The following is from Toshio Watanabe's serial column that appears at the beginning of the monthly magazine Hanada, which is currently on sale.
This paper is a must-read not only for Japanese citizens but also for people worldwide.
Episode 26: Those who die leaving others behind are the best.
"Listen, those who die leaving money behind are inferior.
Those who die without a job are middle class.
Those who die, leaving others behind, are at the top.
Remember it well."
The source needs to be clarified.
It may have been a phrase invented by a third party, but Shinpei Goto is said to have narrated it.
Goto is undoubtedly a person who lived like that.
In particular, Goto left a remarkable result regarding "leaving people behind."
His selection of human resources has influenced Goto's business success in completing various projects, his trust in those selected, and the dedication of engineers and bureaucrats who responded to his trust.
Let me discuss two things using the development of Taiwan as an example.
One is a land survey project, and the other is constructing a port in Keelung, the starting point of the North-South Railway.
Let's enter from the latter.
The west coast along the Taiwan Strait needs more depth, which is suitable for a good port.
The eastern coast is comprised of ocean trenches formed by the Central Mountain Range and steep mountains sinking into the sea.
Building a port is not easy as there are few accesses to and from the west and east coastline.
At least Keelung and Kaohsiung are the only two suitable locations.
Keelung had a port that was opened during the Qing Dynasty.
However, it could be of better quality and withstand the transport of materials and equipment for the construction of a longitudinal railway.
Goto selected Hanpei Nagao, a man in his mid-thirties, as the port engineer for the construction of the port.
After graduating from the Department of Civil Engineering at Tokyo Imperial University's Institute of Technology, Nagao held the civil engineering section manager position in Yamagata and Saitama prefectures.
After hearing about Nagao's abilities from Shuichi Kinoshita, the former governor of Yamagata Prefecture, who had been appointed as one of the governors of Taiwan, Goto invited Nagao to serve as director of the civil engineering division in the Civil Affairs Department of the Governor-General's Office.
Goto fell in love with this man who had a rich imagination but was also very quiet.
He believed in him and entrusted him with the job.
Keelung is constantly exposed to wind and waves during the monsoon season.
The water is shallow, and even ships of around 1,000 tons must anchor far offshore and transport passengers and equipment using barges.
Construction of breakwaters and dredging are essential.
Nagao devised a plan using his knowledge and the latest technology from Europe and the United States and frantically explained it to Gentaro Kodama and Goto for nearly two hours.
During this time, neither Kodama nor Goto made any advances; they just listened, and Kodama spoke up as the explanation was about to end.
"Okay, Goto-kun, let me do this for you." "Thank you very much. Nagao-kun, please do it for me."
The two's instant judgment took Nagao aback, and he continued to work hard from then on.
Most of the construction materials and equipment for the Trans-Taiwan Railway were extremely large in terms of weight and volume, such as freight cars, passenger cars, rails, sleepers, stones, cement, and coal, all of which had to be imported from mainland Japan, Europe, and America.
It will be transported by ship to Keelung and Kaohsiung and distributed to various locations.
The construction of the longitudinal railway had to proceed at the same time as the construction of the ports of Keelung and Kaohsiung.
Nagao was entrusted with the entire task of building the port of Keelung, a significant development project for Taiwan.
He poured his heart and soul into the project and completed it on schedule.
After this, Nagao held various positions and was finally transferred to the Governor-General's Office of Korea, where he died.
Before the Sino-Japanese War, Taiwan was a territory of the Qing Dynasty, but this country had no intention of developing it.
Just as residents have a family register, land initially has a cadastre.
These include the owner, lot number, land type, boundaries, etc.
Before the Japanese occupation, powerful clans competed for land on the island of Taiwan, and there was no government to manage the land.
The Government-General's Office took over this chaotic land.
At the beginning of the government, land taxes were used to share financial resources.
However, the cadastral status of land in Taiwan was vague and unknown. We must develop a full-scale land survey project.
The "Temporary Taiwan Land Survey Bureau" was established, with Goto as its director, and the young Zeko Nakamura was selected as deputy director, who was in charge of this project.
Nakamura organized over 800 Government-General officials into dozens of teams, each dispersed throughout the island with triangulation instruments.
Including local bureaucrats and residents, 1.47 million people were mobilized in the seven years until the survey was completed.
Nakamura graduated from Daiichi High School and Tokyo Imperial University Law School and worked for two years as the head of the Akita Prefectural Tax Collector in the Ministry of Finance.
During this time, he gained the trust of Inejiro Tajiri, the Vice-Minister of Finance, and was recommended to be assigned to the Taiwan Governor-General's Office, where he worked on the frontier.
He got involved in the development.
As a result of the land survey project, the land area was approximately 370,000 hectares before the start of the project, but it increased to 630,000 hectares, and the land tax rapidly increased from 870,000 yen to 2,980,000 yen.
At the same time, the Government-General began to reform property rights, known as "Daisedo" at the time, by purchasing the land ownership rights of absentee landowners and transferring them to farmers.
The land acquisition was financed by public bonds based on the Taiwan Business Bond Law, which was enacted at the same time.
Yozaburo Takekoshi, a leading Japanese journalist of the past, observed land survey projects in Taiwan and wrote in his book "Taiwanese Governance Desire": "The land tax reform of 1877 is truly child's play." "I can't help but feel that this is a social revolution in Taiwan. However, while many revolutions require sacrifices, this one The only thing we can do is sacrifice ourselves."
The north-south railway, the construction of Keelung Port, and the land survey project were known as Taiwan's three major projects.
Kinsuke Hasegawa, Hanpei Nagao, and Zeko Nakamura were entrusted with each, and each seems to have been successfully developed.
But it costs a lot of money.
It is difficult to borrow money from the mainland government, which spent huge sums on the Sino-Japanese War.
Issuing public bonds was essential.
If Taiwan succeeds in its three major projects, it will definitely become independent.
Once Taiwan becomes independent, a significant mainland capital will move into Taiwan to produce sugar, rice, tea, camphor, and cypress wood.
Principal and interest repayments are always possible.
Kodama and Goto focused on negotiating with the mainland government.
At the time of Taiwan's occupation, only 30% of the revenue for the Governor-General's Office came from taxes within Taiwan, and the rest had to depend on subsidies from the mainland government.
It was no wonder that the "Taiwan sale theory" became a hot topic in the mainland government and parliament.
But Kodama and Goto were undaunted.
The last line of recourse was the then Minister of the Navy, Tsutomichi Saigo.
Goto sensed and deeply respected the arrogance and deep-heartedness of this military man, who was considered his eldest brother.
Judo's indescribable internal conflict in his decision to support the new Meiji government from within as a soldier instead of following Shimotsuke to the prosperous Satsuma shows a deep shadow of his true character as a man.
Ultimately, this person took action, and Taiwan Business Bonds saw the light of day.
Zeko Nakamura was selected as the vice president of Mantetsu, where Goto was the first president.
After Goto left Mantetsu, he was appointed as the second president.
After the Great Kanto Earthquake of September 1920, he worked hard to rebuild the imperial capital as the mayor of Tokyo, with Goto's strong recommendation.
On March 1, 1939, he suddenly died of a stomach ulcer at the age of 59.
2024/5/25 in Kyoto
