Daily Times

Returned to Tokyo (on Monday, March 25, 2019) after a five days trip to Kyoto and Nora, the ancient capital of Japan. There is a lot of sightseeing in all the places we visited, including temples and shrines, castles, museums, theatres, cultural centres, parks and gardens et cetera. Former imperial villa, NIJO castle, is a world Heritage site. discuss and has witnessed some of the most important events in Japan is history in the 400 years since it was built. The construction of the castle was completed and 1603 on the order of the Tokugawa, Layasau, the founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1867) . Tokugawa Layasau unified Japan after a long period of Civil War, and ushered in a period of 260 years of peace and prosperity.

Nijo castle served as the Kyoto residence of the Shogun on the rare occasions when he visited the Imperial capital. When the Shogan was not in residence, the NIJO Ziban samurai guards, who were dispatched from the shogunate at Edo ( present day Tokyo) were garrisoned at the castle.

In 1867, the 15th Shogun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu announced the end of the Tokuwara rule, and the returning of the political control to the Emperor. This ushered in the Meiji period. Thus, feudal society gave way to a modern democratic nation that Japan is today. Bullet train makes journey fast, beautiful and comfortable. Before going to Kyoto and Nara, et cetera, we had travelled by car to view the beauty of Mount Fuji and the resorts at the base of the mountain covered by snow. The leaks were simply attractive for tourists appreciating the chance to go boating, fishing and enjoying the facilities available.

For some visitors it is often difficult to understand layers of seemingly contradictory elements that make up modern Japanese culture. Prior study and tour guides can help you have a feel of Japan’s traditional culture like bushido, geishas, Shinto, Buddhism and Confucianism. Visitors may get interested in traditional arts and disciplines like Ukiyo-e, ikebana, Zen meditation, martial arts and the tea ceremony. Tips on places of outstanding interest help tourists and first-time visitors to go to the right places to appreciate the originality and creativity of the Japanese.

Japan is a collectivist society, where individualism is frowned upon and group power is encouraged in general, because it helps create harmonious links within the family, the company, or in groups of friends. The Japanese believe your blood type determine your character to a great extent. People are very superstitious, and religions are based on superstition. ‘Karakuri’ are mechanised puppets or automata created by Japanese traditional artists

Ikebana is a Japanese art that seeks beauty using flowers as its main element and stems from the Buddhist practice that first appeared in Japan in the sixth century. Besides it’s decorative function, it is also used as a method for meditation. Simplicity, the education of the flow of life, the seasons, and even enlightenment are sought through the positioning of the flowers. Nowadays ikebana is a hobby practised by many Japanese, and it is spreading to many other countries. Ikebana is another ritual that combines many elements of the most traditional Japan.

If you happen to be in Tokyo and other parts of Japan from March to late April it would be enjoyable seeing Sakura spots for Sakura varieties. For best Hanami (Sakura viewing) there are long green ways, illuminated at night. In parks and gardens, people enjoy looking at multicoloured blossoms: they sit under trees with beautiful flowers, with religious spirit. People relax and like best of the opportunity being in the company of family and friends. Often they stay under trees and flowers for the whole day and night. In times past, the Japanese believed God lived inside Sakura trees, and just before the rice showing season, offerings were made under the trees.

Japanese people protect them selves against pollen by wearing masks. Those marketing these masks are making big money.

Japan is a collectivist society, where individualism is frowned upon and group power is encouraged in general, because it helps create harmonious links within the family, the company, or in groups of friends. The Japanese believe your blood type determine your character to a great extent. People are very superstitious, and religions are based on superstition. ‘Karakuri’ are mechanised puppets or automata created by Japanese traditional artists. The art of karakuri is considered one of the origins of present-day robotics and one of the reasons the Japanese perceive technology as something friendly. Keiretsue are groups of companies that work together, trying not to compete with one another and cooperating in order to make more money together. The people give their utmost in their work in order to serve consumers in society. Thus they automatically obtain their own personal benefits and they achieve collective aims. Workplace manners are important. The Japanese are extremely cautious and respectful with their fellow men. That is why individual behaviour and personal treatment are key features in business and company life. Career women have more and more of a presence in Japan. Walking around any street in Tokyo and at any time of the day or night is completely safe. Effective legislation and severe penalties deter crime of any kind. Deep down, the lack of crime is due, a great extent, to the Japanese peoples way of thinking. It has a lot to do with your attitude that you care for the society and yourself feel accountable and responsible.

There exists an air of hate-love relationship between Japan and the United States that one can feel. It is not difficult to understand if you can recall the circumstance that prevailed after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the start of the Second World War, bombing of Hiroshima, a great devastation for Japan and the start of a new chapter a year after the end of war. Many experts, insiders as well as well-known political analysts, informed the people of what had happened, what were the motives and the sorrows that were brought to the families of the innocent people. Japanese living in the United States at the time had to undergo a period of great tensions since they were seen as the enemy of the United States and hence segregated and forced to live in concentration camps.

There was no longer a normal life for them and their families. Lt commander Alexander Leighton of the United States described in his book “governing of men” the approaches that had to be adopted to restore the confidence of the Japanese Americans and rehabilitate them using clinical, psychological and sociological approach.

Another book, “For That One Day”, that I value most in this context, was the memoirs of Mitsu Fuchida, commander of the attack on Pearl Harbor, published in 2011 after having been translated in English, years after the death of the author.

Preface of the autobiography says, this book is about a man who followed a unique destiny in life incredible but not unbelievable because he tells his factual story. In the predawn hours of December 7, 1941, Fuchida, leading 360 planes of the Imperial Japanese Navy task force, spearheaded the surprise attack operation on Hawaii. It was again this man- Fuchida- Who witnessed the surrender ceremony theatrically orchestrated by General MacArthur, supreme commander of the Allied forces, on-board the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo bay on September 2, 1945.

There are some other significant historical events described in Fuchida’s autobiography: he was in Hiroshima on the day before and the day after the atomic bomb was dropped. He describes the devastation of the explosion. He describes the day he met General MacArthur at the Atsugi airbase as a member of the Japanese delegation. He talks about his testimony at the Tokyo war crimes trial and his arguments and counter arguments with the prosecutors and judges. He explains his encounters beyond love and hate with President Dwight Eisenhower, Admiral Cester Nimitz and Admiral Raymond Spruance (the US fleet commander at Midway.) Japan is proud of this hero an outstanding person. On May 30 1976, Mitsuo Fuchida died at the age of 73 in his hometown, kashiwara, city in the Nara Prefecture.

The writer is a former director, National Institute of Public Administration (NIPA) Government of Pakistan, a political analyst, a public policy expert and a published author