one that just somehow sounds a bit odd coming from the mouth of an American too often.

In Japanese, happening is used only as a noun (although there is an entry in 英辞朗 of the noun ハプン but I’ve never heard or seen this word used before) and refers to an unexpected or surprising event – like some kid falling out of his seat into the safety net at a Yanks-White Sox game. Here’s the definition as provided by goo 辞書:

ハプニング 1 [happening]

(1)思いがけない出来事。偶発的な事件。
「―が生じる」

(2)予想外の、意表をついた出来事の表現効果を積極的に追求する演劇・絵画などにおける前衛的芸術活動。

Coincidentally, while reading up on Japan’s September 11th general election, I happened across ハプニング once again, which I could only call a fortuitous happening. On May 19, 1980, then Prime Minister Ohira dissolved the lower house and called for elections. The name of the dissolution?

ハプニング解散

Classic WW2 Japan footage

Everyone has probably already seen some news coverage of the 60th anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Nagasaki’s anniversary is today, and as always, overshadowed by their big-brother in nuclear devastation.)

Archive.org has an excellent collection of public domain films of various types, and here are links to some of the good ones I’ve found related to Japan, WW2, and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

First of course we have Tale of Two Cities, A (1946), a film produced by the US War Department. While it clealy shows the devastation wrought on the cities, there is a conspicuous lack of human victims.

Next is My Japan (1945)

Complex and disturbing anti-Japanese propaganda film produced to spur the sale of U.S. war bonds. CONTENT ADVISORY: Explicit racism and extreme violence.

While, as the label says, this film is narrated in a bizarre Charlie Chan-ish yellowface manner, it’s actually one of the more interested presentations of Japan from that time that I’ve seen. It clearly presents Japan from the standpoint of an enemy that must be defeated, but does so by describing them as relentless adversaries worthy of respect.

Another notable must-see propaganda film is Our Enemy: The Japanese (1943)

Stridently anti-Japanese film that attempts to convey an understanding of Japanese life and philosophy so that the U.S. may more readily defeat its enemy. Depicts the Japanese as “primitive, murderous and fanatical.” With many images of 1930s and 1940s Japan, and a portentious and highly negative narration by Joseph C. Grew, former U.S. ambassador to Japan.

And last, Japanese Relocation (ca. 1943)

U.S. government-produced film defending the World War II internment of Japanese American citizens.

Universal Studios was good enough to, in 1967, put much of their pre-TV newsreel footage into the public domain.

Some relevant highlights from this collection:

Pres. Truman Warns Japs To Give Up, 1945/06/07 (1945)

“In a speech to Congress, President states that Japan faces the same complete destruction that was visited upon Germany. To that end, millions of troops, and their implements of war, are being transferred more than half way around the earth. The President adds that though many key industries have already been leveled by U.S. air attack, all of Japan’s industries will be completely destroyed unless Japan surrenders.

Jap Films of Hiroshima, 1946/08/05 (1946)

(1) Japanese Films of atomic bomb blast at Hiroshima, released one year later (2) Underwater atom blast rocks Bikini (line down middle of film frames) Admiral Blandy commander of task force, 2nd test of Operation Crossroads, cameras point to site of underwater explosion Test Baker, mushroom cloud of explosion, carrier Saratoga finally sinks, another view of the blast from overhead airplane. (sound track cuts out at very end)

B-29s Rule Jap Skies,1944/12/18
(1) “At Saipan, after briefing, the members of the 21st bombing Command take to Super Fortresses and roar into the sky – destination Tokyo! They shower tons of bombs and incendiaries on the huge sprawling city as they hit factories, steel mills and docks. Mass civilian evacuation of Tokyo was ordered after this raid. Japs Raid Saipan – Saipan is attacked by Jap raiders, 14 of which are shot down, after they had started spectacular fires and caused minor damage.” scenes of Japan fighter planes st…

Damage Foreshadows A-Bomb Test , 1946/06/06 (1946)

(1) “Japan: Dramatic pictures of atom bomb damage in Hiroshima and Nagasaki foreshadow the coming Bikini Atoll experiment. Intense heat and light of blast scarred shadows of human beings on destroyed bridges!” scenes of visual evidence of atomic damage in Hiroshima (2) Italy Joins Democracies – “Italy: Following mass demonstrations and a democratic referendum, Italian voters cast their lot with the democracies and oust their king. The majority, who voted republican, wanted ‘No More Balconies!'” (partial newsreel)