Impression of Japan

By ShuiDie

1) The motivation of pondering.

A Nation's characters are partiallt determined by the collective characters of its people.

As a nation, despite the geographic isolation and the lack of resource, Japan is the No. 2 economy in the globe and it invaded two world powers 70 years ago. Almost conquered half of the globe. Until the last day, when facing the defeat, the proud generals refused to bend their knee to surrender.

Despite 120 years of thorough Westernization, especially after WWII occupied as a defeated nation, the traditions in this nation are well preserved. The proud and the dignity of its people were never diminished.

Why "three Japanese can be as powerful as a dragon and three Chinese can be as weak as a worm"? Aren't they sharing the same ancestor? What have been lost in the blood of Chinese in the past 1000 years? Why today the two distant relatives hate each other so much?

For this trip, I was not only motivated by my desire to watch the beautiful cherry blossom, but also by my curiosity to discover why it is so. By smelling the real air there, I hoped that I can understand more....

2) Controversial personalities

Japanese characters are the combination of 菊和刀. Humbleness and aggression, barbarity and aesthetics, politeness and arrogance, flexibility and stubbornness, obedience and bravery, openness and consertiveness co-exist in their blood. How comes the two extreme of the character can peacefully co-exist? Japanese sincerely believe that the two controversial characters can co-exist and achieve harmony just like the Nature, full of controversial yet can achieve the harmony in a dynamic balance. I guess this can explain why they call themselves 大和民族. "和" means harmony within themselves and harmony between people and the nature.

It was believed that 大和民族 was descendants from the combination of the primitive oceanians and the cultivated mainlanders. Before the mainlanders came, the islanders were fishmens. Due to the danger of fishing game, people need to help each other to survive. The fish men were bonded like brothers. They didn't have written language.

I don't know when the first mainlander arrived. By 600 AC, there were many mainlanders arrived there, they brought farming skills, silk producing techniques, written language (remained as Konji), Buddhism, etc. They set up their first capital in Nara and built the city according to the blue print of ChangAn in Tang Dynasty. Numerous beautiful temples ware built in Nara. Many Buddhist monks from China and India went to there. One of them was 鑒真和尚. Many monks didn't make their name in the host nation. 鑒真和尚 was believed the only foreign monk who earned his own temple and was worshiped by generations of the Japanese. I don't know what made him stand out. Was his level of knowledge higher? Was he more determined and persistent than the others? Was the way of cultivate his own mind impressed the natives?

Most temples collapsed through the years of hurricane and rain attack. Amazingly, there is still a few survived. The level of the architectural aesthetics and endurance achieved 1300 years ago was indeed very impressive.

In the modern days, temples are much quieter than the shrine, but the spirit of Buddhism already penetrated to the bone of the Nation. In the life style, Japanese believes simplicity can prevent the soul corruption. Even in the Imperial household, you can't found the sophisticated furnitures and decorations. Basically the houses are empty. There is no furniture. There are some wall paintings mostly reflecting nature scenes, such as pine trees, bamboos, flowers, birds, etc. The imperial garden was designed to blend the people's life perfectly into the nature world. They don't use bright colors to paint the building. The imperial gates or pavilions use the original trunk of a big tree as supporting pillars with the barks still on the trunk. The highest level of roofs was thatched by the rice straws. The wall and doors are light weighted. Ideally, every window and doors functioned as the frames of the pictures. They don't need to hang the oil paintings or color painting to decorate their house. They just need to open their sliding door and the nature pictures will jump into their eyes. :))

3) A Classified and Disciplined nation.

The honeymoon between Japan and China ended around 850 AC. Power controlled by the cultivated intellectual classes was taken over by the Samurai.

Samurai system was a military system (like 軍閥). The top general is called Shogun. You might already know that the most famous shogun in Japan history is 豐臣秀吉 and 德川家康 .

