Chinese Guide Literature Garden
Author: Zhai Jianyi
-- Fuso's social life feelings Caprice serialization No. 4
Looking at the course of human historical development, we can see that the development of every nation and every society is a process of moving from barbarism to civilization. Both China and Japan have experienced a long historical process of dynastic changes, continuous civil wars, and war shortages. Internationally, the Ottoman Empire, the French Empire, and Tsarist Russia all invaded other countries and committed war crimes. Similarly, in history, Japan made the serious national mistake of militarism and launched a large-scale war of aggression, which brought untold disasters to the people of many victim countries, including China, as well as to the Japanese people themselves.
When I first came to Japan, I consciously and carefully observed the words and deeds of the Japanese people around me, but I saw that they were gentle, respectful, and diligent. It is incomprehensible to say that this nation has waged a brutal and inhumane war of aggression from any point of view.
However, if we had thought in reverse, if we had not had the support of the Japanese people at that time, we would not have been able to create a war situation even if the government had pushed forward. From the perspective of historical research, we can see that it was precisely because of the support of the Japanese people for the war at that time that the Japanese militarist government had the momentum to start the war, and the deeper reason for this is that the faith of the Japanese people was tied to the chariot of militarism at that time, and this lesson was extremely painful.
On March 11, 1974, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos received Kanro Onoda by Malacañang
The story of the last old Japanese soldier after World War II is very illustrative of the above problem. The Japanese soldier's name was Onoda Kanro, who was 23 years old at the time and was a second lieutenant officer. In November 1944, he was sent to fight against the U.S. Army in a Philippine battlefield. In December of the same year, his superior, Taniguchi, ordered him to launch a guerrilla war against the American forces on the spot. And said: only he himself can cancel the combat order.
However, as a result of the war, Japan surrendered soon after, and Onoda did not receive an order to cancel the battle, and did not know that Japan had surrendered, and still held his ground, and this hold lasted for 29 years at once. It wasn't until February 1974 that the Japanese explorer Suzuki happened Onoda in the mountains and forests of the Philippines, and he told Onoda that Japan had surrendered and that the war had long since ended. Onoda insisted that he must be ordered to surrender by order from his commander, and that he personally hand over the well-preserved saber to the emperor. Helpless, Suzuki had no choice but to promise to bring back orders from his superiors. Returning to Japan, Suzuki finally found Onoda's old boss Taniguchi after several twists and turns, and he issued an order to Onoda to be relieved of the mission and return to Japan according to the emperor's edict and the orders of his superiors, so that Onoda agreed to go down the mountain, handed over his weapons to the Philippine government, and expressed his willingness to accept the criminal punishment.
The Philippine commander returned the saber to Onoda and said, "You are a sample of the loyalty of the army." Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos attended the surrender ceremony, describing Onoda as an "excellent soldier." In view of Onoda's war crimes of killing or injuring more than 130 Filipino nationals, the Philippine judicial department planned to put him on judicial trial, and after negotiations through diplomatic channels between Japan and the Philippines, considering that he was only a junior military officer and a victim of the war, the president finally issued an amnesty to exempt him from prosecution for war crimes. On March 12, 1974, at the age of 52, Onoda returned to Japan after a 29-year hiatus.
From this story, it can be seen that a low-level military officer, in the midst of the national mistakes led by a militarist government, all his loyalty and kinetic energy will be used to commit war crimes. Under the circumstances of the time, the professionalism of the majority of the Japanese people was induced and exploited by militarism, and became a huge driving force for waging war. From the perspective of how to use people, the Philippine president also called Onoda an "excellent soldier" because he also has the merit of being loyal to his duties. In the war, he was used by militarism and became a tool to kill the people of the victim country; If in times of peace, his merits are correctly used, then material wealth can be created and the development of social civilization can be promoted.
The Japanese militarist government's serious national mistake in waging the war not only caused serious harm to the victim country, but also caused indelible war wounds to ordinary citizens who participated in the war as the perpetrator country. Especially in the later stages of the Pacific War, the United States also used atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in order to subjugate Japan as soon as possible, causing a large number of innocent civilian deaths. In the fierce fighting between the United States and Japan in Okinawa, one out of every four locals was killed in the fighting, and the severity of the battle was beyond imagination.
During the war years at that time, the Japanese militarist government also exercised strict control over ideology and speech, and the Japanese people did not enjoy the right to freedom of speech. Modern Japanese literature, films, and television have detailed descriptions of the horrific environment of warlord rule at that time.
Historically, the Japanese Government has used militarist ideology to bind the people's beliefs and launched wars of aggression, leaving behind a painful lesson. There are many such cases in history. Didn't Hitler's Germany indoctrinate the German people with the political idea that the Germanic nation was a superior nation also caused a great historical tragedy? In fact, any political party and government may have its glory and mistakes, and it is all too common for political parties or governments to make mistakes, and the reason is very simple, because political parties and governments are controlled by people, and it is too normal for people to make mistakes. Therefore, it is a wise choice in today's society not to use the political ideas and values of a particular political party or government to instill faith in the people.
After August 1945, after the United States fully occupied Japan, General MacArthur, commander-in-chief of the Allied Southwest Pacific Theater, who had fought bloody battles with the Japanese army, became the commander-in-chief of the Allied forces in Japan, and held the power of life and death in Japanese society.
At that time, U.S. President Harry S. Truman announced that General Arthur would be given two special powers: first, the emperor and the Japanese government would all be ruled by MacArthur, and he could exercise the power at will, and the Japanese side should not have any suspicions; Second, if it can achieve its goal, it can be controlled by the Japanese government. But if not, direct action by the Japanese government, including the use of force, can be skipped.
MacArthur at his first meeting with Emperor Showa on September 27, 1945. Written by Gaetano Fares
At this time, the Supreme Commander, General MacArthur, had the strongest consciousness that Japan should achieve demilitarization and democratization of its social system. To achieve this, it was first necessary to carry out a thorough reform of Japan's political system and set Japan on the path of a democratic state, and General MacArthur made the revision of the Meiji Constitution a top priority.
MacArthur was frustrated by the slowness of the Japanese authorities, so he ordered his subordinates to draft a new constitution on behalf of the Japanese government. It took only one week for the drafting committee to complete a comprehensive revision of the Meiji Constitution, and in March 1946 the draft of the new constitution was published. The new constitution was adopted in November of the same year and came into force on May 3, 1947. The new constitution differs from the previous Meiji Japanese constitution in three important ways. They are:
(1) Sovereignty belongs to the people and not to the Emperor
(2) Respect for basic human rights
(3) Upholding pacifism and renunciating war
Such a major surgical transformation enabled Japan to break away from the path of militarism and democratize national politics, thus laying the foundation for the transition to a civilized society. It is indeed not easy to understand that war crimes and a high degree of civilization, which are incompatible with each other, have become a reality in a country in just a few decades.