＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:https://skawa68.com/
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49）さん / X
Mrs. Devi’s marriage activity theory, “Be a Woman of Choice,” released in February 2019, seems to be selling quite well. The book is a theory of love and marriage activity written based on her extensive experience in love, but her positive and insatiable desire for upward mobility, her diligent hard work ethic, her gorgeous cheerfulness, and her righteous tongue-in-cheek attitude from the top are all her characteristics that are behind the book.
Mrs. Devi (1940- ) is the third wife of former Indonesian President Sukarno (1901-1970).
Sukarno was the first president of Indonesia after its independence, having left a significant mark on the democratic and independence movements since Indonesia’s colonial period (Dutch colonialism).
１．Who is “Mrs. Devi”?
Mrs. Devi, whose real name is Naoko Nemoto（根本七保子）, is the eldest daughter of a master carpenter, but her family was not well-off.
When she was 15 years old, she appeared in a movie as an extra. After graduating from junior high school, she worked at Chiyoda Seimei while attending a regular high school, and also had other part-time jobs.
When her father died in 1956, she dropped out of high school and began working at the Copacabana, a famous exclusive club in Akasaka. This club is an exclusive club that is frequently used for entertaining foreign dignitaries and by political and business figures.
In 1959, she was sent to President Sukarno under the guise of “secretary of Tohnichi Boeki” in conjunction with development assistance to Indonesia. Mr. Yoshio Kodama (1911-1984), known as the “fixer of the Showa era,” was involved in this.
Ms. Devi was one of his mistresses for several years after she moved to Indonesia, but they were officially married in 1962 and became his third wife. At the time, President Sukarno had just gained independence and the Cold War was in progress, and Japanese financial assistance may have been very important to him.
Three years later, in a military coup d’etat called the “September 30 Incident” in 1965, Sukarno was ousted and placed under house arrest, and Suharto became president.
She chose “politically tolerant France, which is politically tolerant of exiles” as her destination for exile. There are rumors that President Sukarno had moved a large sum of money to Switzerland in anticipation of a coup d’etat, but the truth is unknown. When former President Sukarno died, she was given a share of his fortune as his third wife by the Indonesian government.
In France, where she defected in 1970, she was called “the flower of society” and “the pearl of the Orient,” and with her appearance, she seems to have developed relationships with French aristocrats and many dignitaries.
In 1991, she emigrated to the United States, and later returned to Japan to engage in “talent activities.
２．Ideology, Social and Political Activities
Listening to her remarks on TV variety shows, I get a glimpse of her “conservative moral viewpoint,” which is typical of a woman born before World War II. Moreover, as someone who has lived abroad for a long time, she is resolute and frank in her remarks, which could be described as “tongue-in-cheek,” which I like.
Much of her “thought” is documented on her website, “Deviscarno’s Murmur”.
（1）The Greater East Asia War (Pacific War) and Postwar
The public sentiment at the time was that it was natural for Japan, with its scarce resources, to make inroads into foreign countries, and that the Class A war criminals（Ａ級戦犯） did not wage war out of self-interest.
・「太平洋戦争の原因」と「真珠湾攻撃」についてわかりやすくご紹介します
She also states that it is regrettable that the Japanese people have lost their dignity as Japanese because their spirit has been devastated by a single defeat and they are unable to escape from the guilt of the war.
・GHQによる日本人洗脳プログラム「WGIP」に関する記事を一挙公開！
（2）Yasukuni Shrine
Regarding the issue of the memorial service for the war dead and war victims, her husband, President Sukarno, also visited Yasukuni Shrine and she says that it is natural to commemorate those who died for their country and their families.
Regarding the issue of Class A war criminals, she is in favor of memorializing them because they were executed at the Tokyo Trials and have already atoned for their crimes, if any.
As for former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, she regards him as the most outstanding politician of the postwar period, having visited Yasukuni Shrine under a vow of non-war.
（3）Article 9 of the Constitution and the Defense of Japan
The Constitution should be revised according to the needs of each era. Rather than spending 4 trillion yen annually for the maintenance of U.S. military bases, Japan should take over the know-how from the U.S. military and create a defense force to protect itself.
（4）Imperial Household
She has previously signed a petition calling for the abolition of Crown Prince Naruhito and the transfer of the Crown Throne to Prince Fumihito Akishino.
（5）Social Activities
Hosting parties is her life’s work, and the “Byzantine Imperial Benevolent Dance Dinner” has been attended by entertainers and ambassadors of various countries.
（6）Political Activities
Perhaps because of her friendship with North Korea through her husband Sukarno, she has repeatedly attended ceremonies organized by the Federation of Korean Industries in defense of North Korea.
She has also defended North Korea in the “Japanese abduction case” and the “satellite test issue. She claims that Japan is not in a position to say anything about the abductions because Japan has committed crimes in the past.
３．Why is she still “rich”?
In addition to her mansion in an upscale residential area in Shibuya-ku, Japan, she also has a home near Fifth Avenue in New York City and a villa in Paris. Her home is filled with luxury furniture and jewelry, and her total assets are said to be between 3 billion yen and 5 billion yen. She is truly a “celebrity.
The biggest question is how she was able to accumulate such assets, but we don’t know for sure.
Even in her younger days as a hostess at the exclusive Copacabana club, she probably received many gifts of jewelry and other items from foreign conglomerates and young sons of wealthy men. However, I don’t think that alone would amount to much.
A former president who was ousted in a coup d’etat may have had most of his property in the country confiscated, and it is hard to imagine that the Indonesian government would allow a third wife to receive a huge share of her fortune.
Like former Philippine President Marcos’ wife Imelda, she may have been amassing a fortune while her husband lived a lavish lifestyle during his presidency.
・アジアやアフリカの独裁者の妻たちは日本などの経済援助で私腹を肥やしていた！
It is said that “Tohnichi Boeki” has been involved in Indonesia’s postwar reparations business and earned huge commissions. Japan’s “state reparations” to Indonesia amounted to approximately 80 billion yen.
It is rumored that she acted as a liaison between the Indonesian government and the “Japanese government,” “concession trading companies, and major corporations” in relation to the compensation business, and that her assets at that time amounted to no less than several billions of yen.
And it is possible that Sukarno may have transferred a large amount of money in Mrs. Devi’s name to Switzerland or some other European bank when he was in power. It is also possible that some of the large sums of money that Sukarno is said to have transferred to Switzerland may have been returned. Even after his exile to France, it is possible that he was paid a tribute in the form of expensive gifts through his association with aristocrats and dignitaries of various countries in Paris.
But these are all just “guesses”…
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