In 1825, Aizawa Seishisai wrote a book called New Theses, a book which had an extraordinary impact on the thinking of Japanese activists and leaders. “New Theses had a political and social impact probably unmatched by any other single work during the final decades of bakufu rule,” said Bob Wakabayashi, a professor of history at York University. (Page ix) Aizawa believed, as I believe, that Russia and Britain were secretly working together to destroy Japan, and he talked about what those countries were doing in his book. “The peoples of Europe happen to be at war with each other now,” said Aizawa. “But they all revere the same god. When the opportunity for a quick kill presents itself, they combine forces, and [after attaining victory,] divide the spoils.” (Page 204) Aizawa mentions several instances of collusion between the Russians and the British. “Once a castaway from Owari was saved by an English ship, and one from Satsuma, by a Russian ship,” said Aizawa. “When the two ships met on the high seas, the Owari castaway was transferred to the Russian vessel, and both were sent to Russia. On another occasion, when guardsmen at our outposts on Karafuto and Etorofu were captured by the Russians and interned in Kamchatka, an Englishman was among their interrogators. This shows that the Russians and English are in league against us.” (Page 206) The above page numbers come from the book “Anti-Foreignism and Western Learning in Early-Modern Japan” by Bob Wakabayashi. The book contains an English translation of New Theses. The book is outstanding. The book explains how Japan used religion to unite its people and how the West tried to use Christianity to take over Japan. If you ever want to understand how governments can control their people, if you ever want to understand how the West was able to conquer other lands, you could do no better than read this book. The thinking contained in this book, I believe, contains the key to understanding the West and understanding why Japan was able to avoid the fate suffered by all other non-western countries. I will write more about the contents of this book in the future.
Posted on: Tue, 19 Nov 2013 00:15:50 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015