Japan, a journey — part II
Traveling to Japan for the first time. A second travel report from October 2023 about the culture and visits to Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima and Fukuoka.
It doesn’t get much more secure or safe as a traveler than in Japan. The South American habit of hands tightly on wallet and phone is slowly wearing off. At ATMs, I no longer look cautiously over my shoulders. A few times I see people knee down to pick up a lost dime from the street and return it to its rightly owner. Japan invariably appears in lists of safest countries to travel. The same applies to road safety. On the other hand, it’s better not to come into contact with law enforcement. Although this is perhaps universal. The justice department has enormous powers and authority. Suspects who appear in court are invariably convicted; this conviction rate is 99.8% (!). Precisely because of this disturbing statistic, fallen from grace top executive Carlos Ghosn (Renault Nissan) planned his by now famous escape. In late 2019, he decided — while under house arrest — not to await any longer the allegations of fraud and self-enrichment. Hidden in a musical instrument case (with air holes), he was smuggled out of the country in a private flight with help from U.S. ex-Marines. The plan miraculously succeeded and Japan was making a fool for oneself. For now, Mr. Ghosn is safely back home in Lebanon, a country with no extradition treaty with Japan. Free, but without the privileges of the CEO of a multinational corporation.
Kyoto is a wonderful city, a breath of fresh air after Tokyo. Glass and concrete give way to greenery and wood. The city, with all its temples, looks rather relaxed. Although it is also teeming with tourists. Kyoto was close to being razed to the ground. The old capital was listed by the US to be the site of the first atomic bomb. The then U.S. Secretary of State could not bring himself to destroy the city of his honeymoon. Thus, the many pagodas, temples and houses with wooden facades still stand proudly. There are fewer high-rises, more greenery and the many narrow streets are scenic. Busy port city Osaka, a stone’s throw away, is the opposite again. Modern and focused on dining and shopping. Residents here set themselves more clearly against traditional Japan.
“City of Peace” Hiroshima leaves quite a mark. The park and museum are well designed. When Nazi Germany capitulated in May 1945, no nuclear weapon existed. Various regimes were working feverishly on it, until then without any breakthrough. The “Manhattan Project” was set up partly out of fear that the Nazis were working on a powerful new weapon. Under Oppenheimer’s watch, work progressed steadily at Los Alamos, although the first successful tests were not completed until after Germany’s capitulation. Japan did not want to capitulate and did not agree to the demands as presented by the big three at Potsdam. Truman informed Stalin a day before the conference of the successful test of a new, powerful weapon. Stalin, however, thanks to his spies, had long known about it. His response was that it would only be a good thing if the war ended rather quickly. The idea of a demonstration bomb on a remote island was dismissed. Thus, Truman made the dramatic decision to deploy a nuclear weapon at a logistical and military hub. This decision was partly motivated as a deterrent to Russia in particular (as a harbinger of the cold war) but mainly because of the fierce Japanese resistance the U.S. Army encountered at Okinawa. A prolonged war with many losses was a doomsday scenario for the Americans. Hiroshima was thus wiped out, tens of thousands of civilians perished in a hellfire. Although the scale of the disaster reached Tokyo fairly quickly, (divided) Japan did not want to capitulate immediately and stuck to its conditions. The armed forces preferred to fight to the bitter end. Japan’s main demand, preservation of “divinity of the emperor,” must be understood in light of the nation-state or national identity so typical of the period. General Douglas MacArthur eventually forced Emperor Hirohito to renounce his “divinity” via a radio address (Japanese had never heard him speak before). Nonetheless, Hirohito (who was heavily involved in the war effort) was able to stay on and even paid an official visit to the Netherlands in 1971 (accompanied by the understandable protests).
In the niche of an isolated island, Japanese culture was able to maintain and develop its uniqueness. The culture remained intact for so long in part because there had never been (with the exception of the American occupation after WWII) a foreign occupier. Outside influences were kept at bay throughout the centuries. The Portuguese were the first Europeans on the scene and preyed on trade with the shoguns (local leaders). The conversion drive of Catholicism ultimately did not please the Japanese at all, and the Portuguese were therefore expelled from the country without pardon in 1639. Years before, the first contacts with Dutch trade missions were not considered unpleasant. More merchant than pastor, the religiously unassuming Dutch Protestants were more agreeable to the locals. The crafty Dutch merchants managed to fool the shoguns into believing that the rival English adhered to Catholicism. Because of this, and because the larger Papal armies were feared, only the Dutch were allowed to stay. So, trading post Decima was born, a tiny island in the harbor of Nagasaki in the deep south of Japan. From 1641 to 1859, this artificial, fan-shaped island of less than a hectare and a half was the only contact between the Western world and Japan, which was largely cut off from the outside world. The Dutch lived on Decima under strict restrictions. The small island (the size of Amsterdam’s Dam Square) was accessible by only one bridge. Only a limited number (10 to 15) of Dutch people were allowed to stay on the island. With the exception of an annual visit to the shogun in Edo (present-day Tokyo), they were not allowed to leave their islet. In particular, the Netherlands imported gold, silver, copper, camphor, sake and soy. Everything changed when in 1853 an American fleet forced Japan to open further to the rest of the world.
