The following is from a feature article in the February issue of the monthly magazine WiLL, titled "Awesome Japanese Biographies," in which Zenko Onagi, a history educator, and Ippei Ijima, an artist, discuss the history of Japan.
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It is a must-read not only for the people of Japan but for people all over the world.
Doyo Sasaki, Masanori Kusunoki, Sontoku Ninomiya, Kenji Miyazawa, Yoshifuru Akiyama and Masayuki Akiyama... The Japanese people have inherited the DNA of these great people today.
Morality is an unspoken rule.
Preamble omitted.
Sontoku Ninomiya, a contractor for the revitalization of Japan
Onagi
At the time of the Meiji Restoration, many Japanese believed Western culture was superior to Japan.
However, Saigo Takamori was different.
He said that "the West is barbaric" and that "if the West were genuinely civilized, it should have compassion for developing countries, explain and persuade them well, and lead them to civilization and development.
On the contrary, the more brutal they have been against the countries behind the times, the more they have only been interested in their own interests. It is clearly barbaric!"
Ijima
Saigo believed that if a country found itself in poverty, it would be natural to teach and guide it to become rich.
However, the West was a believer in power and exploitation at that time.
That is why, after the Meiji Restoration, Japan worked hard to protect its noble spiritual culture to become a wealthy country with a strong military so that it would not be swallowed up by the Western powers.
Onagi
Like Saigo, a savior-like figure suddenly appears when Japan is driven into a critical situation.
In the Meiji era, Uchimura Kannzo wrote "Representative Japanese" (introducing Saigo Takamori, Uesugi Yozan, Ninomiya Sontoku, Nakae Tojyu, and Nichiren) to introduce such Japanese to the rest of the world.
It is a very famous book, of which I am particularly interested in Sontoku Ninomiya (1787-1856; b. 1856). He was a statesman, an agriculturalist, and a thinker.
Ijima
"Which is?"
Onagi
Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe risked his political life under the slogan, "Restore Japan.
Sontoku Ninomiya also achieved reconstruction in various areas, and it is no exaggeration to say that he is genuinely a contractor for the revitalization of Japan.
This article continues.
