Published on August 29, 2019.
This article continues a serialized dialogue between Ishihara Shintaro and Kamei Shizuka published in the monthly magazine WiLL.
It discusses Kamei Shizuka’s poem “Heiyan’s Song,” Yukio Mishima’s coup plan as told at Hotel New Otani, an anecdote about a prime ministerial policy speech during the Sato Cabinet, and Japan’s response to South Korea, Takeshima, and Samsung.
The dialogue questions patriotic feeling and the resolve required of politicians.

August 29, 2019.
At the end of one year, Chief Cabinet Secretary Shigeru Hori of the Sato Cabinet invited me, Mr. Mishima, and Kon Hidemi, and we gathered at Hotel New Otani.
He wanted us to give him ideas for the prime minister’s opening policy speech at the next ordinary session of the Diet.
The following is the continuation of the previous chapter.
Patriotic feeling.
Kamei.
In every respect, the world of human beings is hard to live in.
I feel almost like a hermit.
Ishihara.
Is that so?
I could never become a hermit.
I would misstep and fall from the clouds.
Kamei.
Mr. Ishihara, you are a civilized man who represents the modern age.
Ishihara.
What do you mean by that?
Kame-chan, you are also living within civilization.
Kamei.
That is because I am a cultured man.
According to one journalist, a poem I wrote was praised as “the finest modern poem.”
Ishihara.
Really?
Please show it to me.
Kamei.
You make a suspicious face like that.
Ishihara.
I am not.
Kame-chan, you are an “evil genius.”
Everyone burst out laughing.
Kamei.
The title is “Heiyan’s Song.”
Heiyan was a wandering beggar.
When I was a child, he came to the village every year and treated me kindly.
He gave me paper balloons and things like that.
When he stayed at my house for about two nights, the whole house became full of lice.
I turned my greatest childhood memory into a poem.
Ishihara.
That sounds good.
I want us to keep doing interesting things.
Omission.
Ishihara.
Yukio Mishima’s coup was a shabby thing, wasn’t it?
At the end of one year, Chief Cabinet Secretary Shigeru Hori of the Sato Cabinet invited me, Mr. Mishima, and Kon Hidemi, and we gathered at Hotel New Otani.
He wanted us to give him ideas for the prime minister’s opening policy speech at the next ordinary session of the Diet.
I had about three pending issues in mind, so I said that it would be better for the prime minister to declare, “I will do this regarding this issue.”
When I said, “It will be a great enlightenment.
The prime minister should say it,” Mr. Hori evaded it by saying, “That would be fine, but then there is a risk that the Diet debate will become heated.”
I said to him, “It would be good if it became heated.
That is what the Diet exists for.”
Mr. Kon said, “Well, Shin-chan is right.”
Then Mr. Mishima said, “Please give me twenty-five minutes.”
And then, all by himself, he eloquently launched into a coup plan to move the military and change the country.
I watched him thinking, “What on earth is this man saying?” and Mr. Kon was also smoking a cigar with a terribly bitter expression on his face.
At the end, Mr. Mishima said, “What do you think?” and Mr. Hori replied, “Ah, that is quite an interesting story.
I see.
However, it is not so easy to do that,” and that was the end of it.
Everyone burst out laughing.
Mr. Mishima left quickly, expecting nothing.
After that, Mr. Kon asked me, “Ishihara-kun, what did Mishima mean by telling such a story?”
I said, “Who knows?
Perhaps it is the plot of the next novel he is going to write.”
But some time after that, he ended his life by ritual disembowelment.
Omission.
Kamei.
Against South Korea as well, Japan should press much harder, right up to the limit.
Ishihara.
Samsung too should be crushed.
Kamei.
Chinese and Russian military aircraft violated the airspace over Takeshima, didn’t they?
South Korean military aircraft fired warning shots, but that is because they mistakenly believe it is their own territory.
Japan must likewise show its will to repel them.
If Japan merely insists that “Takeshima belongs to Japan” without doing that, the argument will not make sense.
What the government is doing is inconsistent.
Ishihara.
I want the government to do it thoroughly.