NIXON IN CHINA AND THE TANAKA PHENOMENON

Drama, shock, strife — Japan's equanimity was severely tested throughout 1972. The government's undeclared policy of steering clear of all sources of international tension while remaining focused on internal stability and economic growth, so successfully pursued since the early 1950s, was coming unstuck.

The year started with a discomforting surprise: the appearance, from the jungles of Guam, of a Japanese soldier, Sgt. Yokoi Shoichi, who had been in hiding ever since he escaped from invading US forces in 1944. For many years he had lived in the belief that the war was still on, but although it became clear to him around 1962 that it was indeed over, he had been afraid to leave his hiding place, a cave-like hole in a bamboo grove. Local villagers, whom he charged when they surpnsed him while fishing for shrimp, had finally caught the straggler.

The news caused great excitement in Japan and Yokoi was given a hero's homecoming. Money, gifts and marriage proposals streamed in, and the media fell over each other courting and interviewing him. But his appearance also caused unease, particularly among older Japanese, as it brought back memories of the terrible island battles in which Japan had suffered horrific casualties. There were those who wondered why — since so many soldiers had not returned from the war — so much attention was lavished on this one survivor? His antiquated devotion to the emperor was a cause of embarrassment. If he was such a good Imperial soldier, some remarked scathingly, why had he not committed hara-kiri like so many others, instead of fleeing into the jungle like a coward?

Yokoi was openly critical of the Japan he found on his return. He lamented the lost beauty of Japan's countryside, the cars everywhere, the awful smog hanging over the cities. Above all, he was disturbed by the loss of virtue’ in Japanese women, who were such ‘gentle and retiring’ creatures before the war, lovely to look at, and obedient to the commands of men-folk.’ He bought a house with the money people had donated and settled down with a ‘nice old-fashioned Japanese girl.’