This two-part essay is written first and foremost for the Japanese readers, and is not intended to be derogatory or insulting in any way, whatever.
I have quoted extensively from the Japan’s Hidden Face: A Call for Radical Change in Japanese Society & Commerce written by Toshihiko Abe, a retired Japanese senior business executive and author. Abe knows a lot more about Japan and Japanese people than I do!
Japan’s exports and business confidence drop sharply as the country’s recession deepens
As Japan reaches the limits of its economic growth and faces mounting challenges caused by a deepening recession, she finds herself out of fresh ideas.
Who/what is responsible? The policymakers? Political system? Economy? Education? Racial discrimination along the ryo-sen (ancient masters-slaves classes in Japan) divide line?
“It’s the History, stupid!”
Japanese people are left in the dark. They have no idea about Japan’s true history.
“Perhaps the most important aspect of Japan’s true history is her multiracial origin, in which a minority 4% of the population enslaved the others by conquest. This the same ruling minority is presently about 10% of Japan’s population; yet the Japanese people have no knowledge of this fact.” Abe says.
Why hasn’t the Japanese sociopolitical system changed in the past 1,000 years?
“Regrettably, we find no democratic liberalism in Japanese history, except imported Western thoughts during the Meiji era, which was soon stifled by ultra-nationalism.”
How could the Japanese people allow this to happen?
“No doubt the reason is the slavery that was established in the 7th and 8th centuries, when Chinese ryo masters conquered aboriginal sen slaves. Thereafter Japanese society developed vertically downwards, and kept making sen below sen, in a world where the shogun held all political, economic and military power. Thus, samurai assumed first place in the sen cast system.
How did the social division occur? What was the social classification in Japan based on?
“The Taiho Ritsu Ryo, a code of laws promulgated in 701, divided Japan into two classes: ryo (ruling class or nobles), and sen (the ruled, humblest slaves). Sen were further divided into two groups: (1) those who resisted the T’ang Chinese and were left to starve in secluded mountain camps; (2) those who surrendered and were made slave farmers.”
Which groups of people comprised the ruling class, ryo?
“The imperial household, nobles, government officials, farmers with citizenship, Shinabe and Zakko comprised the ryo rank, with those up to the government officials being the ruling classes.”
And the slave classes, sen?
“All others were sen, of which there were five kinds: guards of the imperial and lords’ tombs; men holding government odd jobs; men doing odd jobs for nobles; government-owned slaves and privately-owned slaves. (From Comprehensive New Japanese History).”
Exactly, which groups were they?
“When T’ang [Chinese] forces occupied Japan, the masters of the country changed from [Korean] Paekeche to T’ang. According to [author Tomeo] Yagiri, in an announcement to the entire country, the T’ang made it clear that they were ryo (nobles) and everyone else was sen (humble slaves). Sen included [all of the Japan’s aboriginal races] the Ya, Yottsu, Zoshiki, Silla, Koguryo, Kaya, and even the ex-masters, the Paekeche. All sen were systematically enslaved nationwide by the T’ang take-over. The enforcement of this system in 702 was called Taiho Ritsu Ryo, which breaks down into penal codes of Ritsu, and administrative and civil laws of the ryo. Yagiri estimates that 96% of the population was enslaved by Chinese power, with the Ya people made the slaves for farming, fishing and salt making, and the Yottsu slaves soldiers. All women were taken by the Chinese and accommodated in facilities called Kaito (open door), for their masters’ sexual entertainment.”
How did the [Korean] Paekeche joined their Chinese masters?
“By the middle of 9th century, Fujiwara establishment of [Chinese] T’ang ancestry, the behind the scene force that held the power in Japan, freed the Paekeche people who were of Korean ancestry. All other races Remained as a slaves and outcasts.”
So is that how the “10 Rule 90 Principle” came about?
Abe quotes author Tomeo Yagiri who estimates that the addition of Paekeche to the T’ang court and Chinese immigration raised the proportion of the ryo [ruling] class to 10% of Japan’s total population. He says this “ratio that remains constant in today’s society, which means, surprisingly, that 90% of today’s Japanese have descended from slaves.”
What was the role of religion in the creation of this diabolical cast system?
