Masahiro Miyazaki is a researcher and writer who is arguably the Tadao Umesao of today.
I glanced at his latest work and was convinced this is one of his best books.
I was convinced this was one of his best books ever written.
I want to introduce an excerpt from pages 80 to 85 in this chapter.
It is a must-read not only for the Japanese people but for people worldwide.
The Japanese who knew military strategy and mastered the study of "Sun Tzu" was Shoin Yoshida.
Yoshida Shoin had a penetrating insight into the wickedness of the world.
There are many wise people in the world, but there are two types: clever and wise.
In Europe, America, and China, "cleverness" is often prefixed with "cheat" or "badass. Unlike the Japanese, they are either "cheat-wise" or "badass-wise.
Clever (intelligent) people may speak out, but the media will not pick it up.
In both the U.S. and Japan, freedom of speech in the true sense of the word is rare.
Japan, in particular, is at the center of international politics but is left out of the information war.
Japan is being touted as an essential member of the G7. Still, without any inside information, they have been relying on their wallets and forcing the "Ukraine Reconstruction Conference" to be held in Tokyo.
Japan is truly "America's ATM."
They only relied on Japan's money.
However, Japan was excluded from the thank-you advertisements even though it cooperated in the Kuwait War and lost $13.5 billion.
In addition, we were forced to clean up the mess (minesweeping) of the West.
The bad guys started wars on their own, spreading the flames of war while crying out for human rights and plunging people into the abyss.
The bad guys are just fine with shifting the blame to others.
Why are we being forced to clean up after the devastation of the war in Ukraine, which was caused by people in a distant country that has nothing to do with Japan, while putting the Noto disaster recovery work on the back burner?
It is because Japan does not have a proper military force.
India has a free hand in diplomacy because it possesses nuclear weapons.
Diplomacy is backed by intelligence and military power.
When I heard about the dissolution of factions in the LDP, I was stunned to learn that Japanese politicians do not understand the true nature of politics.
In Japan's Diet, where second- and third-rate politicians gather, only "glossing over" can prevail.
Factions are the driving force and source of dynamism in festivals.
If they were to dismantle them, Japanese politics would be in a nebula-like state.
China will be pleased to see this happen.
In Japan, China's "proxies" are laughing at us.
（How dumb can the Japanese be?）
Sun Tzu said, "Defeat the plot, defeat the crossing" (i.e., find out the enemy's strategy, discord the enemy's forces internally, and, if possible, take over the enemy's part). It is the best strategy in war. You can win without fighting."
Japan needs to reexamine and relearn "Sun Tzu," a textbook on the "logic of evil."
Japan does not need to imitate Sun Tzu.
However, it is necessary to understand the opponent's tactics and strategies, a concept that Japanese people need to have.
Shinsaku Takasugi and Genzui Kusaka received lectures on Sun Tzu by Shoin Yoshida at Shoukasonjuku.
After Shoin's death, Nogi Maresuke, a student of Shoin, was so fascinated by Shoin that he published, at his own expense, a private edition of his teacher's "Commentary on Sun Tzu" with footnotes and presented it to Emperor Meiji as a private message.
Shoin's representative works, "Anecdote Who Lectured on Mencius," "Shoin's Last Will Written in Prison," and "Commentary on Dr. Sun Tzu," have been completely forgotten.
It is a compilation of research on Sun Tzu in the Edo period (included in the fifth volume of "The Complete Works of Shoin Yoshida").
Shoin started as a military strategist who looked up to Yamaga Soko as his teacher.
He was in charge of the military affairs of the Mōri Chōshū clan.
Initially, the Edo government school was the Cheng-Zhu school, a branch of Confucianism. Still, at the end of the Edo period, Arai Hakuseki, Yamaga Soko, Ogyu Sorai, Yamazaki Ansai, Sakuma Shozan, and Saigo Takamori also read "Sun Tzu."
However, during the peaceful slumber of the Edo period (1603-1868), samurai were not accustomed to the rational and ruthless warfare methods of Sun Tzu, even though they had read the book.
