Abiding Times 2 by Tunku Zain Al-'Abidin Muhriz

Author:Tunku Zain Al-'Abidin Muhriz
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789814398763
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish

35

For Japan

‘Abiding Times’, 18 March 2011

MY column has only made fleeting references to Japan in the past. I have touched on my grand-uncle Tunku Abdullah’s time in that country, and I have described how I love some products of Japanese cuisine and animated film.

But I have also mentioned imperial Japan’s ambitions on what became our country, and how it was a good thing that that project failed. Nonetheless, as I also said, any negative feelings about the country for its wartime role have long been well and truly gone. There was little resistance to the Look East Policy of the 1980s, and questions about what might have happened in Malaya if the atomic bombs were not dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki provoke more curiosity than ill will, like other ‘What If?’ scenarios.

Instead, in the aftermath of the unprecedented and multi-pronged catastrophe in Japan that began with the earthquake, subsequent tsunami and now fears of radiation exposure after explosions at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, Malaysians are offering condolences and prayers for recovery. Some of these feelings were palpable in the video of the statement that the Japanese Ambassador to Malaysia that was made available online. His Excellency Masahiko Horie is normally such a cheerful fellow – barely a month passes that I do not bump into him at some event, jollying about with his equally jovial wife – that it seemed like a different person who had faced the cameras to thank Malaysians for their messages of condolence.

There is something about Japan that appeals to me. The preponderance of elaborate custom and ostentatious etiquette is a marvel to witness: whether on the sushi plate or in the folds of a kimono, and the fact that so many things about Japan are puzzling to everyone else only adds to its sense of mystique. The people seem to know their own history, including the darker episodes, and one imagines this has a profound influence on how they view their place in the world today. It must be said that I am surmising this based only on conversations with Japanese friends and popular perceptions of Japan, since within the country itself I have never left the confines of Narita Airport – something I still hope to rectify in the near future. Nonetheless it seems that Japan’s citizens have voluntarily subscribed to these principles within a democratic system (not without its critics, it must be said), having undergone massive economic development while throughout retaining the world’s only remaining imperial monarch, the 125th occupant of the Chrysanthemum Throne originating with Emperor Jinnu who supposedly reigned from 660 BC to 585 BC. It makes the lineages of many other dynasties look like novice latecomers.

Even without this pre-existing affinity towards the country, the Japanese response to the disaster is winning converts all over the world. My daily consumption of news and commentary is reasonably varied by online English-language standards, I think, and one observation I have repeatedly come across is the amazement at how the Japanese as a society have responded to the crisis.

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