On November 25, 1970, an accident occurred in the Eastern Superintendent of the Japan Self-Defense Forces.
On the same day, the famous writer Yukio Mishima led 4 other people to infiltrate the SDF garrison in the name of visiting, and then suddenly attacked, kidnapped the SDF division commander, and then threatened the life of the division commander and ordered the SDF soldiers in the garrison to assemble.
Standing on a balcony, Yukio Mishima delivered an "impassioned" speech to the more than 800 SDF soldiers, saying that the Japanese have now lost their martial spirit and become vassals of the United States, and that the "real warriors" should follow him in a mutiny and amend the Constitution so that Japan can have a normal army to defend the emperor.
At this time, 25 years after the end of the war, most of the soldiers under the balcony were born after the war, and they scoffed at Mishima's words such as "defending the emperor", and they looked at Mishima's expression on the balcony as if they were looking at a monster.
After the failure of the plan to instigate the mutiny with a speech, Mishima retreated into the room to show the so-called "Bushido spirit" to the SDF soldiers in a belly-cutting manner, but Mishima's abdominal cutting process was extremely unsuccessful.
After the short knife was stabbed into the abdomen, Mishima fell forward due to severe pain, failed to complete the ideal "cross cut", and could only ask Morita to "cut off Mishima's head", but Morita also had no "mistake" experience, and even cut mishima's head off, Mishima was in pain and wanted to bite his tongue and kill himself, and finally with the help of one of the 4 people who had learned kendo, he helped Mishima complete the "mistake".
The "mutiny" launched by Mishima and five other people eventually ended in the form of a farce.
Taking the end of World War II as the boundary, the 5 people who launched the "mutiny" had a strong militaristic ideology in their minds, and they were typical of the "old Japanese"; The 800 SDF soldiers who "watched the drama" did not have the concept of "loyalty to the emperor" in their minds, and they were "new Japanese" who grew up after the war.
At the time of this absurd mutiny, Japan's economy was growing at a high speed, and during this period, the "new Japanese" could make the crazy idea of the "old Japanese" disappear just by "lying flat", but do not think that in this contest between the old and new Japanese, the winner will always be the "new Japanese".
On the contrary, the thinking of the "old Japanese" has been like a ghost in the minds of the Japanese high-level, appearing in front of the Japanese in various ways at the first opportunity, but the "new Japanese" lack the means to counter the revival of militarism, and for decades, the only means they used was one trick: lying flat.
Unsuccessful retrofits
On September 2, 1945, the American occupation forces marched into Japan, and macArthur, the commander of the occupying forces, was ambitious and wanted to completely change Japan.
MacArthur stabilized Japanese society with grain shipped from the United States and forced Emperor Hirohito to issue a "declaration on earth" to greatly weaken the emperor's authority in the hearts of the Japanese.
Parliamentary reforms weakened the power of political gatekeepers, and a "peace constitution" stipulated that Japan could not formally own the army.
However, by decentralizing the chaebol's shares, the chaebol's control over the Japanese economy was weakened, and the American version of "fighting the local tyrants and dividing up the land" was used to disintegrate the peasants' personal attachment to the landlords.
At first glance, this set of combined fists started from the economic, political, military and other aspects, and smashed all the rules of the old Japan, but the facts have proved that Japan's cultural inertia that lasted for a thousand years is far from being changed by just a few years of reform, and the reform of the Economic and Political Sphere of Japan by the United States has been largely disintegrated by the Japanese elite in just a few years.
Through cross-shareholding and marriage of family members, the chaebols not only did not lose control of the chaebol companies, but made the chaebols more closely connected.
In the past, the members of the political gate valve supported each other, and all kinds of elections were reduced to a formality, no matter how they were elected, it was always this group of political door valve members who held the core power.
Due to the development of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, the United States needs to concentrate its efforts on building Japan into a bridgehead against China and the Soviet Union, so it is also left to the restoration of political door valves and economic chaebols, in the eyes of the Americans, as long as the most important military reform for Japan continues to be implemented, Japan's military power is firmly in the hands of the United States, and other aspects are actually not so important.
However, the indulgence of the United States has led to the result that the group of people who occupied the core of Japan's power and wealth before the war are still in the center of Power and wealth in Japan after the war, and many of them are supporters of the original militarism, and the Japanese who are most affected by the so-called "democratization" reforms in the United States are actually the bottom people of Japan.
The devil who was released
In fact, even japan's military power, which was seen as the devil, could not be completely locked in a cage by the United States.
At the end of World War II, in order to facilitate the safe navigation of American ships in the waters near Japan, the United States asked the Japanese side to organize sea forces to demine, and Japan retained a sea force of more than 300 ships and more than 10,000 people in the name of demining missions.
With the outbreak of the Korean War, the United States gave way to japan to support Japan against China and the Soviet Union, and the size of the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force expanded, of course, the main tone in Japan at this time was to develop the economy, and the scale of military power released was still limited.
The first major increase in Japan's military strength after World War II occurred during the reign of Shinzo Abe's grandfather, Kishi Nobusuke.
