＜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:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳 | 団塊世代が雑学や面白い話を発信しています
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49）さん / X
Recently, it was reported that Goshi Hosono, a former member of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), is joining the Nikai faction of the LDP. It is true that the DPJ administration was a “nightmare,” as Prime Minister Abe put it. However, I have no idea where the “justification” for Mr. Hosono to join the LDP comes from, given that he has been such a harsh critic of the LDP.
It may be that he has “given up on the opposition” since a “two-party system” is impossible to achieve with the current opposition parties. However, I believe that this would be a betrayal of those who have supported Mr. Hosono up to now, and that LDP supporters would also not support the “traitor” Mr. Hosono.
Perhaps he wants to “somehow join the governing party and create a place for himself to play an active role,” but isn’t that too selfish and selfish?
I have heard a story about a samurai who betrayed his lord and came to Nobunaga Oda for a reward, and Nobunaga beheaded him on the spot, saying, “He who once betrayed his lord will betray his new lord again.
１．Judas
Judas Iscariot, the Iscariot who betrayed Jesus, was one of the “Twelve Apostles” and served as treasurer of Jesus and the apostles. However, he betrayed Jesus and handed him over to the Jewish chief priests who wanted to kill Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. He later committed suicide. The name Judas has become synonymous with “apostate” and “traitor.
I don’t know the details of why Judas betrayed Jesus, but here is my own, arbitrary guess.
Originally, I think Judas was a “realist” and did not believe that Jesus was “sent from God” or revere him as a “teacher in faith.
Jesus taught (brainwashed) his many rich followers that “it is harder for a rich man to enter heaven than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.
Judas probably thought of Jesus as “just another new religious guru” who could collect contributions from his many rich followers. However, as the persecution of Jesus by the chief priests of Judaism became more and more severe, he may have given up on Jesus as the “defeated general.
２．Brutus
Marcus Junius Brutus, a politician and military officer in late Republican Rome, was only one of the men involved in the assassination of Gaius Julius Caesar, a popular dictator.
However, he is now thought to be a key figure in Caesar’s assassination.
After the Roman Civil War of 49 B.C., Caesar became increasingly autocratic, and the Senate, fearing the end of the Republic, hatched a plot to assassinate him. At first, Brutus was not part of the plot, but he was encouraged to join the assassination attempt and struck the first blow. As a result, he became a symbol of Caesar’s assassination with Caesar’s words, “Brutus, you too?
After the assassination, the Senate praised the assassination of Caesar and resolved to pardon Brutus and others for their crimes, but he fled Rome, foreseeing mayhem.
In Rome, the second triumvirate of Antonius, Lepidus, and Octavianus (Caesar’s great-nephew) began.
Brutus continued to resist, but was finally surrounded by a pursuing army led by Octavianus, who became regent, and committed suicide.
３．Kajiwara no Kagetoki
Kajiwara no Kagetoki was originally a retainer of the Minamoto clan, but after the defeat and death of Minamoto no Yoshitomo in the Heiji War, he followed the Heike clan.
In 1180 (Jisho 4), when Minamoto no Yoritomo raised an army, he and Ohba Kagechika went to defeat Yoritomo and defeated his army in the “Battle of Ishibashiyama”. Yoritomo fled into the mountains.
Ohba Kagechika continued his search all over the mountain, but Kajiwara no Kagetoki, knowing that Yoritomo was hiding in a cave, overlooked him and saved Yoritomo, hoping for a reward in the future.
Kajiwara no Kagetoki eventually became Yoritomo’s close confidant and advisor, and by killing Kazusa no Hirotune, who was suspected of treason, he gained Yoritomo’s trust even more and came to wield power. He also slandered Yoshitsune to Yoritomo and promoted discord between the two brothers.
After Yoritomo’s death, dissatisfaction with Kajiwara no Kagetoki grew, and Yuki Tomomitsu, who had been slandered by him, conferred with Wada Yoshimori and others and banished Kajiwara no Kagesetoki from Kamakura, killing him in the country of Suruga.
４．Kobayakawa Hideaki
In the Battle of Sekigahara, Kobayakawa Hideaki joined the Western Army at the age of 19, but he was also pressured by Tokugawa Ieyasu of the Eastern Army, and his indecisiveness seemed to have suffered greatly. In the end, he turned to the eastern army, which decisively resulted in the defeat of the western army.
He was Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s nephew-in-law (nephew of Hideyoshi’s wife Nene). He was adopted by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who had no children, but later, when Hideyoshi had his own son Hideyori, he was treated as an obstacle and adopted into the Kobayakawa family.
Kobayakawa Hideaki was reduced from 300,000 to 130,000 koku by Ishida Mitsunari for his poor performance in the Korean invasion. As a result, he harbored a grudge against Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Ishida Mitsunari, but it was Tokugawa Ieyasu who helped him to regain his territory.
Kobayakawa Hideaki, who suffered from being caught between the two sides, was increased from 300,000 to 510,000 koku after the Battle of Sekigahara, but he became mentally ill and died two years later at the age of 21.
I have introduced “traitors” in history so far, and I would like to conclude with a story I heard from my father about an act of betrayal by Japanese soldiers against Japanese soldiers that occurred in the Japanese army during the Pacific War.
In the Japanese military at the time of the Pacific War, “bullying of first-year soldiers” by superiors and old soldiers was practiced, just like bullying at school or power harassment at work. It could be called clear “power harassment” today.
＜「初年兵いじめ」＞
I think that superior officers and veteran soldiers who went too far in “bullying a new recruit” were secretly nervous that the new recruit would retaliate. Naturally, new recruits carried guns, too. It seems that there were also cases on the battlefield when bullied new recruits would “shoot their superior officers or veteran soldiers in the back with a gun.” They might have said something like, “Have you forgotten that I bear a grudge against you?” (the words spoken by Asano Takumi-no-kami to Kira Kozukenosuke in “The Pine Corridor” from Chushingura).
On the battlefield, soldiers are pushed to “mentally extreme conditions” where they are constantly aware that “they could be hit by a shell and die at any moment; it’s a matter of life or death,” so it is likely that “intentional misfire” was just as likely to occur as “simple friendly fire or bombing.”
Excessive “guidance” can amount to power harassment and may even lead to charges, so I ask all managers to be extremely careful not to go too far.