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Five Gentlemen of Japan, by Frank Gibney. A searching book about the Japanese, told around the lives & times of an admiral, a farmer, a newspaperman, a steelworker and the Emperor (TIME, March...
Five Gentlemen of Japan, by Frank Gibney. A searching book about the Japanese, told around the lives & times of an admiral, a farmer, a newspaperman, a steel worker and the Emperor (TIME, March...
...says Author Gibney, lies in understanding the "web" society of Japan. It is based not on anything resembling democratic fairness or Christian morality, but on a semifeudal system of responsibilities and obligations that drains the individuality from all. A poverty-stricken farmer must without question feed a tenth cousin he may hate. Not law, but the web, demands it, just as it lays down that suicide is preferable to capture by the enemy. Overseas in World War II the web was lifted, and Japanese soldiers went on a moral rampage. But when Hirohito perforce accepted the U.S. occupation, MacArthur...
Shape of Things to Come. In explaining the Japanese character and the web society that helped form it, Author Gibney refuses to slip into dogmatism. Much of Five Gentlemen is a highly readable and informative historical narrative, showing events shaping national character and national character shaping later events. The paradox of Hirohito's vast national authority and surprising political meekness is seen as the end product of the careers of the 123 emperors who preceded him. Even a sign like the "Forgive and Forget Electrical Company" implies more than the simple opportunism that G.I.s laughed...
...Japanese have worked hard at democracy, and the web, Author Gibney believes, has been sharply strained. But he is not at all sure that it will soon be torn apart. Communism in Japan is a flop, but the overriding factor in Japan's position today is its proximity and vulnerability to Communist military power. What comfort the Japanese can feel comes from U.S. friendship. It is here that Five Gentlemen becomes an important as well as an illuminating study. Gibney came to like and respect the Japanese. His book explains why the five gentlemen and their 85 million countrymen...