In 1957, Kishi proposed to increase the size of the Ground Self-Defense Force to about 180,000 people three years ago, the size of the Maritime Self-Defense Force to 124,000 tons of ships, and the size of the Air Self-Defense Force to 1,342 aircraft, and by 1960 Kishi Nobusuke's plan had achieved more than 80%.
In addition to military expansion, Japan during the Kishi period also showed a trend of expansion in diplomacy, and Kishi Nobusuke first visited Southeast Asian countries after coming to power, and then visited the United States.
Kishi Nobusuke's move was intended to try to place Southeast Asia into his sphere of influence, and as for the subsequent visit to the United States, Kishi Nobusuke believed that it represented Asia, not Japan, and Japan at this time was presenting itself as an Asian "ally" .
After the outbreak of the Vietnam War, the United States further "loosened" the size limit of the Japanese Self-Defense Force, and even took the initiative to ask Japan to increase military investment to assist the United States in responding to the impact of China and the Soviet Union.
In the early 1990s, the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force entered a period of expansion, and even had the "Osumi" quasi-aircraft carrier, during the 1991 Gulf War, the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force sent the Maritime Self-Defense Force to the Middle East in the name of "mine clearance", although the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force did not have much substantive achievement in this operation, but it also marked the beginning of the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force to carry out overseas missions.
In 2001, when the war broke out in Afghanistan and Japan sent ships into the Indian Ocean, it was obvious that the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan had nothing to do with Japan's security, and Japan's move was not in line with the duties of the Self-Defense Forces stipulated in the Peace Constitution.
In 2015, with the joint efforts of several generations of Japanese rulers, Japan finally took a crucial step to lift the ban on the "right of collective self-defense", and since then, Japan has found a legal basis for military operations in overseas wars.
air castle
Japan dares to challenge the pacifist constitution step by step and constantly strives to normalize the military of the Self-Defense Forces, behind which is the rapid recovery of Japan's economic strength.
The Korean War not only brought the United States to stop the comprehensive transformation of Japanese society, but also brought a large number of orders to Japan, and japan earned its first pot of gold after World War II by producing the industrial goods needed for the war for the United States.
After that, Japan's economy began to take off, diplomatically strengthened ties with Southeast Asian countries at the same time, Japan and Southeast Asian countries of the economy has become closer and closer, Japan also put forward the so-called "goose-shaped development" concept in this context, that is, Japan is the leader of Asian countries, is the head of the goose, the "Asian Tigers" belong to the better development of the country, is the body of the goose, while other Southeast Asian countries generally develop, is the tail of the goose.
At the peak of japan's economy, there was a strong desire to get rid of the United States in Japan, and there was a theory in Japan at that time: the United States was an "inferior nation" and that it had not been able to solve the United States militarily, but could now be solved economically.
In addition to bringing Japan a higher international status and greater ambitions, the high-speed growth economy has also alleviated the problem of class solidification in Japan to a certain extent.
With orders from Asian countries, Young Japanese people can find a job as soon as they graduate, get a lot of income, and for a while, the class barriers that have stood in Japanese society for thousands of years are not so obvious, although the people who hold the core of power are still surnamed Hatoyama, Koizumi, Abe, Aso, and Fukuda, although the chaebols who controlled the Japanese economy before the war, such as Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Sumitomo, and Yasuda, were still active after the war, but in the era of good economic development, ordinary people could also get a share of the development dividend.
But the second half of Japan's economic miracle was built on the backs of a housing bubble that burst in the 1990s and collapsed as the Japanese built on false prosperity.
The bursting of the economic bubble has pierced the illusion of Japan's world hegemony, but also brought about another question: sustained economic development is the basis for mutual cooperation between various classes in Japan. Different Japanese people will give different answers.
Matthew effect
When the economy continues to develop, ordinary people in Japan can still get upward space through hard work, but once this growth stagnates, Japan immediately enters an era of brutal stock fighting.
There will only be one outcome in Japan in the era of stock fighting, and the chaebols will eat everything.
After the collapse of the Japanese economic bubble, elements such as minimalism, low desire, unmarried and infertile, and two-dimensional elements began to become popular among young people in Japan.
There is actually only one reason why young Japanese people do this: they have no money and no hope.
After the bursting of the economic bubble, the total wealth of Japanese society became almost a fixed value, and the chaebols who had eyes in the sky could take the largest piece of the cake that stopped growing through various means.
The efforts of ordinary Young Japanese people, not to mention crossing the class divide, are difficult to maintain the living standards of the previous generation, so why make those meaningless efforts?
Can't see the hope of Japanese young people have to start a low-desire life, and the low desire of young people further deepened the stagnation of the Japanese economy, such a vicious circle is difficult to break in a short period of time, in the next period of time, Japan's economy in the world and Japan's international influence will appear a large decline, in the face of such a dilemma, whether to let go or continue to wait has become a question that Japanese people must answer.
And this question can be put in another way: be a ghost, or be a pig?
Showa's "Ghost" and Heisei's "Pig"
Since the Meiji Restoration, Japan has experienced four emperors: Meiji, Taisho, Showa, and Heisei
Some people summarize these four periods of Japanese people this way: Meiji Yōshi, Taisho Yōkuni, Showa Yoshinori, and Heisei Pig.