The battle system of "plotting first" was too far removed from the aesthetic sense of the Japanese people.
Many Japanese were moved by Masashige Kusunoki's and Ako Ronin's loyalty, but they did not make Sun Tzu their book of choice.
It is the primary reason why "Japanese common sense is the world's insanity."
For Japanese people who only see the glossed-over public scene, it is difficult to understand the evil of the power games that take place on the ground.
After the Meiji period, geopolitics crawled into Japan as a Western discipline, and Mori Ogai first translated Clausewitz into Japanese.
In the postwar period, geopolitics by Machiavelli, Mahan, Spykman, and others were loved but misread.
Yoshida Shoin's book on the Art of War disappeared from antiquarian bookstores at some point.
Even though it was required reading for prewar leaders.
Yoshida Shoin's introductory text was the "Wei Wu Shu Sun Tzu" compiled by Cao Cao of Wei.
He used the Pingjin Library Series edition edited by Sun Xingyan of the Qing Dynasty, who was said to be a master of textual criticism.
He also consulted his military mentor, A Study of Yamaga Sokou's Son-si-gen-gi.
Originally, "Sun Tzu" was written on wooden and bamboo strips.
The original text has been scattered, with many anecdotes, but Cao Cao of the Wei Dynasty compiled it, and it has become the text up to the present day.
Sun Tzu is not a textbook of intrigue that disregards or ignores moral principles.
He preaches "Heaven" and "The Way," "Earth," "Generals," and "Law."
Sun Tzu is a book about the exquisite dynamics between morality, ethics, and strategy.
In warfare, "Heaven" emphasizes the importance of weather, especially yin and yang, temperature differences, and the time of year.
The "earth" is the basis of long-range and short-range attacks, considering geographical conditions such as topography, whether the roads are flat or cliffs, and whether the battle area is wide or narrow.
It is the selection of the battlefield, the location of the opponent's military base, and its geographical features.
The "general," needless to say, is the general's caliber, qualities, training, and leadership.
Law" refers to the organization of the army, the general's professional competence, and his know-how in management, jurisdiction, and administration.
"Tao" refers to morals and ethics, but Sun Tzu did not specifically discuss "Tao."
Japanese military scholars focused on this "Tao."
This point is a notable difference between Sun Tzu and the Japanese military treatises.
"Warfare is a deceptive method," Sun Tzu said.
Conventional wisdom emphasizes that "fighting by deceiving and misleading the enemy through surprise, deception, threats, distraction, diversionary tactics, and so on, even if it is cowardly, is an act of (dishonest) warfare.
Ogyu Sorai, who was said to be the intellectual of the Edo period, interpreted it as "an eccentricity that goes beyond the enemy's understanding, an ever-changing fighting style that does not follow any rules."
Yoshida Shoin, who was committed to the correct path and respected ethics, ultimately believed that the right approach should be taken as a warrior. Still, he also regarded Sun Tzu's approach of "defeating the enemy and increasing your strength" as the secret of the Art of War.
Sun Tzu's method is the best method of warfare because "if you take away the food and weapons of the enemy, and then use the soldiers of the enemy's forces, you will not only reduce the enemy's overall strength, but you will also exhaust them, and your side will gain strength.
The Boshin War, which toppled the Edo shogunate, was exactly such a development.
"Sun Tzu said, "Basically, in war, the best strategy is to conquer the enemy without harming it and keeping it intact; the next best strategy is to defeat the enemy and win."
"The best thing you can do is to force the surrender of an enemy corps intact; the next best thing is to destroy the enemy army. The best thing you can do is to force the surrender of an enemy brigade intact; the next best thing is to destroy the brigade. The best thing you can do is to force the surrender of an enemy battalion intact; the next best thing is to destroy the battalion. The best thing you can do is to force the surrender of an enemy platoon intact; the next best thing is to destroy the platoon."
In other words, defeating the enemy with strategy is superior, winning a military operation is a middle strategy and direct military confrontations and battles involving heavy casualties are inferior.
In line with this principle, China is waging war against Taiwan.
