10/10 in Japan: 1905 and Now

The opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics was on October 10, 1964. To commemorate that date, 10/10 was observed from 1966 to 1999 as a national holiday called Taiiku no Hi (Health and Sports Day in English).

(Since 2000, Sports Day has been celebrated yearly on the second Monday in October.)

A hundred and ten years ago, 10/10 was significant for another reason: The Treaty of Portsmouth, which was signed on September 5, 1905, was ratified by the Japanese Privy Council on October 10 (and in Russia four days later).

The Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05 was fought between Russia, an international power with one of the largest armies in the world, and Japan, which had only recently emerged from 250 years of isolation. That war is unique in that the warring nations fought over, and only on, the territory of two neutral countries, China and Korea.

That conflict also saw history’s greatest battles between two nations in terms of numbers of troops and ships prior to World War I. (Http://portsmouthpeacetreaty.org/ is an excellent website about the War of 1904-05 and the peace treaty.)

President Theodore Roosevelt helped broker the Treaty of Portsmouth that ended the war—and he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts, the first American to win that prestigious prize.

But the Japanese public was greatly upset. As some historians explain the situation, Japan won the war but lost the peace. Or as James Bradley writes in his book The Imperial Cruise (2009), “For the second war in a row, Japan had won all the battles but afterward was shamed by White Christians” (p. 303).

(Ten years earlier Japan had defeated China in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95.)

Today, 110 years after the ratification of the Treaty of Portsmouth, is seems that there will not be a lot of peace/anti-war activity going on in Japan. But there were many such protests in August and September.

Last month Japan’s parliament passed a package of eleven bills, dubbed “Peace and Security Preservation Legislation,” allowing the Japanese military (now known as the Self-Defense Forces) to fight on foreign soil, something that has been banned in Japan since World War II.

The upper house of the Japanese parliament gave final approval to the controversial legislation on September 19, despite fierce attempts by opposition politicians to block the move.

Opinion polls show that the vast majority of Japanese are against the changes, and on a scale rarely seen in Japan, before the bills’ passage, tens of thousands of people took to the streets in almost daily rallies showing their strong opposition toward the bills.

August protest in front of Japan's Diet Building

Back in 1968 when I joined the faculty at Seinan Gakuin University, there were many student protests against the Vietnam War, against the upcoming (in 1970) renewal of the United States-Japan Security Treaty, and for the return of Okinawa to Japan.

In Aug. and Sept. this year, the protests on campus at Seinan Gakuin against the “security bills” before the Japanese Diet was mostly by faculty and staff and led by Dr. Ichiro Sudo, Dean of the Department of Theology.

Christians in Japan were among the loudest opponents of what are now enacted “security laws.” Most Christians have also been among the most vocal in opposing suggested changes to Article 9 of the Japanese constitution.

Article 9, in the new Constitution adopted in May 1947 and which Prime Minister Abe now seemingly wants to change, outlaws war as a means to settle international disputes.

As of 10/10/2015 many Japanese fear that Article 9 is headed for the dustbin.

Worries about Japan—25 Years Ago and Now

Do you remember the first week of January 1989? That was 25 years ago, but I remember it well as that was a time of significant transition in Japan where I then lived.

Emperor Hirohito passed away that year on January 7. Born in 1901, he became the Emperor of Japan in 1926 and at the time of his death had been Japan’s longest-reigning monarch. When a new emperor accedes to the throne in Japan, a new era name is chosen and the calendar starts again at year 1. So Emperor Hirohito died in Showa 64.

Crown Prince Akihito became the 125^th Emperor of Japan upon the death of his father and chose Heisei (“peace everywhere”) for the name of the new era. So last week was the beginning of Heisei 26 in Japan.

In the weeks before Emperor Hirohito’s death there was considerable anxiety among many Christians, and some other non-traditional Japanese people. Accordingly, “Showa, X-Day and Beyond” was the theme for the thirtieth Hayama Men’s Missionary Seminar, held on Jan. 5-7, 1989, at Amagi Sanso in Japan.

“X-Day” was the name given to the unknown day of the Emperor’s approaching death—and he died while the seminar was in progress. I had the privilege of giving the final paper at that meeting.

Part of the Christians’ concern at that pivotal time in Japanese history was the possibility of a surge of nationalistic (Shintoistic) fervor that would be detrimental to the Christian presence and activities in Japan. Even though religion and the state are to be separate according to the Japanese Constitution, there was considerably anxiety about that not being honored after X-Day.

Looking back, Emperor Hirohito’s death 25 years ago seems to have had minimal long-term effects on the religious or political situation in Japan. Things did not turn out as negatively for Christians, or others, as feared.

But now, quite unrelated to any religious affiliations or affectations, there seems to be a growing nationalistic movement in Japan led primarily by the current head of the Liberal Democratic Party, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is now in the thirteenth month of his second stint as head of the Japanese government.

PM Abe (pronounced ah-beh) became the 90th Japanese Prime Minister in September 26, 2006. He was then Japan's youngest prime minister since World War II—and the first to be born after the war. But he served as prime minister for less than a year the first time, resigning on September 12, 2007.

Since his election again in December 2012, Abe has taken a hawkish position that is currently a concern for many Japanese—and people in nearby countries. The end of month, as the Washington Post reported, “Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited a Shinto shrine Thursday that honors Japan’s war dead, including 14 war criminals, and is seen by Asian neighbors as a symbol of the nation’s unrepentant militarism.”

That visit to Yasukuni Shine is, of course, much opposed by Christians, and others, in Japan. But much of their opposition last year was due to PM Abe’s expressed intention to change Article IX of the Japanese Constitution, which outlaws war as a means to settle international disputes involving the state.

Less than a week after his ill-conceived visit to Yasukuni, in his New Year message last week PM Abe reaffirmed his resolve to change the nation’s pacifist constitution. No wonder not only peace-loving Japanese but people of the neighboring countries, and elsewhere, have worries about the direction Japan is headed.