Today, there are not many choices left for troubled Japan, whether to resurrect the "ghost" of Showa or to continue to be the "pig" of Heisei.
Regarding the answer to this question, the Japanese high-level actually has an answer for a long time.
The people who currently occupy the core of Japan's power are still members of the Five Gate Valves, whose ancestors ran Japan before the war and now put their authority in their hands, and today's Japanese high-level people inherit power from their ancestors at the same time as they inherit political ideas.
During Kishi's tenure as Prime Minister, Japan began to expand its military, and when his grandson Shinzo Abe became prime minister, he pushed the parliament to lift the ban on collective self-defense.
The spectre of militarism has never dissipated among the Japanese hierarchy, and if that day comes, Japan will have to choose between the showa ghosts and the pigs, and they will not hesitate to choose the former.
Now the only variable comes from young Japanese people who are already lying flat.
Who are the beneficiaries?
Today, the status of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces in the hearts of young people in Japan is not high, and the "lying flat" of young people has objectively played a great role in preventing the restoration of Japanese militarism.
Compared with the Japanese top brass, the desire of Young Japanese people to restore militarism is not high, or even relatively low, to understand this we must answer a question: Who were the beneficiaries of Japan's new post-war constitution?
The new constitution introduced after the war avoided Japan's militarist restoration to a large extent, and the Americans were able to control Japan with it, which is undoubtedly the biggest beneficiary of this constitution, and the degree of japanese military threats in neighboring countries has declined, and objectively speaking, it is also a beneficiary.
But we often overlook the point that ordinary people in Japan are also the beneficiaries of this constitution, which avoids ordinary Young Japanese people from being casually dragged into the battlefield as cannon fodder by the ruling clique, and also guarantees some basic rights of ordinary people.
In the era of rapid economic growth, this constitution has avoided the Japanese government's misdeeds to a certain extent, and objectively allowed ordinary people to have a certain opportunity to share the dividends of development.
And when economic development stagnates, the constitution at least guarantees the right of Young Japanese to "lie flat."
Ordinary Japanese who lived through the Meiji Restoration, the two world wars, and the post-war economic recovery to the bursting of the economic bubble have seen the world, and when they find that the country is in any case a game of political gatekeepers and economic chaebols, the great sense of disillusionment will make them have a natural resistance to the incitement of politicians.
The "old Japanese" with the thinking of the Showa era shouted hard, and the "new Japanese" who grew up after the war just wanted to lie flat, and the scene of Yukio Mishima cutting his abdomen in the Japanese Self-Defense Forces seems to be still staged in Japan, but if you analyze it carefully, you will find that there is already a big difference between the two.
When Mishima Yukio cut his belly, the Japanese economy was growing at a high speed, and the self-defense forces soldiers at that time faced Mishima who were performing hard, and the contempt in their hearts was from the inside out, in their eyes, Mishima's actions were incomprehensible, in the new era, the development of the economy is the last word, and the development of the economy has a head.
In today's Japan, where the economy has stagnated for thirty years, young Japanese people have long ceased to have any optimistic expectations of the economic outlook, and they react coldly to the performances of politicians, but they want to keep their last "lying flat" and not being pulled to the battlefield as cannon fodder.
Lying flat is the only way for young Japanese people to fight politicians with militaristic tendencies, but if the Japanese economy continues to deteriorate, it is a question of whether Young Japanese people will still choose to lie flat.
The Emperor pleaded for adultery
On the surface, Japan has another better option, through real social reform, to break the current pattern of interests, so that young people can see hope again, but for Japan, this approach is not feasible, because the Japanese door valves and chaebols have been in the center of Japan's politics and economy for hundreds of years, and they can never take their own lives.
So, is it feasible for ordinary people in Japan to carry out a bottom-up reform?
The answer is that it is not feasible, Japanese society is actually very strange, Japanese people generally have the gene of rebellion, but they dare not carry out rebellion to the end.
Even before World War I and World War II, the trend of "lower Kagami" was popular in Japanese society, but when they assassinated senior officials, they almost always used such a slogan: Honor the emperor and commit adultery.
Those crazy Japanese soldiers dared to assassinate many prime ministers in succession, but none of them dared to cross the thunder pool and directly challenge the authority of the emperor.
On the one hand, ordinary people in Japan find it difficult to find a way to rise under the monopoly of the chaebol, but on the other hand, they are attached to the chaebol and use the chaebol to obtain the job opportunities on which they depend for their survival.
Faced with the frantic temptations of the Japanese top brass on the brink of militarism, ordinary Japanese people have no ability or motivation to abandon such a government, and they can only choose to accept it, or lie flat.
At present, most ordinary Japanese people still have to understand the account, and although there is no hope for a flat life today, it is better than being sent to war as cannon fodder.
But as the domestic economy continues to deteriorate, if living standards continue to decline, the question of whether the Japanese will always choose to lie flat between lying flat and letting go with politicians is not so easy to answer.
For neighboring countries that may be affected by the rise of Japanese militarism, no matter how the Japanese choose, they must prepare in advance for the possibility that the Japanese will no longer "lie flat".