The Argument “Learn from Germany” Will Destroy Japan… Why My Admiration for Germany Faded… German Reporters Who Pose as Japanophiles
November 10, 2021
The following is from The Argument “Learn from Germany” Will Destroy Japan (The EU in Turmoil After Merkel), published on October 1, 2021.
It is essential reading not only for the Japanese people but for people around the world, especially the German people.
All citizens capable of reading print must head to their nearest bookstore to obtain it.
As for the rest of the world, I will do my utmost to let them know.
Why My Admiration for Germany Faded
Toyoda
Speaking of ties with Germany, as the elder here, allow me to begin.
After the war, when I was preparing for university entrance exams from Musashi High School, I planned to take the exam in German.
I studied by posting tables of irregular verbs on the wall.
At that time, it was easier to take the exam in a language other than English.
However, the Ministry of Education claimed this was unfair and decided to make the German questions more difficult, so I switched to taking the exam in English.
Even so, many students at Musashi High still took the exam in German.
Through the SF fan magazine Uchūjin, a fellow member who was a university professor with study-abroad experience in Germany said to me, “You studied German, didn’t you?” and gave me an original German edition of the Perry Rhodan series, Germany’s first space opera.
I wrote about this book in the fan magazine, and to this day it has sold hundreds of millions of copies worldwide.
Using a subtle approach, I could claim to have discovered it first, which would be another of my ties with Germany.
Now, the Perry Rhodan Series is published in 650 volumes by Hayakawa Bunko in Japan.
It is a globally long-selling series in the SF world, written continuously by a rotating team of professional authors, known to everyone in the genre.
In my youth, Germany was generally popular.
Now, even at universities, German is not as popular as it once was, but since the Meiji era, Japan had learned its military system, science and technology, medicine, and music from Germany, regarding it as the epitome of Western civilization.
Thus, there was a strong sense of admiration for Germany.
However, from a certain point in time, and this applies to myself as well, my feelings of admiration for Germany faded, and what I once liked turned into a perspective of criticism from the standpoint of a Japanese.
It felt as if I began to question whether it was enough just to respect Germany.
There was also the realization that while Japanese people like Germany, Germans do not necessarily like Japan.
After learning about Wilhelm II’s Yellow Peril thesis, I felt this even more strongly.
There are similarities and differences between Germany and Japan, which is only natural, and I would like to hear from Mr. Kawaguchi, who has lived in Germany for 40 years, about this.
German Reporters Who Pose as Japanophiles
Kawaguchi
What surprised me when reading Professor Toyoda’s book was how well he understands Germany.
Usually, when I come across descriptions about Germany in books, I often feel, “That’s not quite right,” but in Professor Toyoda’s book, even the brief, incidental remarks often made me think, “Yes, exactly, that’s right.”
Yet, he says he has never been to Germany, which surprised me.
For example, Professor Toyoda mentioned Mr. Gebhard Hilscher, a reporter for the Süddeutsche Zeitung, as an example that Germans do not necessarily like Japanese people.
His prefatory remark, “While posing as a Japanophile when speaking to Japanese people as a representative of Germans,” was spot on.
I also imagine that Mr. Hilscher likely maintained a pro-Japanese stance toward those around him while in Japan.
That is why, if people saw the articles he was sending back to Germany, they would all have been astonished.
Japanese People Who Welcome Germans Speaking Ill of Japan
Toyoda
Hilscher was the chief editor of the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
He once gained popularity for his sharp analyses in comparing Japanese and German cultures, but gradually became an anti-Japan opinion leader.
Perhaps he wanted to say that Germans did terrible things, but so did the Japanese.
That it wasn’t only the Germans who committed atrocities.
I felt he was trying to drag Japan into it to obtain a kind of indulgence for himself, which was not pleasant.
Japanese people are fond of self-reflection, so there is even a tendency to welcome foreigners who speak ill of them.
The so-called masochistic view of history often spoken of in society is based on this national trait of loving self-reflection, with the intention of taking criticism to heart, correcting what is wrong, and improving.
Perhaps this made it easier for Hilscher to say such things.
As Joseph Goebbels once said, “If you tell a lie a hundred times, it becomes the truth,” there will inevitably be people who start believing exaggerated stories repeatedly sent claiming that Japanese too did such terrible things.
In truth, Japanese people should have had the courage to tell such foreign reporters that this approach would not work here.
