Forces That Made Japan

Great

Part of II, Forces That Make a Nation Great by Jose P. Laurel

(1943)

Material and Spiritual Forces for Nation-building

1. Government by Symbol: His Majesty the Emperor

2. Influence of Buddhism3. The Nippon Family System4. Compulsory Education5. National Language6. Human Industry7. Benevolent Government

Who is the Emperor?•God-given ruler of the country;•The representative of the gods in the heaven; and•The direct descendent of the divine ancestor of the race•The devotion to the Emperor is the “old rock of the Japanese nation.”•The legendary symbol of the Japanese people and their country

Government by Symbol

In Japan, His Majesty the Emperor is the symbol of common imperishable tradition and nationality.

Emperor-worship is not merely a religion; it has the force of what may be termed a super religion. Thus, respective religions are also Emperor-worshippers.

“The Majesty of our Imperial House towers high above everything to be found in the world, and it is durable as heaven and earth”

Emperor-worship has been responsible for the existence in Japan of : continuity of traditions, reverence for the ruler, faith in a national or racial mission

Japan vis-à-vis other States

The British King is the nominal leader of the British Empire; however, he ceased to partake of the divine character of his predecessors

The Constitution id claimed to be the symbol of the democratic way of life chartered for the American people

China is divided because of the lack of integrating living force that could counteract the demoralizing influences sown by dominant foreigners

The Philippines is in need of a symbol possessed of similar compelling force and dynamic reality, because division and dissension is continued.

Origin of Japanese spiritual forces

worship of Nature and of spirits

Shintoism- refers to a less articulate hero and ancestor worship with a background of Nature worship

Confucianism

Buddhism- had its origin in India.

Influence of Buddhism

Buddhism has been the main inspiring and integrating factor that has had an ever-pervading influence on the spiritual life of the Japanese people

All religions coincide in the fundamentals; however, they differ in the methods of theological approach;

The spiritual authority and social ascendency of Christianity are at any rate, losing ground in the modern world largely due to the failure of the traditional institutions of this faith to adapt themselves to the changing environment

Japanese family system

Japanese family is patriarchal and is as a rule a large family.

The Japanese family aims at the preservation of its name, the honor of its lineage, its mode of life, the family occupation and the communal property.

The couple’s importance is recognized only in so far as it serves the purpose of perpetuating the family by begetting heirs.

The Nippon Family System

The couple’s importance is recognized only in so far as it serves the purpose of perpetuating the family by begetting heirs.

Divorce in Japan is determined by the requirements of the family and not as in western countries, by the problems of mutual adjustments between husband and wife.

A wife who enters the family must be faithful to the traditional mode of life of her husband’s family.

The archaic and feudal system of primogeniture –eldest son inherits the power to rule the family and supervise its property but in return for this exclusive privilege he has the sacred obligation to consecrate himself to the perpetuation of the family tradition

Cooperative character of the family; every member works not for himself but for the entire family

Japan’s compulsory education

“Japan is a school, an Athens. Temperamentally alert and quick like the ancient Hellenes, of passive turn of mind, ready to receive, and immensely curious to learn everything new and strange, the people turn to learning as do ducks to water.”

In Japan, a Japanese boy or girl of seven has to go to one of the ordinary primary schools and stay for the required six years. In 1946, Japan has 30,000 primary schools with more than 100,000 pupils. The literacy rate is almost 100 percent.

Compulsory Education

A uniform for school children is prescribed so that proper supervision by the police and other authorities over the young soul is practicable and efficient.

Separation of sexes is prescribed after the primary grades on the theory that there should be differences in the system and methods of training and instruction on account of sex

Middle school corresponds to our public high school.

Boy student stays five years in the middle school where he learns Japanese literature, Chinese classics, a foreign language, arithmetic, algebra, geometry, history, physics and chemistry, law and economics, technical studies, etc.

Girl student who enters a high school followed a four or five-year course. She studies domestic science and sewing, as well the tea ceremony and flower arrangement.

In education, what is needed is not democracy but regimentation, not liberty but discipline, not liberalism but correct orientation, not flexibility but rigidity in the formation of the desired mould of citizenship.

National LanguageLinguistic unity is a binding force of utmost importance because the color and quality of the language largely determine the color and quality of the thought of the people who use it.

National Language

Yokiuku is the classical Japanese. Initially just the language in Tokyo, later was nationalized.

Language of Japan has been the most powerful factor not only for the cementing of national unity but also for the phenomenally swift absorption of word culture by modern Japan

Evolution of “Filipino”

During the Spanish regime, Spanish was the official language in the Philippines

During the American occupation, we were made to adopt English as the medium of instruction on the theory probably that the value of democratic institutions could be understood and appreciated only in that language

Sec. 3, Article 8, Gen. Provisions, Original Constitution, “The National Assembly shall take steps towards the development and adoption of a common national language based on one of the existing native languages”

Human IndustryIt refers to the developing of able bodied citizens.

Above all industries of a country should be human industry.

On top of self-sufficiency in goods and commodities and natural resources should be sufficiency in man power.

Japanese Human Industry: Health

To insure the good health of every children born in Japan, the government directly and indirectly cares for the expectant mother, givers her aid in various forms, and protects her well being through the maternity hospitals and confinement advisory institutes of which there are a goodly number all over the country.

Child bearing and celebration of marriage are encouraged

Japanese Human Industry: Labor

Social legislation are strictly enforced in the form of Factory Law, the Mining Law, and the Health Insurance Law which safeguard the health of women workers, particularly those in the family way.

Training and education for the populace

Benevolent Government

It is not the form of government but the substance of government that determines whether it is popular or autocratic. The Government of Japan is far from being autocratic and tyrannical.

Minimum requirements: Benevolent Government

A. relative protection of life, liberty and property;

B. relative freedom of religion and of worship; and

C. relative freedom of speech and of the press

BENVOLENT GOVERNMENT: ARISTORCRACY

The world is governed by God and man, the former in His infinite Wisdom as the Supreme Being and the latter, if morally and intellectually capable.

People cannot be both governors and governed at the same time.

A good and efficient government, a benevolent government may exist WHEN MEN OF SUPERIOR MORAL AND INTELLECTUAL ENDOWNMENTS ARE IN CONTROL OF STATE

A benevolent government is a result of traditional practice of allowing the best-endowned men in the service of the state ample scope and latitude in the exercise of governmental powers.

In theory, Japan has the most undemocratic state in the modern world, for it is the only government extant based on the divine right of rulers, but in practice, it is a most benevolent government.

The government’s concept of its role is that it is the God-chosen custodian of the people, and it therefore, spares neither pains nor effort to improve the economic and cultural conditions of the nation.

Japan has attained her present greatness because of mutual trust between the government and the people, and through a long consistent policy of unselfish devotion on the part of the government to the enlightenment, development, and uplift of the entire people

REGIONALISM

Greater Asia Co-Prosperity SphereRegional economy