Source: Patch up the knife
Writer/Dagger, Sword Smile & Sister
Abe State Funeral, held today in Tokyo, Japan.
The controversy over the funeral has been simmering for a long time, but the flood of criticism, protests, and even self-immolations has not stopped the Kishida government's decision. Tokyo also tried to "build momentum" for the state funeral beforehand, which is reflected in the number of foreign political figures invited and the level of security in Tokyo.
But what about today's state funeral site?
"The whole process was boring and tedious, a bit less like a state funeral, just a little bit larger and a little bit higher in terms of participants." A Chinese scholar in Japan described it after seeing Abe's state funeral. This "funeral diplomacy" also clearly did not meet the expectations of the Kishida government.
Some foreign media that track progress have used the words "rare" and "split" in their latest reports. Apparently, they were also puzzled by the Kishida government's decision to hold a state funeral for Abe.
1
Judging from the follow-up reports of the media, there are three details of the state funeral that lasts for an hour and a half.
One is the militaristic hue of the funeral.
Wearing a black kimono in her formal dress, Akie Abe, the widow holding Abe's ashes, departed from her home in Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, at 13:26 p.m. and arrived at the famous Japanese Budokan, the site of the state funeral, at 13:55. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida greeted Akie Abe outside the Budokan and led her into the venue.
At this time, the Self-Defense Forces appeared, firing 19 cannons to show condolences.
Soldiers in white uniforms then took the urn in Abe's hand and placed it on a pedestal full of chrysanthemums and ornaments.
After the military band played the Japanese national anthem, a video of Abe's tenure was played on the big screen, and the background music was the piano song "Flowers Are Blooming" played by Abe before his death.
Some foreign media said that such a funeral was "full of militaristic overtones", not only because of the existence of the Self-Defense Forces everywhere, but also reflected in the funeral's "praise for Abe's 9-year premiership".
Excerpts from the video praising Abe were two of his speeches: a parliamentary speech vowed to build a "beautiful Japan" in 2006 and a speech in 2015 in the U.S. Congress "Toward Pakatan Harapan."
Such a choice can be described as "good and bitter" in intention.
The previous speech dealt with Japan's internal affairs.
"Beautiful Japan" was the slogan of Abe when he first ran for president of the Liberal Democratic Party. Everywhere Abe went, he hung up "beautiful Japan." His fans even launched a "beauty pageant" throughout Japan for this purpose.
Even if it seems today that his description of "beautiful Japan" as "a country that abides by order and dignity based on freedom, and is respected, trusted, and loved by the world" is somewhat vague, it can still be regarded as the prototype of Abe's illusion of "normalization of the Japanese state."
The latter concerns Japanese diplomacy.
Abe, the first Japanese prime minister to address the U.S. Congress, spent 40 minutes on America's most important platform of power and presented a "new Japan" to U.S. lawmakers in English. In the more than 2,800-word speech, the word "alliance" appeared 13 times, and it was unabashed to strengthen the U.S.-Japan alliance established at the initiative of his grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi.
In addition to two speeches, the video includes his visit to the devastated northern part of Japan after the March 2011 tsunami, and the 2016 scene in which he played Super Mario in Rio de Janeiro to promote the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Japan's response to the 3.11 earthquake and the success of the Olympic bid are regarded as major achievements during Abe's administration.
The second detail is the design of the altar.
The main background of the altar is black, and a huge flower table in the shape of a ladder is set up, and imitates the shape of Mt. Fuji. Mt. Fuji has always been Abe's favorite.
At the top of the center of the altar hangs a huge portrait of Shinzo Abe, and the things below are also exquisite: in the center of the lower part is the Japanese flag, and above the national flag is the insignia of the members of the Diet that Abe has worn, as well as various medals and commendations that he received or posthumously awarded during and after his death.
Abe vowed to solve the problem of Japanese abducted to North Korea, and the altar was also placed with a brooch that he often wore as a symbol of saving the kidnapped.
The design of the altar also hides another layer of meaning.
On both sides of the flag, there is a road made of white and yellow flowers, which extends all the way to the top. This is the designer's use of straight flowers to express Abe's political path.
The third detail is Suga's eulogy as a representative of Abe's former friend.
In fact, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who is chairman of the funeral committee, first read out the memorial speech. He spent 12 minutes praising Abe with great praise. For example, quoting the famous quote of Japanese educator Shintoto Inazō, who Abe once quoted, "Courage is the right thing to do" praises "Abe, you are a courageous person."
