The Land od the Rising Yen

wants
to be loved and loved she was, for the first time since Columbus.
    The Americans then went on to treat
the Japanese generously, and expected gratitude. But if you give cause to any
man — or group — for gratitude he will resent it and his resentment will
produce strong reactions. This time the Japanese did not prove exceptions to
the rule: Japanese resentment grew in proportion to American nobility of heart,
and by 1952, the end of the occupation, relations between Americans and
Japanese were pretty bad. They reached their lowest ebb two years later when
the Americans exploded a nuclear bomb at Bikini thereby infecting a number of
Japanese fishermen. Understandably, the Japanese were even more sensitive on
that point than other nations — and even the others are not exactly fond of
nuclear bombs being dropped on their fishermen and the fish they are to eat.
The flame of anti-Americanism was fanned by Communists and nationalists, but it
died down; and now the relationship between the two countries is very good once
again, with only slight, unavoidable undercurrents.
    On a superficial level Japan seems to be thoroughly Americanized: the automobiles, the cocktail-parties, the
victorious forward march of Bourbon on the rocks, chewing gum and Coca-Cola,
hamburgers and cheeseburgers are much in evidence. Japan — as I have mentioned
— produces more flavours of ice cream than the United States. The Japanese have
also learnt a few less conspicuous but more important things: American business
administration, efficiency and technique.
    The renewed love affair between the
two nations is more sober and critical now than it used to be. It is now a
well-tried marriage, they have lived together for quite a while. They have some
difficulties over Okinawa and the Security Treaty but even these look like
lovers’ quarrels. Mr Nixon is anxious to save his friends in power and to
remain on good terms with the Japanese, so Okinawa will, most probably, be
returned in 1972. In fact, the shoe is on the other foot now: the Americans
have quite a few grudges against the Japanese.
    They concern business — and business,
in the final analysis, is always a more serious matter than mere sovereignty or
nuclear bases. First, the Americans complain that the Japanese flood their
markets with cheap textiles (to which the Japanese reply that in the year of
the bitterest complaint the profits of the American textile industry rose by
twenty-one per cent, so it was not doing so desperately badly). The other
complaint is that Japan tends to overprotect her currency (one of the strongest
in the world, but protected by exchange control regulations as if it were a
virgin of sixteen) and, even worse, she overprotects her markets. Japanese
motor-cars, for example, sell in huge numbers all over the world but their home
market is so heavily protected that foreign cars, although much coveted, are
few and far between in the streets of Japan. The Japanese plead that their
motor-car industry is new and needs protection. Considering that it is the
second largest motor-car industry in the world this pose of the frail flower in
need of protection just doesn’t wash. The real reasons are that (1) Japan wants
to become the first motor-car producing country in the world (a far cry)
and (2) that her motor-car manufacturers are much happier without foreign
competition. The Americans press on hard and with great patience, demanding the
liberalization of Japanese trade policies; the Japanese make concessions when
they must but their motor-car industry is not too willing to cooperate. It is —
an astounding truth — in the nature of all industries, everywhere, that they
prefer larger profits to smaller ones. Any politician, says the industrialist,
who gives up sovereignty over this or that part of the country is a wise
statesman, fond of intelligent compromise; but the politician who tends to
lessen the profit of the industrialist’s own particular industry is unpatriotic
— well, let’s call a spade a spade: a downright traitor.
    Admiration for America burns with a brighter flame since the landing on the moon. No one else can do what
the Americans did: no one else can be first on the moon again. That prize is
gone. But the Japanese staged the first Olympic Games in Asia; they organized
the first World Exposition in Asia. I’m sure they are determined that they must
be — in due course — the first Asians on the moon.
     
     
    HOW