“Buddhism was the national religion,” or more precisely the religion of ryo, abe says, and “was used to control registered people, below whom were the subhuman (hinin)…”
Who owned the slaves?
Abe says, “slave-farmers were the property of the Buddhist temples. The slaves were given rice seed in spring and forced to deliver harvested rice the next autumn or be killed. After turning over the yearly harvest, they were allowed to pick up the fallen ears to survive. As long as they raised food for the rulers they would be kept alive, but they were treated cruelly.”
Wasn’t the so called Meiji Restoration suppossed to have chnaged this injustice?
Unfortunately, the injustice has remained to this day. Abe says: “Even though after the Meiji Restoration all these [slave classes] were legitimatized as new commoners, the inescapable sense of discrimination remained.”
About the role of women, approximately 50 percent of Japanese population, Abe says:
“In the history of Sanka, Yagiri states that slavery existed in northern Japan for a thousand years until the 18th century. … until Tenmei (1781-1788), one could see slave women and horses sold at auction in northern Japan.”
About 50% of the Japanese people do not vote because they do not support any of the existing political parties. Why can’t they change the system?
Abe says the reason is that the Japanese people are prevented from learning the truth.
“A nation’s values must emanate from individual attitudes, and it is essential that every individual have the chance to discover the truth for himself.” Abe said.
Why are the Japanese people so afraid to speak out?
Abe believes that Japanese people’s compliance with the system “is inherent in their history as an enslaved people.”
He cites the American occupation as an example: “When the American forces occupied Japan in 1945, the rumors spread that all Japanese men wear to be castrated. This actually occurred during the T’ang Chinese occupation in the 7nth century A.D., so the possibility may not have seemed so far-fetched to the Japanese.”
“The T’ang Chinese dealt severely with their Japanese slaves. If they were not obedient, they were killed. The only chance for a slave to leave descendants came from his obedience, which could be rewarded. For the race to survive, the ancestors of the current Japanese people had to suffer under conditions of severe discipline, surrounding themselves totally to their foreign rulers. The mark of the thousand years of the slavery is on today’s Japanese society and reflected in Japanese management which, as Robert Whiting claims in his book, “ tends to treat its charges like the inmates on a Georgia chain gang.”
Who is to blame for keeping the Japanese people in the dark?
Abe believes that the Japanese education system does not teach the true history, and that most of Japan’s problems with other nations emanates from this fact.
“Had the Japanese been taught to accept this true history, their cultural conflicts with Americans and other Westerners might have been diminished. Because they have set themselves apart with a false history of the racial evolution, they have made other nations leery of them as an incomprehensible race. Japanese differences in politics, business and social behavior would have been more readily accepted had the Japanese not manifested this mystique about their pure imperial lineage from the land of the gods.”
But what about the politicians who are supposed to be more informed, and who have a responsibility to serve the people?
“No politician is willing to take responsibility for action to the benefit of the majority. Even now we are daunted by harsh slavery. The coward’s mentality was passed down from generation to generation and at present we have little or no stomach to solve difficult problems ourselves, so accustomed are we to ceding final decisions to our master. When it has to make a decision to force sacrifice from the people, the government needs gaiatsu (pressure from overseas, mainly from the U.S.).” Toshihiko Abe says.
Going back to the education system, how discriminatory is it?
Abe believes the education system is based on total discrimination; he says, “even in the university, students do not revolt against their professors. As ‘ good boys’ and ‘teacher’s pets’ they will be awarded nice posts in government subsidiaries in the long run if they remain loyal to their boss and predecessors throughout their careers. For example, seeking the truth as an historian could be detrimental to a student’s career if his theory is contrary to his teacher’s. He would spoil his chances for more money, honor and position if he asserted himself. Under such a system, how can there be any creativity in Japan?”
Abe repeats: “Perhaps the most important aspect of Japan’s true history is her multiracial origin, in which a minority 4% of the population enslaved the others by conquest this the same ruling minority is presently about 10% of Japan’s population; yet the Japanese people have no knowledge of this fact.”
Continued…
Next:
- How the ruling elite perpetuate their dominance starting at the kinder garden
- How the “elite” school failed the 6-year-old
To read Part II [blocked by google - January 10, 2009] click on link below