Kishida also listed some of Abe's so-called "political achievements", and the final landing point was not surprising to advertise for himself. He vowed to build a Japan that would continue to shine for all.
But in contrast, Suga's eulogy was more widely reported by the media.
In the past, Suga Yoshihide left many people with the impression of a Japanese politician who lacked personality, but at Abe's state funeral, Suga, who was the "great steward" of Abe's reign, rarely revealed his true feelings.
Suga choked up several times at the scene, "with a trembling voice" lamenting the cruelty of fate.
"I want to see you, share the same space, share the same atmosphere. With this in mind, I went to the scene (of Abe's assassination). At the last moment, I was able to touch your warm smile. ”
Suga highlights the two of them discussing political affairs while eating barbecues and living together for 7 years and 8 months at the Prime Minister's official residence.
Finally, Suga made a rather sensational quote.
He mentioned that the desk in Mr. Abe's office had the book "Yamagata Youyou" on it. Abe read it halfway, folded the corners of one of the pages, and marked a poem by Yamagata Aritomo remembering Ito Hirobumi: "It is very pleasant to talk about each other, and to be loyal to the country." If you don't see the deceased, what will happen in the future life. ”
The heart of the heart, not a little bit.
Like Abe, Ito Hirobumi, a native of Yamaguchi Prefecture, was assassinated. And every time Ito Hirobumi resigns as prime minister, Yamagata Aritomo will always take the prime minister's position after a while, just as Suga took over the prime minister from Abe.
This actually gave Suga a lot of extra points, and the LDP parliament and local councilors retweeted the poem of Yamato Youpeng on Twitter, which was a bit of a greeting to Suga.
However, it is important to recognize that Ito Hirobumi and Yamagata Aritomo were both Japanese political leaders for 20 years from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century. Later, Katsura Taro and Nishienji Gongwang, who influenced Japanese politics for 20 years before the outbreak of the war of aggression against China, were the successors of Ito Hirobumi and Yamato Aritomo.
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The Associated Press's use of the word "rare" in its report to describe Abe's state funeral is also an apparent reminder that the form of "state burial" has extremely sensitive political and historical implications for Japan.
The Japanese Budokan, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, has "once again" entered people's field of vision as a state burial ground.
Built in 1964 as a venue for the Tokyo Olympics, this landmark building is now mainly used as a venue for sporting events or performing arts events on weekdays, and the opening or graduation ceremonies of some of Tokyo's leading universities are sometimes held here.
But a state funeral is reminiscent of the "political color" of a Japanese martial arts gym.
Every year on August 15, the "National Memorial Service for the Dead" attended by both the Emperor and the Prime Minister of Japan is held at the Nippon Budokan Hall. Some people also specifically mentioned this time that outside the north gate of the Budokan, there is the infamous Yasukuni Shrine.
The reason why I say "again" is because the state funeral of Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida was held here before 1967. Most media reports mentioned that Abe's funeral 55 years later was "the second time Japan has held a state funeral for a person who has served as prime minister since World War II."
For Japan today, "state burials are not a normal thing in themselves." The words of the BBC correspondent in Tokyo were much more direct than those of the Associated Press.
What is a Japanese "state funeral"? On the day of Abe's state funeral, media such as Nikkei Chinese Network published articles to popularize it. According to Japan's "state funeral order" before World War II, in addition to the crown prince and other members of the imperial family, "those who have special merits" to Japan are also used as state burial objects.
Note that that was "before World War II."
After World War II, the "state funeral order" was abolished, and Japan had no legal basis for holding a state funeral. This time, the Kishida government bypassed the Diet and forcibly arranged Abe's state funeral by invoking the provisions of the Cabinet Office Establishment Act on "national ceremonies", which has been questioned and criticized.
Although the Sato Eisaku government approved a state funeral for Shigeru Yoshida in 1967, in general, the form of "state funeral" is still "closely linked" to pre-World War II Japanese militarism. Many people can't help but think about the history of Japanese militarism at that time, especially the militarists like Yamagata Yutomo and Yamamoto Isoroku who also accepted state funerals.
The BBC reporter concluded in the report that one of the directions that Abe tried to promote during his term of office is to "lead Japan to militarization" and to continuously arch forward by overriding Japan's peaceful constitution and allowing Japan to exercise the "right of collective self-defense", with the intention of achieving self-military deregulation.
