Books I read: “Somebody Else’s Century…” (Patrick Smith)
“Somebody Else’s Century/East and West in a Post-Western World” by Patrick Smith (2010)
Why did I choose this book?
I wanted to learn more about Asia, something beyond the usual news articles and television programs that only focus on politics and financial news. From such narrow reporting, it isn’t possible to have more than a vague idea about the countries and people and cultures in Asia.
I didn’t even know precisely which countries are East and why. I wanted to learn more about the distinctions between the Japanese, Chinese and Korean people.
And a blurb on the back cover of the book also sparked interest:
This thoughtful and highly original meditation on the future of Asian societies should be required reading for anyone interested in where our planet is heading. (Chalmers Johnson)
Finally, it was the credibility of the author. Patrick Smith is a journalist who has been a foreign correspondent in Asia since 1981.
Did I learn what I hoped to learn?
Yes, and much much more. The depth and detail of reporting in this book transformed my views of Asia. An unexpected reaction was the anger I felt that our traditional news media does not offer such comprehensive reporting in its daily coverage. Smith brilliantly demonstrates what a journalist can do if given the chance.
Choosing a perspective from the inside out, Smith writes about the complex reasons a defeated and humiliated Japan (post-World War II) embraced and imitated the priorities and culture of those who conquered it. He traces the historical relationship between China and Japan. He discusses the attitudes of the people in each toward each other. And Smith analyzes a crucial aspect of India and its people that makes the country and culture markedly different from China and Japan.
Most interestingly, he reviews the arbitrary line that divides East from West, questioning exactly what it is and whether it has any validity. Excerpt:
Herodotus concluded that the business of East and West was ‘imaginary.’ The line he referred to was drawn by humans. For a long time we have simply lost track of this. We have erred in thinking the divide is eternal — ever there, ever to be there, somehow (and somewhere) etched into the earth. Now we enter a time when we can see from another perspective and see the truth of things and of ourselves.
Favorite quote from the book:
“The past is made of every moment up to the one we live in, the moment we know as ‘now.’ Each speck of our past is part of what makes us who we are… We honor tradition only when we add to it. The rest is mere convention, unalive.”
Who wrote this book?
Patrick Smith is an American journalist who has written for major publications including the International Herald Tribune, The New Yorker, The Nation, Business Week, and The Economist. He is also the author of the award-winning book, “The Nippon Challenge and Japan: A Reinterpretation.”
A Japanese politician candidly explains his country’s woes: Taro Kono
Continuing the conversation of my post yesterday about the World Economic Forum meeting underway that is exploring the idea of this being an Asian century, I want to pluck out and highight some comments by Taro Kono, a Japanese parliamentarian. They were especially notable.
In his opening remarks, Kono smiled wryly and acknowledged:
We are actually choosing the third prime minister in one year today in Japan.
When host Steve Clemons noted that this brings the number to about six prime ministers in five years, Tono nodded and responded:
We’ve got to stop that to remain a certain power in Asia.
Kono then went on to talk about the political divide that has developed between Japan and the US on some major policies. He said that the US needs to do three things. One is to take care of the deficit, he noted (again with that wry smile as he added that Japan needs to mind its own deficit as well). Two, Kono said, the US needs to show it has common values with Japan.
And, three…
“They have to keep the door open to immigrants…”
As soon as the Q&A session opened, the very first question came from a Russian expert. He opined that he found it a bit rich (paraphrasing) for someone from Japan to lecture others on open immigration policy, considering that Japan “is one of the most closed countries in terms of immigration policies.” A fair amount of friendly laughter greeted this apt query.
Kono, ever with the wry smile, responded so:
“I don’t see any other alternative for Japan’s future but to open up the country to the immigration. As you say, Japan is the most closed country so far but we’re losing population fast. The society is aging. We cannot sustain our pension system or social security. So we have to open up.
What is the core value of Japan? Japan is a country where people speak the Japanese language, and Japan is a country which has the emperor, and those two are the core values for Japan, and anything else has to change in the 21st century. So we are going to be opening up. Not only to the immigrants but our economy as well.
I can’t remember ever hearing a politician make such a sweeping admission about the state of his country — Japan is a country where people speak the Japanese language, and Japan is a country which has the emperor and those two are the core values for Japan, and anything else has to change in the 21st century.
Japan gets a chance to have its first woman prime minister
Yuriko Koike, who already has made history by becoming Japan’s first female defense minister, now wants to burst through another of the country’s glass ceilings. Today Koike announced that she is running for the post of Japan’s prime minister, according to an article on Bloomberg.com, a position that to date has had a males-only ID tag attached to it (“Koike Is First LDP Woman to Seek Japan’s Premiership” Sept 8, 2008).
Some more bio info here.
And below is a video of an interview with Koike last May at a World Economic Forum. Koike shares her views on various current issues including the energy crisis, internationally shared values, and some developments in the middle east:
