Flowers For Korekiyo

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Today is the 78th anniversary of the 2/26 Incident (Ni-ni-roku jiken). (Link)

Prime Minister Abe Shinzo has been relying on Takahashi Korekiyo as the guide star and historical anchor for his Abenomics economics policies (Link). Do you think the PM has sent flowers to the old man's grave today or to his statue in the park next to the Canadian Embassy, the site where the soldiers found him and killed him?

I was trying to think the other day of what Abe could do to demonstrate that his 'escape for the postwar regime' is more than just a glorification of the Meiji State. "What could he do to repudiate the course the country took under the Meiji Constitution?" I asked myself. "Perhaps he could reverse a historical wrong, proving that he is not in thrall to the myth of a virile and respected pre-1945 Japan."

I tried to think how far back in time one would have to go for Abe Shinzo to be able to admit, "OK, what the government did there was wrong."

"If not apologies for the invasion of China, not the assassination of Zhang Zuolin, not the annexation of Korea, how about a partdon of Kotoku Shusui, tried and executed in 1911 for the High Treason Incident of 1910? That was a domestic affair so there are no implications for Japan's current fraught relationships with its neighbors. And since it all happened over a hundred years ago, who could have any problem with it?"

Then I had to clap my hand to my forehead:

"Idiot! Of course there is someone who would have a problem with it. Member of the House of Representatives Hiranuma Takeo, Abe's Best Friend Forever and the co-leader of Abe's Sosei Nippon movement (Link) is the adopted son of Hiranuma Kiichiro - the prosecutor of the High Treason Incident defendants!"

One hundred and three years on...and hopeless impediments to realistic and healing assessments of history are still with us.

And now the sun is going down.

Two Presentations Of Great Importance On Abenomics

There are two must-not-miss presentations at Temple University, Japan this month -- neither of which, paradoxically, I can attend.

But you, dear reader, possibly can.

- The one tonight (Link) has Richard Smethurst speaking about the man whose face should be on the 10,000 yen bill (pax, Fukuzawa Yukichi admirers). I have heard on the authority of one of the best lecturers I know that Dr. Smethurst is a solid speaker. As for Takahashi Korekiyo, about whom Dr. Smethurst wrote the book, his brilliance, humanity and death haunt me. That the government of Abe Shinzo has sought to align itself and its economic policies on the side of the angels by linking Abenomics to Takahashi is both thrilling and disquieting.

- On November 29, Naomi Fink, CEO of Europacifica Consulting, will be speaking on Abenomics and the wealth gap. (Link)

Why you should go, even if the subject matter or time slot are outside your comfort zone?

Simple: wherever the room and whatever its size, Ms. Fink is almost certainly the smartest person in it.

You will learn about this blessed land.