Tens of thousands of Japanese people who have taken to the streets of Tokyo to demonstrate against the state funeral are already loudly accusing "Abe of leading Japan to war." The form of state funeral itself is considered to be a means used by the Japanese right wing to clamor and incite militarism before World War II.
Since there are so many "unpleasant" associations and even a tidal wave of criticism, and the Kishida government is still insisting on "resurrecting" the state funeral, it is no wonder that even some media in the United States and Europe are greatly puzzled.
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"Division" is obvious.
Just before and after the state funeral, near the Budokan and the National Diet Building, a large number of Japanese people either shouted slogans or held banners to express their opposition to the state funeral. Although police have stepped up security, with more than 20,000 police reportedly deployed to maintain law and order, there have been several fierce confrontations between demonstrators and police.
"One big problem is that [holding a state funeral] has not gone through the proper approval process," one demonstrator said, "and it is unforgivable to hold a state funeral in the face of so much opposition." ”
"Abe was shot and lost his life is a tragedy, but we should not let him be a hero in this tragedy." "Shinzo Abe hasn't done a single thing for ordinary people."
The term "against state funerals" has also made it a hot search on Twitter.
During the state funeral, the traffic arteries and highways in Tokyo were forced to be closed, and the logistics and postal services in a large area of central Tokyo were affected, and more citizens who ran in the morning complained about the traffic control of the state funeral during the reporter's interview and were forced to change the morning running route.
Nippon TV interviewed the owners of restaurants around the Budokan on a news program, and the owners used the news to complain about the huge damage caused by the closure of the surrounding shops due to security problems during the state funeral.
The well-known TV Tokyo simply did not broadcast Abe's state funeral live, and only broadcast "about the situation of former Prime Minister Abe's state funeral" for five minutes between 13:40 and 13:45 local time, and then broadcast the original program and the Hollywood animal movie "Invincible Home" as usual.
More ordinary Japanese people continue to live a normal, indifferent life to the state funeral. For example, the Niurang shop on Tokyo Street is still running as usual.
Opposition to the state funeral has been going on for months, and the Japanese people's satisfaction with Kishida's administration has reached a new low.
For Kishida Fumio, Abe's state funeral could have been used internally as a ceremony to incorporate Japan's conservative forces after he came to power, and externally to promote relations between Japan and other countries through "funeral diplomacy." For now, however, these plans have almost completely failed.
Japan's domestic conservative forces after the death of Abe Shinzo leaderless, a state funeral is obviously difficult to achieve the purpose of closing the entangled conservative forces, and even some conservative forces believe that Kishida Fumio's state funeral drama has caused social doubts, but caused many troubles to conservative forces.
In terms of "funeral diplomacy", although Abe worked a lot in diplomacy during his lifetime, after all, his status at the time of his death was only that of the departing prime minister, and it was obviously difficult to attract heavyweight foreign guests from the etiquette specifications. Compared with the specifications of the guests who attended the Queen's funeral before, the "high and low" of Kishida's "funeral diplomacy" abacus is more highlighted.
Moreover, the cost of Abe's state funeral far exceeds that of the British Queen's funeral, and the political utility of the state funeral that uses a lot of manpower and material resources to create is far from expectations. For Kishida Fumio, this "funeral diplomacy" can be described as losing his wife and folding soldiers.
The many different voices surrounding Abe's national funeral essentially represent that Japanese society, which was once in step with the same pace, is gradually moving toward the United States and the West and toward division.
During Abe's time as prime minister, although many people questioned Abe's administration, under the pressure of Abe's political prestige and political skill, Japan still followed the route set by Abe: politically clinging to the thighs of the United States, using "value diplomacy" to unite Australia and India and other countries to surround China, and promote "Abenomics".
After Abe's death, Japan lacked such a politician capable of unifying Japanese politics and effectively managing doubts.
In the post-epidemic era, Japan's soaring prices, unstable industrial supply chains, and aging and low birthrates have further intensified; Internationally, we continue to tie up the American chariots, contributing a lot but with little effect...
With the departure of Shinzo Abe, the generation of Japanese who grew up in the post-war economic growth period and the Cold War era is also aging, and how the generation that did not bathe in the glory of the "Japan First" era and experienced Japan's decline will support Japan's continued progress is still a big question mark.
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