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.

“The Eighth Wonder of the World”

Today is the 100^th anniversary of the official opening of the Panama Canal on August 15, 1914. Today is also my birthday, and I am celebrating it in Panama.

I arrived in Panama City late Wednesday and spent an enjoyable day yesterday in this vibrant city.

Today I will see some of the Canal, “one of the supreme human achievements of all time” (David McCullough) and “a miracle of engineering and industrial technology” (Julie Greene).

It has been lauded with many other superlatives; a 1998 TV movie was titled “Panama Canal: The Eighth Wonder of the World.” (Several other things have also been called the “eighth wonder.”)

Building a waterway across Central America, joining the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, was a dream of some for hundreds of years. The first major attempt was by the French in the 1880s. But they failed miserably.

Then, President Theodore Roosevelt tackled the enormous task of achieving that goal. It was a daunting challenge. First, the rights to begin the project had to be obtained.

When negotiations with Columbia, of which Panama was a part, failed, the U.S. helped Panama gain independence in 1903. In November of that year, the Panama Canal Zone was formed as a U.S. territory.

The following year, the U.S. began digging the canal. Ten years later they completed that gigantic task—but at great cost.

The financial cost was quite low by current standards: only $375 million. (Of course, that would be around $10 billion today.) The greatest cost, however, was in human lives.

Including the tragic efforts of the French, the project cost around 500 lives a mile to build the 50-mile waterway.

Two of the best books about that costly project are The Path Between the Seas (1977) by David McCullough and The Canal Builders (2009) by Julie Greene.

Last week June and I watched the PBS “American Experience” movie “Panama Canal” (2011). That excellent film and much other related information can be found online here.

Julie Greene (b. 1956), a history professor at the University of Maryland, links the construction of the Canal to the efforts of the U.S. to extend the concept of manifest destiny beyond the national borders.

Greene also links the Canal to the extension of the USAmerican “empire” that began with the Spanish-American War in 1898. That “empire” was extended with the formation of the 10-mile wide Panama Canal Zone (PCZ) in 1903

Construction of the “Big Ditch” was another clear indication of American exceptionalism. Accordingly, there was considerable opposition by conservatives, and especially by the John Birch Society, when President Carter began talking about turning over the Canal to Panama.

Carter, however, signed the treaties in 1977 that terminated the PCZ on Oct. 1, 1979. (That is one of several reasons Carter lost the 1980 presidential election.) The Canal was fully turned over to Panama on the first day of 2000.

According to history professor Laura Kalman, “To the New Right nothing illustrated Carter’s ‘softness’ more than his willingness to ‘surrender’ the Panama Canal” (Right Star Rising, p. 265).

But the Canal continues to operate for the benefit of the U.S. and for all the major maritime nations. And now ambitious enlargement construction is going on. Its completion is scheduled for next year.

Also called the “Third Set of Locks Project,” this ambition expansion project being done entirely by the Republic of Panama is intended to double the capacity of the Canal.

How exciting to be here today on my birthday, joining in the celebration of the 100^th birthday of “the eighth wonder of the world”!

Later on 8/15

This morning I enjoyed seeing ships going through the second lock on the way north from the Pacific Ocean. Here is a picture of a large ship just starting through the lock. In the top middle of the building you can see the centennial logo that I used with this article.