Yet they left it unchallenged, letting them say whatever they wanted.
Perhaps Japanese people dislike such confrontations, but in the end, it is also a problem on the Japanese side.
Surprisingly Insecure Germans
Kawaguchi
It is not exactly the same as masochism, but Germans have something similar.
Perhaps because they have been condemned as terrible people worldwide due to the Holocaust, they have, for better or worse, a sense that they are somehow special.
They are excellent, yet may be disliked, so there is this ambivalent feeling that they must hold themselves back somewhere.
When I was writing an essay about German cuisine, a friend who heard about it told me, “Please don’t write anything too bad.”
At that moment, I thought, “These people really don’t have confidence in their food.”
They feel inferior to France and Italy in this regard.
Toyoda
I felt that same sense when I started getting involved with Korea.
I stayed in many hotels in Korea, but at that time, there were no Korean restaurants in the hotels at all.
Since I had come all the way to Korea, I ventured out to eat at local diners.
When I asked an acquaintance why there were no Korean restaurants in Korean hotels, the answer was that Korean food does not suit the foreign palate.
It must have been due to a lack of confidence.
Yet now, those same Koreans claim that Korean cuisine is the best in the world.
They seem to waver between a lack of confidence and overconfidence.
By the way, when it comes to food, it is often said: “The British could rule the seven seas because they could eat any bad food. The French, unable to do so, tried to make their limited colonies French-like.”
Vietnam has delicious French bread, doesn’t it?
Compared to that, Germany…
Kawaguchi
Originally, Germans were not very interested in food, so it is not the case that they could eat anything.
Many are satisfied if they can eat what they had yesterday again today and tomorrow.
They don’t have much desire to try new things.
In contrast, Japanese people love new things and strive to improve flavors to make things even tastier.
Because of their strong spirit of inquiry, Chinese food in Japan is truly delicious, while Chinese food in Germany is not very good.
Since there is no custom of sharing dishes, at Chinese restaurants in Germany, everyone orders a plate for themselves and eats silently.
Even if you suggest sharing, it is usually rejected.
It is tough to keep eating only chinjao rosu alone.
Toyoda
It is often said that countries with powerful dynasties have good cuisine.
They always summon skilled cooks to the royal courts.
Kawaguchi
By that logic, Germany, which was a collection of small states, had only a weak sense of being a unified “Germany.”
Even in relatively large states, cooks were often brought in from France, musicians from Italy, and so on, which prevented a distinct genre of German cuisine from ever being established.
Even though there are delicious foods, when asked, “So, what is German cuisine?” it is hard to answer.
Japanese people will mention sausages (Wurst) or potatoes, but sausages are a quick snack, like soba eaten standing up, and potatoes are simply a staple food.
So when people say that is German cuisine, Germans react with a “?”.
There is an abundance of good ingredients—beef, pork, chicken, turkey, duck, venison—but there is not a clear image of what represents German cuisine.
Sauerkraut is essentially pickled cabbage, like Japanese tsukemono, eaten to supply vitamin C during the winter, and Eisbein looks barbaric, and even many Germans do not like it.
However, there are many delicious local dishes from the various traditional states.
Whether beef, pork, chicken, turkey, or duck, if you pay a certain price, they are all delicious, and the vegetables are also good.
If you go to the North Sea or the Baltic Sea in northern Germany, there is also an abundance of fish dishes.
When Japanese people travel there, they do not understand this, so they end up ordering food that is not very good and then complain about it.
For example, saying the steak is tough.
They should not expect marbled beef.
Toyoda
I have made the same mistake.
When I went to Mexico for a TV program on the Maya and Aztec civilizations, I served as a comedic navigator with Sakyo Komatsu.
We arrived at the hotel late at night, and it was too much trouble to study the menu, so we ordered steak.
It was so tough it was hard to eat.
The next morning, we went to the zoo to cover the jaguar, revered as a god by the Maya and Aztecs.
It was feeding time, and a huge chunk of meat was thrown in front of the jaguar.
The jaguar tried to tear it apart but struggled to bite through it.
All of us were reminded of the steak from the night before.
Komatsu cracked a joke: “Hey, that’s a professional, you know.”
Of course, it wasn’t the same meat, but if a professional carnivore like a jaguar couldn’t tear it apart, there was no way humans could bite through it. (laughs)
To be continued.
