The Land od the Rising Yen

themselves or to join opposing right-wing
organizations, such as the Japan Student League, or some breakaway socialist
faction. Demonstrations started modestly and meekly enough, on a ‘we-too
must-do-something’ basis. Then the Cohn-Bendit riots in Paris gave new impetus
to the militants and their activities became more vociferous and riotous. The
police at first reacted with surprise bordering on amusement. The
steel-helmeted rioters were treated with indulgence; ‘They’re only kids,’ the
police implied. Then, occasionally, one of the kids picked up a stone and
bashed in a policeman’s head. The police were astonished, pained and became
tougher. More and more severe sentences were meted out by the courts — some
students are imprisoned for years — and this real or imaginary injustice
inflamed passions and inspired more numerous, more violent and more
self-righteous outbreaks. These activities culminated in the ugly violence in
the Shinjuku district of Toyko in October 1968 and in the ludicrous, stark
naked anti-Expo demonstrations in Kyoto, in July 1969.
    For some mysterious reason Gewalt — the German word for force — has been taken over, perhaps straight from Marx,
and Gewalt has become a deity in its own right; Gewalt for Gewalt’s sake is approved by most militants, as if Gewalt were always good. It is
also abhorred and considered incomprehensible by the establishment, as if Gewalt were always wrong.
    Some students fight for nebulous
aims. A few explained to me that they fight against police brutality. When I
pointed out that this could not have been their original purpose because
student demonstrations had engendered police brutality and not vice versa, I
was told that, whatever its origins, police brutality was a feature of life now
and must be opposed. Others demanded a bigger and better zengakuren, but
I failed to elicit any reason for this. Surely, a simple change in the size and
quality of the zengakuren would cure few ills. There is a notorious and
fiery fighter among the most militant students, nicknamed Gewalt Rosa — Rosa being a reference to Rosa Luxemburg — a most incongruous cognomen for a Japanese lady
of twenty-five. Several professors complained that Miss Gewalt had hit them and
kicked them. She declared publicly: ‘Instructors are the greatest criminals.’
Presumably Gewalt Rosa fights to rid universities of instructors.
    The confusion is great and a great
many people do their best to add to it. It is very seldom that one can see the
students’ own case properly and fairly stated in any newspaper. Student leaders
can rarely — if ever — speak for themselves or put their own case fairly and
squarely in the columns of the commercial press. The riots are good
paper-selling news but they are followed by little sympathy and understanding,
consequently newspapers, on the whole, make fun of the students and try to show
them up as immature fools. Immature they may be; but they are no fools, indeed,
some of the leaders are brilliantly intelligent.
    The Socialist Party utters the usual
pious trash, declaring that while it sympathizes with many of the students’
demands it condemns violence. Anarchist groups declare that while they do not
sympathize with any of the students’ demands they approve of violence.
Professors look at all the phenomena with more sorrow than anger. They do their
best to bring about peace; they talk to these young men and endeavour to make
them see the light in the same way they see it themselves; they listen to
protests, they argue and they have the students’ true interests at heart. They
thought they were respected and liked — and so they were, in many cases. So now
they are deeply hurt when their goodwill and efforts are met with derision and
rebuffs. The phrase one hears most often is: ‘They don’t even know what they
want!’ Professors point to the unholy confusion with a feeling of sad triumph
as if this very confusion was the final, conclusive argument; they never try to
penetrate it, to understand, to disentangle. Confusion is abundant all right;
but it covers under its vast and ragged blanket something coherent, synthetic
and intelligible.
    It was repeatedly pointed out to me
that the militant students are few in number and that a small minority makes
studying difficult or impossible for the overwhelming majority, who resent
them. This is true: the role of vociferous and militant minorities is the
subject of many studies in social