Japan was beaten by the U.S. in World War Two. Then, the U.S. feared that Japan would get strong again, and took various measures to keep Japan feeble. One of their measures was to imprint the masochistic view of history on the Japanese mind. It was a kind of brainwashing. However, luckily, lots of Japanese are recovering from this awful way of thinking. Another way was to make a bonfire of huge amounts of books that were inconvenient to them. The Allies did the same thing as the Nazi that they intensely accused of the same thing. Moreover, they distorted the history of Japan, and deprived the Japanese people of "Kyouiku Chokugo", the Imperial message on Education. The Allies insisted that this message would foment militarism and banned the learning it. Most Japanese have been told that the Imperial message on Education was evil. Actually, I had believed it.
The other day, I attended the lecture of Mr. Tamogami, the former chief of staff. In the lecture, he said that the Imperial message on Education was translated into many languages except Korean and Chinese, and now it is used for the education of virtue in many countries including the U.S. It was amazing. I got it today, and read only a little bit. I'll report on the book later in this blog. The picture is of the book.
(Vocabulary)
feeble (高齢・病気などで) 体の弱った, ひ弱な
a feeble old man 体の弱った老人
imprint sth on sb's mind/memory/brain ＜…＞を＜人＞の心［記憶，脳裏］に刻み込む
masochistic view of history 自虐史観
make a bonfire of ～を焼き捨てる
bonfire (祝賀の) 大かがり火, (ごみを焼く) たき火
Allies (特に第二次世界大戦での) 連合国
the Imperial message on Education 教育勅語
勅語とは天皇のことば。みことのり。明治憲法下で、天皇が大権に基づき、国務大臣の副署を要さず、親しく臣民に対して発表した意思表示。
militarism 軍国主義
foment (けなして・フォーマル) 〈戦争・暴動など〉 をあおる, 扇動する = stir up
chief of staff 幕僚長
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