The political demeanor of March 19, 2011, under the Democratic Party government, mirrors today’s Ishiba and old media. Rather than progress, Japan regresses. With Fumio Kishida bearing the greatest responsibility, this essay critiques Naoto Kan’s handling of the disaster, the obsession with grand coalitions, and the lack of true leadership.

On March 19, 2011, the attitude of Ishiba and the old media is identical to what we see today.
In other words, they have been turning back the clock for sixteen years.
The greatest responsibility for this regressive stance lies with Fumio Kishida.
Their demeanor and even their appearance testify not to progress but to degeneration.

I was astonished by the news—one man was rescued in Kesennuma, even though more than seventy-two hours had already passed.
March 19, 2011—already beyond the seventy-two-hour limit.
But I immediately thought: if we had not had a government of Naoto Kan and his counterparts—immature, inexperienced, fluent only in words, a provisional “learner’s license cabinet”—then, as I wrote, a government with true qualifications would have convened an emergency National Security Council the very moment the earthquake struck.
That was what “The Prime Minister’s Decision” proved beyond doubt.

At that point, there was only one thing this government should have done:
Every member of the executive leadership should have gone to Fukushima Daiichi.
They should have donned full protective gear, advanced the water-spraying vehicles to point-blank range, and aimed directly at the fuel rods until they were submerged.
The people would have forgiven their sins in an instant.
Japan, and indeed the world, would have praised them forever as saints of the 21st century, enshrined in history.
If they all died in the attempt, then that day would have become a world memorial day, with humanity everywhere mourning them—even in the middle of sports games.
Monuments would rise worldwide honoring them as the bravest of the 21st century, those who saved mankind.

As for the governance of Japan, there are plenty of replacements.
That was nothing to worry about.
A new cabinet could have been formed instantly—one capable of rebuilding and creating the world’s strongest, safest state.
The truth is, they were nothing but an obstacle.
And those who created and promoted them—the editorial writers, the commentators, including “Tahebana” and “Tohoe”—they too would have stood in the front row, hailed as saints of the 21st century, the greatest saints in human history.
P.S. Their families would have been guaranteed lives free of want, cherished as national treasures for generations to come.

Now, I read the front page of today’s Nikkei and was appalled: “Prime Minister to propose grand coalition.”
Yes, appalled.
The article explained:
“The prime minister’s proposal of a grand coalition cannot be divorced from the fact that effective policies for reconstruction and the nuclear accident have not been forthcoming. To pass supplementary budgets and special legislation swiftly, the ruling coalition faces the obstacle of a reversed majority in the upper house. To resolve this structural problem, the grand coalition is deemed effective. Yet this has been evident since the upper house defeat last summer. The fact that the prime minister left this structural problem unaddressed cannot be denied.”

The intensity of this man’s lust for power, his obsessive clinging, borders on paranoia.
Such reckless self-indulgence—those who truly surprised me in the blogosphere would know—erupts one day out of sudden impulses or by riding someone else’s idea, running wild.
No reasonable person, in normal times, would ever wish to follow or support such a man.
And yet, in this respect, he is endlessly cunning.

Kan, you cannot possibly understand what I am saying.
If you truly thought of the nation, the honorable course would have been to step aside and entrust the premiership to someone else.
The one most suited, needless to say, is the man with unmatched ability, experience, and insight among current politicians.
Moreover, he hails from a prefecture in Tōhoku, the very region devastated by the disaster—making him the ideal figure to save it.
Above all, he is the modern-day counterpart of a great leader you should now recognize.

After all, you are at best an Akechi Mitsuhide or a Kobayakawa Hideaki.
It was a mistake for someone like you ever to become prime minister.
By now, hardly anyone believes the falsehoods fabricated by the prosecutors and echoed by “Tahebana” and “Tohoe” about that great figure.
Now is the time for you to decide: if you yield the seat to him, posterity will honor you as a man who knew himself, who recognized his enemy—this greatest of natural disasters—and who, loving his country, entrusted power to the rightful successor.
You would be remembered forever as such.

Kan, consider how you came to be prime minister.
It is plain to see.
You were not chosen for true ability or suitability.
You rose to power by accident, in a climate weary of rapid turnover, where that in itself became a false criterion.
And you exploited public opinion, fabricated by prosecutors and editorial writers, that was in fact anti-democratic to its core.
By now it is evident to all.
I am convinced that most people in Japan know this—certainly those who have read my exhortations.
And behind this blog stand countless others—after all, on Twitter alone there are tens of millions of people.