There was a time, say in the 1960s, when Indians knew of Japan’s prowess in technology — starting from the good old Sony transistor radio, and so many other things besides.
There was a time, say in the 1960s, when Indians knew of Japan’s prowess in technology — starting from the good old Sony transistor radio, and so many other things besides. But there was little understanding or knowledge of Japan, the country. The circle of specialists and experts was all but non-existent.
Today, Japan is regarded as a technology giant, capable in the public mind of producing anything it might put its mind to, and is seen as the only genuinely rich country in Asia (Singapore is just a city, and China not even a pretender).
Many universities teach the Japanese language and area specialists on Japan have emerged.
And yet, knowledge of Japanese society and politics in the public mind has hardly improved beyond what it may have been a half century ago. Partly it is the media on both sides of course, and not knowing the language is an obstacle.
In the main, however, it may just be the case that Japan is a nuisance to no one and just goes on building industries and markets.
Aftab Seth’s just published memoir, written in the urbane tone and voice of an educated and cosmopolitan Indian telling a story, helps to fill some of the void, and is likely to be of particular interest to young students and the lay public, although specialists will take note of the time the author served as ambassador in Tokyo.
Seth studied at Keio university — Japan’s oldest — for a year after finishing his undergraduate studies in Delhi, and returned to the country first as a junior diplomat and later as India’s ambassador. He kept up his links and, after retiring from the foreign service, was made the first Director of the Global Security Research Institute at Keio. He knows the language, the history, the social mores and political style, and he cultivated a range of friends, among them poets, writers, top guns in industry, high-level politicians, the clergy, and even members of the imperial family, about whom it is said that they are descended from the deities.
We get a glimpse of all of this in the writing. Perhaps when the author updates this readable volume (which is not in the nature of a panegyric), he would think to go beyond straightforward narration, and seek to offer some explanations — his explanations, born of insight — for changes occurring inside Japan, memoir or no memoir.
This might be a matter of great interest to the expert since Seth represented India’ interest in Japan in a turbulent era — when it was boycotted by the western bloc for testing a nuclear device under Prime Minister Vajpayee and placed under sanctions, and Japan, America’s faithful camp-follower in spite of then being the world’s second most important economy after the US, dutifully followed suit and its bureaucratic establishment exhibited great animus toward New Delhi, as the writer details for us. This went to the extent of being buddies not only with America but also Pakistan, in total disregard of the tragedy of Bangladesh (in the time of whose birth millions of Bengalis — East Pakistanis — were butchered by the Pakistan military).
This is of course just one dimension. Ambassador Seth’s opinion would be valued in other spheres too since there aren’t that many Indians around who can claim the degree of acquaintance — and over such a range — that he has had with “the land of the rising sun”. The author, in that sense, is uniquely placed. In the old Empire days in Britain, such men were knighted, wrote books, lectured at the great universities and gave radio talks to give the public a real feel of their area of knowledge, and all this contributed to the building of the national mind on key matters pertaining to that area.
Japan was on the upswing after the Meiji Restoration of 1868 and went on to become a highly unpopular imperial power in the Far East before World War II. It collapsed at the end of the war due to the dropping of the atom bomb at Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the Americans. It is said that about one lakh people perished in Tokyo in a single night.
By what magic did Japan bounce back to become an economic powerhouse Was it just the largesse of the Americans in pumping in a vast magnitude of aid What made Japanese society accept aid from those who dropped the bomb on it (Pakistan hates to accept even earthquake or flood relief from India)
When Germany is not stopped by the US from supplying troops to serve in Afghanistan, why can’t the Japan defence forces go out, not as imperialists but in aid of civil power
Can Japan be a nuclear weapons state Is there an inherent diffidence about Japan’s society and its political make-up, and what is its philosophical outlook What accounts for the collapse of the Leftwing in Japan, when time was that it could bring the country to a halt Is it only a matter of the country getting rich, as the author hints Why is there, at any given time, a plethora of former prime ministers still in politics in Japan The questions are many and someone who has an idea should project some answers.
Half a Century: My Connections with Japan — A Memoir Northern Book Centre, New Delhi, 2015 pp 310, price Rs 900
