Published on July 18, 2019.
Using the writings of Takayama Masayuki and Tsutsumi Takashi as a guide, this essay looks back on the Constitution imposed on Japan by the United States, the Korean War, the Yoshida Security Treaty, and the 1960 Security Treaty revision by Kishi Nobusuke, while exploring the theme that the insight of a great grandfather is passed down to his grandson.
It reflects on the national vision and qualities of statesmanship inherited from Kishi Nobusuke to Prime Minister Abe, and from Aichi Kiichi to Aichi Jirō.

July 18, 2019.
What is passed from grandfather to grandson: the insight of a great grandfather is inherited by his grandson.
What is passed from grandfather to grandson: the insight of a great grandfather is inherited by his grandson.
Takayama Masayuki, the one and only journalist in the postwar world, teaches us that the Constitution the United States gave to Japan was modeled on the order taken by the Roman Empire when it destroyed Carthage.
The moment the Korean War broke out, the United States, which had then learned for the first time the reality of communist states and the reality of the Korean Peninsula, changed its attitude by 180 degrees and strongly asked Yoshida Shigeru for Japan’s participation in the war.
Yoshida, saying in effect that Japan had been left unarmed by them, for the first time gave the United States the cold shoulder.
At that time, Secretary Dulles anticipated how Yoshida would respond and adopted a two-pronged strategy of politically using the Emperor; Tsutsumi Takashi, a respected senior alumnus of my alma mater, teaches us this in the monthly magazine Hanada.
Within that, there is an extremely important example concerning the theme of this essay: what is passed from grandfather to grandson.
The preceding text is omitted.
There was once such an incident.
When the Korean War broke out, Dulles requested Yoshida Shigeru to rearm Japan.
It was because he wanted to make use of Japan’s military power.
Yoshida evaded the issue and did not respond at all.
Thereupon, Dulles gathered Matsudaira Yasumasa and Watanabe Takeshi, a Ministry of Finance official, who were close to Emperor Shōwa, and through them attempted “imperial diplomacy.”
It was a kind of dual diplomacy.
At that time, Dulles said before them.
“I will convey President Truman’s message.
‘Our America will remain stationed as the right of the victor.
However, although we will remain stationed, we will not bear the obligation to defend Japan.’
This is the President’s message.”
This is a story that appears in Watanabe’s memoirs.
“We will remain stationed, but we will not bear the obligation of defense.”
That is the Yoshida Security Treaty, which Yoshida Shigeru later signed alone.
What revised it into “If you remain stationed, you must bear the obligation of defense” was the 1960 Security Treaty concluded by Kishi Nobusuke, and there was nothing inconvenient about it.
The latter part is omitted.
I once wrote that Kishi Nobusuke was the complete opposite of the “monster” the Asahi Shimbun had spread the image of, and that he was a great man with the finest intellect in Japan at that time.
That was because I became convinced when the knowledge that the capital of Manchukuo had been the most beautiful city in the world at that time overlapped with the fact that Mr. Kishi, as a Home Ministry bureaucrat, had been involved in the administration of Manchukuo.
The fact taught by Mr. Tsutsumi makes clear that Kishi Nobusuke was an even greater politician than my own conviction had imagined.
The intellect that always saw through to the essence as the supreme realist: it is now a fact known to the world that Prime Minister Abe has inherited this most important quality.
However, not a single one of the students who were studying at what was then the highest institution of learning knew this, a fact that might be called extremely simple.
Nishibe Susumu, who was the greatest scholar of the postwar period and at the time was a University of Tokyo student and one of the central members of Zengakuren, stated that he had shouted opposition to the Security Treaty without knowing this at all, and acknowledged that Kishi Nobusuke had done something entirely natural.
All of those who at that time said they opposed the Security Treaty did not know such a simple fact.
There is nothing for which I am more grateful than to have been taught by a senior alumnus of my beloved alma mater the unsurpassable insight of Kishi Nobusuke as a politician, the reason behind his statement that he would “listen to the silent voices of the people,” and why Emperor Shōwa sincerely respected and loved him.
Aichi Kiichi graduated at the top of my alma mater, also graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of Tokyo with the same level of results, and was involved in the nation’s fiscal administration at the Ministry of Finance as the finest player among administrative officials.
Through both his own will and the will of others, he became a politician of the Liberal Democratic Party in order to put that ability to use in the planning and decision-making of Japan’s national policy.
When he was serving successively as a minister, I twice saw him in person when he visited my alma mater’s sports festival to give greetings.
The eye with which Aichi Kiichi viewed the affairs of the nation and the world is something that, even if Aichi Jirō was an adopted son-in-law, is always passed down; the insight of a great grandfather is inherited by his