The deep layer does not seem to have changed after modernization in 1867, when the Tokugawa Shogunate resigned the position of PM, and the Japanese emperor was elected as the new leader of the Meiji Government, which was composed of lower-class samurai from the western area. Samurai had been allowed to have a sword called Katana, and possessed the privilege of killing the criminal before he or she is arrested if they are at risk of life.
The Meiji government from 1867 to 1945 could be regarded as a military regime. But from an objective viewpoint, Japan had been a military regime since 1185, making use of the authority of the Japanese emperor, which has continued since the early 6th century and still exists now. The emperor and the aristocrats who ran their own government until 1185 kept maintaining the traditional court culture influenced by China with little money during the military regime era. There was no economic power of the family, but they had authority.
It does not appear to suit the political system of Western Europe in Japan. Perhaps you feel the same way hearing the news that the Japanese government denied inheriting the position of the emperor by women. As it is, there is no strange point for a Japanese citizen, because the Japanese emperor is a religious leader of Shintoism, similar to the pope of Roman Catholicism.
This opinion is inspired by Margalit and Buruma, the authors of “Occidentalism: The West in the Eyes of Its Enemies”. Margalit and Buruma pointed out Meiji government incorporated the system of Roman Catholicism into domestic politics, though the actual situation was the Samurai regime that wore Western clothes of “The Constitution”.
As it started, the government had been apt to be belligerent. In the early 20th century, the Tribute System that contributed to stable relationships between East Asian nations collapsed due to the Opium War, and then the Meiji Government tried to maximize its profits. To make matters worse, Japanese citizens misunderstood the war against Russia in 1914 for winning and boasting about it, yet that was just a cease-fire agreement.
And the soldier began to behave as if he had power. When people say that Japan never won against America, they would resent and slap them until they changed their opinion. In 1910, the freedom was lost in our country, as many socialists in Japan were arrested and sentenced to capital punishment, even if most of them were innocent.
If I may be so bold, the thinking way of Japanese citizens has a lot in common with that of Russian citizens, as “Even if Russian people had forgotten a cross, and they are independent from God and Christianity, they will constantly need to believe something to believe enthusiastically”, Toshihiko Izutsu wrote in “Russian human beings”. What is important here is that I refer to Citizen, not the government. People’s minds tend to hope to arrive at salvation and lean against the mighty existence.
Also, Watsuji Tetsurō mentioned the similarity between Japan and Russia in ”A Climate: A Philosophical Study”. He said that, as well as the parliamentary government does not reflect citizens’ genuine opinions, the proletariat campaign technically does not stem from their own thoughts, and the affair of it proves the similar nature of Russia. This is because the fact that Russia is still autocracy nation and has never accomplished people’s taking part in politics is exactly alike the attitude that the Japanese are indifferent to the public and not very cooperative with others. His opinion is persuasive, but we must recognize the cause of the difference in spite of the same result.
This can apply to some asian countries in terms of result, because they thought that ordinary people cannot be influential to the politic and there is no means to express one’s opinion; if anything, not manifesting one’s opinion is the key to living a peaceful life. As a side note, when I learned Chinese, a teacher told me that don’t rely on grammar, it is just a Western Culture. That was the first time that I felt their antagonism to the West.
In any case, people had no right to oppose what the authority said, and it would agree for their citizens to obey, if the world around them is safe. Ironically, when people have difficulty surviving, they cannot help the government behave to their hearts’ content. In fact, during World War Ⅱ, though I was surprised to see the Canadian museum call this war the Great War, only the red-light district and the government spent money for their joy in Japan, as a famous writer recorded the circumstance.
Now that the tragedy is going to come back again, since the National Flag Destruction Crime Bill got the approval of the parliament. The content is vague, and the interpretation could distort the government, and the power of the resistance will be decreased by civil oppression, not by the government’s. In addition, a lot of teens and university students want to be more Kawaii, not beautiful, mature, and cool, doing plastic surgery and earning in the neon areas. This is what will happen in my country, and many people flash back to the dark memory behind the history.
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