brat_olin
2003-08-13 14:46:05 UTC
The Japan Times: Aug. 9, 2003
Did 1900 Bushido disseminator inspire Polish independence?
By KO HIRANO
The man known for introducing Japan's samurai philosophy to the outside
world after centuries of feudal isolation also helped inspire Polish
independence, a forthcoming study claims.
Educator Inazo Nitobe (1862-1933), the face on the 5,000 yen bill, is best
known abroad as the 1900 author of "Bushido: The Soul of Japan," and as
undersecretary general of the League of Nations from 1919 to 1926.
But Nitobe was also an inspiration for many Poles in the early 20th
century as they looked to Japan as a country that successfully resisted
outside pressure by imperialist nations, according to Jadwiga Rodowicz, a
Polish diplomat in Tokyo who researched his ties to Poland.
Nitobe learned from Poland's experience. As Poland had long been
dismembered by the three major powers of Austria, Prussia and Russia, he
was well aware that Japan had to modernize to survive the 19th-century
encroachment in Asia by European powers and Russia.
"Nitobe perhaps saw an example in Poland of what could happen to a country
once it loses sovereignty and is subjugated to foreign powers, a kind of
European China," Rodowicz, minister-counselor at the Polish Embassy in
Tokyo, told Kyodo News recently.
Nitobe was the best-known Japanese writer in the West during his lifetime.
Born in Morioka, in what would become Iwate Prefecture, he studied
agriculture, economics and English literature, wishing to be a bridge
between the two civilizations. As a diplomat, he attended the 1919
Versailles Peace Conference and worked for the League of Nations in
Geneva.
His relationship with Poland, however, is little known.
"He mourned Poland's lost freedom as if he himself were a Pole," writes
Rodowicz, who taught Japanese affairs at the University of Warsaw before
joining the Polish Foreign Ministry in 1993. "To Nitobe, Poland was (a
source of) inspiration, cautious reflection and at the same time
admiration."
The article will be included in an edition of the academic journal "Inazo
Nitobe Research" to be published Sept. 1. It is the first study of its
kind, said Eiichiro Uchikawa, secretary general of the Nitobe Foundation
in Morioka.
"The study shows how much Poles were fascinated with Japan's spiritual
culture through Nitobe's writings, such as 'Bushido,' as they searched for
inspiration while striving for independence," Uchikawa said.
He said reading a draft of the study would help Prime Minister Junichiro
Koizumi before he begins his weeklong visit to Poland, Germany and the
Czech Republic on Aug. 17.
Nitobe met with prominent Poles. Jozef Pilsudski, father of the modern
Polish state, expressed delight during a 1922 meeting with Nitobe in
Warsaw over Japan's victory in the 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese war, according
to the study.
Few people in Europe were aware of Japan's potential at the time,
Pilsudski told Nitobe.
Citing Nitobe's "Ijin Gunsho" ("A Handful of Images of Great Men") of
1931, the study quotes Pilsudski as telling Nitobe about his visit to
Tokyo in 1904 just after the Russo-Japanese war broke out.
Pilsudski was on a political mission to secure Japan's support for Polish
independence. He held talks with Aritomo Yamagata, a former prime minister
and founder of the modern Japanese army, and other top government
officials, but the mission failed.
Ironically, Japan was not interested in getting involved in the Polish
question because it was too complicated and political profits for Japan
were uncertain.
In the study, Rodowicz also details Nitobe's talks with Polish-born
chemist Marie Curie in Geneva in the 1920s about patriotism, which led
Nitobe to conclude the question of national identity was of paramount
importance to Poles.
Nitobe and Curie talked after a meeting of the International Committee of
Intellectual Cooperation, a League of Nations panel that Nitobe set up in
1921. The committee was the early predecessor of the U.N. Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO.
"Curie told Nitobe that Poles have a joke concerning their preoccupation
with their country," Rodowicz says in quoting Nitobe's "Tozai Aifurete"
("West Meets East") of 1928.
When a writing competition was held on the theme of "elephant," Curie
said, an Englishman presented a paper titled "My Experience Elephant
Hunting in South Africa." A Frenchman's essay was titled "The Sexual and
Erotic Life of the Elephant." A Pole's story was called "The Elephant and
Poland's National Sovereignty."
