Chapter 2.6: How To Be Remembered

Mr Shintaro Ishihara was the Goethe of Japan. I was his pupil, someone in the same profession, and his escort runner. In this chapter, I have woven together more of my private recollections, spanning as long as twenty-plus years, and "my unfulfilled promise" to him. ー Shin Ushijima

Chapter 2.6: How To Be Remembered

Read other chapters in My Mentor, Shintaro Ishihara

In a conversation with Shintaro Ishihara, I must have asked a question that absolutely struck home: "Can you leave this world believing that your death will have a greater meaning?"

I meant something worth living and dying for. It is a desire common among great people who have a strong sense of self-confidence.

Come to think of it, Mr Ishihara said that he and Yukio Mishima wrote down on paper what the most important thing for a man was and showed their answers to each other. Coincidentally, their answers were the same: self-sacrifice.

Self-Sacrifice

Yukio Mishima died such a death. I think it can be called self-sacrifice, although the interpretation of his death may vary depending on one's perspective.

However, when Ishihara was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and given three months to live, he was left in a state where "I can only say that my nerves have been torn apart." Despite endless contemplation of death intertwined with his own fate, the news left him "falling into a state of mental confusion, and I can hardly think straight in my daily life." (From The Last Writings, The Path to Death, Bungeishunju Co Ltd, 2022, 絶筆　所収、死への道程　at p 129.)

His death as such would not be a self-sacrifice.

This memoir was published posthumously. The passage, "If possible, I would like to leave this world, cherishing in my hands every moment leading to my own death," (p 132) is worthy of being his swan's song. Fortunately, I have not yet fully comprehended his feelings, but I can very well feel that this must have been Mr Ishihara's last cry.

*Book Cover, "The Last Writings" by Shintaro Ishihara (Bungeishunju Co Ltd)*

I also believe that Mr Ishihara was actually not the person that he portrayed to the world, or the person the world misunderstood him to be.

Then, what was he?

It is clearly shown in his words and deeds in his interactions with me as described in this book. Although Jun Eto described Mr Ishihara in his youth as being excessively unaware, I can hardly erase the idea that Mr Ishihara left this world having lived his life without understanding his true self.

His World, the Nation

At the press conference where he announced his resignation from the Lower House, he commented on the positive evaluation of his achievements as Governor of Tokyo. For example, those included enacting the regulations controlling diesel emissions from vehicles. However, I could never agree that the political world Mr Ishihara sought existed in metropolitan Tokyo.

His world was found in his nation, Japan. That was the world of international politics, where he could discuss matters of national defense and diplomacy on the same level as the heads of the world's leading nations, influencing human destiny and creating history. I am sure he strongly believed that battling for Japan at that level was the only way to restore pride in the Japanese people, who were still crestfallen after their defeat in the war.

Foolishly, however, the Japanese people did not give such a seat to Mr Ishihara.

Last of the True Japanese

He faced the war's defeat at the age of 12, and then became a favorite of his era while still in his youth. Having grown up knowing the true nature and virtue of prewar Japan, he was also, in a sense, the last of the true Japanese. His candidacy in the Upper House election coincided with the image of this Cinderella-like young man successfully arriving at the gates to the castle. For a while, times were sweet. In 1975, he even made a run for Governor of Tokyo.

But national politics under a parliamentary system turned out to be a living creature with a logic different from Mr Ishihara's pure and noble thinking. There was nothing to worry about when it was his own election. But as for the path to the prime ministership, the more he struggled to reach it, the farther away it became. In 1989, at the age of 56, he ran for the Liberal Democratic Party presidency and received only 48 votes. That deeply upsetting outcome ended his far-off dream.

It will probably take more time for Japanese people to come to realize the true value of Mr Ishihara. However, that day may come earlier than expected.

Who Will We Remember

Previously, I wrote about Ishihara, comparing him to French President Charles de Gaulle in my book, Is My Homeland Worth Sacrificing My Life for? I asked, "In the future, when the Japan-US alliance vanishes, we will all be in a fluster, looking around for a reliable politician. But the politician Shintaro Ishihara will be nowhere to be found. Our tears will be simply absorbed into the ground. Someday, we will know that Mr Ishihara was such an extraordinary politician." (P 81)

I still believe so.

It seems certain that history will well remember the former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Then, between the other two, which one will history remember more, Shintaro Ishihara or Yukio Mishima?

Find the Table of Contents

(To read the book in Japanese, please visit the publisher's website.)