My Old Friend
Good morning, everyone. Today I'd like to talk about my best friend, Nobuo. He's from Marugame-shi, Shikoku. I got to know him when I was a freshman at a university. We joined the same book club and read a book entitled, "Japanese Octopus Culture" written by Masao Maruyama. I thought it was a non-political group, because we used to play Mahjong after the meeting. It was a lot of fun.
But my father was against the idea of reading the book. He feared that I would get involved with the political student movement eventually.
However it was nice of Nobuo to invite me to his house on summer vacation. I visited his house. His father, a high schoold director, was unfortunately not home. But his mother greeted me graciously. It was a typical large Japanese wooden house with a bamboo mat and believe it or not with a "Goemon Bath". I was scary to take the bath, because I had to lower down a floating round wooden lid to the bottom and sit on it quietly without touching the bathtub made of metal.
He took me to the beautiful Sakaide seashore and Zentus-ji temple where the Japanese Defense Forces were stationed. That was the happiest moment in my student's life.
Nobuo was a bookworm. Unlike most of the students who specialized in modern economic theory like John Maynard Keynes, he was big into Karl Mark's "Capital".Actually he became a leftist and took part in several demonstrations against Japan-US Security Treaty. I remember vividly when he proudly said, "Today I was photographed by the police."
When I was a senior I wondered if he was able to work for a company. Perhaps he wanted to study at graduate school further?
As for me a textile company adopted me fortunately in 1970.
Later on I was surprised to hear that he was employed by the large Mitsubishi-Chemical Corp. For his father had a special connection with former Japanese Prime Minister Ohira. He took the advantage of this connection.
In 1971 I entered the textile company and took part in new employee's schooling at Mihara Factory, Hiroshima. By the same token Nobuo underwent schooling reinforced by the Self Defense Forces at Mitsubishi's Kurosaki Factory in Kyushu. We exchanged letters during this schooling period. To my surprise he was brainwashed completely by Mitsubishi Chemical. In his letter he wrote,
" I love The Self Defense Forces. Banzai, Japan! I'll do best for my company!"
Recently he introduced to me Thomas Piketty's book on "New Capital", or rather "Capital in the 21st century". The book is about a widening gap between rich and poor in the capitalist society.
But my father was against the idea of reading the book. He feared that I would get involved with the political student movement eventually.
However it was nice of Nobuo to invite me to his house on summer vacation. I visited his house. His father, a high schoold director, was unfortunately not home. But his mother greeted me graciously. It was a typical large Japanese wooden house with a bamboo mat and believe it or not with a "Goemon Bath". I was scary to take the bath, because I had to lower down a floating round wooden lid to the bottom and sit on it quietly without touching the bathtub made of metal.
He took me to the beautiful Sakaide seashore and Zentus-ji temple where the Japanese Defense Forces were stationed. That was the happiest moment in my student's life.
Nobuo was a bookworm. Unlike most of the students who specialized in modern economic theory like John Maynard Keynes, he was big into Karl Mark's "Capital".Actually he became a leftist and took part in several demonstrations against Japan-US Security Treaty. I remember vividly when he proudly said, "Today I was photographed by the police."
When I was a senior I wondered if he was able to work for a company. Perhaps he wanted to study at graduate school further?
As for me a textile company adopted me fortunately in 1970.
Later on I was surprised to hear that he was employed by the large Mitsubishi-Chemical Corp. For his father had a special connection with former Japanese Prime Minister Ohira. He took the advantage of this connection.
In 1971 I entered the textile company and took part in new employee's schooling at Mihara Factory, Hiroshima. By the same token Nobuo underwent schooling reinforced by the Self Defense Forces at Mitsubishi's Kurosaki Factory in Kyushu. We exchanged letters during this schooling period. To my surprise he was brainwashed completely by Mitsubishi Chemical. In his letter he wrote,
" I love The Self Defense Forces. Banzai, Japan! I'll do best for my company!"
Recently he introduced to me Thomas Piketty's book on "New Capital", or rather "Capital in the 21st century". The book is about a widening gap between rich and poor in the capitalist society.
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