The Land od the Rising Yen

into a hole, you win; if not, you lose your money. An
English friend told me in front of a Tokyo pachinko -hall:
    ‘A Japanese explained to me that pachinko was an ingenious Japanese post war invention. And little wonder, he said, that
the Japanese had invented it because other nations were unfit to play it. The
truth was — he went on — that the right thumb of the Japanese was specially
constructed, it possessed a certain knack, ingenuity and finesse, completely
lacking in other mortals. He was so proud and genuine about it that I did not
have the heart to tell him that my grandfather — before the First World
War — owned seventy-seven of these machines, called in our parts vertical pin-tables,
and operated them at an exotic place called Southend. My grandfather made a
good living on the English pachinko- machines, in spite of the fact that
all the people of Southend, not to mention visiting Londoners, seemed to
possess specially constructed thumbs and were endowed with a knack, ingenuity
and finesse lacking in other mortals.’
     
    The Japanese will be seriously hurt
by my denying them the quality of inscrutability. An Englishwoman, who taught
at one of their universities, told me:
    ‘I was always irritated by this game
of “inscrutable Orientals”. I met too often with the response: “Oh, you can’t
possibly get it...” Or: “It’s no use trying to explain it to you. One has to be
Japanese to understand it.” I would reply: “You just explain it to me as clearly
and intelligently as you can and I will understand it all right.” One of my
Japanese colleagues smiled superciliously on one occasion but proceeded to
explain the matter with exemplary lucidity. “You see,” I told him, “I
understand it all right.” This upset him. He grew serious. “You really do?” he
asked me anxiously. “Perfectly,” said I. He shook his head sadly: “Then I must
have explained it badly.” ’



OKINAWA AND THE
A-BOMB
     
    The West has a heavy load on its
conscience, vis-à-vis Japan: the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; the only two nuclear bombs ever dropped on live targets; two bombs
to remind us that in life-and-death struggles nuclear weapons are being
used. Looked at from the Japanese viewpoint, the atomic bombs take on other
aspects: it is not the A-bombs that made a lasting and ineradicable impression,
but defeat. The crippling and sobering effects of defeat still reverberate, and
its consequences in modern, practical politics manifest themselves — most
conspicuously — in the Okinawa issue.
    Defeat was as novel for Japan as the A-bomb. She had never experienced either. She was not prepared for the bomb
but, thinking herself invincible, was even less prepared for defeat. It is true
that Commodore Perry forced America’s — and the West’s — will upon the country
but that was no military defeat. It was, indubitably, the result of weakness
but there had been no war. All Perry did was to deliver a letter from President
Fillmore to the Shogun, in the summer of 1853, demanding the opening of
trade relations, and some coaling rights. He said he would return for an answer
next year. Before leaving, he made a show of force by sailing up Yedo (Tokyo) Bay in defiance of the Japanese government. The Japanese had never seen a steamship
before and were duly impressed. When Perry returned in February 1854 they
capitulated, and a few weeks later a trade and coalingagreement was signed in
the fishing village of Yokohama. Japan benefited from this lesson so
effectively that half a century later she was able to inflict a resounding
defeat on land and at sea on one of the greatest and most dread military powers
of the world. In the First World War she was not one of the major belligerents but
with her navy she was an exceedingly useful ally and was, once again, on the
winning side. The Second World War began for Japan with her inflicting an all
but annihilating blow on the mightiest navy of the world. (She did this without
a declaration of war. It is half-forgotten that she did exactly the same in the
Russo-Japanese war. Negotiations with Russia had broken down and on 8 February
1904, Japanese destroyers sailed to Port Arthur where they found the Russian
warships with lights undimmed. They fired their torpedoes and hit two
battleships and a cruiser without suffering any damage. One day later there was
a minor, inconclusive encounter between Russian and Japanese warships and two days later war