The Japan Times: Aug. 9, 2003
---
Smart questions to stupid answers
Pisz z sensem - rob dwie spacje po kropce
Did 1900 Bushido disseminator inspire Polish independence?
By KO HIRANO
The man known for introducing Japan's samurai philosophy to the outside
world after centuries of feudal isolation also helped inspire Polish
independence, a forthcoming study claims.
Educator Inazo Nitobe (1862-1933), the face on the 5,000 yen bill, is best
known abroad as the 1900 author of "Bushido: The Soul of Japan," and as
undersecretary general of the League of Nations from 1919 to 1926.
But Nitobe was also an inspiration for many Poles in the early 20th
century as they looked to Japan as a country that successfully resisted
outside pressure by imperialist nations, according to Jadwiga Rodowicz, a
Polish diplomat in Tokyo who researched his ties to Poland.
Nitobe learned from Poland's experience. As Poland had long been
dismembered by the three major powers of Austria, Prussia and Russia, he
was well aware that Japan had to modernize to survive the 19th-century
encroachment in Asia by European powers and Russia.
"Nitobe perhaps saw an example in Poland of what could happen to a country
once it loses sovereignty and is subjugated to foreign powers, a kind of
European China," Rodowicz, minister-counselor at the Polish Embassy in
Tokyo, told Kyodo News recently.
Nitobe was the best-known Japanese writer in the West during his lifetime.
Born in Morioka, in what would become Iwate Prefecture, he studied
agriculture, economics and English literature, wishing to be a bridge
between the two civilizations. As a diplomat, he attended the 1919
Versailles Peace Conference and worked for the League of Nations in
Geneva.
His relationship with Poland, however, is little known.
"He mourned Poland's lost freedom as if he himself were a Pole," writes
Rodowicz, who taught Japanese affairs at the University of Warsaw before
joining the Polish Foreign Ministry in 1993. "To Nitobe, Poland was (a
source of) inspiration, cautious reflection and at the same time
admiration."
The article will be included in an edition of the academic journal "Inazo
Nitobe Research" to be published Sept. 1. It is the first study of its
kind, said Eiichiro Uchikawa, secretary general of the Nitobe Foundation
in Morioka.
"The study shows how much Poles were fascinated with Japan's spiritual
culture through Nitobe's writings, such as 'Bushido,' as they searched for
inspiration while striving for independence," Uchikawa said.
He said reading a draft of the study would help Prime Minister Junichiro
Koizumi before he begins his weeklong visit to Poland, Germany and the
Czech Republic on Aug. 17.
Nitobe met with prominent Poles. Jozef Pilsudski, father of the modern
Polish state, expressed delight during a 1922 meeting with Nitobe in
Warsaw over Japan's victory in the 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese war, according
to the study.
Few people in Europe were aware of Japan's potential at the time,
Pilsudski told Nitobe.
Citing Nitobe's "Ijin Gunsho" ("A Handful of Images of Great Men") of
1931, the study quotes Pilsudski as telling Nitobe about his visit to
Tokyo in 1904 just after the Russo-Japanese war broke out.
Pilsudski was on a political mission to secure Japan's support for Polish
independence. He held talks with Aritomo Yamagata, a former prime minister
and founder of the modern Japanese army, and other top government
officials, but the mission failed.
Ironically, Japan was not interested in getting involved in the Polish
question because it was too complicated and political profits for Japan
were uncertain.
In the study, Rodowicz also details Nitobe's talks with Polish-born
chemist Marie Curie in Geneva in the 1920s about patriotism, which led
Nitobe to conclude the question of national identity was of paramount
importance to Poles.
Nitobe and Curie talked after a meeting of the International Committee of
Intellectual Cooperation, a League of Nations panel that Nitobe set up in
1921. The committee was the early predecessor of the U.N. Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO.
"Curie told Nitobe that Poles have a joke concerning their preoccupation
with their country," Rodowicz says in quoting Nitobe's "Tozai Aifurete"
("West Meets East") of 1928.
When a writing competition was held on the theme of "elephant," Curie
said, an Englishman presented a paper titled "My Experience Elephant
Hunting in South Africa." A Frenchman's essay was titled "The Sexual and
Erotic Life of the Elephant." A Pole's story was called "The Elephant and
Poland's National Sovereignty."
The Japan Times: Aug. 9, 2003
---
Smart questions to stupid answers
Pisz z sensem - rob dwie spacje po kropce