All Samurai clans were loyal to the Shogun. Samurais didn't need to do fishing or farming. They were paid by the villager's tax income. Their duty was to fight for the safty of the clan and the villagers. Samurais were not allowed to do business. They had very strict class. Obedience to the Master was the first vow they had to commit. Seppuku (po fu) was another vow they had to commit when facing defeating and humiliation. Seppuku was the highest honor that a Samurai can had. Sometimes when the master passed away, his top Samurais would apply Seppuku before he passed away. If the application was approved, the Samurai would be very happy to perform Seppuku in front of his family and friends. After his sacrifice, his family members could receive the 奉養 from the succeeding master (usually the old master's son) forever.

Samurai system co-existed with the emperor and his government for 1000 years.

In Shogun years (from 850AC to 1868 minji renovation), emperors lived in Kyoto. Shoguns would pay symbolic visit to the emperor and protect the imperial's family stability. The emperor didn't have much power until the Minji and his government defeated Shogun.

Unconditional loyalty and obedience must be maintained in order to sustain the Shogun system. Not all shogun's offsprings were strong men. Generation after generation, the offersprings became weaker and weaker. Yet the system lasted for 1000 years. How they managed to do so? I don't know much. All I can guess is that the shoguns must developed some brain wash system to make all the youth accept the idea of loyalty and obedience. Also the spirit of co-operation, strict discipline and following the order must be in their blood. Those who obey the order of the wiser seniors survived in the harsh ocean life style, those who have free spirit might be killed long time ago! (Only my guess:))

Today, although Japan is very much westernized, but the characters of following the order, co-operating and strict discipline can be observed in every aspects of the daily life. Their bus, subway, trains are always on time. I don't know how a bus can achieve the minute accuracy when fighting with the heavy traffic. Although the population is crowed but I never feel the sense of chaos. Everything was in place and in order. People following their schedules religiously! In China, the people can be less crowed, but chaotic. People fight against each other to get in a bus, to obtain something, or to compete for an opportunity.

On the other hand, Japanese people seem under great stress. I seldom see a man showed a bright smile or a hearty laugh. Everyone is in rush. I am wondering how fun to take a schedule driving, super disciplined, silent, serious looking Japanese man as a husband? :)))

4) Limited Resources.

I have been wondering what the advantage and disadvantage to survive in an island that surrenders by the mysterious vast ocean? The same wonder also applies to why the industry revolution started in an island instead of the Europe Mainland?

It is obvious that to survive in a land rich in Hurricane and Earthquake, people must need to be adoptive and flexible for the unpredictable events. They also need to be persistent to rebuild what was destroyed. The endurance to bear the unexpected loss must be very strong. Is this made them both flexible and stubborn?

There is no more land to expand without boats. If they are invaded, they didn't have place to escape. Was that made them brave and fighting until they die? In the history, Japan was never conquered by the outsiders. I heard that Chinese invaded them twice, but didn't succeed. The book says that the nation was saved by the hurricane created by Japanese God. Many Japanese believe that it was true to make them feel that they are a selected race by the God. But I also heard what really happened was no one would surrender. Everyone fight until the last breath. They kept coming back and their spirit scared the invaders....

There is few resources from the land, such as grains, vegetables, energy, forests. I can still feel that Japanese are extremely conscious and frugal in consuming the resource. Their dish serving size is soooo tiny that I never feel full after I ate dinners. I ate 12 course formal Japanese dinners twice; each dish only took a couple of bites to finish. Japanese is also very precise to use their space, precise to use their time, precise to make miniature appliance, gadgets, vehicles, etc. The main scheme is to be resource wise..:) Do they really need consume less energy to survive? I doubt it. Young generations are consuming more and become taller. If a person is semi-starved, how can they grow tall? :)

Yes, they are still rejecting the outsiders. One more mouth means a little less of the resource shared by the insiders.

Expanding to the other land started a few hundred years ago. Hawaii, Brazil, Seattle are a few of their oversea colonies, so to speak. They view the new lands as part of their Kingdom secretly. :) From the museums, one can clearly sense what is in their mind. :)

5) "Taking from the others while keeping the own resource and tradition."

I was very much amazed by the Japanese's ability to learn from outsiders. For whatever the reasons, they managed to selectively learn the advanced skills, perfected them and then use what they learned to conquered the outsiders.

The first huge learning wave happened in 600-800AC when China was in Tang Dynasty. Japanese invited the Tang's scholars and Buddhist Master to cross the ocean and teach them the advanced technologies that the Tang people mastered. After they learned, they sophisticated some of them. I saw the most beautiful silk that I never saw in China. The aesthetic tastes, the art of flower arrangement, the way to serve and make different kinds of teas, the way to arrange the food dishes, the kimono material, very artistic. The way they learned how to cultivate and disciple-in themselves are also sophisticated.

The second huge learning wave started around 1850AC. numerous young men from rich family went to Western countries and learned all kinds of modern technologies, from how to make modern weapons, bricks, glass ware, and medicine to the Western political system, transportation, communications, etc. I was super-impressed by the detailed notes they took while learning the new things, their systematic approaches and the work ethics they had. For example, some of them draw a super-detailed blue-print and rebuilt an exactly copy of a Western High school in Tokyo. Japanese relocated and preserved a few exactly copies of the Western buildings in Minji Town. Japanese loves to hire all kinds of coachers to teach them while there is very few outsiders were encouraged to own business there .

Among all the young ambitious students, 伊藤博文 was an outstanding representative. He was educated in Europe. After return to Japan, he devoted all his energy in Westernizing Japan. Luckily, in 1868, young Minji became the Emperor. Minji was only 18 when he became the new emperor. He showed up in the right place and right time. He received considerable amount to Western influence. After he became the emperor, he fully support 伊藤博文, his comrades and their Westernization efforts. In those evolution? years, a lot of local governors were at their 20s, very ambitious. 伊藤博文Was the premier for Minji government for many years? He is a big hero to modernize the Japan. Btw. He was only 160cm tall. :)

The government hired many western coachers to teach them the modern technologies; the military coachers helped Japanese to establish a modern Japanese Army. Finally guns of the modern army defeat the swords of shogunsamurais. Minji government regained the power that the emperor lost for 1000 years.

What amazed me was not how spongy-like the Japanese are. It was how they can not only obtained the outsiders help, but also was able to keep the outsiders from controlling them. They seems never give out any interests to the outsiders. How did they achieve this? Why the outsiders didn't take something from Japanese to exchange for the technologies that they taught them? Why Japanese didn't pay dearly as the Qin government paid the Westerners? Why Westerner didn't slaughter them like they slaughted Chinese In Qin Dynasty? Was that because of the politeness and appeared humbleness made the Westerner liked the Japanese more? I don't know.

In the past 150 years, Japanese has been very successful in taking in the technologies and the resources from the developed and undeveloped nations. Yes, they are hard workers ; they are very persistent; they are perfectionists; but they don't seem to be more smarter than the Chinese. Chinese appears more sophisticated and cunning than the Japanese. But why in the end, Chinese has been losing their resources? Strong arm developed by Japanese can explain part of why they succeed in taking from the others, but was this the only reason? How about before they developed the strong arms? Why were they able to take from the other nations??

6) Summary.

Now go back to the first paragraph of Part I . What attribute to their intrinsic characters? What made them as who they are?

Was it the combination of barbarian and cultivated genes? Was it attributed to the long years of ruthless shogun ruling and brain washing? Was it has something to do with their limited resource and no place to escape? Was it the need of the adaptation of the unpredictable destruction by the hash weather and frequent Earthquake?

Will they ever feel remorse of their wrong doing in the history? Will they ever to stop the ambition of expanding their territory? Will they ever stop to take from the others?

Are they a beautiful race with a lot of inner strength? Are they more competitive than the other races?

By comparison, Our Chinese had glorious past. But that was 1000 thousand years ago. In Modern China, where can I find the sense of awe to the Heaven in Yellow Emperor Era, Where can I found the sincere open minds in ChunQiu Era? Where can I find the spirit and heart of Han Dynasty? Where can I find the aesthetic tastes of Tang Dynasty? Where the combination of sincerity, honesty, harmoney and peace went? Wait a minute, aren't we still see the Confucianism teaching and the cunning strategists' tactics are running around?

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Note: The above writting was from a tourist's point of view. She has no background in history and politics. Therefore it is only a casual chat with a few friends after a trip to Japan.