The Land od the Rising Yen

not belong to them
any more; they belonged to the Emperor. They were taught that to surrender, to
become a prisoner of war under any circumstances instead of dying with gun in
hand was cowardice, much worse than death. But they were human and they would
all have preferred to become prisoners and survive rather than to die a
pointless death. They never said so; few of them dared even to think so; but
this, of course, does not change matters. These people, now in their hands, the
allied prisoners, had by surrendering done exactly what they all wanted to do,
what they hoped to be able to do when cornered and trapped but could never,
never do.
    It is your own vices you hate with
burning ferocity in others. It is the crypto- or suppressed homosexual who
hates homosexuality with a blind passion; it is the unwanted, rejected and ugly
virgin who is the most savage and outraged defender of morality. They all — the
suppressed homosexual, the rejected spinster and other members of this sorry
species — hate those who actually perform what they would love to do, but dare
not. You may condemn crime with genuinely strong disapproval; but you will only hate the criminal who commits your pet crime. That’s why moral
indignation is often so revolting.
    It was the man whose overpowering but
strongly suppressed dream was that of becoming a prisoner of war and thus surviving,
who hated other men who had the supreme courage to be cowards (as he saw it).
They had a courage he completely lacked. Hence the ferocity of his emotions,
the acerbity of his envy, the venom of his hatred. He was not forced to be
bestial; he enjoyed it.

AUTHORITARIAN DEMOCRATS
     
    Japan is an authoritarian democracy; an
authoritarian society without an authoritarian government. In many other
countries people have been determined to remain free, but authoritarian régimes
have been forced upon them; contrariwise, a democratic régime has been forced
upon the Japanese who want, who desire, who need authority over them — yet
preserve their democracy.
    In most other countries democracy has
tended towards egalitarianism. In the United States and Australia the ‘I’m as good as the next guy’ mentality is an important social force. The
same — and fully justified — attitude of the black population causes one of the
gravest crises in the United States. In Britain a feeble socialist movement supported
by a reactionary trade-union movement faces an equally reactionary but much
more intelligent establishment. The socialist-trade-union combination fights
for tit-bit benefits, for large, but in the long run insignificant, immediate
gains, yet tolerates an educational system which, so long as it continues to
exist, will always divide Britain into two unequal parts. In Scandinavia, mild
socialist rule, growing affluence plus an almost universal peasant-background
of all the people, produce a near-egalitarian society. But Japan, while a democracy, is not an egalitarian society; it is hierarchical and seems to be
content with this state. Perhaps we are inclined to think a modern industrial
society needs to be a shade more egalitarian in order to succeed. But Japan has succeeded better than most of us; and one of her vocations, maybe, is to bring
East nearer to West; tradition closer to the fast-approaching twenty-first
century; to fit together the unfitting and unfittable.
    It can be argued that even the United States or Australia with all their chumminess and devotion to informality, are far less
egalitarian than they tend to believe or pretend. 5 But, at least, one can rise and fall in these countries as well as in
other modern, Western, industrial societies. The doors may not be ajar; but
they are not locked.
    Until recently it was impossible to
rise in Japanese society; to fall was equally difficult. Age-long habits die
hard. Japan was for many centuries a hierarchical society and the idea of
educating people to accept their lot in life was fostered and propagated with
ferocious insistence during the Tokugawa period. Muramatsu points out that
during the Tokugawa shogunate a child’s status was determined by birth:
‘One was educated and trained from early childhood to adjust to the prescribed modus
vivendi and appreciate a way of life in an authoritarian atmosphere. To the
extent that the individual was obedient and faithful to his allotted position
and was content with his role in family and society, he could have personal
security.’
    Adjustment is the key