Vew from the chair: Speeches of Richard WL Austin

I saw a man this morning Who did not wish to die; I ask, and cannot answer If otherwise wish I. What we did not know was that all Japanese soldiers from the top to the bottom rank wished otherwise. They had been nurtured on the exhortation that Uesugi Kenshin, one of the great captains of the sixteenth century, addressed to his followers: 'Engage in combat determined to die and you will emerge alive: wish to survive in battle and you will surely meet with death!'. For them death was indeed 'lighter than a feather'. Our briefings, on the other hand, came straight out of the 'no worries' army manual of the day--one Aussie Digger worth ten Asians. How could soldiers win a war wearing sandshoes instead of boots, eating dried fish and rice instead of bully beef and biscuits, and carrying a small calibre rifle that wouldn't hurt a fly? I could go on. The truth was very different. We went into battle assured of a great victory and emerged having suffered an unexpected and unprepared for defeat. The same lack of understanding occurred when the war was over. It was our representative to the War Crimes Tribunal, Sir William Webb, who called for the Japanese Emperor to be tried and deposed. Luckily wiser counsels prevailed. The Emperor remained Emperor and Japan became what she is today. Had it been otherwise, she might now be in the hands of the communists. The same thing happened in business. It took us a long time to realise that a contract in Japanese law was different from a contract in English law, not standing immutable like the oak, but bending to the winds of change like the bamboo. It took us a long time to appreciate the Japanese method of decision making-we made a bee line for the top floor and ignored the mezzanine, not realising that in Japan power is not delegated from the top to the subordinates but to the top by the subordinates. We thought that 'yes' meant 'yes', and failed to realise that there were some sixteen ways of saying 'no' in Japanese, and that to call a spade a spade is not in the Japanese tradition. There are endless stories on the theme of the Australian businessman cabling his head office: 'President said yes to our proposal today. Expect contract to be signed tomorrow'. A month later he cables asking if his wife can be sent to join him. Had he known the story of the nightingale that would not sing, he might have been better prepared. The three great war lords in Japanese history were each asked what he would do with such a recalcitrant bird. Oda Nobunaga said, 'I would kill the nightingale'. Toyotomi Hideyoshi said, 'I would make the nightingale sing'. Tokugawa leyasu said, 'I would wait for the nightingale to sing'. Needless to say it was the Tokugawa shogunate that lasted the longest. 138