Published on August 1, 2019.
This essay introduces Takayama Masayuki’s column from Shukan Shincho’s New Year special issue, discussing the Phaeton Incident, the Tsushima Incident, the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, the Russo-Japanese War, and Britain’s role in Japan’s postwar aircraft, automobile, and nuclear industries.
It reflects on Japan’s historical debt to Britain and argues for the significance of supporting Hitachi’s nuclear reactor export project to the United Kingdom.

August 1, 2019.
Yet all people of keen insight cannot forget the weight of this essay.
They should be grateful that he existed in Japan.
It was a conclusion so good that we cannot be grateful enough.
When Japan again confronted that Russia across Korea, Britain entered into a military alliance with Japan.
This is the chapter I published on December 29, 2018, under that title.
Takayama Masayuki’s column published in Shukan Shincho’s New Year special issue also proves that he is a journalist without equal in the postwar world.
Subscribers must have read it while feeling pleasant laughter and admiration.
Yet all people of keen insight cannot forget the weight of this essay.
They should be grateful that he existed in Japan.
In gratitude for the Anglo-Japanese Alliance.
The first encounter between Japan and Britain occurred at the beginning of the nineteenth century, in the incident in which the Phaeton forced its way into Nagasaki Harbor.
The Japanese were greatly astonished that there could be such a violent country.
So, in order to consider how to deal with it, they first created the English-Japanese dictionary “Angeria Gorin Taisei.”
Later, when Americans, who spoke the same language and were even more ferocious, came to Japan, it proved extremely useful.
This was somewhat a case of learning by negative example, but Britain did in fact do good things for Japan as well.
At the end of the Tokugawa period, the Russian warship Posadnik came to Tsushima, ravaged villages, and then demanded the lease of a port and the provision of prostitutes.
If the shogunate had handled the matter poorly, the occupation of Tsushima could have occurred.
China is now eagerly waiting and maneuvering for another foolish government like the Democratic Party administration to be born in Japan once again.
It is now a well-known fact that the Asahi Shimbun and NHK are China’s agents.
In fact, in Meiji 8, a Russian warship similarly came to Karafuto and made the same kind of threats.
Japan could not resist on its own, and Russia obtained Karafuto.
Just when Tsushima was also in imminent danger, British Minister Alcock dispatched two warships and drove off the Russian vessel.
It was a conclusion so good that we cannot be grateful enough.
When Japan again confronted that Russia across Korea, Britain entered into a military alliance with Japan.
Japan only had to fight Russia.
If Germany and France, which disliked Japan, had helped Russia, Britain promised that it would immediately enter the war and defeat Germany and France.
No one wanted to fight the world’s strongest Britain.
Before entering the Sea of Japan, the Baltic Fleet was supposed to rest at Cam Ranh Bay in French Indochina, but the French government, fearing the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, did not permit the fleet to enter port.
The officers and men, unable to recover from the fatigue of their long voyage halfway around the earth, clashed with the Combined Fleet off Tsushima.
About twenty percent of the great victory that annihilated the Russian fleet was thanks to Britain.
That Anglo-Japanese Alliance disappeared because of America’s cunning and Shidehara Kijuro’s foolishness.
Partly because of that, the last war occurred, and Japan lost.
Postwar Japan was tossed about by America’s monopoly of control, but even at such times Britain responded to Japan in a completely ordinary way.
The United States thoroughly crushed Japan’s aircraft industry so that Japan would never again be able to stand up to white nations.
It banned aircraft operation, aircraft manufacturing, and even courses in aerodynamics.
The automobile industry was treated the same way.
Manufacturing and research were banned, and the local production by Ford and GM, which had been carried out before the war, was also ended.
Heavy industry, too, was supposed to be completely dismantled, but North and South Korea began a war at truly perfect timing.
Japan was able to preserve its industrial power as a rear base for the U.S. military.
At such a time, Britain became the savior of Japan’s automobile industry.
Austin entered into a knockdown production contract with Nissan, and Hillman with Isuzu, filling the postwar void.
The last war began because the United States cut off oil.
Japan’s postwar energy situation had not improved at all.
The government considered introducing nuclear power plants, but the United States firmly refused.
That was because they thought that if Japan possessed nuclear power, someday Japan would avenge Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
At such a time, Britain again extended a helping hand.
Japan obtained and operated a British-made graphite-moderated reactor.
Cheap natural uranium was sufficient as fuel.
The United States was shocked by this.
A graphite reactor, when operated, can produce plutonium that can become a nuclear bomb.
Japan would be able to possess nuclear weapons immediately.
The United States hurriedly changed its policy.
In exchange for making Japan abandon the graphite reactor, it decided to provide Japan with a light-water reactor.
That was because this type of reactor cannot produce plutonium suitable for nuclear weapons.
As a result, Japan was able to realize an energy self-sufficiency system to a certain degree.
Japan also acquired know-how regarding nuclear power plants, and now Hitachi has reached the point of exporting a light-water reactor to Britain as a repayment of gratitude.
Britain, suffering from its withdrawal from the EU, would surely be greatly helped.
However, Hitachi says that it lacks the investment funds required for export and that it has no choice but to abandon the project.
The government hesitates to provide support, perhaps because it fears harassment from the Asahi Shimbun, which waves the anti-nuclear flag.
In the past, Japan wasted as much as twenty percent of its national budget for thirty-six years on Korea, of all places.
Why not divert even one thirty-sixth of that amount to Britain?
Japan could repay at least some fraction of the debt of gratitude engraved in history.
Unlike Korea, it would surely become something meaningful.